(ambient music) - [Bob] The original AYN Odin was my favorite retro
handheld for a long while. It seemed to have gotten
everything right at a time when every other
emulation handheld company was getting things wrong. AYN seemed to be new to the market, untainted by frequent perpetual iterations like we've seen with every other emulation handheld manufacturer. And then they immediately ruined that by releasing six SKUs of a PC handheld. The AYN Odin was the top
of the emulation totem pole for all of the past year. The only thing that came
close was the Razer Edge, which is also a phenomenal handheld, but that guy was a $100 more. The Odin was extremely
powerful at the time and still kind of is. It could play everything
up to and including, GameCube and PlayStation 2 with enough power to have a pretty decent emulation experience with those. At the time, this blew me away. The only thing making it hard to recommend was its price point. $300 is a lot for an
Android-based handheld. There are other cheaper handhelds that can get you a good enough experience that are a lot easier to recommend, but the Odin still had a
pretty big place in my heart. I like a good Android emulator. Android is easily
customizable, easy to set up, and really good at the one thing
we wanted to do, emulation. That's why we're all here. Recently, AYN dropped
the successor to this already great handheld, the AYN Odin 2. This is significantly more powerful with a significant bump
in CPU performance, RAM, and battery life. It's every bit as good as
the original, and then some. But it sits in this same sort of difficult to recommend territory because this one is even more
expensive than the last one. Here, I have the Pro model, which is $369, and the Max, which is a whopping $459. Yeah, you're paying for
that increased performance. But that performance this time can get you pretty perfect
GameCube and PS2 emulation and even surprisingly good
Nintendo Switch emulation if you really wanted to
open that can of worms. (ambient music) This video is sponsored by Satisfye. Hello, my name is Bob Wulff, and I really like ergonomic
grips for the Nintendo Switch. That's what we call them
in the collector's market. I first started collecting Satisfye grips. I'm sorry. (Bob and cameraman laughs) This character already sucks. A lot of people come up to me
when I'm playing in public. They're like, "Wow,
that's a cool color grip." "Hey, where'd you get that ergonomic grip for the Nintendo Switch?" "Hey, are you HowToBasic?" You can really tell a lot about somebody by which color Nintendo
Switch grip that they use. If you have a red one, it means
you're really strong-willed. And if you have have a yellow one, it means that you're
most likely gonna quit that podcast with that person. It's also about the sound that they make. You hear the difference? You hear that? These clear ones are
actually really special. They're actually made out
of old ghosts and ghouls. This one right here, this ZenGrip Ronin, this will fit in a dock, so I never have to take my Switch out. And I've been trying to
see what other things this thing can fit in. When I'm in public, I'm not even playing, I'm just looking at people
through the reflection like behind me. And I'm really excited for Satisfye, that now, start making
their Steam Deck grips 'cause I've moved a little
away from the Nintendo Switch, and now I can keep the collection going. The stealth grip for the Steam
Deck has a little cutout, so it's dockable on the
official Steam Deck dock. I just wish they'd make this
one in 17 different colors. I have a lot more room in the display. Having this many Satisfye grips, people like treat you a lot differently. They'll look at you, and they'll think that
you have two credit cards. Satisfye's running another holiday sale just in time for Christmas. And right now, if you
use the code "WULFFDEN," you get an additional 10% off on top of all of that other
sale that they have going on. I would put Satisfye grips on everything if they made 'em for more things. I would put one on my camera. I would put one on my
marriage to Satisfye that. So, go to satisfye.com and use code "WULFFDEN"
for an additional 10% off. Get your orders in by December 15th and make sure it arrives by Christmas. I have horrible wrists, look. (wrist cracking) That was real. It's because when I was a
teenager, I used my wrists a lot. I played the drums. I played the drums. We're looking at a Snapdragon
8 Gen 2 mobile processor, which is the sixth best mobile processor according to nanoreview.net, a website I've only
now just learned about. The AYN Odin2 has eight, 12, or 16 gigabytes of LPDDR5X RAM, depending on the version you get. 128, 256, or 512 gigabytes of storage, but they all have micro SD card storage, so I guess that doesn't matter. I'm gonna break my nail opening this. What the... Jesus! All right, good luck getting in there. Yay, yeah, we got it. Yay! And an 8,000 milliamp hour battery that will get you anywhere
between four and 25 hours of battery life. I'd say, realistically,
somewhere around six or seven hours of battery life with
actual emulation gameplay, assuming you're not
constantly pushing its limits. There's nothing on this piece of paper. This thing is beefy. The Max, which is the
most expensive model, usually costs $500, but that
has a big line through it on their website, and it
says it costs now $459. So, I guess it's $459. But I funded the Indiegogo campaign, so it only costs me $334, which, in hindsight, is a damn bargain. I did have a little bit of a kerfuffle with the company, AYN. I'd say about 50% of the time
when I'm reviewing a product, I've received that product
for free from the company. And 50% of the time, I
buy the product myself. I don't think either of these contribute to any sort
of a bias that I have when reviewing a product. But there is something that
I never really consider and that I should consider
when I'm reviewing a product, and that is the buying process. Like I said before, I contributed
to the Indiegogo campaign for the Odin 2 and got
the Max and I received it. It took a few weeks, but I did eventually get
the product that I paid for. But I did have a litany of issues with two of the Loki products
that I purchased from AYN. It was just emails back
and forth for a whole year after the product was
supposed to have shipped. But it wasn't until I
tweeted about my issues, and then AYN saw that tweet, realized I was a big shot YouTuber, matched my Twitter handle to
the name that was on my order, and then messaged me using the
regular email correspondence we've had, and said, "Oh, we're so sorry. We're gonna push out your order. And also, do you want
an Odin 2 to review?" And that is why I have an
Odin 2 Max and an Odin 2 Pro here with me right now. If it's any consolation, I asked Twitter if anybody else has had any sort of similar issues with AYN, buying products from them, and the general consensus seems to be no. Nobody else is having issues like this. I might be the only one with this problem. But even still, it makes
it a little harder for me to recommend because
I've had those issues. This might be a good
time to mention this too, but AYN is a different
company than AYA NEO. AYA NEO is the company that
makes a billion different types of Windows handhelds. They have like 14 every year. AYN just has the Odin and the Loki. Six SKUs of the Loki, but just those two product names. Anyway, the Odin 2 is just a little bigger than the original Odin. Still about the same
size as a Switch Lite. But it has back bumps or grips
that jut out a little bit. It's smaller than a regular Switch and way smaller than a Steam Deck. It also has some back buttons, a micro HDMI out, fan
holes galore, and RGB. - Ooh, wow.
- Wow, look at that. - Oh, wow, wow.
- So many colors. Look at those (indistinct). You can turn the RGB off pretty easily. The setup experience is
pretty much identical to the setup of the original Odin. You just turn it on, go through
the normal Android setup, login with your Google account, pick your launcher, and you're good to go. I like the Iron launcher. Its tiles are a perfect fit for a handheld console's home screen. You can do a lot of fancy
things with Android. There's a ton of launchers that you might like
even better than the one that comes with the Iron Odin 2. I'm just gonna stick with the
one that comes with the Odin because it's simple enough. I don't mind that you have
to click on the emulator to get to the games that you wanna play. I just wish that you could
change these icons easily without having to get
a whole new UI in here. I'd like to change all of
these to be the systems that they represent, but I just know which one goes where. I wanna play Nintendo Switch,
I'm clicking on this guy. The only thing that I think
could make this better is if the setup recommended
some apps for you to download automatically. Similar to how Retroid's
launcher does this, they recommend some apps
that are specifically curated for the Retroid emulation apps that you'd probably wanna use. And some of those emulation
apps are specifically made for the Retroid's hardware. You can probably just download
the emulation apps you want from the Play Store and be done with it. But I set this up on Twitch and the Twitch Chat
implored me to download Yuzu, the Nintendo Switch
emulator from their GitHub so that I can get the latest version. Dolphin the GameCube
emulator from their website, and Aether, the PS2
emulator from their website. Get the APK files on your computer, then get the Google Files
app on the Odin 2 itself. Put everything in the downloads
folder using your computer and then open it using the Files app and everything will install just fine. You got it, you know what
you're doing, you're smart. I also downloaded the
nightly version of Citra, the 3DS emulator from their GitHub. I also downloaded a copy
of Mupen that I paid for off of the Google Play Store. I think it was like five
bucks, but it runs great. That's M64 emulation. And everything else that I would want would be just fine in RetroArch. Even DS emulation, I'm
comfortable running in there. If you have any questions or concerned about any of this stuff, I highly recommend reading or watching any of Retro Game Corps' guides
on either Android emulation or RetroArch setup. I say that the setup is easy, and that's because for me it is. And that was one of the reasons I recommended the Odin 1 so much because I thought the
setup was extremely easy, but it wasn't until I recommended
the Odin 1 to a friend and then he received that Odin 1, and then tried to set it up himself and then asked me a billion questions and then I realized
maybe it's not so great for an emulation novice. So, if you're going to
recommend this to a friend, first of all, expect a
lot of questions back, but also, feel free to
send them the previous part of this video and also maybe one of Retro Game Corps' guides. Now, a lot of you are probably here for Nintendo Switch emulation. Yuzu for Android is probably the easiest Nintendo Switch emulator
that I've ever set up, with the exception of
Skyline, which is dead now, so it doesn't count. It just asks you to apply your prod.keys, which you'll have to get on your own. You can try a website
that rhymes with schmoogle and that's basically it. I was advised to install the
Mesa Turnip Adreno driver and also go to advanced settings, debug CPU backend and change
that to native code execution for some reason. That is only available on
the latest version of Yuzu from their GitHub. The performance difference
with this setting turned on was a little negligible, slightly more frames during
"Super Mario Odyssey", but it's hard to tell if that was just a shader compiling issue. Sometimes the first play session of a modern game like this on hardware that it's not supposed to be on will just run a little janky. But after that, it's kind of shocking just how well it does run. "Odyssey" is a relatively demanding game, but there are more demanding
switch games out there. Switch emulation will be hit or miss. Anything easier to run than
"Odyssey" should run fine, but there's a lot of issues
with Nintendo Switch emulation. "Mario Kart 8" makes
you do some work around to get around this
forever loading Mii menu. "Smash Bros. Ultimate"
rarely loads into a level, and performance is also a crapshoot. And let's not forget, this device is $459. So, why in God's name
would you wanna get this just for Nintendo Switch emulation? You can get a Nintendo
Switch and three games. Like two and an indie. Like, two and an indie. Every time I talk about
Nintendo Switch emulation, I have to talk about how I
don't like talking about it. I have no problem talking
about retro emulation. I've got no problem with
you guys emulating games that are either prohibitively expensive or prohibitively hard to play right now, to get going on your modern hardware, like your modern TV and stuff. But a Nintendo Switch is easily available. It's on the market right now. You could just go get one. You can go to like any
store and they got it. I'm pretty confident
that most of the people who are getting an Odin
2 for Switch games, probably already have a Switch and the games they're trying to emulate. They're just messing around. They're just being fun little silly guys having a little goof. But I guess it might be
enticing to buy an Odin 2 because you could just steal
games for the Nintendo Switch and play them for free,
and also have a very robust emulation handheld that
could play everything else that you'd ever wanna emulate. But this guy right here, is a bad replacement
for a Nintendo Switch. It takes a lot of
finagling to get the games to run at peak performance and you're gonna have some
issues no matter what. Whereas on a Nintendo Switch, you just buy the game
and then it runs amazing. It runs great. I shouldn't have said runs amazing. There's ports out there
that, you know what I mean? I guess we can classify
the Odin 2 as a high-end emulation handheld for
people with a lot of money or people who just want the
best performance in GameCube and PS2 emulation, and wanna dabble around in Nintendo Switch emulation. Not a single frame dropped
in "Smash Bros. Melee." Other devices usually have problems, especially when you're
doing a four-way match and the ice climbers are
one of the other characters, but as you can see, it's smooth as butter. (upbeat music) "Mario Sunshine" seems to run great, but I did notice that the analog sticks are not exactly analog. At least they're not registering
like that in Dolphin. The analog sticks do register
in the Gamepad Tester though, so that is weird. I guess Dolphin just didn't
like it for some reason. (tense music) You know what, I'm honestly surprised that "Rogue Leader" is
running as good as it is. This thing usually runs
like crap on most emulators. It's still dropping
frames, but it's playable. So, I'm happy with this. (tense music) Oh. Okay, I froze it. I broke it. I broke it. PS2 emulation often
struggles on other devices. I use "Burnout 3" as an example
because the game is sick, but also because the music slowdown is usually the easiest to recognize. Once again, not a single dropped frame. It performs flawlessly. I wish I could show you, but the copyright gods might smite me. I am completely blown away with how well this is running "Snake.io" right now. This is running better than
the GameCube emulation was. That's crazy. There are three performance
modes on the Iron Odin 2. All of these tests were done using the highest performance mode, although you still get great performance on the other performance modes. I even did my first
"Super Mario Odyssey" test in the regular performance
mode by accident and I didn't even know. This was all done on the Odin 2 Max, but I also have the
Odin 2 Pro here with me, which is $90 cheaper. That's a significant amount. And I did all of the
same tests on this one and honestly, they
performed exactly the same. If your goal is PS2
and GameCube emulation, at most, you don't need
the most expensive model. Hell, you'd probably be just
fine with the cheapest model, but I don't have that here to test. Even the regular Odin was
fine with those systems. There were some frame drops in the Odin 1, but not enough to really worry about. I'm pretty comfortable saying
that any Odin 2 you get will be just fine with
GameCube and PS2 emulation. Unless you try like "Rogue
Leader" or something. That's hard to emulate. If you wanna dabble in
Nintendo Switch emulation, I didn't see much of a difference between the Pro and the Max, but you may wanna just
go with the Max anyway because any increase in
performance will help with some of these
incredibly demanding games. Okay, it maxed out the 3DMark
benchmark test. (laughs) All right, I guess we'll
do a different one. So, this is a good example of just how much better the Odin 2 is than the previous Odin 1. This got a 643 on the Wildlife Extreme
3DMark benchmark test, which is very bad. The Pro got a 3653 and the Max got a 3733, which is 87% better
than all other devices. This test used a 4K render resolution and it handled it pretty good. It was getting over 20 frames per second. So, this thing's kind of amazing and I didn't realize just
how much better it was than the older Odin. So I gotta say I'm very impressed with what we're seeing here, and I'm liking this thing a lot. But there are a few caveats
that are gonna make this thing a little difficult to recommend. And those caveats are the
Steam Deck and the Razer Edge. The Steam Deck can also emulate
everything up to GameCube and PS2 beautifully, and even some Nintendo Switch just fine, but it could also play whole
ass brand new Triple IPC Games. It's just an overall better handheld. It's significantly bigger,
which I don't love, but it is around the same price and you'd get way more
value out of a Steam Deck. If you want an Android device
specifically for gaming, the Razer Edge is also a great option. First of all, it's buy
Razer, a reputable company. They've got 'em in stores. The Razer Edge screen is 144 hertz. I'm not sure if that's
gonna help with emulation, but it will help with Android games. It just has significantly less RAM, but it's also only $400. You know what, this is editing Bob here. I gave the Razer Edge way too much credit. I wanted to like it
more, but in hindsight, the Odin 2 Pro is only 369, and you're gonna get much
better performance outta that. I thought the Razer Edge
would be a little bit closer in performance because it does play Nintendo Switch games decently. But 1515 compared to 3733. We got better than 35% of
devices versus better than 87% of devices on the market. So, the Odin is
significantly more powerful. The RAM and the Wi-Fi
7 that's in this thing, makes this the most powerful
Android handheld ever. At least the most powerful one that I've ever gotten my hands on. So if that means a lot to you, this might just be the one to get. In terms of just
dedicated retro emulation, this thing is top of
the food chain for sure. But you're gonna have to
pay for all of that power, 459 damn dollars. If your goal is GameCube
and PS2 emulation, you got things like the Retroid Pocket 3+, you got the Anbernic 405M, those are like more than
half the price of this thing. That's a better deal, but you're not gonna
get perfect emulation. What's the price of those frames to you? So, you guys think about the Iron Odin 2? I think it's a phenomenal console, but you're gonna be dropping
a decent chunk of change. I don't love that price point. This thing will have
great indie performance with Nintendo Switch games, but if I catch you
emulating any indie games on Nintendo Switch, I swear to God. Anyway, let me know if there's
any used cases I left out. Lemme know if you've
got your hands on one. If you ever had any problems with Iron, because I'm gonna have to
use that in a future video. Leave in the comments below, @ me on Twitter, which is
the best place to get to me, and any and all of this
other social media garbage. I stream on twitch.tv/wulffden. You can come over there
if you want to help me out with my next video when I'm messing around with one of these stupid things. Thank you Satisfye for
sponsoring this video. And of course, the most
important thing you could do to help support this channel
is just subscribe right here, turn on notifications in
case YouTube doesn't tell you when I post new videos, and
share this video with a friend, a friend who is interested
in getting into the handheld market or is already
there and has an addiction and can't stop. Thank you guys very much. Have yourself a very good week.
