Odin 2 Portal vs Thor: $70 cheaper, not one grade better

Two AYN handhelds, the same eighteen letter grades, the same chip, and a seventy dollar question. The Odin 2 Portal and the Thor are as close as two handhelds get on paper: both run a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 on Android 13, both clear the same sixteen systems on our compatibility index, and both fall short on exactly the same two.

That makes this a strange comparison page to write, because there is no emulation argument to have. What separates them is a 7 inch panel against a hinged pair of screens, an 8000 mAh battery against a 6000 mAh one, and - this is the part buyers get wrong - which of the two configurations AYN will actually sell you this week.

Not one letter apart

Our index grades every handheld from F to A+ across eighteen systems and calls a system playable at B or better. The Portal and the Thor share every single cell:

• Game Boy, NES, Sega Genesis, Game Boy Advance, SNES, PlayStation 1, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, PSP, Sega Saturn, GameCube, Wii, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 2 and Wii U: A or A- on both machines, playable on both.
• Nintendo Switch: C+ on both, below the playable line.
• PlayStation 3: C on both, below the playable line.

Sixteen playable systems each. The two misses are the same two, and they miss by the same margin, so there is no scenario in which one of these devices emulates something the other cannot. Only four priced devices in the whole catalogue carry that exact eighteen-column row - the Odin 2, the Odin 2 Mini, the Odin 2 Portal and the Thor - and all four are AYN's own. In two years the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 has become the family's floor rather than its ceiling, and this pair is what that looks like from the buyer's side.

What the second screen is for

The Thor folds. There is a 6 inch 1920 x 1080 AMOLED at 120 Hz on top and a 3.92 inch 1240 x 1080 AMOLED at 60 Hz underneath, 367 PPI on the main panel and 419 PPI on the small one, in a body 150 mm wide and 25.6 mm thick when shut.

The tempting reading is that the second panel buys Nintendo DS and 3DS headroom. It buys no grade: both handhelds score A on the DS and A on the 3DS. What the hinge changes is the layout - two panels stacked the way the original hardware stacked them, touch controls on the lower screen, and a whole device folded into a pocket instead of a slab - and that is a real advantage worth paying for if you play DS and 3DS games seriously. It is just not a performance advantage, and every comparison table that implies otherwise is comparing hardware nobody is emulating.

The Portal answers with a single 7 inch 1920 x 1080 AMOLED at 120 Hz, 16:9, 314.7 PPI, in a 257 mm wide body that is only 17.2 mm thick. It weighs 430 g against the Thor's 380 g, and it carries 8000 mAh against the Thor's 6000 mAh, a third more cell in the same product family. One panel, fewer seams, longer sessions.

Prices, as checked on 1 November 2026

Both stores are AYN's own, so the ladder below is what the maker charges, not what a reseller asks:

Read the two $259 rows together and the trap shows itself. The $259 Thor is the Lite, and AYN's own product description spells out what that means: Lite ships a Snapdragon 865 with 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of UFS 3.1 storage. The 8 Gen 2 Thor starts at the $329 Base tier. The $259 Odin 2 Portal is a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 with the same 8 GB and 128 GB, discounted from a $329 list price.

So at like-for-like silicon - 8 Gen 2, 8 GB, 128 GB on both sides - the Portal is $70 cheaper today. What that $70 buys on the other side is the hinge, the second panel, and 2000 mAh less battery. That is a lot of machine for the money if you want a DS in your pocket. It is not a single extra grade.

Availability points the other way, and it is the reason this page is worth reading today rather than in September. AYN currently lists the Portal's Pro and Max tiers as unavailable and the Thor Lite as backordered, so the Portal is effectively a one-configuration device at $259 while the Thor's ladder is open from $259 to $579. Our index still tracks these two at $299 to $529 for the Portal and $249 to $459 for the Thor, the ranges the public sheet carries, and that sheet has not caught up with either store.

What a European can actually buy

Both handhelds ship from outside the customs union, so a European buyer adds import VAT, duty and the battery fee on delivery, on top of the figures above. Only one of the pair has a shop inside the EU listing it: RetroGear carries the Thor at EUR 379.95 including VAT, shown as a pre-order with the price and stock state read on 31 October 2026. We hold no verified EU listing for the Odin 2 Portal, which makes the cheaper handheld the harder one to buy in Europe.

Verdict: pick the panel, not the grade sheet

The Odin 2 Portal is the better value of the two right now. Same processor, same sixteen playable systems, $70 less at the matched tier, and a third more battery in a body that is thinner and only 50 g heavier. If you want a big screen for PS2, GameCube and Wii games, and you are willing to import it, there is no case for spending the extra $70 on the Thor.

Buy the Thor instead if the second screen is the point - DS and 3DS titles laid out the way they were designed to be played - or if you are in the EU and want a listing with VAT already accounted for. It is also the safer purchase for anyone who wants more than a base configuration this month, because the Portal's upper tiers are sold out.

What neither device will do is play Switch or PlayStation 3 games properly. Both sit at C+ and C on those two systems, and no configuration tier in either ladder moves those letters.

Sources

• AYN - Odin 2 Portal store page, configuration tiers, list price and availability read 1 November 2026: ayntec.com/products/odin2-portal
• AYN - AYN Thor (Batch 7 Pre-order) store page, including the model ladder that states Lite = Snapdragon 865, read 1 November 2026: ayntec.com/products/ayn-thor
• AYN - full store catalogue feed, used for per-variant price and stock state: ayntec.com/products.json
• RetroGear - AYN Thor, EUR 379.95 VAT included, listed as a pre-order: retrogear.gg/en/products/ayn-thor
• LostInConsoles - the eighteen-system grade sheet behind this page: lostinconsoles.com/compatibility
• LostInConsoles - Odin 2 Portal spec sheet, 7.0 inch AMOLED, 8000 mAh, 430 g: lostinconsoles.com/consoles/odin-2-portal-ayn-technologies
• LostInConsoles - Thor spec sheet, 6.0 inch plus 3.92 inch AMOLED, 6000 mAh, 380 g: lostinconsoles.com/consoles/thor-ayn-technologies