The Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch 2 face serious competition this year, as Acer announces plans to launch a gaming handheld or two.
The Acer Nitro Blaze 8 and Nitro Blaze 11 were unveiled by the PC gaming company at CES in Las Vegas.
As the names suggest, the Nitro Blaze 8 features an 8.8-inch display, while the almost laughably big Nitro Blaze 11 contains a 10.95-inch touchscreen.
The devices are powered by AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS processors, come with 16 GB of LPDDR5X memory, and up to 2 TB of storage.
The touch displays support 144 Hz refresh rates and contain AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution technology.
Fans can expect Hall Effect triggers and sticks, which should mean no joystick drift. Similar technology will reportedly be used for the Nintendo Switch 2.
Speaking of the Switch, the Nitro Blaze handhelds will come with detachable controllers, as well as a built-in stand.
That’s on top of a front camera for video calls and streaming, not to mention multiple USB ports, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3.
In terms of operating systems, the devices use Windows 11, which means you can connect to your Windows laptop or PC.
Acer explains more: « Managing and accessing the most in-demand games applications on their handheld libraries are made seamless thanks to the dedicated on-device hotkey that leads straight to the Acer Game Space application. »
As an added bonus, customers will receive 6 months of PC Game Pass when purchasing an Acer handheld.
While it’s a powerful device with lots of perks, it’s not all good news. For starters, it’s not cheap.
The Nitro 8 costs $899/€999, while the Nitro 11 costs a whopping $1,099/€1,199.
The Nitro 11 is also pretty huge and not the sort of device you would want to carry around.
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