I called it! Acer takes on the Steam Deck with Nitro Blaze 7 — and it packs a full-powered laptop chip

Remember back in January when I mentioned that Acer could be making a PC gaming handheld? Well, turns out my wishes have come true, and the company has come out the gates swinging for the Steam Deck at IFA 2024 with the Acer Nitro Blaze 7.

In that piece, I asked for three features: hall effect, a way to workaround Windows 11 and an AMD chip inside. And I’ll be honest, they (sort of) pulled it off! Let’s take a closer look.

Acer Nitro Blaze 7 specs

Z1 Extreme just ain’t extreme enough for Acer

Putting a whole laptop CPU in your handheld is the gaming equivalent of attaching two pieces of paper together with a damn sledgehammer. But as someone who loves power, I’m here for it.

Acer has strapped a rocket ship to the Nitro Blaze 7 in the form of the Ryzen 7 8840S (one big “check” off the list of things I wanted to see). And while the company touts its 39 total AI TOPs of performance, the real superpower here is in its graphics.

On paper, these chips are very similar — 8 cores and 16 threads, same 3.3GHz base speed, and similar GPU layouts. But the 780M integrated graphics on the 8840Hs and the higher base TDP means you’ll get more potent power out of this one. And going back to that AI performance, this means you should see some lovely Super Resolution upscaling.

Paying attention to ergonomics and thermal management

Just like any other gaming handheld, you’ve gotta make sure you can keep this thing cool, and the Nitro Blaze has a ton of fans and vents all over the place to do so. 

On top of that, for the ergonomics, the buttons and joysticks are logically placed and primed for longevity with Hall effect triggers — alongside a fingerprint reader for security and a quick-access mode switch button for those moments you need extra horsepower.

But what about battery life?

This is probably my biggest concern here for two key reasons. First, with the chip you normally see in some of the best laptops strapped in here, that 50Wh cell could get used up very quickly.

And second, as I’ve proven by turning the Asus ROG Ally X into a Steam Deck, Windows 11 is a real longevity killer in gaming handhelds. On the software side of things, Acer is doing its best to workaround the annoyances of this desktop OS on a tiny handheld with Game Space. 

But there’s no getting around the stamina consumption being more intense. My only recommendation would be to keep a portable charger close by if you’re taking the Blaze 7 on a flight.

Also, random side note — the above press image Acer sent to us is insane. Please, for the love of all that is holy, do NOT use a gaming handheld (with all its open ventilation) at a beach. That is a recipe for some sandy devastation.

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