Steam Deck, ROG Ally, Legion Go or Claw are about to get a new girlfriend on the handheld console market.
ASUS, Ayaneo, GPD, Lenovo, MSI, Zotac - the number of manufacturers who have decided to follow Valve and its Steam Deck to release their own hybrid PC/handheld console models continues to grow. The latest competitor is none other than Acer, a brand well known for its notebooks and low prices. At last week's IFA trade show in Berlin, Acer announced the forthcoming Nitro Blade 7, its own vision of things... and the least we can say is that this "vision" is furiously reminiscent of that of another, much less well-known manufacturer.
Acer
In the wake of Acer's announcement, some observers actually noticed more than a passing resemblance between the Nitro Blade 7 and a model to be launched by Chinese company Terrans Force, the Handle 5. The Handle 5 was launched eight months ago, but distribution has been extremely limited, exclusively in China. It would therefore seem that Acer has simply adopted the design of the aforementioned Chinese console to create its own model, although neither Acer nor Terrans Force have commented on this information. It's also worth noting that the Nitro Blade 7 does indeed copy the Handle 5 chassis, but updates the main component to take account of AMD's evolutions.
Acer
At the heart of Acer's machine is the Ryzen 7 8840HS, which replaces the Ryzen 7 7840U of the Handle 5. The APU features 8 cores/16 threads in Zen 4 architecture and integrated Radeon 780M graphics. Acer combines it with 16 GB LPDDR5X-7500 and a 50.04 Wh battery. Perhaps that's a bit of a problem, given that ASUS launched its ROG Ally X last June with a similar processor, but 24 GB RAM and an 80 Wh battery for a much longer battery life. For its Nitro Blade 7, Acer will have to be particularly aggressive on the price front, but we have no information on that yet.
