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PayPalHere we go again. Another vendor has decided to make their own PC gaming handheld and this time it's Acer with the Nitro Blaze 7.
It is once again using Windows, as most vendors shy away from Linux still apart from Valve with the SteamOS-powered Steam Deck and OrangePi Neo with Manjaro. And again, it's another hardware vendor attempting to deal with the mess that is Windows with their own "Acer Game Space app".
With an AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS processor, AMD Radeon 780M Graphics and a 1080p 144 Hz refresh rate FreeSync IPS touch panel it sounds like a pretty nice unit overall. However with no trackpads and no back buttons, I imagine plenty will be writing it off for something else already.
Specifications:
|
Product Name |
Acer Nitro Blaze 7 |
|
Model |
GN771 |
|
Operating System |
Windows 11 Home |
|
Processors |
AMD Ryzen™ 7 8840HS (8-Core, 16-threads, 24 MB cache, up to 5.1 GHz max boost) AMD Ryzen AI, Supports up to total 38 AI TOPS |
|
Graphics |
AMD Radeon™ 780M (Up to 2.7 GHz, AMD RDNA™ 3 12 CUs) |
|
Screen |
7" Full HD (1920 x 1080) IPS Display, 144 Hz, 500 nits, 10-point touch panel, 7 ms response time, 100% sRGB, AMD FreeSync™ Premium |
|
Memory |
16GB LPDDR5x SDRAM, 7500 MT/s (onboard) |
|
Storage |
Up to 2 TB M.2 NVMe™ PCIe® 4.0 x4 Gen 4 SSD |
|
I/O Ports |
2 x USB4® (Type-C 40 Gbps), Micro SD Card (SD 4.0) |
|
Control and Input |
A B X Y buttons, D-Pad, LB/RB Bumpers, LS/RS Sticks, LT/RT Hall effect triggers, Power button with fingerprint reader, volume button, view button, menu button, Acer Game Space button, Pop-up keyboard button, Acer quick menu button, Mode switch button, |
|
Audio |
Speaker: 2 x 1W Microphone: 2 x D-Mic Audio Jack: 3.5 mm CTIA |
|
Battery, Battery life |
50.04 Wh Li-Polymer battery |
|
Power Supply |
65 W Type-C AC Adapter |
|
WLAN and Bluetooth |
Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 |
|
Software |
Acer Game Space, PC Game Pass (3 months) |
|
Dimensions |
25.6 (W) x 11.35 (D) x 2.25 (H) cm |
|
Weight |
670 g |
Note: their official press release says 39 AI TOPS, but AMD's own specifications for the processor say 38 AI TOPS as does Acer's product page. So I assume Acer had an error in the press release specifications.
There's no price, region availability or release date being shared just yet. They're jumping into a still quite small market against the Steam Deck LCD and Steam Deck OLED, ASUS ROG Ally and Ally X, Lenovo Legion Go, ZOTAC Zone, various devices from AYANEO, GPD and others I've forgotten. It's a crowded market already.
Apart from being just another handheld, I'm not really seeing anything to make it properly stand out. It's going to need a seriously competitive price considering the competition.
The question is: how long will it be from release to Linux working on it? We have many great Linux distributions designed for handhelds now including Bazzite, ChimeraOS, HoloISO and the latest SteamFork.
Direct Link
And Valve still has not enabled the sale of the Deck in a lot of countries...other vendors like Asus sell theirs worldwide.
While is being managed better than Steam Machines, Deck could sell A LOT more by making it available everywhere.
It remains a shame that even after the success of the steam deck and proton and steam os the big vendors still keep going back to windows 11. As long as that keeps happening Linux will never really take off. But I guess they rather pay MS a fee for the licence and hire some programmers for another custom app. Money much better spend on steam os and the Linux kernel.The problem is that the big vendors have contracts with Microsoft that give them a discount on Microsoft products in exchange for installing Windows and related malware on every PC they sell. If Acer were to ship this Nitro Blaze thing with an alternate operating system, they would likely be in breach of contract and facing a lawsuit from a ruthless company with deep pockets and well-paid lawyers. At the same time, Valve has proven that the portable PC gaming market is too profitable to ignore, and so we end up with handheld PCs with Windows installed despite it being the least suitable operating system for the purpose.
A shame.
Sadly, there's no way out of this... or there could be?
apple solution was: make their own hardware to sell their OS.
we have a few companies that might try to enter this market...
Google with an android hardware vendors, probably runing android, or maybe chromeOS?
Nintendo if they feel enough pressure to change their strategy (unlikely to happen any time soon, in fact nintendo would double down on closed ecosystems)
Sony...
Sega (nah, they are best friends with microsoft since the dreamcast days)
maybe if one of the stores enter the hardware market?
Epic? CDPR?
maybe an joint venture?
but being realistic, there is no hope.
either valve sell more than then and force then to change, or we will have an situation similiar to android vs iOS, windows vs Mac, but for consoles.
in any case, valve already disrupted the market or consoles, just like iOS did to phones.
hardpenguin Sep 5
They're jumping into a still quite small market against the Steam Deck LCD and Steam Deck OLED, ASUS ROG Ally and Ally X, Lenovo Legion Go, ZOTAC Zone, various devices from AYANEO, GPD and others I've forgotten. It's a crowded market already.Suddenly everyone wants a handheld
BladePupper Sep 5
Obligatory comment about win11 on a handheld. One thing the anbernic devices get is that the ui on the non-android ones isn't total garbage and fan efforts also understand that. MuOS on the anbernic 35xx devices is super simple, super plain and easy to navigate with a dpad and face buttons.
A full os isn't, which is why touchpads are a great addition. Win11 and no touchpads is a double whammy. Every time I see a device with a full desktop interface and no touchpads I know they don't care about the user experience.
Last edited by BladePupper on 5 September 2024 at 10:36 am UTC
But I guess they rather pay MS a fee for the licence and hire some programmers for another custom app.
More likely, they actually *get paid* by microsoft to do this. In a company I worked for before, they literally did that for dx12 support.
So these hardware companies may not turn a profit from their device, it may not sell well. But if they get a bag of cash from microsoft before they even ship anything, they are very willing to do whatever they ask them to do, because then they have zero risk of losing money.
Last edited by ShabbyX on 5 September 2024 at 12:14 pm UTC
Mountain Man Sep 5
Something I don't get is the need for a 1080p display. I get making it still run games well when docked with a 1080p external display, but on the device itself I don't understand. Undocked is when you want more battery life not maximum performance unless I really need that to run that specific game but then you can play it for 40 minutes.
It's probably a case of marketing driving design, and the bean counters think that 1080p on the spec sheet will sell better than 720p.
the bean counters think that 1080p on the spec sheet will sell better than 720pIt's the famous mistake of letting the marketing people choose the specs.
Remember when digital compact cameras got worse and worse every year because the pixel density had to be increased all the time although the sensible limit for small sensors at the time had been left behind some time ago.
Something I don't get is the need for a 1080p display. I get making it still run games well when docked with a 1080p external display, but on the device itself I don't understand.
There are advantages. You've already identified that you're ensuring that the hardware can handle 1080p, but that also means that when you're plugged into an external display you're either 1:1 or a simple upscale to 4K without having to change the game's resolution in the settings. And game devs probably are already testing their games and interface at 1080p, but probably aren't testing them at lower. But, yeah, it's likely mostly driven by "bigger number is better" marketing.
Caldathras Sep 5
I don't trust Acer. I recently bought an Acer laptop for some reason and was reminded of why I don't trust Acer.A common opinion I've heard over the years. Certainly, my story doesn't actually refute your opinion either.
I have an Acer laptop that I purchased in 2010. It still works. However, since that original purchase, I have replaced the OEM AC adapter, the OEM battery and then, to my dismay, the hard drive in 2014. That also resulted in my switch to Linux Mint -- so I now see it as a good thing. Other than replacing the 3rd party AC adapter a couple years ago, the remainder of the laptop with all it's replaced parts has been reliable.
I found an excellent deal on a used Lenovo T520 a couple years ago (under $250 Cdn), so the Acer got relegated to a backup PC. Had to pull it out a year or so ago when the year-old WD platter drive in my T520 failed and needed replacing (ironically, the 10-year old WD platter drive in my Acer is still going strong).
Last edited by Caldathras on 5 September 2024 at 3:58 pm UTC
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