Acer Launches Its First Handheld Gaming Console That Can Compete With The Best

 The Nitro Blaze 7 is quite impressive in quality and could very well take its place in the crowded handheld gaming market.

Nitro Blaze 7 has pretty decent specs.

That said, it's a competitive market, with portable gaming consoles like the Asus ROG Ally X, Steam Deck, Lenovo Legion Go, and MSI Claw 8 AI+.

Fortunately, Acer didn't skimp on the hardware, packing in an impressive array of features:

1. AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS processor with AMD Radeon 780M graphics
2. 16GB LPDDR5X RAM
3. PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD up to 2TB
4. 7-inch IPS display, 1920x1080, 144hz variable refresh rate, 500 nit max brightness
5. 50Wh battery
6. 65W charger
7. Dimensions: 256 x 23 x 114mm
8. Weight: 670g

The highlight here is the AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS processor, which is a bit more powerful than the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme used in most of its direct competitors. It also comes with a dedicated NPU, allowing the CPU and GPU to hand off some tasks, boosting performance.

There are also 2 USB4 ports, one of which is Thunderbolt 4, which is great for outputting video to a larger display.

Good performance

When testing Shadow of the Tomb Raider for a short while, Acer turned on the AMD framerate tool to show FPS and settings. In this case, the Nitro Blaze 7 dropped to a steady 60 FPS at 1080p with medium settings using AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) set to performance mode.

The overall fidelity of the display is great. It looks sharp without much frame drop while gaming.

Of course, Acer didn't allow us to run benchmarks on the Acer Nitro Blaze 7 on the IFA 2024 show floor, but the early signs are promising.

A not entirely unique design

Gaming handhelds mostly come in one form factor, with a handful of standard features (except for Tecno's upcoming Pocket Go).

A handheld gaming console needs buttons, triggers, D-Pads, etc. With the limitations of form factor and the average hand size around the world, there isn't much room for innovation. The Acer Nitro Blaze 7 is an all-black plastic device with some red and white accents that help it stand out a bit. The rear chassis is smooth to the touch and has two grilles, along with a ventilation grille on the bottom of the device.

The Acer Nitro Blaze 7 looks like a good portable gaming PC. But with so much competition, can it find its place?

Lesley Montoya

Update 10 September 2024