Summary
Acer has announced theAcer Nitro Blaze 7, a new Steam Deck competitor powered by one of AMD’s latest Ryzen APUs, at the IFA 2024 event in Berlin. Unlike the popular Steam Deck and its OLED variant, theAcer Nitro Blaze 7will support Ryzen AI and feature a full HD display.
Ever since the launch of the Nintendo Switch in 2017, portable gaming has been on the rise, leading to competitors wanting to make their own handhelds in the PC market. Valve has found the most mainstream success in the market with its Steam Deck, which offers support for thousands of games currently available now on Steam.Steam Deck competitors like ASUS and Lenovomanaged to find their niche among PC enthusiasts as well, and Acer will be entering the space with the Nitro Blaze 7.
Weighing just 670g, the Acer Nitro Blaze 7 is Acer’s first-generation handheld gaming PC, combininga compact design that Steam Deck users are familiar withand cutting-edge technology from AMD. The new handheld gaming PC features an AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS processor with 8 cores, 16 threads, a 24 MB cache, and 5.1 GHz max boost clock. This Ryzen processor also supports Ryzen AI, allowing gamers to leverage on-device AI-powered features and optimized system efficiency while gaming. Moreover, the integrated Radeon 780M GPU will offer respectable performance across a vast catalog of PC games, thanks to the GPU’s 12 RDNA3 CUs and 2.7 GHz game clock.
Acer Nitro Blaze 7 features a 7-inch 1080p IPS display with a touch interface, AMD FreeSync Premium support, and a 144 Hz refresh rate. This display is rated at 500 nits with 100% sRGB coverage, which is encouraging for those wanting a vivid gaming experience on the go. In addition, the handheld supports a storage capacity of 2 TB of M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD and features 16 GB of LPDDR5x memory at 7500 MT/s for high data transfer rates and bandwidth. The handheld will run on Windows 11 and features a new Acer Game Space application, which supports games from multiple platforms like Steam, GOG, andXbox Game Pass for PC. Further, Nitro Blaze 7 features two USB4 Type-C ports, Bluetooth 5.3, and Wi-Fi 6E, and gamers can expand their storage with a Micro SD 4.0 card.
The Acer Nitro Blaze 7 features a 50.04 Wh Li-Polymer battery and a 65 W Type-C AC adapter, so its battery life could end up being slightly worse compared tothe Ayaneo Kun PC handheld, which includes a 75W battery. Pricing and a release date for the Nitro Blaze 7 have not been announced yet, but Acer confirms that the handheld will ship with a free 3-month PC Game Pass membership.
Acer Nitro XZ323QU X3
The Acer Nitro XZ323QU X3 gaming monitor is a 32-inch curved 1000R VA 2K display with 240Hz refresh rate, and up to 0.5ms (GtG) response time. It boasts VESA DisplayHDR 400 certification and 400 nits brightness. It also comes with AMD FreeSync Premium and 8-bit color depth. For connectivity, the Acer Nitro XZ323QU X3 comes with HDMI 2.1 ports and a DisplayPort 1.4 port.
