Acer has introduced its first Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally competitor, the Acer Nitro Blaze 7. The Verge’s Sean Hollister reviews: Like Asus — however not like most rivals — it incorporates a seven-inch 1080p variable refresh price IPS display to maintain issues easy, one which refreshes barely quicker at 144Hz. (Acer tells The Verge it is a landscape-native display.) It is also obtained a more moderen Ryzen 7 8840HS chip, albeit with the identical Radeon 780M built-in GPU as most different Home windows handhelds. With 16GB of 7500 MT/s reminiscence and a 50 watt-hour battery, it is a step forward of the unique Ally’s 6400 MT/s reminiscence and 40Wh pack, and it comes with as much as 2TB value of SSD storage. However with 24GB of reminiscence and an 80Wh pack, the $800 Asus ROG Ally X is at present the Home windows handheld to beat, so I think this Acer might want to value fairly a bit much less to compete.
The Nitro has no touchpads, nevertheless it additionally unusually has no again buttons; most PC handhelds now have at the least two macro keys round again. However I think some folks can be blissful that it not solely has two USB4 ports however that considered one of them is on the underside. Hopefully, we’ll get our alternative of whether or not to cost and dock from high or backside with this moveable PC. Acer launched a product launch video on YouTube however hasn’t shared pricing or launch data.