Following the success of the Steam Deck OLED and the Asus ROG Ally X, Acer has just announced its own contender, the Nitro Blaze 7, at IFA 2024.
Rather than being built on the same AMD Z1 Extreme chipset as the Lenovo Legion Go or the Asus ROG Ally X, Acer instead opts for a Ryzen 8000 HS-class laptop processor, paired with the same Radeon 780M GPU found in the Ayaneo Kun. However, while the Ayaneo Kun was an expensive device built for enthusiasts, the Acer Nitro Blaze 7 should make things a bit more accessible, even if we don’t know quite how much it’ll cost yet.
The Acer Nitro Blaze 7 features a 7-inch 1080p display that’s surrounded by a type of gamer aesthetic that will remind you of the 2010s. The all-black chassis is marked with red and white highlights, with little white markers around the joysticks that make it look like they’re being measured for something. It’s certainly a departure from the more plain-looking handheld gaming PCs we’ve seen over the last year or so, but if you want a louder design out of your handheld, you’ll get it here.
Acer hasn’t announced when the Nitro Blaze 7 will be on store shelves, or how much it’ll cost. However, with this level of hardware, it’s certainly not going to be cheap. Here are the relevant specs.
- AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS (8 core, 16 threads, 24 MB cache, 5.1 GHz max boost). Supports Ryzen AI.
- AMD Radeon 780M (Up to 2.7 GHz, AMD RDNA 3 12 CUs)
- 7" Full HD (1920x1080) IPS Display, 144 Hz, 500 nits, 10-point touch panel, 7 ms response time
- 16GB LPDDRTx SDRAM, 7500 MT/s
- Up to 2 TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 x4 Gen 4 SSD
- 2 x USBR 4 ports, Micro SD Card (SD 4.0)
- 50.04 Wh Li-Polymer Battery. 65 W Type-C AC Adapter.
A Different Approach
It’s not the first time the AMD Radeon 780M has found its way into a gaming handheld like this, but it is a break from the Z1 Extreme that has powered the most recent mainstream handhelds. It’s not hard to see the appeal – after all the Ayaneo Kun is still one of the most powerful handhelds we’ve reviewed, even a year later.
However, the Ayaneo Kun was powered by a 7th-generation Ryzen processor, while the Acer Nitro Blaze 7 is powered by the Ryzen 7 8840HS. This CPU is built on the same Zen 4 architecture as the popular Ryzen 7 7700X3D. However, what’s more important is that this is an HS-class processor, which is typically reserved for the best gaming laptops, rather than the specialized hardware in something like the Steam Deck or ROG Ally.
This could potentially mean much better performance, but it will consume way more battery than competing handhelds. The Ayaneo Kun, equipped with similar hardware, addressed this somewhat by including a 75Wh battery, which is probably why that handheld lasted a little more than 9 hours in our testing. The Acer Nitro Blaze 7, however, only has a 50Wh battery. We’ll have to wait until we get it in our hands for a full review, but the high-powered hardware could drain this battery quickly.
The Acer Nitro Blaze 7 could very well be the most powerful gaming handheld yet, and that alone should be worth the price of admission. However, with that 50Wh battery, you’re going to be lugging around the power brick wherever you take it.
The Acer Nitro Blaze 7 does not yet have a price point or release date. For more, make sure to check out our list of the best Steam Deck alternatives.
Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra
