Handheld gaming PCs are nothing new – in fact, we’ve seen them years before with products from the likes of GPD, although it wasn’t really until the Steam Deck and ROG Ally for example that we would see them become more “mainstream.” So much so actually that other competitors such as Lenovo and several other Android-powered devices followed suit. More recently, Acer has also jumped on the trend with its own handheld PC, the Nitro Blaze 7.
Unveiled during IFA 2024, the Nitro Blaze 7 promises an uncompromising experience with a design that does just enough to look different, and specs that make for a rather attractive device. One consideration however is that Acer hasn’t announced official pricing and availability at the moment, but that hasn’t stopped us from checking out what the Nitro Blaze 7 has to offer.
Display and Design
At first glance, you might mistake the Nitro Blaze 7 for any number of handheld gaming devices on the market right now, and we couldn’t really blame you. There’s only so many ways that you can go about designing a portable gaming device, although the Nitro Blaze 7 does add a bit of its own DNA into an otherwise plain-looking handheld. Up front surrounding the display you’ll find a bit of design which accents the analogue sticks, as well as your usual array of button labels.
Speaking of the screen, the device comes with a 7-inch Full HD IPS display with a 144 Hz refresh rate which is a decent setup, although unfortunately you won’t find OLED hardware on here. The screen size is more or less on par with most other portable gaming devices, and there’s not much to complain about that either. The device also packs AMD Radeon 780M graphics, Radeon Super Resolution, and AMD FreeSync™ Premium technology for enhanced visuals and reduced lag.
Software and Other Specs
As expected, the Nitro Blaze 7 runs on Windows 11 – Acer has also pre-installed its new Acer Game Space app, which integrates mainstream gaming platforms onto the device. Beating inside the heart of the device is an AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS processor, along with up to 2 TB of storage and 16 GB of LPDDR5x memory, making for one versatile device especially for resource-intensive software. The device also comes with Ryzen AI, an unsurprising addition given the prevalence of AI features on most new devices nowadays.
As for controls and input, the device features your usual array of action buttons, a D-Pad, LB/RB Bumpers, LS/RS Sticks, LT/RT Hall effect triggers, a power switch with a built-in fingerprint reader, volume buttons, view button, menu button, Acer Game Space button, a pop-up keyboard button, Acer quick menu button, and a mode switch button. Other hardware components include a 50.04 Wh Li-Polymer battery, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity, a 3.5mm headphone jack, two USB-C ports, and expandable storage via a micro SD card slot.
Folks looking forward to grabbing the Acer Nitro Blaze 7 might want to wait a bit until Acer gives us more details, specifically with regards to the handheld’s pricing and availability.
