Maybe Giant Gaming Handhelds Are Where It’s At

If you thought nan Steam Deck was big, fto unsocial Acer’s Nitro Blaze 11, get a load of this Frankenstein’s monster of a PC gaming handheld I’ve cobbled together. This is simply a pre-production type of Asus’s upcoming ROG Flow Z13 tablet mixed pinch a GameSir G8 Plus clamp-on mobile controller; nan Z13’s AMD Strix Halo processor makes it astir apt nan astir powerful handheld gaming instrumentality you tin play. That is, of course, until your hands cramp nether its weight.

It’s utterly ridiculous, I emotion it, and I’m opening to deliberation ample screens are nan future.

I’m not nan first to effort this outlandish experiment, arsenic I sewage nan thought from Redditors who did point akin pinch an earlier type of nan aforesaid tablet. But aft trying it myself, I’m starting to rethink what gaming handhelds mightiness perchance become. The freshly-announced Nintendo Switch 2 reportedly stretches its aboveground to 8 inches, and Acer’s handheld turns it up to 11; perchance portability isn’t arsenic important arsenic a lethal dose of pixels consecutive into my eyes?

Let’s get 1 constituent retired of nan way: you astir apt shouldn’t brace this circumstantial controller and tablet for illustration I did. The Z13 isn’t really designed to beryllium clamped by a brace of controllers, and I had to overextend nan GameSir G8 Plus to make it caller — it isn’t designed to activity pinch point bigger than an iPad Mini, and nan hyperextended springs tin aggressively threat unopen if you accidentally dislodge nan gamepad successful use. The 1 clip it happened to me, it missed my fingers, but it was a startlingly adjacent call. Consider yourself warned.

Why consequence my soft, bruise-easier-than-a-peach hands pinch specified a setup? When I sewage my mitts connected nan Acer Nitro Blaze 11 astatine CES and compared it to nan Steam Deck, I was instantly of 2 minds. The angel connected my enarthrosis told maine “This is wholly excessively ample and, frankly, a mini uncouth” while nan devil connected my different enarthrosis thought “Hell yeah! Plant maine connected nan sofa for illustration I ever do pinch my Steam Deck and fto maine symptom my retinas pinch arsenic overmuch aboveground arsenic I tin hold!”

After immoderate of you bully commenters seemed to activity together pinch my wide-eyed consciousness of id connected nan latter, I realized nan ROG Flow Z13 I’d been carting astir nan show level could fulfill my fiendish desire.

And it friggin’ rips.

This is evidently not a reappraisal — since nan Flow Z13 is simply a pre-production information — but nan AMD Ryzen AI Max Plus 395 “Strix Halo” chip, pinch its 40 freaking graphics cores, ran circles astir today’s gaming handhelds. I was tin to play Helldivers 2 and Indiana Jones and nan Great Circle pinch a cognition of debased and mid settings successful nan tablet’s autochthonal 2560 x 1600 solution and easy support 50+ aliases 60+ fps successful each, respectively. Could you do that pinch a laptop? Of course! But I conscionable did it pinch an afloat instrumentality sandwiched betwixt 2 gamepad halves.

I’ve dispersed a adjacent magnitude of “Managed Democracy” successful Helldivers 2 connected nan Steam Deck, and while it’s surely playable, you personification to not mind this crippled looking for illustration it’s from nan PlayStation 3 era. It sings connected nan Z13 by comparison — astatine slightest until it’s drowned retired by debased artillery warnings. I couldn’t beryllium excessively acold from nan powerfulness cable, arsenic nan Z13’s artillery drained from 100 to 10 percent successful astir 90 minutes. But, frankly, that’s not unspeakable compared to an original Steam Deck, and perchance downsizing to a overmuch humble 1920 x 1200 solution aliases lowering nan chip’s TDP mightiness help.

But what amazed maine astir was really okay I felt utilizing Windows connected this “handheld.” The jumbo-sized aboveground makes touch targets successful Windows 11 really tolerable. For nan first clip successful nan PC handheld abstraction I didn’t instantly lament, “Boy does this constituent petition SteamOS aliases Bazzite.” I still mightiness for illustration those, but successful this format I tin unrecorded pinch Windows, peculiarly since a tablet that too serves arsenic a laptop and a handheld is an intriguing triple-threat. (It’s point I only presently spot OneXPlayer attempting pinch its quirky X1 line.)

As for portability, well... this cognition is decidedly an acquired taste, arsenic it weighs successful astatine a hefty 3.6 pounds according to my room scale, astir 1.3 pounds heavier than Acer’s hefty Blaze 11 and a afloat 2.2 pounds overmuch than a Steam Deck. It’s for illustration holding 2 Steam Decks and a Nintendo Switch pinch attached Joy-Cons each successful a azygous package.

Don’t moreover dream of playing this measurement successful furnishings unless you intend connected slipping into dreamland via a concussion, should nan hefty tablet descent retired of its controller bookends. You don’t moreover petition gravity moving against you to consequence nan tablet slipping out, arsenic nan overly stretched-out GameSir controllers tin twist and pivot astir nan broadside rails of nan Z13 while successful use.

The large, sturdy kickstand of nan Z13 does helps a afloat batch pinch each this weight, letting you prop it up connected your thigh aliases a array for support. But if you strategy to return this instrumentality anyplace but nan couch, nan clamp-on controllers aren’t wholly convenient; you’ll personification to find if your meaning of “portability” involves a setup and breakdown process each clip you move locations.

I’ll concede that contempt really nosy it’s been to effort nan Z13 successful this way, it makes a afloat batch overmuch consciousness to conscionable prop nan tablet up connected a array aliases array and play pinch a accepted controller. The GameSir is not meant to clasp this overmuch weight, and aft playing for a less hours consecutive I had immoderate denotation successful immoderate hands that would apt not hap pinch a larger gamepad purpose-built for this setup.

But this ridiculous mini investigation showed maine there’s decidedly point to oversized handhelds. Maybe Acer’s Blaze 11 will conscionable beryllium nan first ft successful nan doorway to a larger inclination of stay-at-home handhelds, a marketplace wherever Sony’s PlayStation Portal has already recovered its footing. If Asus ever put retired owed controller add-ons for its Z13, sized and fitted to equilibrium retired its weight, perchance nan institution could moreover discarded it arsenic a 13-inch handheld gaming PC.

I utilized to deliberation nan Switch aliases nan Steam Deck were nan cleanable size, but aft trying this jumbo-sized investigation and seeing that nan Switch 2 will too beryllium bigger than before, I’m comfortable saying there’s nary cleanable size for these devices. I’m excited to spot each sizes of handhelds participate nan space, moreover if they’re gigantic.

Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge