Acer unveils dubiously portable Nitro Blaze 11 handheld gaming PC with 10.95-inch screen

Is Steam Deck too modest for you? Ever wanted to buy a portable gaming PC that can hide your entire head? Then Acer may have the answer. The company has unveiled its new Nitro Blaze 11 with a 10.95-inch screen and a massive form factor that tests the limits of what could reasonably be considered a “portable” gaming device.

Acer’s Nitro Blaze 11 It’s fair to say this is quite a beast, measuring 36.4 x 17.1 x 1.59cm and weighing 1050g – roughly the equivalent of 1.5 Steam Decks. It’s unclear whether these figures include the machine’s two massive detachable controllers – Acer’s press release on this point is unclear – but it’s certainly not what you’d call an understated device. Judging by the promotional images, it can also be comfortably used to serve snacks between gaming sessions.

On the plus side, its massive body boasts decent internals. For example, this 10.95-inch screen is a 120Hz WQXGA 2560 x 1600 touch display with up to 500 nits brightness, and comes with an AMD Ryzen 8040HS processor, 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and up to 2TB of NVMe. SSD storage. And that’s on top of the built-in kickstand and the aforementioned detachable controllers, which now feature back buttons. And if you like it, the minimum price is $1,099.99, depending on your storage requirements.

But if you’re looking for something more discreet and a little cheaper, there’s also a new Acer. Nitro Blaze 8which features an 8.8-inch 144Hz screen and weighs a less modest 720g. It measures 30.5 x 13.4 x 2.2 cm (controllers are definitely included as they are non-removable) and costs $899.99 . Both machines include a three-month Xbox Game Pass subscription and are scheduled for release in the second quarter of this year.

Acer’s expanded Nitro Blaze lineup won’t use AMD’s recently announced trio of next-gen Ryzen Z-series APUs aimed at portable gaming PCs, but Digital Foundry has a little more can be said about them if you’re interested, somewhere on Eurogamer.