Hands-on with the Nitro Blaze 11, Acer’s massive new PC gaming handheld

The laptop PC space continues to grow, and the biggest one is new from Acer Nitro Blaze 11. As soon as I saw the announcement at CES, I knew I had to try to get my hands on it, if only out of pure curiosity: “Will this thing even exist?” correspond in my hands? The answer is yes, although hardly.

I brought along the Steam Deck OLED display for a quick size and feel comparison. One of the first things I noticed is that it’s much more dangerous to grip the Blaze 11 the way I’m used to gripping the Steam Deck: by holding it by the top and bottom edges. My fingers can barely stretch far enough for this position. Once in your hands, the Blaze 11, at 2.3 pounds, actually feels lighter than you’d expect, making it not too bulky if you’re like me and play most of your “handheld” games at home on the couch. (Playing in bed can be dangerous. in your face.)

While the Blaze 11 isn’t as heavy as I feared, the Steam Deck OLED’s 1.41 pounds feels like a lightweight featherweight in comparison. The deck also feels a little more durable. The Acer PDA isn’t flimsy, but it feels cheaper.

But to its credit, playing games on such a large screen in your hands is a pleasure, and the stand feels sturdy enough to support it in tablet mode with the controllers disconnected, something the Steam Deck can’t do. Acer also gets points for its use of Hall effect joysticks and triggers.

Update January 9: The image captions add information from Acer about the Blaze 11’s bottom pins and top slider.

Photo by Antonio J. Di Benedetto/The Verge