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The world of PC gaming handhelds is bursting with options these days, but Acer is aiming to make a bold statement with its latest offerings: the Nitro Blaze 8 and Nitro Blaze 11. With screens measuring 8.8 inches and a whopping 10.95 inches respectively, these devices boast some of the largest displays we’ve seen in this category. Add a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels and refresh rates of 144 Hz for the Blaze 8 and 120 Hz for the Blaze 11, and you’ve got devices ready to give your eyes plenty to feast on.
However, even with these impressive visuals, those high-res, high-refresh IPS displays are expected to stretch the limits of the current silicon technology in many AAA titles. Acer’s choice of engine is the AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS CPU, the same silicon heart that powers Asus’ ROG Ally with its Z1 Extreme chip. So, don’t be surprised if you find yourself leaning on AMD’s upscaling technology during gameplay.
Looking at the specs, both models are equipped with a 55 Whr battery. While this surpasses the capacity of the original Ally’s 40 Whr and the Steam Deck OLED’s 50 Whr, it falls short of the hefty 80 Whr found in the Ally X. Alongside the Ryzen 7 8840HS, both devices feature 16GB of RAM and can offer up to 2TB of storage. The touchscreens reach a brightness of 500 nits. Acer has intriguingly emphasized the CPUs’ 39 total AI TOPS, but despite this, I wouldn’t set high expectations for game performance or battery longevity. Yet, they indeed have size on their side compared to rivals.
In terms of design, the Blaze 11 offers removable controllers, taking a page from Lenovo’s Legion Go but seemingly without a built-in mouse sensor. These controllers also appear to lack dedicated cursor controls, meaning a fair amount of screen tapping and swiping through Windows 11 Home or Acer’s Game Space software is in your future.
It’s worth noting that with bigger screens come heavier devices. The Nitro Blaze weighs in at a manageable 1.59 pounds, while the Nitro 11 is a heftier 2.31 pounds. Having had some hands-on time with these new gadgets, the Blaze 11 doesn’t feel as cumbersome in reality as it does in some promotional shots, but it isn’t exactly a travel-friendly companion either. This parallels the bulkiness found in larger gaming laptops. The major concern here is battery life, especially with that sizeable, power-hungry display. However, assuming you’ll mostly use it at home where plugging it into a USB-C charger is always an option, this might not be a dealbreaker.
Expect to see the Nitro Blaze 8 and 11 hitting the shelves sometime in the second quarter, priced in line with their dimensions: the Blaze 8 starts at $899, and the Blaze 11 begins at $1,099.
