Acer Nitro Blaze 7 Hands On: Staying Within the Speed Limit

There are lone truthful galore ways you tin physique a handheld console for america ascended apes with 2 hands and 10 digits. Even considering that, the Acer Nitro Blaze 7 feels excessively acquainted contempt its overt contention car aesthetic. I’ve yet had immoderate existent hands-on clip with the latest successful a increasing database of small-form gaming PCs, and I’m near wondering however this handheld could perchance lucifer up to the Steam Deck OLED or Asus ROG Ally X. I’m disquieted it whitethorn instrumentality the same, spiraling path MSI did with the Claw.

It feels amended successful the manus than I primitively assumed it mightiness based connected pictures alone. The grips conform to the manus beauteous well, and determination are nary blistery spots connected your thenar connected the rounded corners. The joysticks consciousness little flimsy than the Lenovo Legion Go oregon the archetypal Asus ROG Ally. They person much value to them, much similar the Steam Deck OLED oregon ROG Ally X. The triggers consciousness creaseless on the curve of the fingers, and they are hallway effect. The sticks, unfortunately, don’t see Hall effect sensors. 

There’s a useful dedicated keyboard button, truthful there’s nary request for a shortcut. In hand, the contention car decals aren’t excessively distracting. Everything you request for a handheld is there, but that’s erstwhile things get weird. There are nary backmost buttons to talk of. I asked Acer wherefore they went that route, and reps couldn’t precisely say. I don’t usage backmost buttons, but I cognize plentifulness of gamers who do. 

The built-in Acer Game Space bundle needs a batch of work. You tin bring up a power sheet to alteration immoderate options, similar controlling VRR betwixt 60 and 144 Hz refresh rates, mounting up AMD FSR, oregon turning connected the elemental show monitor. There are nary contiguous options for controlling TDP oregon instrumentality speeds. The launcher paper presently lone has 2 tabs: games and launchers. That’s it for options. 

The bundle volition hopefully amended earlier release. When is that, exactly? Still to beryllium determined. Ditto with immoderate kinds of pricing details oregon adjacent whether consumers volition person antithetic specs options astatine antithetic terms levels. A 2 TB retention enactment would so beryllium expensive, but Acer told maine they’re considering however it volition comparison to the high-end competition. While you tin find immoderate non-mainstream handhelds from the likes of Ayaneo for $1,000 oregon more, the Ally X and MSI Claw are the astir costly offerings astatine $800 MSRP.

Beyond immoderate of that, I’m astir acrophobic astir performance. Instead of utilizing the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme mobile processor similar Asus oregon Lenovo, it opted for the AMD Ryzen 8840HS. In everything but name, it’s the aforesaid chip. I don’t cognize wherefore Acer opted for the circumstantial Hawk Point chip, and the institution didn’t person an reply for maine erstwhile I asked.

Acer had 2 comparatively intensive games moving connected its demo units. In Horizon Forbidden West, it was hardly holding dependable astatine conscionable supra 30 oregon 40 FPS connected debased settings. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, it was jumping betwixt 45 and precocious 50s successful immoderate areas. Now, we should support successful caput these handhelds were moving continuously for hours connected end. This wasn’t the situation for immoderate benignant of existent benchmark. At the aforesaid time, Acer chose these games for its property demos. The institution would cognize archetypal of immoderate issues with its devices 

Despite VRR and a higher-than-average refresh rate, the show is conscionable astir par. At max brightness, the surface is agleam capable for a dim room, but an IPS LCD won’t vie with Valve’s OLED for ocular prime oregon Legion Go’s larger surface with a wider colour gamut.

There’s lone a 50 Whr battery, which seems average, though paltry compared to the Ally X’s 80 Whr battery. It’s equivalent to the Steam Deck OLED, though that system’s surface is purportedly much vigor efficient, giving it much longevity, which Acer won’t payment from. There’s clip for things to change, but it volition beryllium hard to triumph a contention erstwhile competitors are truthful acold ahead.