Acer's Doing One Too

Is it the "Year Of The Handheld Gaming PC", do you think? Now Acer has
announced its "Nitro Blaze" hand-held, throwing its hat into the
portable gaming PC ring.

The device itself isn't that appealing; its considerably more bulky
than either Valve's SteamDeck or Lenovo's LegionGo. That's mostly
because it has an oversized 11" screen, which seems excessive for a
device intended to be held in the hands all the time. Otherwise, it's
specs are fairly ordinary and without any other exciting features.
Also, it's still running Windows and it's Acer: a brand not known for
quality design or products. Given all that, its expected $1100 price
seems all the more excessive.

But that's not really the point. What is interesting is how more and
more companies are releasing hand-held devices to compete with
SteamDeck (and Switch, I suppose). In addition to Acer, both Lenovo
and ASUS have entered the market. I wouldn't be surprised to see other
OEMs follow suit in coming months.

I wonder, is this going to be a permanent new addition to the PC
ecosystem, or are hand-helds just a fad like Netbooks briefly were.
Personally, I've no interest in the things --gimme a computer with a
full keyboard anyday!-- but a lot of the kids seem to live and die on
their cellphones, so maybe a handheld PC is more appealing? Or will
they just shrug at the things bulkiness in comparison to their phones
and ignore it too?

Still, I can only hope this new development inspires more people to
push towards SteamOS and similar Proton-powered alternatives, making
Windows ever less a necessity for modern PC gaming.