At this point it’s unusual for a major tech industry event to pass by without a new handful of handhelds – and while the Nintendo Switch 2 might still be just a twinkle in Nintendo’s eye, the PC gaming handheld market is booming.
The latest company to hop aboard this particular gravy train is Acer, bringing its budget Nitro gaming brand to the fore with the new Nitro Blaze 8 and Nitro Blaze 11, officially showcased at CES 2025 this week. Acer is somewhat late to the handheld PC party, with Valve’s Steam Deck ostensibly kicking off proceedings back in 2022 and other manufacturers already entering their second generation, such as Lenovo with the Lenovo Legion Go S, which was also revealed at this year’s CES.
I’ve been holding out hope for an Acer entry into the handheld PC hall of fame for a while now, partly just because I like Acer’s hardware; I’ve long been a fan of the Swift laptop line, and the Predator and Nitro gaming brands have a good track record when it comes to delivering strong performance at reasonable prices. But after seeing what Acer had on show at CES, I’m not entirely convinced…
A monster handheld
Now, we already knew Acer had a handheld in the works, but that was the Nitro Blaze 8 – the Blaze 11 was a CES surprise. The Blaze 8 (which, frankly, should be called the Blaze 9 since it has an 8.8-inch display) looks like Acer’s spin on the traditional gaming handheld formula, with specs that are broadly similar to competitors like the Lenovo Legion Go and Asus ROG Ally X.
But the Blaze 11? That’s got a humungous 10.95-inch 1600p display and will cost you $1,099 (around £1,000 / AU$1,740) – a steep price of admission for a product in a market where the $500 mark seems to be the ideal price point.
An 11-inch display on a handheld is, quite frankly, a bit nuts. Just look at that press shot up top: does that really look comfortable to use? How heavy is it in the hands? Going from something like a Steam Deck or the featherweight Switch Lite to this chunky boy is certainly going to require some adjustment. And despite its massive screen, the Nitro Blaze 11 only packs a 55Whr battery (possibly to keep the overall weight down a bit), compared to the 80Whr battery in the ROG Ally X.
How big is too big?
11 inches is… pretty darn big. (You in the back, stop giggling.) That’s almost the screen size of the laptop I’m writing this review on (a 13-inch HP Spectre x360), and I don’t have to physically grip that by both sides to use it.
I will say this in Acer’s defense: like the Nintendo Switch or Lenovo Legion Go, the Blaze 11 has removable controllers (which I will refrain from calling ‘joy-cons’) that slot into place on either side of the main unit, which itself has a kickstand to let you use it as a sort of portable gaming display. While this is a feature I’ve largely snorted at in the past – I’ve literally never used my own first-gen Switch in this configuration – I’ll admit that it makes more sense with a bigger screen. As seen in Acer’s promo images, the Blaze 11 also comes with a separate connector that can transform those two not-joy-cons (sorry) into a singular gamepad for a better experience.
Still, with so large a screen and so high a price tag, I do have to seriously question the practicality of the Blaze 11 against simply buying a traditional gaming laptop. I’ll reserve my full judgment until I’m able to properly review this odd, beefy device myself; but right now I have to say that this might be the strangest design choice I’ve seen Acer make for a long time.
