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…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.