The Acer Nitro Blaze 7 is the latest Steam Deck rival, but we have concerns

The Steam Deck wasn’t the first PC-based handheld, but it certainly popularized the segment. We’ve seen plenty of brands hop on the bandwagon since then, and Acer is the latest company to offer a device.

The Acer Nitro Blaze 7 is a Windows-based PC handheld, and it certainly has some impressive core specs for the most part. There’s an AMD Ryzen AI chip (8840HS, eight cores, 16 threads, 39 TOPS), a Radeon 780M GPU (RDNA 3), 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and “up to” 2TB of NVMe storage. Thankfully, we’ve also got a microSD card slot if you want to expand your storage on the cheap. You’ve also got a 7-inch 144Hz IPS LCD panel (1080p, 500 nits) with FreeSync Premium tech.

Hadlee Simons / Android Authority

One major area that concerns me is the 50Wh battery, which matches the Steam Deck OLED’s battery capacity. Windows-based handheld consoles tend to consume more juice than Linux-based devices like the Steam Deck, though. So, I’m guessing the Nitro Blaze 7 won’t be an endurance champ by any measure. In fact, the company’s press materials make no mention of battery life, which isn’t a good sign. This battery capacity also lags behind the ASUS ROG Ally X’s massive 80Wh pack.

Another traditional downside to Windows-based portables is that the operating system isn’t designed for controllers and touch input. That doesn’t seem to be changing on the Nitro Blaze 7, but Acer is offering its own Game Space app that integrates “mainstream gaming platforms” into one app. So you should be able to access your gaming library from various services in one place. Nevertheless, it’s high time for Microsoft itself to address this issue.

As for I/O, the Acer handheld brings the usual D-pad, a pair of analog sticks, face buttons, and shoulder buttons and triggers. We also get a fingerprint scanner embedded in the power button, a dedicated Game Space button, and a few extra shortcut keys. Otherwise, you can expect a pair of USB-C ports (USB 4.0), the aforementioned microSD slot, and a 3.5mm port. Just don’t expect trackpads here, as seen on Valve’s machine, which would’ve made life easier in strategy games and when navigating Windows.

There’s no word on pricing or availability just yet, but we’ve asked Acer about US details. Nevertheless, we expect the Nitro Blaze 7 to be closer in price to the ASUS ROG Ally X than the Steam Deck.

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