Acer's Nitro Blaze 7 is a late entry into the handheld gaming PC market, but it lacks innovation.

In the last few years, the handheld gaming PC market became more interesting thanks to the Steam Deck. However, with so much competition comes a swarm of forgettable entries. Acer, not one to be outdone by others, has just smashed onto the scene with its "AI-accelerated" Build, whatever that may mean to you.

Its design is a mix of all the best portable gaming PCs, including the angular corners on Ayaneo 2021 models, the layout of buttons and sticks of OneXPlayer OneXFly and the accents on Asus' ROG Ally products.

It's interesting that it's equipped with a Ryzen 7 (8840HS), which is a laptop-oriented version 8840U, you can find in the higher end Ayaneo Air S1. This is a very similar chip to the Ryzen Z1 Extreme found in the Asus ROG Ally X and the Ryzen 8 7840U that dominated the market. This less configurable laptop processor, however, appears to be a bit of an odd choice from the start, as the HS chips are generally designed for rigs that have a higher power draw and robust cooling systems.

The main difference is the configurable TDP of the chip. The Ryzen 7 8840HS, which is aimed at larger laptops with larger batteries and cooling arrays, is specced to run between 20 and 30W, whereas the Ryzen 7 8840U, which is aimed at thin, light and handhelds and is a low-power model, will be running as little as 15W.

With the right software controls you can actually run Ryzen-based portables down to super low power levels, even below the rated cTDP of 15 W. Acer may have its own software that can bring the 8840HS to the same level as the other chip. It's still a strange choice.

The Acer Nitro Blaze 7 measures 25.6 cm wide, 11.35 cm deep, and 2.25 centimeters high. It weighs 670 g which is one gram more than the Steam Deck. It is interesting to note that it comes with a full-size SSD at the back. This suggests it may be upgradeable to a larger capacity. It will also include 16 GB of LPDDR5 memory, which is capable of a 7500 MT/s transfer rate.

The screen is a 7-inch IPS full HD display. The screen has a maximum brightness of 500 nits and a refresh rate 144Hz. It also has a 7-ms response time. We don't know how this response time is measured. It also comes with AMD's FreeSync Premium screen tear software to enable a smoother user experience.

We don't yet have a price or a release date for the Blaze 7. But it will have to be very competitively priced in order to make a difference in a market that is already pretty crowded. A market where second-generation devices are already hitting the shelves.

The Acer Nitro Blaze 7 looks nice and has specs that are comparable to other handhelds, but I can't see what makes it stand out. The specs are what you'd expect, but I find the AMD chip strange for a device which needs to be both cool and energy efficient. Acer's competitors are already ahead of the curve in many areas, including the 50 Wh battery. Both Asus's Ally X device and MSI's new Claw 8 have made significant changes in the battery capacity. The Blaze 7 is still a first-generation product.