Acer Expands Gaming Handheld Line with 9-Inch and 11-Inch Displays: Nitro Blaze 8 and Blaze 11 Featuring AMD 8840HS CPUs

The handheld gaming scene for PCs is bustling with options, yet Acer aims to carve out its niche with the Nitro Blaze 8 and Nitro Blaze 11. These nifty devices boast some of the largest displays on the market—with the Blaze 8 presenting an 8.8-inch screen and the Blaze 11 stretching out to almost 11 inches. Both models deliver a crisp 2560 x 1600 resolution, and if you’re a fan of smooth visuals, you’ll appreciate the 144 Hz refresh rate on the smaller model, and a respectable 120 Hz on its larger sibling.

You might wonder how these high-res, high-refresh displays will handle the demands of today’s AAA titles. Acer’s solution? Rely on AMD’s trusty Ryzen 7 8840HS to power both devices. Sharing its DNA with the 780M found in the Z1 Extreme chip inside the Asus ROG Ally, this setup suggests you’ll lean heavily on AMD’s upscaling tech to keep those games running smoothly.

In terms of battery life, Acer packs a 55 Whr battery into each handheld. That’s a bit more juice than the original ROG Ally (at 40 Whr) and slightly surpasses the Steam Deck OLED’s 50 Whr, but it doesn’t quite match up to the Ally X’s hefty 80 Whr. On the tech side, both devices rock 16GB of RAM and offer up to 2TB of storage. Their touchscreens reach 500 nits of brightness, which should help images pop. Interestingly, Acer highlights the CPUs’ 39 AI TOPS, but let’s be honest—the Nitro series probably won’t be setting any frame rate or battery life records. However, they certainly stand out in screen size.

Taking a closer look at the Blaze 11, it has detachable controllers that aren’t far off the style of Lenovo’s Legion Go, though don’t expect a built-in mouse sensor. The controllers lack dedicated cursor control, so be prepared for some finger gymnastics, swiping through Windows 11 Home or navigating Acer’s Game Space.

Of course, bigger screens mean more heft. The Nitro Blaze comes in at a manageable 1.59 pounds, while the Nitro 11 weighs a more substantial 2.31 pounds. After a hands-on session with the Blaze 11, it becomes clear it’s not quite as gargantuan in person as the promo images might suggest. Still, portability isn’t a strong suit here, not unlike larger gaming laptops. The real concern? Battery life—the large, high-resolution display is power-hungry. But since you’ll likely be playing at home, your USB-C charger should always be nearby.

Acer plans to release the Nitro Blaze 8 and Blaze 11 in Q2. Pricing? Expect to shell out $899 for the 8-inch model, while the 11-inch version starts at a steeper $1,099.