The Steam Deck has been the template for handheld gaming PCs for almost three years now, with its competitors all following the same form factor to a greater or lesser degree. Acer has already designed something like that — the Nitro Blaze 7 — but, at CES 2025, it’s ready to go bigger. Much, much bigger… with the Nitro Blaze 11, which is part Steam Deck, part Nintendo Switch, part iPad, built around a massive screen.
The central feature is a 10.95-inch 2560×1600 IPS display, extending the slightly taller 16:10 ratio to a much higher resolution you’d normally only see on a premium laptop. It’s also faster than usual for a handheld with its 144Hz refresh rate.
The device breaks apart into three sections — like the Nintendo Switch or the Lenovo Legion Go — allowing you to use the chunky center as a tablet or simply hold the controllers separately (and perhaps more comfortably, since it’s a whopping 2.31 pounds versus the Steam Deck’s 1.41 pounds). There’s also a kickstand built into the rear.
Considering that bombastic screen, the hardware within is a bit underwhelming. We’re seeing an AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS processor, the same 8-core chip that was in the Nitro 7 last year. It’s a powerful chip, also featured in some high-end laptops, but it’s not something that really needs that extra space. Ditto for the other hardware specs: 16GB of DDR5 RAM and a maximum “up to” 2TB of Gen4 storage. (No word on whether that’s user-accessible, like in some other handheld designs.)
The Nitro Blaze 11 also has two USB-C ports (one with USB4 and one with USB 3.2) plus a USB-A port for easy access to older accessories and a MicroSD slot for fast storage expansion. The battery is 55 watt-hours — big for a handheld but not huge, and notably smaller than the upgraded 80 watt-hour battery on the Asus ROG Ally X.
Other hardware highlights include Hall effect thumbsticks and triggers, 100-watt charging with the included adapter, and (for better or worse) Windows 11 with Acer’s software on top.
Acer
Acer will also offer a more conventional alternative: the Nitro Blaze 8. It has an 8.8-inch screen, with the same resolution and refresh rate, that’s still big for a handheld but much smaller and without the Switch-style breakaway controllers. Other hardware is pretty much identical to the Nitro Blaze 11, including the Ryzen 7 8840HS processor and the 55 watt-hour battery (though oddly it only gets a 65-watt charger).
Acer
The Nitro Blaze 11 doesn’t currently have a price or release date, though presumably it’ll materialize sometime before the end of 2025. The Nitro Blaze 8 is a little more concrete, with a launch pinned for March in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, starting at a hefty €999 (about $1,028 USD). It’s set for release in North America and Australia at some point, though dates and prices aren’t available.
Oddly, it looks like the original Nitro Blaze 7 has yet to materialize, despite being announced back in September. It doesn’t get a mention in Acer’s CES press materials. I’ve asked Acer for some clarification on this point — is it still coming or has it been dropped in favor of these bigger designs? — and will update this article if I get a reply.
