Acer's New 8 and 11-inch Windows Game Handhelds Push The Limits On Portable

How big do you want your Windows gaming handheld? Seven inches? Eight inches? Did any of you say 11 inches? Is that even a handheld anymore?

Acer's new extended lineup of Windows game handhelds, the Nitro Blaze 8 and Nitro Blaze 11, have been announced at CES 2025 in Las Vegas just months after the company announced its first 7-inch Nitro handheld last September. These new models push up the screen sizes into potentially absurd territories. The 11-inch Nitro, while looking like a massive tablet with controllers attached, does have an additional trick: its controllers detach and work wirelessly, so you could prop it up somewhere and play in tabletop mode.

The first Nitro handheld had a AMD Ryzen 7 8840 HS CPU with AMD Radeon 780M integrated graphics and a 1080p, 144Hz IPS display. The Nitro Blaze 8 has the same processor and graphics but an 8-inch, 2,560x1,600 144Hz IPS display. The rest of the controller design and specs seem relatively similar. There are 2 USB-C ports, 1 USB-A and a Micro SD card slot, with internal SSD configs up to 2TB and 16GB of RAM. At 1.58 pounds, it's not light, and it has a 55Wh battery.

The Nitro Blaze 8, front and back.

Acer

The Nitro Blaze 11, meanwhile, also has the same processor and graphics but with a 10.95-inch IPS display at the same 2,560x1,600 resolution, with a max refresh rate of only 120Hz. The Blaze 11 has more RAM (16GB) but the same ports and battery size as the Nitro Blaze 8. Oh and it weighs more (a whopping 2.3 pounds). Basically, it's almost the size of a laptop. But its controllers do detach, there's a rear stand and there are front cameras. You could use this for game streaming or even taking a work call.

The Nitro Blaze 8 and 11 will be available starting in Q2 of this year, starting at $899 (€999) and $1,099 (€1,199).

With the Nintendo Switch 2 looming and the Steam Deck continuing to be popular, the handheld game space is growing fast. Windows game handhelds are on the rise, too -- Acer's lineup joins options from Lenovo, MSI and Asus. But the one big missing piece for all of these handhelds is better Microsoft Windows support for handheld game formats. Compared to playing on a Steam Deck, Windows game handhelds are still way too much of a mixed bag of game compatibility issues and tinkering. But there are definitely more options for PC gamers than there ever have been.

Acer's Nitro Mobile Gaming Controller for phones, which folds down for travel.

Acer

By the way, Acer also has a folding mobile game controller now, too. The also-announced Nitro Mobile Gaming Controller has a USB-C-docking design for phones similar to existing products from BackBone and Razer but also folds down for travel. At $70, it'll be fun to see how good it is  when it arrives alongside these new Nitro handhelds.