One 12 months in the past at CES 2020 in Las Vegas, Alienware made waves with a modular gaming PC that labored like a Nintendo Change, with a pair of gamepads flanking a strong Home windows 10 pill. Sadly, Alienware’s UFO was only a idea, as was Lenovo’s tackle the concept this 12 months — however two corporations are actually taking over the torch with a pair of crowdfunded devices you would possibly really see in your lifetime. They give the impression of being severely legit.
The 5.5-inch GPD Win 3 and the 7-inch Aya Neo aren’t going about it in fairly the identical manner; whereas the Ava tries to carefully match Nintendo’s console in form, measurement, and with strictly gaming controls on board, the GPD sticks to its palmtop pc roots with a slide-up display that reveals a tiny backlit keyboard. There’s additionally a fingerprint sensor, a microSD slot and an non-obligatory Thunderbolt 4 dock if you wish to use the GPD like a full Home windows 10 pc.
What’s the identical: each are genuinely making an attempt to ship a strong pill surrounded by joysticks and buttons for below $1,000 every. With Intel’s newest Tiger Lake chips and AMD’s Ryzen 4500U respectively, every has among the newest and biggest built-in graphics you should buy, they usually declare fairly respectable efficiency because of this — Cyberpunk 2077 can reportedly hit 30fps on the Aya Neo’s 1280×800 decision at low settings, and GPD provides an extended record of examples of current, demanding video games which you could coax effectively over the 50fps mark with its Intel Xe graphics.
As you may see within the spec comparo sheet I whipped up under, every options 16GB of DDR4 reminiscence, a speedy NVMe stable state drive, Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0, a pair of stereo audio system, a real headphone jack, and a number of USB ports. Not unhealthy!
GPD Win 3 vs. Aya Neo specs
| Spec | GPD Win 3 | Aya Neo |
|---|---|---|
| Spec | GPD Win 3 | Aya Neo |
| Display screen | 5.5-inch 1280x720p IPS | 7-inch 1280x800p IPS |
| PPI | 268ppi | 215ppi |
| Brightness | 400 nits | 500 nits |
| CPU | 15-28W Intel i7-1165G7 or i5-1135G7 (4C8T) | 10-25W AMD Ryzen 4500U (6C6T) |
| GPU | Intel Iris Xe (96EU or 80EU) | AMD Vega 6 |
| RAM | 16GB LPDDR4x 4266 | 16GB LPDDR4x 4266 |
| Storage | 1TB NVMe SSD | 512GB NVMe SSD |
| Battery | 44Wh | 47Wh |
| Battery quote | 2-3 hours heavy, up 11 hours mild | as much as 6 hours |
| Cooling | Two warmth pipes, PWM fan | Two warmth pipes, fan |
| Ports | 1x Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C), USB-A, 3.5mm | 3x USB-C, 3.5mm |
| Wi-fi | Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0 | Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0 |
| Dimensions | 7.6 x 3.6 inches (192 x 92mm) | 10 x 4.1 inches (255 x 106mm) |
| Thickness | 1.06 inches (27mm) | 0.79 inches (20mm) |
| Weight | 1.2 lbs (.56kg) | 1.4 lbs (.65kg) |
| Audio system | Stereo | Stereo |
| Keyboard | Y | N |
| Touchscreen | Y | Y |
| Gyro management | N | Y |
| Rumble | Y | Y |
| microSD | Y | N |
| Fingerprint sensor | Y | N |
| Docking station | Elective, 3x USB 3.2, 1x USB-C, 1x HDMI 2.0b, 1x GbE | N |
| OS | Home windows 10 Dwelling | Home windows 10 |
| Early worth | $799 | $699 |
| Last beginning worth | $999 | TBD |
Simply know that these techniques are going to be chonky in comparison with an precise Nintendo Change’s 0.55-inch thick body and 0.88-pound weight, and battery life shall be an enormous query, with each the Aya Neo and GPD Win 3 permitting you to fine-tune the chip’s TDP wattage to get probably the most out of their tablet-sized cells. NotebookCheck says you shouldn’t count on to get greater than 1.5 hours out of the GPD Win 3 whereas taking part in a demanding sport, although Taki Udon on YouTube claims you will get 2-3 hours out of an early Aya Neo.
Talking of Taki Udon’s video, it seems to be like a unbelievable overview of the hand-held, so I like to recommend checking it out, and this second vid that exhibits off how effectively video games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Sekiro play on his Founder’s mannequin. It’s not sufficient to persuade me to crowdfund an organization I’ve by no means heard of, nevertheless it’s a superb begin.
You also needs to know that not all of those handhelds are going to look and play the identical: the clear Aya you’re seeing within the movies was a restricted version of 15,000 for early pre-orders in China, with closing fashions launching in black and white as a substitute after they ship in April. Aya shall be launching its Indiegogo marketing campaign in February with a “tremendous early hen restricted worth” of $699, with no phrase on how a lot the remainder of us would possibly pay.
The GPD Win 3 is already on Indiegogo, the place you’ll pay $799 for the Core i5-1135G7 model, with the extra highly effective i7 chip beginning at $899, or $949 for a package deal with the non-obligatory USB, HDMI and Gigabit Ethernet docking station.
Between these handheld gaming PCs, the lovable upcoming Playdate and the attractive Analogue Pocket, among the squeaky clear mods we’ve seen of late, to not point out the recognition of the Change itself and the march of ever smaller and extra highly effective chips, it seems like we may be coming into a gaming handheld renaissance. Right here’s hoping.