Unleashing Power: The Acer Nitro Blaze 11 Gaming Handheld Steals the Spotlight at CES 2025!

Fresh on the heels of Lenovo’s revelation about its compacting the Legion Go gaming handheld with the Legion Go S, another PC producer, Acer, is taking a completely different approach with the most substantial handheld gaming PC I’ve ever encountered. The seven-inch Acer Nitro Blaze handheld that the company presented in September is not yet up for sale, and already it’s gaining a much larger counterpart.

As part of its CES announcements for 2025, Acer has introduced new 11-inch and eight-inch models of the Nitro Blaze. They will feature the same internal components as the previously revealed seven-inch version, indicating an AMD Ryzen 8840HS laptop processor, 16GB of RAM, up to 2TB of storage, and Hall Effect sticks/triggers, but the distinguishing factors are their displays and overall dimensions.

Although the seven-inch and eight-inch variants may appear quite similar to a Steam Deck, I can’t observe that 11-inch model without thinking “big fella.”

Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

Each of the three Nitro Blazes is equipped with a 2560 x 1600 IPS display, with the smaller models also operating at 144Hz; however, that 11-inch model boasts a significant amount of display area. Oddly, its refresh rate is a slightly lower 120Hz, but that does not prevent it from exuding an impression of being the most opulent version available.

Honestly, it is the largest gaming handheld I’ve ever grasped, pushing the boundaries of the term “handheld.” I noticed people on Reddit labeling it as the “ultimate challenge of handhelds,” which I find quite fitting.

Nevertheless, while it’s not officially the first PC gaming handheld featuring an 11-inch display, it unquestionably feels like the most coherent option, judging by what competitors are providing. Upon lifting it, I was instantly impressed by how light it felt—it weighs merely 2.3 pounds, which is a pound heavier than my Steam Deck yet comparable to Asus’ new leading lightweight Copilot+ laptop. This immediately made it feel unexpectedly practical, despite its imposing appearance while docked.

I found it easy to lift with one hand and even nearly toss around with Acer staff, and while I’m uncertain if I’d prefer to carry it in an everyday bag, it certainly serves as a more portable choice compared to a gaming laptop.

Enhancing its usability is one feature unique to the 11-inch model, although it has been observed before. Much like the current, first-generation Lenovo Legion Go, the Acer Nitro Blaze 11 features detachable controllers.

Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

These can be utilized together with a kickstand for a tabletop gaming experience, or in a manoeuvre that actually gives it an advantage over the Legion Go, you can position them sideways and use them as individual controllers for two-player sessions. It’s an obvious choice, something Nintendo made synonymous with detachable controllers when it introduced the Joy-Con with the Nintendo Switch, so it’s refreshing to see another developer finally embrace that concept.

To be candid, I’m not convinced there is (literally) a place for the Nitro Blaze 11 in my existence, and with the Legion Go S set to deliver my cherished SteamOS to the compact third-party PC gaming handheld sector, I doubt I would choose one of its younger relatives.

However, a different, younger, more overtly gaming-oriented version of myself would have eagerly pursued this. There’s a certain maximalist pride in owning a gaming handheld with a display that reaches into the double digits, and while that will always entail certain trade-offs, the Nitro Blaze 11 appears to represent that idea as faithfully as possible. During a time when I was contentedly carting a five-pound gaming laptop from class to class, I would have had no reservations about tossing this in with it.

That said, one must be prepared to spend four figures for the privilege of figuring out how to carry this hefty unit around. The Nitro Blaze 11 will retail for $1,099 upon its release in the second quarter of this year, whereas the Nitro Blaze 8 will be a comparatively more budget-friendly $899. Acer representatives informed me that the Nitro Blaze 7 will debut around the same period as well, priced at $799.