Acer’s new gaming handheld has a tiny laptop computer hiding inside

The display screen appears to hinge round some extent within the center, rotating down and reversing orientation when you elevate up the left and proper sections. Bam, you’ve received a chunky little laptop computer with a backlit and apparently full-sized keyboard… notably one which lacks a trackpad. A shot of the DualPlay Mini in a haphazard shooter mode exhibits the person with a full-sized, wi-fi mouse, taking part in on a desktop. 

It’s unclear precisely how dedicated Acer is to the thought of this gadget as a productiveness gadget, one thing you possibly can actually do work on. A promo shot of an individual working Windows in an airliner seat definitely appears to suggest that it’s attainable. But Acer’s promotional textual content additionally factors out you can connect with an exterior display screen in order for you. 

This may be very a lot an idea gadget, with little accessible when it comes to specs apart from the truth that it’s “powered by Intel” and utilizing the identical cooling structure because the Predator Atlas 8. That’s utilizing Intel’s new handheld-focused Arc G3 chips, so it is smart. Whether we’ll ever see this attention-grabbing design on a retailer shelf will most likely come all the way down to each the preliminary response to its IFA reveal and what costs for RAM, storage, and chips will appear like in a number of months. 

Acer does have a smaller cousin to the Atlas 8—predictably titled the Atlas 7—able to go in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia “from September 2026.” 

This barely sleeker handheld will provide an Arc G3 or Arc G3 Extreme processor (Arc B370 or B390 graphics, respectively), a 7-inch 1080p IPS display screen with 120Hz refresh price, “up to” 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, and both a 60 or 80 watt-hour battery. Pricing continues to be a thriller. (That’s hardly shocking, because the Atlas 8 introduced three months in the past nonetheless doesn’t have an official worth forward of its October launch.)