New console from Acer — laptop processor and AI frame generation in the future. First look at Nitro Blaze 7

Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Acer has unveiled its first portable console, Acer Nitro Blaze 7, at the IFA 2024 exhibition in Berlin. The company has entered a busy market with such devices as Steam Deck, Asus ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go, and MSI Claw. How is Acer going to surprise customers against the backdrop of so many competitors? Let’s try to figure it out.

The first rumors that Acer was developing its own console appeared in early 2024, and now, eight months later, the device has made it to its first-ever exhibition.

The most interesting thing about the Nitro Blaze 7 is, of course, the processor! The device is equipped with an AI-enabled laptop processor — AMD RyzenTM 7 8840HS with an AMD Radeon 780M graphics card. On Acer’s part, this looks like an attempt to overtake competitors at a turn. After all, we are all waiting for the emergence of an AI frame generation system. When it appears, the Acer device will be ready to use it from the start and will be able to deliver even higher FPS in games. MSI also presented a similar solution at the exhibition. MSI Claw console also received AI support.

RAM — fast LPDDR5x with 7500 megatransactions per second, hard disk — 2 TB M.2 NVMe, screen — 7-inch FHD (1920×1080) IPS display with touchscreen, 144 Hz refresh rate and support for AMD FreeSync Premium. The console runs on the Windows 11 operating system.

I would have liked to see OLED instead of IPS, but there are questions about the battery of the device, so the engineers apparently decided not to increase the voracity of the already powerful filling. Nevertheless, the IPS screen reproduces colors well, has a brightness of 500 nits and covers 100% of the sRGB space. I would like to note the presence of two USB4 Type-C ports, through which you can both charge the device and connect, for example, an external monitor, and a MicroSD card slot for increasing memory.

The console fits comfortably in your hands, does not slip, and the build quality is up to par. On the top panel there are standard buttons for the console, among the unusual solutions there is a button to launch the Acer Game Space program, and a button to call the on-screen keyboard.

Two games were installed on the console as part of the demonstration to journalists — Horizon Forbidden West and Tomb Raider. In the first game, the console delivered around 50 FPS on medium settings and Full HD resolution, and in the second game, about 60 FPS. At the same time, the device heats up noticeably, but this is generally expected with such a powerful processor.

I’m not a fan of such devices precisely because of the low performance, but this is the first device that I feel is at least somewhat close to a laptop. It is capable of producing decent graphics with not the lowest FPS. At this point, I can’t help but post a photo of the new Acer Nitro v14 laptop, I don’t have enough resources to write about it separately, but it’s just too good!

The Acer Game Space program is responsible for organizing the library and running games. Through it, you can change the screen refresh rate, enable or disable performance monitoring, and configure AMD FSR settings. This is the end of its capabilities, so I hope that closer to the release, the company will add other settings, for example, to control TDP and fan speed.

But what I have a question about is the battery. It has a capacity of only 50 Wh, compared to the 80 Wh of competitors. Given the powerful hardware, this seems like a weak solution, and there are fears that the console will have to be used exclusively with a power bank or regularly connected to the network for charging. Perhaps the AI chip will turn out to be more energy efficient than its predecessor, but we will see this in full tests when the console goes on sale.