Acer’s new gaming handheld has a tiny laptop hiding inside
Who’s going to spend $1,500 to $2,000 on a handheld gaming PC when we both need and want a laptop too? Apparently, Acer has been pondering this thought. In addition to a new conventional Steam Deck-style handheld, the company is showing off its DualPlay Mini concept—a handheld that can transform into a tiny laptop.
And I do mean tiny. The screen on this device is 8 inches, which is chunky for a portable gaming device but old-fashioned netbook territory for a laptop. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen itty-bitty laptops with game controls attached, but I do believe this is the first time I’ve seen one with a screen that flips around and a hidden keyboard under the controls.
Acer
The screen seems to hinge around a point in the middle, rotating down and reversing orientation once you lift up the left and right sections. Bam, you’ve got a chunky little laptop with a backlit and apparently full-sized keyboard… notably one that lacks a trackpad. A shot of the DualPlay Mini in a haphazard shooter mode shows the user with a full-sized, wireless mouse, playing on a desktop.
It’s unclear exactly how committed Acer is to the idea of this device as a productivity gadget, something you could really do work on. A promo shot of a person running Windows in an airliner seat certainly seems to imply that it’s possible. But Acer’s promotional text also points out that you can connect to an external screen if you want.
Acer
This is very much a concept device, with little available in terms of specs aside from the fact that it’s “powered by Intel” and using the same cooling architecture as the Predator Atlas 8. That’s using Intel’s new handheld-focused Arc G3 chips, so it makes sense. Whether we’ll ever see this interesting design on a store shelf will probably come down to both the initial response to its IFA reveal and what prices for RAM, storage, and chips will look like in a few months.
Acer does have a smaller cousin to the Atlas 8—predictably titled the Atlas 7—ready to go in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia “from September 2026.”
Acer
This slightly sleeker handheld will offer an Arc G3 or Arc G3 Extreme processor (Arc B370 or B390 graphics, respectively), a 7-inch 1080p IPS screen with 120Hz refresh rate, “up to” 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, and either a 60 or 80 watt-hour battery. Pricing is still a mystery. (That’s hardly surprising, since the Atlas 8 announced three months ago still doesn’t have an official price ahead of its October release.)
