https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/4/24235413/acer-nitro-blaze-7-handheld-gaming-pc-specs
Without price, it’s hard to say if it’ll compete.
Does acer make any good products at this point? Every one I've seen has seemed not very nice
I don't see why these hardware manufacturers think they can just shit out handhelds and then call it a day. Valve spent so much time in R&D with steam os trying to make an actual usable mobile interface for the deck, and they've so far done an outstanding job doing that.
For example, on the deck if you run into an issue, say for example an app crashes. No problem, just press the home button and exit the game. Worst comes to worse you just restart steam (you can now restart steam instead of rebooting the entire device).
On a windows device, especially something like this, if your game crashe, unless the device has an overlay that allows you to force close the game you'd have to plug in a keyboard to alt tab. If the overlay app crashes then you'd absolutely need a keyboard.
There's just so many issues that can arise that will understandably piss off the user trying to use these devices to simply play games, but issues happen and windows is the absolute least mobile friendly OS to use on the market.
I feel like these manufacturers expect the hardware power alone to sell the device, but the secret to valve's success has mostly been with Steam OS and not necessarily the deck hardware itself.
Maybe I'm giving the companies here too much credit for thinking ahead, but the more half-hearted Windows Deck clones there are, the more pressure there is on Microsoft to release a proper mobile gaming version of Windows, maybe these companies are banking on it?
People who buy these things to play whatever Windows-only anticheat games seem willing to put up with a lot of jank. The issues you're describing were exactly the sort of things that made me initially skeptical that the Stand Deck could deliver. Valve really managed to pull off something that is quite stable and easy to use compared to other devices in the same category.
Different markets
The Ally is designed to be used plugged into the wall and with a kb+m
At least according to the LTT video recommending it over the Steamdeck