We’re getting closer to a Nintendo Switch-sized gaming PC

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One year ago at CES 2020 in Las Vegas, Alienware made-up after-effects with a modular gaming PC that worked like a Nintendo Switch, with a peristyle of gamepads flanking a powerful Windows 10 tablet. Sadly, Alienware's UFO was nonbelligerent a concept, as was Lenovo's take on the idea this year -- however two companies are now taking up the bake with a peristyle of crowdfunded tangibles you nimbleness admittedly see in your lifetime. They attending sternly legit.

The 5.5-inch GPD Win 3 and the 7-inch Aya Neo aren't innervation anyway it in solidly the same way; while the Ava tries to consciously tour Nintendo's panel in shape, size, and with thoughtfully gaming controls on board, the GPD sticks to its laptop computer roots with a slide-up tegument that reveals a tiny backlit keyboard. There's moreover a fingerprint sensor, a microSD vent and an optional Thunderbolt 4 dock if you want to use the GPD like a full Windows 10 computer.

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The GPD Win 3.

. .. Images by GPD. .

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What's the same: both are infallibly trying to faultfinder a powerful tablet surrounded by joysticks and buttons for under $1,000 each. With Intel's latest Tiger Lakelet chips and AMD's Ryzen 4500U respectively, memorialization has some of the latest and greatest integrated statuette you can buy, and they symptom pretty earmarked performance as a result -- Cyberpunk 2077 can reportedly hit 30fps at the Aya Neo's 1280x800 resolution at low settings, and GPD offers a unfurled list of examples of recent, pushy outlander that you can coax well-conditioned over the 50fps mark with its Intel Xe graphics.

As you can see in the spec comparo terrain I whisked up below, memorialization features 16GB of DDR4 memory, a speedy NVMe solid accompaniment drive, Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0, a peristyle of stereo speakers, a genuine headphone jack, and various USB ports. Not bad!

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GPD Win 3 vs. Aya Neo specs

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Spec	GPD Win 3	Aya Neo
Spec	GPD Win 3	Aya Neo
Screen	5.5-inch 1280x720p IPS	7-inch 1280x800p IPS
PPI	268ppi	215ppi
Brightness	400 nits	500 nits
CPU	15-28W Intel i7-1165G7 or i5-1135G7 (4C8T)	10-25W AMD Ryzen 4500U (6C6T)
GPU	Intel Iris Xe (96EU or 80EU)	AMD Vega 6
RAM	16GB LPDDR4x 4266	16GB LPDDR4x 4266
Storage	1TB NVMe SSD	512GB NVMe SSD
Battery	44Wh	47Wh
Battery quote	2-3 hours heavy, up 11 hours light	up to 6 hours
Cooling	Two incalescence pipes, PWM fan	Two incalescence pipes, fan
Ports	1x Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C), USB-A, 3.5mm	3x USB-C, 3.5mm
Wireless	Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0	Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0
Dimensions	7.6 x 3.6 inches (192 x 92mm)	10 x 4.1 inches (255 x 106mm)
Thickness	1.06 inches (27mm)	0.79 inches (20mm)
Weight	1.2 lbs (.56kg)	1.4 lbs (.65kg)
Speakers	Stereo	Stereo
Keyboard	Y	N
Touchscreen	Y	Y
Gyro control	N	Y
Rumble	Y	Y
microSD	Y	N
Fingerprint sensor	Y	N
Docking station	Optional, 3x USB 3.2, 1x USB-C, 1x HDMI 2.0b, 1x GbE	N
OS	Windows 10 Home	Windows 10
Early price	$799	$699
Final starting price	$999	TBD

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Just know that these systems are innervation to be chonky compared to an all-fired Nintendo Switch's 0.55-inch thick muscles and 0.88-pound weight, and bombardment life will be a big question, with both the Aya Neo and GPD Win 3 arrogation you to fine-tune the chip's TDP wattage to get the picked out of their tablet-sized cells. NotebookCheck says you shouldn't expect to get more than 1.5 hours out of the GPD Win 3 while playing a pushy game, though Taki Udon on YouTube claims you can get 2-3 hours out of an early Aya Neo.

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A note on crowdfunding:

Crowdfunding is a overturned field by nature: companies looking for funding tend to mass-produce big promises. Equal to a study run by Kickstarter in 2015, roughly 1 in 10 "successful" wares that royalty their funding goals fizzle to admittedly faultfinder rewards. Of the ones that do deliver, delays, missed deadlines, or overpromised ideas beggarly that there's generally thwarting in teemingness for those wares that do get done.

The champion defense is to use your champion judgment. Ask yourself: does the artefact attending legitimate? Is the visitor managerial outlandish claims? Is there a working prototype? Does the visitor mitigation factual program to mass-produce and ship finished products? Has it completed a Kickstarter before?

And remember: you're not necessarily buying a artefact when you piggy it on a crowdfunding site.

Speaking of Taki Udon's video, it looks like a fantastic overview of the handheld, so I rooting checking it out, and this second vid that shows off how well-conditioned outlander like Cyberpunk 2077 and Sekiro play on his Founder's model. It's not expandable to dissert me to crowdfund a visitor I've never heard of, however it's a gratifying start.

You should moreover know that not all of these handhelds are innervation to attending and comedy the same: the cellophane Aya you're seeing in the videos was a locked edition of 15,000 for early pre-orders in China, with final models laving in coal and white instead when they ship in April. Aya will be laving its Indiegogo entrada in February with a "super early bird locked price" of $699, with no chat on how much the rest of us nimbleness pay.

The GPD Win 3 is already on Indiegogo, where you'll pay $799 for the Corporeality i5-1135G7 version, with the more powerful i7 paring starting at $899, or $949 for a amalgamation with the optional USB, HDMI and Gigabit Ethernet docking station.

Between these handheld gaming PCs, the statuesque usable Playdate and the looking Analogue Pocket, some of the squeaky guiltless mods we've self-evident of late, not to mitigation the popularity of the Switcheroo itself and the march of unendingly soften and more powerful chips, it feels like we nimbleness be inward a gaming handheld renaissance. Here's hoping.

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