I tried every major gaming handheld at Computex – here are the 4 best to know about
These handhelds are going to push the envelope
When you attend a huge show like Computex, there's a background challenge facing most tech journalists in my bracket – can you figure out the biggest industry trend affecting your readers? While this year's conference might have been chock full of the expected AI chatter (okay, more like AI cacophony), that's not really something that'll impact most regular people.
If you're any sort of gamer, though, then the wave of gaming handhelds on display at the show is much more likely to cut through. I knew we'd see at least some, based on Intel's teasing about its handheld chip, but I saw no less than four stunning bits of hardware in a couple of days.
Of course, there were plenty of others that aren't worth your time, so I've filtered things down to just the four highlights that you should know about, in no particular order. Check them out below.
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+
The MSI Claw 8 was a superpowered bit of hardware, but as one of three handhelds I tested with Intel's new Arc G3 Extreme chip in it the Claw 8 EX is going to outstrip it in most meaningful ways.
It has a new design with more of a chin and far more comfortable grips than before, replacing an old look that I really didn't care for. It's probably not for nothing that it was Intel's reference machine when it ran me through the G3 Extreme's performance, and after a good 20 minutes playing with it I came away deeply impressed.
The huge downside? It looks like MSI's targeting a price of around $1,500 for the machine, which basically confirms in one fell swoop that PC gaming handhelds might be in for an even rougher ride over the next year or so.
Acer Predator Atlas 8
If the Claw suffers from a heavily rumoured price that damages its affordability massively, then Acer has probably been smart to keep very quiet about what the Predator Atlas 8 might end up costing.
This is Acer returning to handheld PC gaming with a bit more commitment – it's previously announced devices that never quite made it to a wide market, but the Atlas 8 looks like a safe bet to do just that. Playing with it for a good little while on two occasions made me think it's a really strong new contender.
Again, it has the Intel G3 Extreme, and again that means superb performance and the capacity to run at much lower power wattage than some existing competitors. Acer has also played it safe on the design side, which means it's really comfortable and ticks all the expected boxes.
Asus ROG Xbox Ally X20
Asus came to Computex with what's (on a literal level) the most unsurprising handheld of the lot, but that doesn't mean it isn't impressive. I was one of many reviewers to point out that the high-end Xbox Ally X should have had an OLED panel for the price at launch, and now it has a follow-up version that includes just that.
The screen is also a little bigger, the analogue sticks are upgraded to TMR tech, the D-pad is adjustable and – get this – the Xbox logo now glows. Those are all nice little touches, but the display upgrade is the key here. That OLED panel looks phenomenal, and will mark this handheld out as having one of the best displays in any handheld.
That said, it is running on a chip that's now no longer the newest, and there's no Intel Arc G3 Extreme here, sticking with AMD instead. That doesn't make it a poor performer (far from it), but it does mean that this doesn't have quite as much of the "new car smell" about it.
OneXPlayer 3
I'm ending this round-up with the handheld that most caught me off-guard. When Intel announced its new chip, it confirmed a few "hero devices" that would immediately feature the silicon, and OneXPlayer was the smallest name on that list.
It's actually got multiple types of handheld coming with the chip, and I tried a few of them, but the standard OneXPlayer 3 was the one that stood out. It has a gorgeous 8.8-inch AMOLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate, which boasts both VRR and HDR, which basically knocks every other handheld here out of the battle.
That makes the handheld a bit of a beast in size terms, but I found it worth the tradeoff in an admittedly brief demo session. Since OneXPlayer also plans to offer a keyboard attachment, this thing is almost a little 2-in-1 with grips on it, from a certain point of view, making it potentially quite adaptable.
It might end up being the most expensive of all these handhelds (in fact, that's the most likely outcome), but for a niche audience that wants the best of the best, OneXPlayer grabbed my attention at Computex in an impressive manner.
