Acer Launches Nitro Blaze 8 And Nitro Blaze 11 Handhelds And The Latter Is Just Absurd

The Nitro Blaze 8 and 11, as the names suggest, are 8.8-inch and 11-inch handhelds with the latter being the largest screens on handhelds yet. It has a whopping 10.95-inch display and looks almost comical in hands, almost as if you’re holding a pen tablet as a civil engineer on a construction site.
Weirdly, Acer mentions the Nitro Blaze 8 has a 144 Hz WQXGA display, whereas the one on the 11-inch is a 120 Hz display. that can reach 500 nits of brightness. Underneath is an AMD Ryzen 8840HS and Radeon 780M GPU, 16 GB LPDDR5X RAM, and is configurable up to 2 TB. One of the major upgrades on the 11-inch from the previous year’s Nitro Blaze 7 is the detachable joysticks. These are hall effect sticks and there’s also a front camera for video calling. Image Credit: Acer Software-wise, it runs Windows 11 but we wouldn’t be surprised if Acer releases a SteamOS version of the handheld in the upcoming months. Acer is also betting on Ryzen AI with the Nitro Blaze and claims should help enhance the overall gaming experience.
As for connectivity, both sizes feature 1 x USB4 Type-C. 1 x USB 3.2 Type-C, 1 x USB 3.2 Type-A, 1 x 3.5mm headphone jack, and a micro SD card slot. There’s also a fingerprint sensor integrated into the power button. However, it’s disappointing to see that the bigger 11-inch variant features the same battery size as the 8-inch variant. Although, it does come with faster 100W (vs 65W on the 8-inch) charging speeds that’s not an excuse to not include a bigger cell.
Acer says the consoles will be available in Q2 2025 with the Blaze 11 starting at $1,099 and the Blaze 8 starting at $899.
What are your thoughts on the new Acer Nitro Blaze? Do you think it’s a very minor refresh from the Blaze 7 or would you be willing to upgrade to one of the new Blazes? Let us know in the comments.