Tag: portable gaming

Acer Nitro 17 (2024, AMD) Review: Great Power Yet Affordable

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With all the chatter about the artificial intelligence features of Intel’s new Core Ultra CPUs, it’s easy to forget that AMD has been busy doing AI too. AMD has outfitted many of its Ryzen processors with neural processing units (NPUs) since mid-2023, and it’s continued to expand its AI offerings ever since.

Acer’s latest Nitro 17 gaming laptop (model number AN17-42-R9TH) is built atop an AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS, which sits near the top of AMD’s product line. If you’re engaging with AI on the desktop, you’ll probably bypass the CPU altogether. With the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics processor in the Nitro 17, everything from gaming to AI image generation gets a significant boost. Aside from the processors, Acer hasn’t exactly pushed the specs to the limit here: 16 GB of RAM and a 1-terabyte solid-state drive are more or less entry-level options today.

That’s just what’s under the hood. On the outside, the Nitro 17 is every bit the beast you are probably expecting, with a 17.3-inch screen (resolution limited to 1,920 X 1,080 pixels), a daunting 34-millimeter thickness, and a weight that tops 6.3 pounds. It is the heaviest and thickest laptop I’ve tested since 2018, and that’s without the power brick (another full pound).

Photograph: Acer

This laptop has been tricked out for gamers—arguably gamers from the ’90s, but gamers all the same. Sharp, angled corners abound from every angle. The screen is spaced away from the back of the laptop by about a centimeter and propped up on a small riser that feels like a separate device bolted on top of the chassis. It’s largely the same design as 2023, minus a few graphical flourishes.

The responsive keyboard rests in a beveled tray, and it’s color-backlit with four tunable zones and a variety of modes that let colors roll across the keys in various patterns. There’s a numeric keypad and full-size arrow keys along with custom keys, like a Copilot button and a Nitro key that launches Acer’s NitroSense software, which lets you tune every aspect of the laptop experience. Above the keyboard is a stand-alone button that cycles through four power modes, from Quiet to Turbo, all exactly what they sound like.

A tour around the sides and back of the laptop reveals plenty of ports, including two USB-C ports— one USB 3.2, one USB 4—an HDMI jack, a microSD card slot, a full-size Ethernet adapter, and three USB-A ports—one USB 3.2 and one USB 2.0. Why there’s a crusty old USB 2.0 port on the device I can’t fathom, but with this many connectivity options, it probably doesn’t matter much. Much of the rest of the space around the edges features various vents and grilles for the dual exhaust fans. When they run, which is any time there’s a moderate load on the machine, they can get a bit noisy, though I’ve encountered plenty of louder machines in recent years. I expected more from the speakers on the unit, though they’re fine for casual entertainment and gaming use.

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April 30, 2024
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 Review: A Gaming Laptop Perfect for Both Work and Play

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A beefy graphics card paired with the lovely 14-inch screen size at an affordable price? That’s the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, and when you add extras like an OLED display and battery life impressive for a gaming laptop, it’s hard for me to not fall in love with this thing.

The G14 is the smallest model in the Zephyrus line, so it’s extremely portable. You can outfit it with an Nvidia RTX 4060 or 4070 graphics card, depending on whether you want to save some cash or max it out. It feels as comfortable to use as the Macbook Air M1 (2020) that I use for work, but it comes with luxury features that make playing games—and even watching movies—a top-tier experience.

Work-Life Balance

The Zephyrus G14 isn’t built to be a powerhouse—consider a laptop like the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 for that—but what power it does have is well allocated. The Zephyrus is powered by AMD’s Ryzen R9 8945HS, a powerful processor, paired with the RTX 4060 laptop graphics card—it tackles most games with ease and can even run some of the heaviest AAA titles reasonably well.

Both Starfield and Cyberpunk 2077 managed to maintain a respectable 50 to 60 frames per second on medium graphics settings at the laptop’s full 2,880 X 1,800 resolution. Starfield dipped to around 40 fps in areas like New Atlantis that have famously struggled to get very high frame rates. But this is still reasonably high given that Starfield is capped at 30 fps on the Xbox.

Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft

When adjusting the display to 1,080p, I could crank the graphics settings in Cyberpunk and Starfield up to high while maintaining roughly the same 50 to 60 fps. By staying on medium, I got over 60 fps in both games. I prefer the latter approach since smoother gameplay feels better for me than extra foliage detail, but there’s flexibility here to tailor the experience to your desires.

Like most gaming laptops, you won’t spend much time playing on this machine away from a charger. However, the G14 still impressed by getting nearly two hours of gameplay while running games like Cyberpunk. Overwatch 2 lasted closer to an hour and a half, which makes sense, given that in faster-paced competitive games, I tend to lean on getting at least 90 fps for a smooth experience.

When using the laptop for more typical work or casual use, I got closer to 11 hours of battery life, impressive among any Windows laptop. I could easily use the Zephyrus G14 as my daily driver and feel comfortable getting an entire day’s worth of work done on a single charge.

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April 23, 2024
The 6 Best Handheld Gaming Consoles (2024): Switch, Steam Deck, and More
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It feels like a distant memory by now, but right before the Nintendo Switch launched in 2017, it seemed like portable gaming was on its last life. Mobile games had gobbled up huge portions of the market, and most modern games required a lot of power to run on devices like the Nintendo 3DS. Fast-forward to today, and there are more ways to take your games outside the living room than ever.

This is a bit of an odd category because, to be quite frank, many of the devices currently on the market aren’t very good. Valve’s Steam Deck kicked off a wave of manufacturers looking to compete with the Nintendo Switch, but many of their offerings are rushed, buggy, or just not a great way to play games. A few have risen to the challenge, and I’m comfortable saying that there are finally some good options to choose from. I’ve spent hundreds of hours testing as many gaming handhelds as I could get my grubby hands on—these are the best.

Be sure to check out our other gaming buying guides, including the Best Retro Gaming Consoles, Best Mobile Game Controllers, Best Steam Deck Accessories, Best Switch Accessories, and Best Gaming Laptops.

Updated April 2024: Added new info on how to choose the right gaming handheld for you, and info about Asus Rog Ally software updates. We’ve also added new photos.

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What to Look For in a Gaming Handheld

The Switch may have set a new standard for portable gaming, but in the time since, the category has gotten increasingly complex. New platforms, new control schemes, and a range of battery life that runs the gamut from several hours to “don’t stray too far from a charger.” With that in mind, here are a few factors to keep in mind when deciding which one is right for you:

Platform: The Switch runs games that were designed (or at least adapted) for the Switch. Easy enough. Other handhelds can be a bit more complicated. On the Steam Deck, for example, Valve uses custom software and the Proton compatibility layer to make games run and play well on a handheld. Some handhelds just run Windows directly (which has its drawbacks). Make sure to see what games you want to play are available on which platform and how well they run before you buy.

Picture: If you’re gonna stare at your gaming handheld all day, it may as well have a great display. Many devices, like the Switch and the Steam Deck, have OLED variants with incredibly crisp, vibrant displays. However, better doesn’t always mean, er, better. Screens with higher resolutions and faster refresh rates can also drain more battery.

Power: Speaking of battery life, that’s one area where gaming handhelds can vary wildly. Some devices, like the Switch and the Steam Deck, are optimized as much as they can be for battery consumption. Still, running graphics-heavy games like Tears of the Kingdom will always use more battery than simpler games like Stardew Valley. On handhelds that run less optimized operating systems like Windows, battery can drain even faster. If you plan to use a lot of heavy battery-draining features or games, then you might want to pick up a portable charger.

Performance: The Switch notoriously runs on an underpowered processor compared to its competitors. Yet, its games make the most of it by being optimized for the hardware they run on. When it comes to games that were designed for Windows (whether they run on the Steam Deck, or Windows handhelds directly), they can require a lot more power to get the same kind of performance. Faster, more powerful processors can mean you’ll get a more fluid gaming experience. But, once again, keep in mind that faster processors use up more battery, so be sure to balance performance with power drain.
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April 18, 2024
Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (2024) Review: Portable Powerhouse Gaming

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The Mini LED display is the primary differentiator between last year’s Strix Scar 18 model. Both can be upgraded to the RTX 4090, and both come with 32 GB of DDR5 RAM (though the 2024 model’s is a bit faster). The 2024 model has a slightly newer 14th-generation Intel Core i9-14900HX processor. Based on specs alone, I might be tempted to suggest looking for last year’s model on sale, but the Mini LED display with local dimming is such a great upgrade that it makes the newer machine stand out.

A Powerhouse Engine

It’s hard to find a more tricked-out gaming laptop, and the ROG Strix Scar 18 performs like the beast it is. The Intel Core i9-14900HX is one of the best laptop processors for gaming in raw power, and the Nvidia RTX 4090 laptop GPU is a powerhouse.

In Starfield, I consistently hit 60 fps even in high-density, low-optimized areas like New Atlantis, and regularly hovered around 80 to 90 fps in less demanding areas. Cyberpunk 2077 hit an even more impressive 90 fps during combat. Overwatch 2—a team-based online shooter designed to be less graphically demanding—stayed near 240 fps even in wild, chaotic team fights.

All of that is when the laptop is plugged into the charger. Raw power isn’t just a metaphor; the harder you push a GPU the more electricity it takes, and it generates more heat. Even starting games like Starfield or Cyberpunk 2077 made the laptop’s fans audibly whirr to life. If I had the machine on my lap, it immediately felt warm—but not quite hot—to the touch. I’d advise employing a lap desk with a hard surface to keep the laptop separate from your legs, and to maintain airflow.

When it’s not connected to the charger, however, performance (understandably) drops. Starfield and Cyberpunk got closer to 60 to 90 fps, which was still more than playable. However, games that demand high frame rates for competitive play, like Overwatch 2, were a bit more of a challenge. I dropped the frame rate as low as I could manage, down to 60 fps and at a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution, which would be more than enough for most other games. Still, it was simply too choppy for me to play my usual heroes, and I got through only two or three games before the battery was low enough that I didn’t think I could make it through another match.

This is typical for gaming laptops with this much power. Asus cites the ROG Strix Scar 18’s battery life at around 5.6 hours for normal work, and games use a lot more power than Slack and Excel. Combined with how powerful the processor and GPU are, you should really expect to do heavy gaming only while close to an outlet. If you want to play light games like Stardew Valley, this machine is overkill and you can meet those needs for a few thousand dollars less.

LED Overload

There are a couple of smaller issues I’d be remiss not to address. Asus still hasn’t shed the Edgy Gamer Aesthetic, and it shows with the excessive amount of RGB LEDs. There are the usual LEDs in every key on the keyboard, which is fine—plus a strip of LEDs wrapped around the front edge of the laptop, a second strip on the rear just behind the screen hinge, and LED backlighting inside the logo on the back side of the screen. While plugged in and charging but not in use, the LEDs animate with a red sweeping motion every few seconds. It was distracting and annoying.

Microsoft has also made it somewhat more annoying to figure out how to turn off lighting effects (for now). Typically, controlling built-in LEDs meant fiddling with every company’s proprietary RGB LED controller app. Microsoft recently added tools directly into Windows to control lighting, making things simpler for consumers and manufacturers. As manufacturers add more support for the new tools, the Dynamic Lighting features should help make things a bit more coherent.

Until that happens, however, things are a bit worse. In the Asus Armoury Crate app, there’s a tab for Aura Sync (Asus’ proprietary lighting controller system), with a link that kicks you out to Windows’ Settings app. But some functions, like the sleep mode LEDs, are still controlled by the Armoury Crate app under a different section. It took a while to find the right toggles and get things working the way I wanted.

The Asus Strix Scar 18 is an incredible gaming laptop that packs a truckload of raw power with a price and bulky frame to match. If you already have a gaming laptop with anything better than an RTX 2080 (or equivalent), you won’t need to upgrade to this unless you’ve started playing much more demanding games. However, if you’re looking for a gaming laptop that will last you for several years without feeling its age—with a screen so vivid it rivals most TVs, plus plenty of ports to connect to external hardware—the ROG Strix Scar 18 is well worth it.

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April 15, 2024
Mobile Gaming is Having a Moment—and Backbone Wants to Unite It

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Other perks to being a Backbone+ subscriber include game capture, recording, and editing tools for folks who like to share content on social media. There are promotions, like free months of Apple Arcade or Google Play Pass, in-game content for titles like Diablo Immortal, and 30 percent off new Backbone products and accessories.

Unfortunately, this convenience comes at a cost. Yet another subscription is a hard sell nowadays. As nice as it is to have a single portal, shelling out for Backbone+ may not be worthwhile for everyone. If the one-stop shop interface for all your games is included as part of the free app, it would be easy to recommend, but $50 a year is too much to pay for folks who don’t care about the other functionality or promotions.

That old expectation that mobile games should be free is persistent. Most folks are yet to be sold on alternative models to in-app purchases and advertising, like Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass. The latest rumors suggest Apple Arcade’s future is in doubt. That is a shame because, in my experience as a subscriber to both, they are a great way to discover titles worth playing. Discoverability remains a big problem for mobile games.

Breaking Down Barriers

Khaira kicked off Backbone because of the gaming sessions he had with friends. In a house full of consoles and gaming PCs, smartphones were the common denominator where they could all play Fortnite together after work. With the console wars raging and all the non-gaming giants trying to break in, what happens next is tough to predict. But the shift towards a subscription model and the platform agnosticism in mobile feels increasingly inevitable.

When the head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, recently addressed the console exclusivity issue, where certain games are only available on one console, he said, “It’s not about games in service of a device, but rather the devices people want to play on should be in service of making the games as big and popular as they possibly could be.”

Whether you want to play games on your Xbox, PlayStation, gaming PC, or smartphone, it looks like that choice is opening up. The new Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile game promises to connect up to 120 players across console, PC, and mobile platforms. Activision says more than 50 million players pre-downloaded the game, and Backbone is offering perks and in-game items for subscribers (plus releasing a Prestige Edition controller to commemorate the launch).

Beyond crossplay, which enables people to play games together on different devices, we are starting to see more cross-progression, carrying your video game progress from one platform to another. Making games available anywhere makes them more accessible, allowing us all to play more. That has to be a good thing.

Photograph: Backbone

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March 24, 2024
‘The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’ Initial Prototypes Were ‘Chaos’

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The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s developers had a problem: the land of Hyrule kept falling apart.

Anyone who has played Tears of the Kingdom might be able to guess why. Some of the game’s big advances—Link’s Ultrahand and Fuse abilities, which allow players to create any tool they’re clever enough to stick together—required a lot of new and intricate development. Nintendo wanted to build something bigger and better with their Breath of the Wild sequel, but, as the team worked on the game, the tools that would allow players to make all those shield skateboards and log bridges broke it. A lot. It was, programmer Takahiro Takayama says, “chaos.”

During development, Takayama said he’d often hear devs exclaim “it broke!” or “it went flying,” Takayama said Wednesday at the Game Developers Conference. “And I would respond, ‘I know. We’ll deal with it later.’”

The problem was the physics of it all. “We realized removing all non-physics-driven objects and making everything physics-driven will lead us to the solution we were looking at,” Takayama said.

The second fix was to create a system that allowed for unique interactions between objects, without any specific additional needs. That meant that players who wanted to make a vehicle, for example, could tinker with many different tools instead of being restricted to something basic like a wheel and a board.

All that hardcore programming paid off. Ultrahand and Fuse are now fan-favorite tools, something players use to create flamethrowing penises and hacks used in speedruns. No matter how hard they tried, Hyrule never broke.

Those tools also meant players could solve puzzles in a variety of ways. “Regardless of what the player does, we had a world free from self-destruction,” Takayama said.

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March 21, 2024