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Acer has come up with a new take on the problem of “not being able to afford a second gaming laptop”: The Nitro Blaze Link is a portable laptop that lets you play games remotely from an Acer Predator or Nitro gaming laptop. It’s one of several notable ads, along with the Aspire large-screen laptop and a few other products.
It’s one of those ideas that could work well — or not at all.
Streaming from a local system to another device, such as a phone, is nothing new. The standalone software you can use to enable it on your system is more than 10 years old, though OG companies like Parsec and Liquid Sky have long focused on more commercial uses thanks to acquisitions by Unity and Walmart, respectively. Today, you can make them yourself using programs such as moonlight Or applications like Steam link.
The potential appeal of a standalone device to serve the same purpose, rather than a phone or tablet, is its large screen and built-in controllers. This is similar to the lure of similar cloud gaming devices, e.g Logitech GCloud.
But unlike cloud gaming consoles, which can usually also play Android games on the device, the Blaze Link strictly streams games. Since it only needs to be able to decode the stream, it doesn’t require a lot of memory, storage, or powerful hardware: the host system does all the heavy lifting.
Acer Nitro Blaze Link (GH772)
| price | To be determined later |
|---|---|
| an offer | – 7-inch 1200 pixel, 16:10 touch screen |
| CPU | unavailable |
| memory | 1GB LPDDR4-2133 |
| Graphics | unavailable |
| storage | 8GB eMMC |
| Ports | USB-C (for charging only), 3.5 mm analog jack |
| networks | Wi-Fi 6 (80MHz channel) |
| Operating system | Debian Linux |
| measuring | 11.3 x 4.3 x 1.3 inches / 287 x 110 x 34 mm |
| weight | 1 lb/464 g |
| battery | 18 watt hours |
| Expected availability | Fourth quarter 2026 |
A potential drawback of most (if not all) solutions is that the host system must either display the game to that system while it is running or use software that creates an invisible virtual screen to which it redirects display of the game.
Acer’s marketing materials show two people happily doing something side-by-side, but it makes me wonder about the performance limitations and potential lag, as well as the usual Wi-Fi glitches that some setups can suffer from.
Acer appears to be setting the Blaze Link to use the 80MHz channel introduced with Wi-Fi 6 specifically because it was the first to offer the ability to split the signal for connections by multiple users (OFDMA), but if you’re both frequent Wi-Fi users, this may also cause more lag.
This also means that your mileage may vary depending on your laptop’s GPU. It should be relatively inexpensive, though Electronics prices are rising (Thanks to component shortages caused by AI requirements), “relatively low cost” is a moving target. It’s not scheduled to ship until October at the earliest, and we won’t know pricing until we get closer to launch.
Acer’s wording on the issue of system compatibility – in other words, will it be compatible only Working with Nitro and Predator laptops – also seems a bit wobbly. “While Linux has broad hardware compatibility, the Nitro Blaze Link is designed to work with Acer Predator and Nitro gaming laptops. We currently make no claims that it will work on systems outside the Acer ecosystem,” an Acer representative answered my question on the subject.
“Designed to work with” and “make no claims” are classic corporate words that mean “we want you to only think about our products” and “if you want to try it yourself, that’s not our problem.”
Other ads to note
Acer always launches a wide range of products at big exhibitions like Computex and CES, but most of them tend to update components, such as updating to a newer version of the CPU, modifying the displays, having faster or higher resolution panels, convertible versions of the standard laptops (Swift Spin 14 AI) and so on. But a few are, including yesterday’s launch Predator Atlas 8 Windows portable games stand out to me for one reason or another.
Among the new products is the Aspire 18 AI – which is unusual because it is a regular laptop with an 18-inch screen. Most 18-inch devices are aimed at gamers, creators, and developers who have a clear need for a large screen and who may not worry about shoulder surfing (which is easier on a big screen) and travel weight.
The Aspire 18 AI, on the left, offers a large screen for the mainstream laptop experience.
This display is accompanied by a range of unsurprising components, including a current-generation Intel Core Ultra 300 series processor with mid-range integrated graphics, a 1920 x 1200 IPS panel and up to 32GB of memory, among other things. It’s scheduled to ship in August, but since laptop prices fluctuate, most companies don’t announce it until the last minute — as is the case here.
One of the 18-inch gaming laptops, the Helios 18 has all the powerful components, including an Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus CPU, a GeForce RTX 5090 GPU, a brighter 1000 nits backlight for the Mini LED display and up to 256GB of memory, making it more suitable for working with large AI models and AI development.
But it also has a hybrid keyboard, which supports swapping mechanical keys for WASD keys on a fully magnetic key setup. Because sometimes you need that feeling of clicking.
The magnetic switches of the WASD keys on the Helios 18 AI can be swapped out for mechanical switches.
It’s supposed to ship in August at a yet-to-be-determined price. Looking at the ingredients, I think it will be quite high.
I was also impressed by the company’s new Acer PM131QT add-on display. We’re inundated with portable displays, but this 12-inch touchscreen model is called the Assistant for a reason. One of its marketed uses is for people who feel like they don’t have enough screens in their car — my words, not Acer’s. It also has a magnetic holder for convenience.
It’s not really suitable as a second monitor for work, since its weird 8:3 aspect ratio (1920 x 720) isn’t ideal for most productivity tasks. But it can serve as a place to keep video editing tools, notifications, or other items you want outside of your home screen that don’t require a lot of space.
However, at $180, it’s a bit high for pedestrian use like this. Acer plans to ship it sometime in October or later.
