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I spent 2 weeks playing the Acer Predator Atlas 8, and this big gaming handheld (almost) made me ditch my PC

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I spent 2 weeks playing the Acer Predator Atlas 8, and this big gaming handheld (almost) made me ditch my PC

The next standard of handheld gaming continues with the Acer Predator Atlas 8, the striking 8-inch Windows handheld featuring the most powerful chips I've seen for handheld gaming on the go: the Intel Arc G3 Extreme. What really sets this big beauty apart from its rivals, though? It offers a lot for less than you'd think, and I'd be happy to ditch a gaming PC to play on this all day long.

Having seen the Predator Atlas 8's potential back at Computex 2026, I was delighted to see it had met my expectations and gone further, from playing Star Wars: Galactic Racer on the couch to delving deeper into Gears of War: E-Day while travelling with frame rates pushing to 90 frames per second (FPS) at medium to high settings — thanks to Intel's XeSS graphics upscaling and frame generation tech.

It's a marvel to play, only made better thanks to the sizeable 8-inch 1200p LCD display boasting a 120Hz variable refresh rate and the snappy TMR sticks and Hall Effect triggers. For $1,299 / £1,299? That's still pricey, sure, but not nearly as much as the equally powerful $1,799 MSI Claw 8 EX AI+. It's even the same price as the OLED-focused ROG Xbox Ally X20, but delivers even greater power.

All that said, Acer clearly has to make some sacrifices, and they're evident. That includes the cheap-feeling D-pad and adjustable triggers that sometimes don't register input. And don't expect the magic of Intel's XeSS tech to work on a majority of games (including Halo: Campaign Evolved specifically in the Xbox app, despite it being supported, for some odd reason).


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