Acer's Nitro Blaze Link is a streaming-first handheld with just 1GB of RAM

The "rising memory and storage costs" that companies keep citing as the reason for price hikes have pushed some of our favorite gaming handhelds, like the Lenovo Legion Go S and Steam Deck, to nearly 50% more than they were a year ago. In times like this, Acer is making an interesting proposition with a streaming-first handheld built specifically for PC gaming.

Meet the Acer Nitro Blaze Link, a new handheld device for local PC game streaming. While the device runs Linux with Sunshine and Moonlight software, it is not a Steam Deck or anything like it. Acer is billing it as a streaming-first device, akin to Sony's PlayStation Portal but built with PC gaming in mind rather than console streaming.

The idea is not entirely new. Logitech launched a similar device a few years ago with the G Cloud, a $350 Android handheld with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. The Nitro Blaze Link takes the same approach, rendering games on a separate gaming PC and streaming them to the handheld over a local network, and the specifications make that use case immediately obvious.

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The Nitro Blaze Link ships with just 1GB of LPDDR4 memory and 8GB of eMMC storage. There is no Ryzen APU, no Windows support, and no native PC gaming hardware configuration. The rest of the package includes a 7-inch 1200p 5-point touchscreen display, stereo 2W speakers, a 3.5mm audio jack, WiFi 6 with 80MHz support, and a USB-C port with 15W charging.

Acer is specifically targeting Wi-Fi 6's 80 MHz channels, which support technologies such as OFDMA, enabling multiple devices to share network resources more efficiently. In theory, this should help reduce congestion in busy households, though latency could still increase if several users are heavily using the network at the same time.

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The control layout covers all the expected bases with ABXY buttons, a D-Pad, left and right bumpers and triggers, dual joysticks, Start, Back, Home, an overlay widget button, and physical power and volume buttons. Worth noting is that the Linux foundation means Xbox Cloud Gaming compatibility at launch is uncertain, and Acer's system compatibility wording steers users toward its own Nitro and Predator laptops.

"While the Linux operating system has broad hardware compatibility, the Nitro Blaze Link was designed to work with Acer Predator and Nitro gaming laptops. We are not currently making any claims that it will work on systems outside of the Acer ecosystem," an Acer representative told CNET.

Acer has not confirmed pricing yet, but expect it to land well below the price of a native gaming handheld. The Nitro Blaze Link is planned for North America in Q4 2026. Acer also unveiled two laptops designed to pair with it, the Predator Helios and Nitro 16. The company also recently revealed a new version of its Predator Atlas 8 gaming handheld featuring Intel's latest Arc G3 chips for those who want something beefier.