It’s Raining Gaming Handhelds: What we saw at CES 2025

Is 2025 the year of the gaming handheld?

Is there something like “too much choice”? If yes, then the just concluded CES 2025 in Las Vegas was the perfect place for gamers worldwide to notice what device makers have in store for them in the upcoming year. If the sheer amount choice is anything to go by then this is a year of very difficult decisions in terms of gaming hardware as everything from Nvidia’s RTX 50 series GPUs, a variety of gaming handhelds across form factors, and the next iteration of gaming laptops are set to launch very quickly.

As gamers worldwide will struggle to strike a balance with the boundaries of their paychecks, this week’s column takes a look at three portable gaming devices revealed at CES 2025 that are worth considering if you are thinking of acquiring a gaming handheld in 2025. If some of you are still mocking the credentials of a gaming handheld, then let me point out how with something like an M4 Mac Mini and one of these portable devices, you could soon find your trusty laptop redundant.

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1. Lenovo Legion Go S and Go 2:

Lenovo kicked of CES 2025 by showcasing the world’s first third-party gaming handheld for Steam OS. Powered by the custom Ryzen Z2 Go processor, the Go S is expected to be more powerful than the current lineup of Valve’s Steam decks and Lenovo has refined the design and feel of the device after the feedback from the first Legion Go. Regarding the Legion Go 2, a prototype was on display at CES, and the final product (set to launch in 2 nd half of 2025) is expected to not only have better internals but also better speakers, a modified cooling system, and a fingerprint sensor.

2. Acer Nitro Blaze 8 and 11:

Acer continues its experimentation with gaming handhelds as its Blaze 7 is succeeded by an 8 inch and a behemoth sized 11-inch model. Priced at USD 899 for the 8-inch model and 1,099 for the 11 incher, the devices are expected to launch in Q2 2025 and are powered by the same CPU, GPU, and RAM chips (Ryzen 7 8840HS/Radeon 780 M/16 GB LPDDR5).

3. ROG Flow Z13:

Asus didn’t offer refreshes to the Ally lineup but it did bring a successor to the Flow Z13. While the Flow can be considered a laptop, it is essentially a hybrid play device that is 13mm thick and powered by AMD’s latest and greatest chip, the Ryzen AI MAX . Offering a QHD Nebula display with a 180 Hz refresh rate and a GPU that goes up to the Radeon 8060s and 128 GB of RAM, the Flow 13 suddenly seems like a viable gaming handheld if someone is considering the Nitro Blaze 11. With a Dolby Atmos sound system and Wi-Fi 7 this could be a future- proof gaming device but at nearly twice the cost.

If none of these three devices catches your eye, then fear not, 2025 still has more in stock for you. With the inevitable arrival of the Switch (2?), and the upcoming expected refresh to the Steam decks, making a choice is more difficult than ever. Speaking for myself, I simply cannot decide what device I should buy to replace my aging Switch from 2019. For now, I guess I will just wait and watch?