We’re especially intrigued by the addition of the Nitro Blaze 11, which as it name implies rocks a 10.95-inch (close enough to 11, right?) IPS display. It features a 2560×1600 resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, 500 nits brightness, 98% coverage of the DCI-P3 color space, and of course touch support..
The NItro Blaze 8, meanwhile, sports an 8.8-inch IPS display. Acer could have been forgiven for dubbing it the Blaze 9, but it avoided the temptation for a more aggressive rounding up of the key spec. (Psst, wireless router makers, take notice!) Like its bigger Nitro Blaze 11 sibling, the display on the 8.8-inch model offers up a 2560×1600 resolution, so the screen real estate is the same. However, it has a higher refresh rate at 144Hz, and nearly the same DCI-P3 color gamut rating (97%).
Other specs include 16GB of LPDDR5X-7500 RAM, up to 2TB of PCIe 4.0 solid state drive (SSD) storage, dual 2W speakers, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 wireless support, and a decent selection of ports (1x USB4, 1x USB 3.2 Type-C, 1x USB 3.2 Type-A, microSD card slot).
All that said, the size and minor display spec discrepancies are not the only things separating the Nitro Blaze 11 and Nitro Blaze 8. The larger 11-inch handheld ups the ante with detachable controllers “for solo and connected play.” It also comes with a “sturdy built-in stand” and a front-facing camera for video calls and streaming.
Acer says the Nitro Blaze 8 and Nitro Blaze 11 will be available in the second quarter starting at $899.99 and $1,099.99, respectively.