This Intel gaming handheld could give the Steam Deck a run f…
All the most popular gaming handhelds, like the Steam Deck or the Asus ROG Ele, are currently powered by AMD APUs. However, Intel Meteor Lake is about to change that narrative. Emdoor recently previewed its upcoming handheld with a Meteor Lake chip and Intel Arc 5 graphics, and it looks like AMD may have some serious competition on the horizon.
It’s a new venture for both Emdoor, previously known for mini PCs and tablets, and Intel, which hasn’t really participated in the recent boom of portable gaming PCs. The result of this collaboration looks a lot like the Ayaneo console we’ve already seen. Thanks to the preview shared by Notebook Italia, we know more about its design and specifications.
The console runs on Windows 11 and is powered by Intel Meteor Lake-H, also known as Core Ultra 100H, which has a TDP range of 20W to 35W. This could potentially mean a performance boost on Steam decks, which max out at 15W TDP. However, it could be Intel with a higher TDP range, and we don’t know the exact power range of the device, only the CPU. At idle or within the user interface, the CPU appears to operate at around 5 watts, while the GPU actually operates at above 3.0GHz.
Amador is also offering integrated Intel Arc 5 graphics. We’re not sure about the exact specification here, but it could have eight Xe cores, which would make it equivalent to the Intel Arc A380 in mobile form. The handheld seems to be running God of warWhich is one of the more demanding games of this generation, so it bodes well for Arc 5.
This gaming device can also feature up to 32GB of LDDR5X memory and 2TB of PCIe Gen 4 M.2 SSD storage, which again, gives it an edge over many other popular solutions. The exact screen specification is unknown, but we know that it has an 8-inch touchscreen with 1920 x 1200 resolution and 16:10 aspect ratio. In terms of connectivity, there are two USB Type-C ports, a USB Type-A 2.0, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Finally, there is a stand on the back of the device that lets you use it in tablet mode. The button layout is fairly standard, although a solution similar to the Lenovo Legion Go’s detachable controllers requires a stand, but that’s not included here.
It’s hard to speculate on the exact performance of Emdoor’s new device, but it will be interesting to see how it compares to some of AMD’s solutions. The Z1 and Z1 Extreme chips have been a popular choice for recent gaming handhelds. Excessively increased TDP may give Intel the edge here, but it may also be detrimental to battery life.
