READY FOR ANOTHER HANDHELD CONSOLE? The Razer Edge makes a bold claim— the world’s ultimate gaming handheld for PC games, mobile games, and console games. This high-powered beast runs an eight-core 3GHz Snapdragon G3x Gen 1 with active cooling, designed exclusively for the Edge, coupled to 8GB of LPDDR5 memory and 128GB of storage. The screen is a 6.8-inch OLED touchscreen running at 144Hz with a resolution of 2,400 by 1,080, and a touch sampling rate of 288Hz. The controllers clip onto either side and include haptic feedback. Razer Edge runs Android 12 for mobile gaming, but you can also run Xbox Cloud Gaming, and GeForce Now streaming services. With controllers attached, it’s fairly chunky at 14.1oz (401g) but the 5,000mAh battery is promised to be good for 30 hours of play.
The Wi-Fi 6E version costs $399. There will also be a 5G version (both sub-6, and mmWave) to follow at an, as yet, undisclosed price. This uses the Verizon network exclusively. The Razer Edge goes up against the Steam Deck and Logitech G Cloud, another new Android-based handheld gaming device. Wi-Fi gaming needs a sturdy Wi-Fi signal, which limits mobility somewhat, and for true portable gaming, you need 5G. This is where the Razer Edge scores highly—it has the power to run games fast, and the connectivity to do that anywhere. It will be available in January next year and will be the most powerful handheld gaming device you can get, for a while anyway. It’s not exactly cheap though, especially when you add the cost of streaming subscriptions and 5G fees, which we’ve yet to see detailed.