Intel’s first handheld gaming chip is the Arc G3, and this Acer is using it

Intel is barely in the handheld gaming PC space — but that might be about to change. After the embarrassment that was the first MSI Claw and the excellent MSI Claw 8 AI Plus that followed it, Intel announced it would create custom handheld gaming chips. Today, it’s formally announcing them as the Arc G3 and Arc G3 Extreme.There’s a lot we don’t know about the chips, which are rumored to have two fewer CPU cores than Intel’s Panther Lake laptop chips, but feature a full compliment of Xe3 GPU cores to run games. (We’ve heard we may get more details from Intel shortly, and I’ll add them to this story if so.)But we do already know that they’ll feature in the just-announced Acer Predator Atlas 8 — which just might wind up being Acer’s first handheld after the Acer Nitro Blaze 7, 8, and gigantic 11 went MIA.The new Atlas 8 will come in at least two variants, one with an Intel Arc G3 Extreme and its Arc B390 graphics with 12 Xe3 GPU cores, and one with an Intel Arc G3 and the Arc B370 with 10 Xe3 cores instead. Each is paired with 24GB of LPDDR5x RAM at 7467 MT/s, and cooled by “the first metal fan in a handheld” with 89 blades and a claimed 10 percent airflow increase over the competition.The handheld will weigh around 810 grams (1.79lb) with a large 80Wh battery, or 770 grams (1.7lb) with an above-average 60Wh battery — presumably the higher end model comes with the bigger battery, like competing handhelds do.The 8-inch screen sounds above average, too. It’s a 1920 x 1200 IPS panel at 16:10 aspect ratio, in a native landscape arrangement, with 500 nits of brightness and 48-120Hz variable refresh rate, covered in Gorilla Glass Victus with Corning’s DXC anti-glare coating with 100 percent sRGB and 77 percent Adobe RGB coverage.You won’t find magnetic Hall effect or TMR joysticks here, just carbon film ones that might eventually drift, but it does have Hall effect triggers with adjustable hair-trigger stops, two back buttons, and a fingerprint sensor in the power button. It’ll come with Windows 11 and Xbox Mode on up to a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD of the full-length M.2 2280 variety. While we haven’t held it yet, the spec sheet shows it’s roughly an inch thick (28.5mm) at its thinnest point and over two inches thick (58.37mm) at the grips.1/5More images in our gallery. Images: AcerAnd being an Intel platform, it comes with two Thunderbolt 4 ports (supporting 65W USB-C charging) and Intel’s flavor of Wi-Fi 7, as well as a UHS-II microSD card reader and 3.5mm headset jack.The company’s not talking battery life or price just yet, but it’s planning to launch the Atlas 8 in October.It seems almost certain it won’t be the only Intel Panther Lake handheld. Intel also named MSI, GPD, and OneXPlayer as partners for the new handheld platform, and MSI is rumored to have an “MSI Claw 8 EX AI Plus” coming imminently — though retailer leaks suggest it will be quite pricey. Unfortunately, that seems to be the way of all handhelds these days: The Steam Deck got a huge price hike just yesterday.Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Sean Hollister