Ultrawide monitors are my jam, and I’ve been resisting the siren song of handheld gaming PCs ever since the Steam Deck came out. This custom project from a modder might just be my personal silver bullet, the thing that finally gets me into the form factor. This is my hole, it was made for me. I guess I’m lucky I can’t actually buy one.
According to the description in the YouTube video from “𝙉𝙄𝙏𝕋ℝ𝐗,” this 32:9 gadget is using a Ryzen Z2 Extreme, apparently in a fully custom handheld with Switch-style breakaway controllers. I don’t know if I believe that — the first game in the four-minute demo looks like Asphalt 9, which can also be played on mobile devices, and a Z2 Extreme is extremely rare at the moment. It would require cannibalizing a brand new $1,000+ device like the MSI Claw A8 BZ2EM.
The central unit looks like it’s using a custom housing to hold an ultrawide touchscreen, something like this one, which has enough room behind it for the guts of either a mobile device or another handheld. But I can also think of plenty of ways of spoofing a video like this.
Sorry, I don’t mean to be so negative or suspicious. But I started writing about phones in the Android boom of the 2010s. I’ve seen a lot of people make fakes for apparently no reason.
Real or otherwise, it is a neat idea, even if it flies in the face of even the questionable portability of something like the Steam Deck. (Not that it’s the only one, there are plenty of “handhelds” stretching the definition, pun intended.) I imagine it would be a nightmare to get a lot of games playable on the resolution — anything beyond 21:9 gets iffy even with the newest games — to say nothing of performance or weight.
Even so, I salute the idea. It’s keeping the spirit of the Pontiac Grand Prix alive — “wider is better.”
