A New Gaming Handheld With Rage Mode Is Coming To Battle The ROG Ally
Give credit to Valve for popularizing handheld gaming in the PC space, a realm that was mostly concentrated on Nintendo's various portable consoles (Switch, Game Boy, etc) before the Steam Deck arrived. Almost overnight, PC gaming handhelds became a viable category. It's still early, with the Steam Deck and ASUS ROG Ally being the primary options, but competition is heating up. To that end, meet the Terrans Force Handle 5.
YouTube channel ETA PRIME spent some hands-on time with the Terrans Force Handle 5, calling it "the best handheld gaming PC that you've probably never heard of." While the name might be new to some, the overall design is a familiar one, with a similar aesthetic and button layout to the ROG Ally. And like the ROG Ally, the Terrans Force Handle 5 is a high-end machine.
It boasts a 7-inch IPS display with a 1920x1080 resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, and 450 nits of brightness. Underneath the hood, it's rocking an AMD Ryzen 7 7840U processor (8C/16T, 3.3GHz to 5.1GHz) based on Zen 4, with an integrated Radeon 780M GPU (12 CUs at up to 2.7GHz) based on RDNA 3.
Other notable specs include 16 and 32GB LPDDR5-6400 memory options, 1TB and 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD storage options, Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 wireless connectivity, and a battery that is just over 50Wh.
It's a similar makeup to the ROG Ally with a Ryzen Z1 Extreme inside. However, there's more storage on tap, potentially more RAM, and an interesting "Rage" mode built into the device. What it does is temporarily boost the SoC up to 35W for a performance jolt in games that might need it. This is done manually with the the press of a button, as ETA PRIME demonstrates. Check it out...
The video also highlights some benchmark figures, in addition to showing off gaming performance in a number of titles. Overall, it looks like a solid alternative to the ROG Ally and Steam Deck. But is it "the best gaming PC handheld" out there? That's up for debate. As has been the the case with many competitors, the main issue the price—the Terrans Force Handheld 5 is listed on MiniXPC for $999.99, which is a sale price ($100 off).
That's a tough sell when you can pick up an ROG Ally with the Z1 Extreme chip for $599.99 at Best Buy ($100 off) or the base Z1 model for $399.99 (save $200).
Images courtesy of ETA PRIME
