It is no question the Nintendo Switch has proven to be a great success. Just one look at its lack of availability in stores confirms it. Even with the decline of the handheld market, the Switch’s hybrid design has pushed through.
The success of the Nintendo Switch has led to questions whether or not competitors will follow suit. Curved, a German tech blog, has gone as far to conceptualize a design for a “PlayStation Switch.”
Their final design is called the “Sony Playman,” inspired by the portable Walkman and Discman of the 1970s and ’80s. Just like the Switch, it features a hybrid console and handheld design that allows gamers to enjoy a full console experience at home or on the go.
Currently, this experience is somewhat possibly using Remote Play between the PlayStation 4 and the PS Vita, but the feature never set the world on fire. For starters, the connection requires a lightning fast internet connection on both ends. Even worse, the absent buttons are allocated to the touchscreen, making many games more awkward to play.
A Sony Playman or “PlayStation Switch” would take the near perfect design of the Nintendo Switch and add a few improvements. Instead of the dock simply attaching to the television through HDMI, it features a fully adjustable joint that allows players to comfortably prop up the display and take advantage of the added power simultaneously.
When players want to go full handheld mode, special Dualshock controllers could be magnetically attached to the sides of the display. If the display is docked, a middle piece with the traditional touchpad can be attached, or the controllers can remain independent.
For more details on this Playstation Switch concept, check out the design breakdown on Curved.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.