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Razer Developing a Gaming Handheld Featuring Snapdragon G3x and 120hz HDR OLED Screen

Lunatic_Gamer

Gold Member
Qualcom-Snapdragon-G3x-Gen1.jpg


- Runs android
- 120hz + HDR OLED screen
- 6,000 mAh battery
- Brand new snapdragon g3x silicon
- 5g mmWave support
- Full haptic feedback
- 1080p front facing camera
- Rear camera featuring 8k HDR video recording, 18-bit colour
- Will be advertised as a "game streaming device" with Xbox Game Cloud and PC streaming support

Qualcom-Snapdragon-G3x-Gen1-2.jpg


The flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen1 CPU will be 20% faster and 30% more power-efficient compared to the current flagship Qualcomm SoC. The 8 Gen1 will be manufactured using 4nm process technology and it will have a 4th Gen Adreno GPU. Qualcomm estimates 30% higher GPU performance and 25% power savings from its new architecture. Interestingly, in Vulkan, the GPU should perform 60% faster. This is all in comparison to the ‘previous generation’.

Qualcom-Snapdragon-8-Gen1-3.jpg


Qualcom-Snapdragon-8-Gen1-2.jpg




 
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CamHostage

Member
Specs are beefy, it's basically got everything you can toss into one of these things (including WiFi 6e for "VR-class low latency" in near-range connections, essentially you could stream from your PC to your couch with only 3ms latency added.) They even got a mention in there of Unreal Engine 5... even if it is just the UE5 VRS image system.

Seems like a real overkill of hardware for an Android device though (and even more overkill if it's only to be used as a place-shifting streaming device for Xbox Game Cloud and Remote Play.) However, there are some Android apps that push into console/desktop quality, so extreme users would probably find something using that power eventually...maybe?

If for nothing else, it'd be an amazing portable PS2 now that there's an actually decent PS2 Android emulator in the works...

I'm excited for this new generation of mobile processors, although I'm mostly into it from the cheap end of things with all the knockoff and cheap portables on the market. This thing looks expensive on its specs (it also looks like an ergo nightmare in the screenshot!) I myself am happy with a nice <$100-200 device that can play most 8/16/32-bit-type games, but there's a new wave of low-price/high-performance/long-runtime mobile chips happening and it'll be good to add more power if the price is right.
 
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CamHostage

Member
How strong is this compared to the Steamdeck?

Also, it won't have Proton so ...

It's a different class of device, so I don't know how comparisons would work out even if it matched up? (Deck uses x86, not an ARM processor, so it's even further distanced.) And these specs talk a lot about graphical features, but not much about the actual graphics processor power.

That said, apparently you can install Windows and run it decently even back with a Snapdragon 845. Some cheap laptops/tablets use ARM processors way below this range, a few low-end Surface tablet/laptops also are below this and can rinky-dink run games like Overwatch if they have to. On the flipside, Apple's M1 processor (which this Snapdragon is supposedly made to compete with) is powering its desktops in the Pro version. There's even somebody who has has been putting a 2018 OnePlus 6T phone through the "...but can it run Crysis?" challenge.

 
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FStubbs

Member
It's a different class of device, so I don't know how comparisons would work out even if it matched up? (Deck uses x86, not an ARM processor, so it's even further distanced.) And these specs talk a lot about graphical features, but not much about the actual graphics processor power.

That said, apparently you can install Windows and run it decently even back with a Snapdragon 845. Some cheap laptops/tablets use ARM processors way below this range. On the flipside, Apple's M1 processor (which this Snapdragon is supposedly made to compete with) is powering its desktops in the Pro version. There's even somebody who has has been putting a 2018 OnePlus 6T phone through the "...but can it run Crysis" challenge.


The M1 I'd imagine is years ahead of Snapdragon given it's trading blows with the PS5 and 3080 laptops.
 

CamHostage

Member
The M1 I'd imagine is years ahead of Snapdragon given it's trading blows with the PS5 and 3080 laptops.

I mean, M1 is literally years ahead since M1 came out last year and this Snapdragon G3 won't be out until 2022...

In terms of power, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is made to compete, to some capacity, with M1 (as well as Google's Tensor chip), albeit in a battery-powered range of TDP; nowhere near the Pro/Max models. It's got 20% CPU/30%GPU increase over the previous Snapdragon 888s, (which looks like it would still put it below the original M1,) and has AI cores for whatever AI is going on in mobile processors these days.


It's not going to compete with a PS5 (although arguably neither is M1, given some real-world results against its Apple's theoretical-on-paper specs...) but I kind of got away from the point I was trying to make, which was just an answer to how powerful on paper it is and, what I think you were asking, about if the Razer "G3X" would be a powerful alternative to Steam Deck if you could somehow get PC games over onto it. As you pointed out, it won't have Proton, making Steam games tough to get on it unless you install Windows. And once you get the ARM variety of Windows on the device, you're dealing with "x86 32-bit through emulation, and ARM32 and ARM64 applications natively," which is nowhere in gaming right now (albeit ARM architecture is having a rise in interest these days.) Measuring power-for-power against Steam Deck probably won't amount to much given that, even if specs were laid out against each other, only one plays Steam games and the other will be milling about in the Google Play store, but this is what'll be in the competition against Tensor and whatever Nvidia replaces Tegra with and Intel's laptop Cores and other battery-oriented processors (at varying degrees of pricepoint) of this gen.
 
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ParaSeoul

Member
You can get a similarly specced Chinese phone cheaper than this thing will probably be even with an 800 nit OLED screen with HDR and more than powerful enough for what you'll actually be running,emulators
 

MrFunSocks

Banned
In terms of power, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is made to compete, to some capacity, with M1 (as well as Google's Tensor chip),
The M1 and Tensor aren't even in the same ballpark as each other lol. The Tensor isn't even as good as the previous Snapdragon 888, let alone the M1.

Weird device since it's basically a phone but without the ability to use it as a phone. Also 6000mAh for the battery on something this huge is dumb considering a S21 Ultra has a 5000mAh battery and is miniature in comparison. Should have been at *least* 10000mAh.

This thing is DOA.

Also for most peoples needs you don't need windows/proton on this, you just stream it from your gaming pc to this via your wifi. I doubt anyone here will ever see a person playing a steam deck out in the wild.
 
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I mean, if they implement Windows for ARM support it could theoretically emulate your entire Steam library, but I can't imagine the performance will measure up to Steam Deck running x86 and DirectX natively.
 

Drew1440

Member
This isn't Razers first android device, they had the Razer Forge TV which was their answer to the Ouya (Remember that?), then they bought Ouya itself.

Also some surfaces have high end snapdragon chips, wonder how they fare with gaming?
 

Haint

Member
I don't think people playing mobile games care enough to buy what is certainly an $800-$1000+ device. Similarly, "Core" gamers who might be interested in the prospect of a novel gaming gadget are never going to buy an Android device over a Steam Deck. Seems like Razor has engineered a lose lose situation for themselves here.
 
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Rudius

Member
Will be great for emulators, especially now that we finally have a good PS2 emulator and one for Switch with some games playable on Android.
 

Mownoc

Member
Getting a very expensive android handheld is basically pointless, you're limited to emulation and a couple of big games like Genshin Impact and Fortnite. There's nothing else to use all that power on.

Other than emulation the best use for an android handheld is probably streaming, either from local machine or cloud, and that doesn't require a $400+ device crammed with powerful hardware that has no software that needs it.
 

Calverz

Member
No thanks. Once steam deck releases people gonna want pc’s in handheld form.
 
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Silver Wattle

Gold Member
Mobile games are built for old, slower phones to maximize customer base, this will be like playing PS4 games on your ps5, decent but unimpressive.
 

Kuranghi

Member
why is the screen rounded?

Maybe to hide poor screen uniformity? Like Sony LCD panels generally have dark corners, but this is an OLED display and theres usually a full DSE problem rather than just corners, but I'm talking about TV sized panels so probably its way different with smaller sized OLED panels.
 

MrFunSocks

Banned
This isn't Razers first android device, they had the Razer Forge TV which was their answer to the Ouya (Remember that?), then they bought Ouya itself.

Also some surfaces have high end snapdragon chips, wonder how they fare with gaming?
Only the Surface Pro X, and you don’t want to use it for gaming. Their emulation isn’t like apples.

Razer have also made a few android phones already.
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
Yeah I came to ask about that, sounds like a load of bollocks to me haha.

"I've set my PC to 18-bit colour to get more colours!" - Some Idiot

Yeah it's something would fit for like 20 years from now. The market is barely being saturated with 10-bit screens and are shy from true 12-bit panels, and those people shooting in 12-bit or let's say 16-bit RAW can fill 1-2TB of SSD in one recording session!
 

Ozriel

M$FT
The M1 I'd imagine is years ahead of Snapdragon given it's trading blows with the PS5 and 3080 laptops.

It’s the M1 Max that’s trading blows with the 3080 and PS5. The regular M1’s GPU is slightly better than the GTX 1050 Ti and significantly better than the GPU in the Steam Deck
 
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