Acer’s Project Dual Play Mini marries handheld console with mini laptop

Is it a console, is it a laptop? Well, it’s a bit of both. The Acer Project Dual Play Mini is an 8in portable handheld games console with a keyboard attached, so that when you’re not slowly grinding your way through Hollow Knight Silksong’s toughest bosses, you can type the odd email. You know, to make it look like you’re actually doing some work.

This quirky handheld was unveiled at the IFA 2026 tech show alongside a whole phalanx of other Acer tech, and although it’s just a conept for now, I rather like the idea. Just like many other handheld gaming devices launched in the past few years, the DualPlay Mini is underpinned by Windows and allows you to play pretty much any PC game.

And in its regular gaming configuration, it takes on a familiar form factor: it has an 8in display in the centre, flanked by a pair of analogue control sticks, a D-pad on the left and A,B, X, Y buttons to the right, with shoulder buttons and triggers sitting under the left and right index fingers.

However, if you open it up and flip the screen around, you can turn it into a tiny 8in laptop, complete with a compact keyboard and USB-C output for connecting it to a monitor if you want to work on a larger display.

The device is, if I’m going to be honest a bit chunky for a portable games console and a bit too small to be practical as your main laptop, but as a device to take on holiday with you when you’re weighing up what’s going to fit in your limited carry on luggage allowance it could well be a winner.

Acer Predator Atlas 7

As it’s a concept device, specifications are non-existent for the DualPlay Mini, so there isn’t much more to tell. However, if you’re in the market for something a little more concrete, Acer also has you covered there as well with the launch of yet another Windows-powered “normal” gaming handheld.

Following up on the announcement of the Predator Atlas 8, which appeared at the Computex tech show earlier in the year, the Predator Atlas 7 covers familiar ground. It’s powered by the same Intel Arc G3 and G3 Extreme processors as that handheld, with the same Intel Arc B370 or B390 graphics, and it comes with up to 24GB of RAM and 1TB of PCIe Gen4 SSD storage.

There’s an 80Wh 4-cell Lithium ion battery under the hood – again the same as the Atlas 8 – and the desigin is pretty familiar Predator fare: it’s all built from fairly plain black plastic with an Xbox style control layout and RGB lighting surrounding the base of the analogue thumbsticks.

The only difference really between the Atlas 8 and the Atlas 7 is the display, with the latter coming equipped with a smaller, slightly lower resolution 7in 1,920 x 1,080 IPS touchscreen.

That means it’s slightly smaller, lighter and more practical device than its larger sibling, and from my quick hands on session with it at the Acer launch event, I prefer the way it feels.

And it’s likely to be marginally cheaper, too, which is good because the Atlas 8 is starting at £1,000, and that’s for the non-extreme version. Alas UK pricing and availability hasn’t been confirmed yet, but I’ll update this page as and when I find out more.

Written By

Jonathan Bray

Head of reviews at Expert Reviews, Jon has been testing and writing about products since before most of you were born (well, only if you were born after 1996). In that time he’s tested and reviewed hundreds of laptops, PCs, smartphones, vacuum cleaners, coffee machines, doorbells, cameras and more. He’s worked on websites since the early days of tech, writing game reviews for AOL and hardware reviews for PC Pro, Computer Buyer and other print publications. He’s also had work published in Trusted Reviews, Computing Which? and The Observer. And yet, even after so many years in the industry, there’s still nothing more he loves than getting to grips with a new product and putting it through its paces.

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