Portable gaming seems to be all the rage. From the recent Steam Deck sale to the latest ASUS ROG Ally, handheld gaming PCs are beginning to become more and more mainstream. GPD is well-known in the industry, and today updated its iconic WIN 4 with the latest AMD has to offer. With similar performance to the ROG Ally, and a unique T-Mobile Sidekick x PS Vita design, the GPD WIN 4 could be the most cohesive way to play PC games on-the-go.
GPD WIN 4’s built-in keyboard makes it ideal for on-the-go gaming
While we’re used to seeing portable gaming consoles these days, the GPD WIN 4 takes things in a slightly different direction. While the WIN 4 itself isn’t brand new, the internal hardware launching in August is. But, before we dive into that, lets take a look at this unique portable gaming system.
Centered around a 6-inch 60Hz 1080p touchscreen, the GPD WIN 4 features a hidden full QWERTY keyboard that features scissor-switch keys, two programmable back buttons, and a backlight. Yep, the screen slides up like the T-Mobile Sidekick and reveals a full keyboard, which is something we don’t normally see on portable systems like this. Having a full keyboard at hand means you can play some games that aren’t quite as optimized for the built-in controls without having to carry anything else around.
Speaking of controls, there’s a lot to like here. With a Oculink interface, you’ll find support for direct PCIe 4.0×4 connection with an effective bandwidth of 63Gb/s, which is more than Thunderbolt 4 offers. This works with the official Docking Station, but that’s about it for now. On the side, you’ll find ALPS 3D joysticks which have 6-axis gyroscope positioning, as well as dual vibration motors, L1/R1l, and L2/R2 buttons. There’s even a built-in optical finger mouse that makes the system nice and easy to navigate.
For charging, there’s a USB-C USB4 port which supports up to 65W of power as well as brings 40Gb/s transfer rates to play, supporting external graphics docks if you need more GPU power for whatever title you want to play. And, with that, we’ll dive into the actual power and cooling of the system. Updated with the latest AMD Ryzen 7000 APUs, there are both the 7840U and 7640U processors to choose from. The higher-end CPU packs similar power to the Z1 Extreme found in the ROG Ally, but in a slightly different form factor. You’ll get 12CUs with 768 shaders on the Radeon 780M graphics, backed by either 32GB or 64GB of LPDDR5x memory. Keeping things cool is a “PC-grade large turbofan” as well as “thick dual heat pipes” which increase the thermal efficiency by 50% and have 35% better heat dissipation.
Rounding things out is a PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD that you can upgrade yourself if the standard 512GB isn’t enough, pushing up to 4TB of total onboard storage. There’s also Windows 11 home pre-installed, giving you access to a full desktop operating system alongside an optional 4G LTE modem so you can play online games anywhere you go.
The aforementioned stand is actually included with the GPD WIN 4, it seems. The stand itself adds Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI 2.0, USB-C charging passthrough, and three USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports so you can keep things like keyboards, mice, and more plugged in. The dock connects through the Oculink port on the bottom of the GPD WIN 4, making it easy to set on and take off depending on if you’re arriving home or leaving.
Pricing isn’t out yet, but given what the previous-generation cost (around $800 or so), we’re expecting this to be around the same price when it fully launched in August. This puts it well above what the Steam Deck costs, and even a bit higher than the ROG Ally, if our thoughts hold true on pricing. However, the WIN 4 is small, powerful, and also has a built-in keyboard, all of which could make this the portable console for you.
9to5Toys’ Take
I like the way the GPD WIN 4 looks, honestly. It seems more ergonomic than the Steam Deck, and the sliding screen to reveal a backlit keyboard means you could use it for more than just gaming on-the-go. It honestly has most of what I’d look for in a portable gaming PC, too, including USB4, USB-C charging, upgradable storage, and up to 64GB of RAM depending on what model you get.
Overall, pricing will be the real determining factor here. If GPD can bring the WIN 4’s price down slightly to be a bit more competitive with the ROG Ally, I think they have a winner on their hands for sure.
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