NEW YORK, Jan 9 — Dell and its PC gaming subsidiary Alienware are testing the waters for a handheld Windows 10 machine built for gaming and with detachable controllers just like the Nintendo Switch.
While rumors swirl about a Nintendo Switch Pro later this year, Dell’s proposed iteration would be a full-on gaming PC.
Introduced to the world at CES 2020, the Concept UFO fits PC gaming into a portable form factor almost identical to the Nintendo Switch.
Yes, the controllers detach. Yes, they can slot into a separate frame to make a gamepad. Yes, it can even output visuals to a monitor or TV, but without the Switch’s docking cradle, and it’s compatible with mouse and keyboard control too.
And why not? The Switch has shifted over 40 million units worldwide since a 2017 debut, becoming the fastest-selling console of all time in a number of territories.
One investment bank, Credit Suisse, even predicted that the Switch would sell 70 million units by 2022, a figure that now seems quite achievable given its most recent numbers; the firm then raised that forecast to 130 million units — a figure that would make the Switch the third best-selling console of all time, should it weather competition from 2020’s PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
Developed by Dell’s Alienware brand, the Concept UFO is powered by 10th generation Intel Core processors, a CPU line introduced in August 2019.
It runs on Windows 10, with an 8 inch (20cm) display capable of an extended widescreen resolution of 1900 x 1200.
For now though, as its name suggests, the Concept UFO is presented as an experimental, non-retail design, hence the lack of release date, launch pricing or detailed hardware specs.
The Concept UFO, and two other CES prototypes — a no-keyboard, dual screen Duet notebook, and a seamless, foldable Ori — are intended as Dell’s glimpse of “what could become the future of the personal computer and will share some concept devices.”
“While some concepts may never be commercially available, we use the learnings and apply them to other products in the future,” Client Solutions CTO Glen Robson wrote.
As such, while part of CES’s show floor display, the Concept UFO may never make it into the wider world. Yet even if it goes no further, it’s still a massive tip of the hat to Nintendo’s unusual design. — AFP
