One of the crucial highly effective upcoming rivals to the Steam Deck, the GPD Win 5, is about to launch in only a few weeks time, however its maker is already showcasing an experimental new function that it hopes will make it lighter and simpler to make use of. In a current video, GPD has proven off a brand new battery extension cable for the gaming handheld that means that you can detach the battery to make the system lighter and simpler to make use of.
Uncommon battery choices apart, this AMD Strix Halo-powered GPD handheld appears set to take transportable energy to a brand new stage with specs that simply greatest these of every other mannequin on our greatest handheld information. There’s already been an GPD Win 5 efficiency teaser exhibiting it taking part in Black Fable Wukong with a excessive and regular body fee, and we have been impressed by the identical 16-core AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 CPU that this handheld makes use of in our Asus ROG Circulate Z13 evaluation, however we’ll nonetheless have to attend and see simply how nicely the Win 5 performs ourselves.
The important thing to this new battery cable is that the GPD Win 5 is already designed to not use a built-in battery, as an alternative requiring a separate battery pack. Preliminary pictures and movies shared by the corporate confirmed this pack to be fairly a cumbersome answer. To resolve a few of these considerations, the corporate has proven off a prototype for an influence extension cable to lighten a few of the load.
The prototype cable, proven within the video above, attaches the GPD Win 5 to the battery pack utilizing a separate cable with out having it straight connected to the system. This has the advantage of making the hand-held lighter within the fingers, with GPD claiming a 1.1lbs (500g) weight discount, permitting you to maintain the battery in your pocket or in your lap.
One of many early considerations raised concerning the GPD Win 5 was that, and not using a built-in battery, you’d have to change the system off to swap battery packs as soon as it died. The corporate hasn’t straight addressed this however has introduced a charging station that permits for charging a second battery so you may make you batteries modifications as speedy as potential.
On condition that that is an engineering pattern, it is unlikely that GPD is able to deploy this cable for the hand-held’s launch. Nonetheless, given the considerations, it is attention-grabbing to see the corporate work shortly to check and develop new options to enhance its design. With handhelds getting extra highly effective and warmer to run, preserving the battery bodily separate is definitely one answer to creating it simpler to maintain on gaming, whereas preserving units straightforward to deal with.
We’ll must see how this handheld handles in the actual world as soon as GPD releases it on October 17. Different Strix Halo handhelds are on their method, too, together with this uncommon OneXPlayer hybrid that is a pill, laptop computer, and handheld, all rolled into one.
Be sure to take a look at our greatest gaming laptop computer information should you’re on the lookout for a barely larger transportable rig on your gaming periods, with choices to go well with any price range.
Eager to check out considered one of these new handhelds? Begin up a dialogue in our Discord server with employees and different readers to tell us which one is tempting you, particularly should you’re interested by ditching your Steam Deck for a strong different like this one.
