NanoPlay is a new portable console that started its journey on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. It can be reserved for $499 (or more) and follows the path set by the ASUS Ally or Lenovo Legion Go.

The arrival of versatile smartphones, along with their increase in power and size, seemed to put an end to portable consoles. Nintendo suffered a spectacular decline in sales, and Sony did even worse when it exited the segment. But in the long run, and because there is nothing better than a dedicated machine, the waters have returned to normal, and the success of the Steam Deck or the mobile use of the Switch has meant that handheld gaming machines are experiencing a second youth.

NanoPlay, another offer

The portable console will have a 7-inch IPS LCD touchscreenwith a native resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, a refresh rate of 165 Hz and support for 100% sRGB and the DC-P3 color gamut.

At the heart of the system will be a AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme SoCthe same chip used in ASUS and Lenovo machines, with 8 Zen 4 CPU cores and 12 GPU RDNA 3 computing units. It will be complemented by 16 GB of LPDDR5x-8533 memory and an M.2 2280 PCIe 5.0 SSD with capacities from 512 GB to 4 TB.

Very good in connectivity, we see a new USB4 port with support for 40 Gbps connections, two 20 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C ports, two 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, a 3.5mm audio jack and a microSD card reader. It will support Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 and have a 48 Wh battery.

It also has a fingerprint sensor, stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos sound, a fan for “PC level cooling” and integrated game controllers with two analog sticks, a D-Pad, triggers, and an unusual set of action buttons that look more like arrows than the usual round buttons.

The NanoPlay will come with a 65W charger and will continue to work Windows 11. The integrator is also trying to position it as a hybrid device for “work”, although games will undoubtedly take center stage.

Is there a market for more portable consoles? We’ll see. If you are interested, you can book from 499 dollars.