- What if a Nintendo Switch
was also a full Windows 10 gaming PC?
(glitch hop beat)
This is Alienware's Concept UFO
which it's announcing at CES 2020 this year
and it's basically that.
This is an early concept.
We don't know price,
we don't know release date.
We don't even know if the final product
will even look anything like this.
But it's really the idea that Alienware is gunning for here,
which is to kind of complete that circle of gaming.
Alienware makes desktops and Alienware makes laptops.
And now they want something
that you can take really anywhere and play anywhere.
It's a full-fledged Windows 10 PC.
They won't tell us anything about the specs,
we don't know what processor or GPU it has.
But we do know that it's running Windows 10,
that it has an eight-inch screen,
has a battery,
and you can play full-fledged PC games basically anywhere.
(synth pop music)
This would sort of pave the way for this.
It kind of showed that there was a market
that people want to be able to play
full console quality games on the go,
and this kind of feels like the next step,
which is not port games
or bring them down to the Switch's level.
But just to run those games that you already own.
You could, in theory, just load up Steam on this
and play all your regular existing PC games anywhere.
The hardware here is really what you'd expect
if you took an Alienware gaming laptop,
especially one of the newer ones,
and kind of shrunk it down into a handheld form.
You've got these very angular designs,
you've got the honeycomb vents on the back,
you've got Alienware font.
Of course one of the cool things is the controllers,
which detach right off.
There's a hub unit
which is sort of like the Joy-Con controller dock
where you can dock these two controller halves
and use it like a regular controller.
Controller feels great,
the joysticks feels great,
the buttons are nice and clicky.
This hedge unit,
which has the battery, the PC, the CPU,
can also then be stood up with the kickstand on the back,
which just unfolds.
So you can prop it up,
you can pop the controllers off,
and then you can just put it up on the table and play.
Alienware says it's 900 grams,
which is like 1.9 pounds.
It feels pretty good to hold in your hand.
What you can also do is
you can plug this into an external monitor.
You plug a regular USBC cable into the top over here.
(synth music)
Alienware isn't talking what kind of panel this is
in terms of display resolution.
It can run games at up to 1200p,
which again isn't
4K HD quality.
But especially when you're this close to the screen,
it doesn't seem to matter as much.
This isn't the most demanding game,
but this looks way better than it does,
say, on a Switch.
And it performs great.
There's no lag, there's no stuttering,
reflections look good.
There's a lot of things
that Alienware's still gonna have to solve
before this is actually
a compelling device that you can buy.
Obviously battery life is huge issue.
Alienware wouldn't talk about that.
But if you're running full-fledged PC games
on a full-fledged PC
on batteries in something that you can fit in your hand,
that's obviously a thing
that they're gonna need to work out.
And I would not expect
to get more than a couple of hours of this at best.
Heat is also a big thing.
Even just playing a game here,
you could hear the fans kicking up and they are loud.
(fans whirring)
Again, you're holding a gaming PC in your hand.
There's gonna be sacrifices and that's gonna be one of them.
That's Concept UFO.
Again, it's still an early concept,
there's still a lot of the details that we don't know.
We don't even know if Alienware's ever gonna sell it.
But at least on this idea,
I'm a big fan.
And again, while these are early concepts,
they're really functional.
They work, they're running active hardware.
I'm playing Rocket League on this thing,
which is a lot more than we usually see from concepts.
Which could indicate that these are farther along
than you might necessarily think.
Thanks so much for watching.
For more great videos like this,
make sure to keep it locked to The Verge YouTube channel.
We'll have tons of stuff out of CES all week.
I'm terrible at Rocket League.
Please don't hold this against me.