Alienware Concept UFO Preview – Switch-inspired Windows 10 handheld
Alienware, Dell’s gaming brand, has brought a gaming handheld to CES. The device looks like a Nintendo Switch, but is in fact a full Windows 10 PC. Alienware calls it the Concept UFO, and as the name implies, it’s not a product you’ll be able to buy in stores any time soon. Alienware says it has been developing the handheld for two years, but the company has no concrete plans to market the device yet.
We often see concepts and prototypes at trade fairs, but manufacturers often put them behind glass and they hardly work in practice, if at all. That is different with the Concept UFO. The gaming handheld is fully functional and Alienware is extensively showing the device to the media and trade show visitors at its stand. We went by to try the prototype.
Enclosure and controllers
The appearance of the Concept UFO is clearly inspired by that of the Nintendo Switch. All hardware is in the middle part behind the screen. It has a diagonal of 8″ and a resolution of about 1900×1200 pixels. On that small screen size that is quite high and the screen therefore looks sharp.
On either side of the screen is one half of a controller. It is most like an Xbox controller, with two joysticks, a d-pad, abxy buttons, triggers and shoulder buttons. The joysticks and buttons feel nice and the whole is comfortable to hold. The Concept UFO is a lot bigger and heavier than a Switch. Alienware says the device weighs nine hundred grams; a Switch with controllers weighs about four hundred grams. We didn’t really find the weight to be an issue during our short play session, but maybe that’s different if you’re gaming for a long time.
Just like with the Switch, you can unclip the controllers from the housing. You do this by pressing a button on the back. The mechanism is already well put together in this prototype. The controller halves slide neatly into the housing and click into place with magnets. It is not possible to use a ‘half’ controller, as with the Switch. You can, however, connect the two halves to an accessory to make a separate controller.
At the back of the screen is a large kickstand that you can fold out to place the device on a table. The device also has two USB-C connections: at the top and bottom. This allows the handheld to be connected to a monitor. Alienware is also demonstrating a dock into which the device can be placed at CES. This is done via a USB-C connection, which means that the image can then be displayed on a larger screen. The dock that Alienware is showing at the show only contains connections and no additional hardware. In theory, such a dock could also contain an extra GPU for more computing power.
Hardware
Dell tells us that it contains a tenth generation Intel processor and further investigation reveals that it is an Ice Lake chip. Dell does not want to say which CPU it is, but it is obvious that it is a variant with an Iris Plus GPU, for example the Core i5-1035G7 or Core i7-1065G7 . These are laptop processors with a tdp of 15W. In a small device such as this concept, this generates a lot of heat and active cooling is therefore required. During use, that cooling can clearly be heard and you can also feel that the housing is getting warm.
There was still some confusion about which processor is in the concept. Frank Azor, the founder of Alienware, who now works at AMD, posted a tweet online that seemed to suggest AMD Ryzen hardware in the UFO. Azor later clarified that he wondered if people would like Ryzen hardware in the device. Dell informs us that the hardware is not fixed. This prototype contains an Intel processor, but that may change.
In practice
Alienware demonstrates the Windows 10 gaming handheld including Rocket League, F1 2019 and Mortal Kombat 11. Those games run smoothly on the device. It is not clear which settings are used, but it seems to be about Medium settings; the image quality is decent anyway. Because the handheld just runs on Windows 10, it is possible to install Steam, for example, and play all the games you already own. Dell has also created its own interface that displays a game library that you can scroll through.
The Concept UFO feels surprisingly complete and ‘finished’ for a concept product. The hardware is neatly finished, the controller works fine, including force feedback. The detaching and clicking of the parts also works well. Alienware shouldn’t have to change much to bring this product to market; yet we can understand why there are no concrete plans for that yet. With the hardware that is now available, the device gets quite warm and the cooling makes a lot of noise. The battery will probably not last longer than a few hours when you run demanding games.
Alienware isn’t the first manufacturer to try to make a PC gaming handheld. For example, there is the Smach Z , a device that originally emerged in 2014 as the Steamboy and is still in development. The years of trajectory of that device does indicate that it is a challenge to bring a PC gaming handheld to market. However, with the financial strength of a large company like Dell, much is possible. The fact that the manufacturer is showing its Concept UFO so extensively at CES also seems to indicate that the company is at least taking the idea seriously.