Razer and Qualcomm Announce Developer Handheld

Razer and Qualcomm have announced a handheld for developers. The handheld runs on a separate Qualcomm soc for gaming devices. The handheld won’t come out to consumers, both companies say.

The handheld is called Snapdragon G3x Handheld Development Kit, Razer says. On the manufacturer’s site, game developers can indicate their interest in the product in order to get their hands on it. It is unknown whether Razer is charging money for this. The intention is that developers first make games for this type of handheld, after which manufacturers can start making consumer products.

The handheld runs on Android. The device has a custom interface that only works in landscape mode. The games differ from regular Android games in that they only work in landscape and developers can assume that there are buttons, triggers, shoulder buttons and thumbsticks. The handheld can also stream games.

The development kit has a 6.65″ OLED screen with a resolution of 2340×1080 pixels, with an area of ​​around 109 square centimeters. The device has a USB-C port for charging the 6000mAh battery and connecting other equipment , such as AR and VR glasses or a TV.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon G3x Gen 1 has a modem that enables 5G on mmWave and sub-6 frequencies, in addition to WiFi 6E. Further specs of the soc are unknown. Qualcomm also remains vague in its documentation about the processor cores, GPU and other details. It is said to be more powerful than a Snapdragon 888 and is aimed at performance that the soc can hold for a longer period of time. In any case, it is an ARM soc that is very reminiscent of Snapdragon chipsets for smartphones.