SMACH Z has been in development for some time now and this started off as a Kickstarter project called the Steamboy. Even though we have not heard much information regarding the upcoming device in a long time, it seems the device is going to come out soon. Smach CEO Daniel Fernandez is ready to bring the SMACH Z handheld gaming PC to market in 2018.
SMACH Z Handheld Gaming PC
Recently we talked about the AMD embedded chips that were coming out but now it seems that the same chips will be powering the upcoming SMACH Z handheld gaming PC as well. These chip will come with AMD Vega graphics as well and should be pretty powerful. The device will be powered by the AMD Ryzen 1605B processor that comes with AMD Vega 8 graphics.
The SMACH Z handheld gaming PC will come with a 6-inch display along with physical buttons and dual touchpads. The ergonomics of the device seem to be pretty similar to the Steam controller. According to the released specs, there will be two versions of the device, the regular SMACH Z and a Pro version as well. While the processing and the graphics remain the same, the pro version comes with more storage and RAM.
The specs of both the SMACH Z handheld gaming PC as well as the pro version are as follows:
| SPECS | SMACH Z | SMACH Z PRO |
| CPU | AMD Ryzen™ V1605B | |
| GPU | AMD Radeon™ Vega 8 Graphics | |
| RAM | 4GB DDR4 2133MHz | 8GB DDR4 2133MHz |
| Screen | Touchscreen 6” 1920x1080px | |
| Camera | None | 5 Mpx |
| Connectivity | WiFi 802.11 b/g/n/d/e/h/i, Bluetooth v2.1+EDR/v3.0/v3.0HS/v4.0 | |
| In/out | USB-C, USB-A, Micro USB, Display Port, SD card, Audio minijack. | |
| Charger | USB-C 20V 2.25A 65W. Plug EU/US/UK | |
| OS | Windows 10 or Linux | |
At this point in time we are not sure how powerful this device is going to be but if it is similar to the Nintendo Switch then I do not see why this could take off and become a mainstream handheld device. This is still much that we do not know about the device so stay tuned to SegmentNext for more information regarding the SMACH Z handheld gaming PC.
Some benchmarks for the device have been included below but take these with a grain of salt as these are from the Kickstarter page and we have yet to see numbers from third-party sources. Also, note that these are older numbers for older hardware and with AMD Ryzen V1000 and Vega graphics you can expect to see even better performance overall.
- Metro: Last Light Redux (720p. High settings) ~ 35 FPS
- Company of Heroes 2 (720p. Medium settings) ~ 25 FPS
- Jotun (1080p) ~ 45 FPS
- Skyrim (720p. High setting) ~ 25 FPS
- Just Cause 2 (720p. Medium settings) ~ 35 FPS
- Spiral Knights (1080p) ~ 50 FPS
- Overwatch (720p. Medium) ~ 30 FPS
- Torchlight II (1080p. Very high settings) ~ 35 FPS
- Xcom: Enemy Unknown (720p. High settings) ~30 FPS
- Civilization 5 (1080p. High settings) ~ 28 FPS
- Tomb Raider (720p. Medium settings) ~ 40 FPS
- Alien: Isolation (720p. Ultra settings) ~ 35 FPS
The device will need a lot of love from developers in order to take off and I hope that it gets the attention of the developers. This could be big.
Let us know what you think about the SMACH Z handheld gaming PC and whether or not this is something that you might be interested in getting for yourself.
