Antec’s new Windows gaming handheld, the Core HS, is now available to buy, and the company is coming in strong with a very low starting price for its AMD Ryzen 7 7840U-powered unit. With its intriguing slide-up screen design – that reveals a keyboard underneath – the Antec Core HS offers a different physical design to most of the bigger players.
While an interesting design that seems like it would have potential to carve out a spot on our best handheld gaming PC guide, the Antec Core HS is in fact just a rebranded version of an existing handheld. The Ayaneo Slide is a China-only handheld, though, so this is the first time a version of the device has been more widely available.
Despite its low price, this is a handheld that not only boasts a potentially game-changing design with its integrated keyboard but also some impressive other specs. Its screen is a 6-inch, 1080, IPS panel with up to 400nits brightness and 85% DCI-P3 color space coverage.
That AMD processor also packs in eight CPU cores with a 12 CU GPU. This is attached to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and you get 512GB of storage with a 2280 format M.2 SSD slot for expanding storage. Those are broadly the same specs as this device’s main Windows rivals, the Asus ROG Ally X and Lenovo Legion Go, but all three devices have a lot more power than the Steam Deck OLED, which is the only one of those three that is a similar price to this unit (though a new Asus ROG Ally deal sees the non-X version currently selling for the same $499).
There’s also a 32GB variant of the Antec Core HS with 1TB of storage, which is being sold at launch with a bundle of extras. These consist of a carry case, a tempered glass screen protector, “performance” thumbsticks, and a docking station. Antec doesn’t explain the latter two but the thumbsticks appear to just be alternative thumbstick caps while the dock holds the device at a convenient angle, charges it through a USB-C connector, and provides microSD and SD expansion slots. This more capacious unit with its extra costs $699 at launch.
Both models are available in a choice of black or white with the units looking quite fetching. The design of this handheld has us really intrigued but until we really get to have an extensive play with it and try out that keyboard, we can’t say for certain how well it will work. Notably, the Core HS doesn’t include trackpads which could limit its usability.
For more on what is currently our favorite Windows gaming handheld, check out our Asus ROG Ally X review, which details why it’s the new gold standard.