New Steam Deck Competitor Announced by Razer, Verizon
Another Steam Deck competitor is entering the market with Razer, Verizon, and Qualcomm announcing this week the Razer Edge 5G, a device meant to play games either locally or via cloud technologies. Only an initial tease of this device has been shown off so far along with a few limited details, however. The companies behind the new device promised a more in-depth reveal that'll take place in a few weeks during Razer's next big RazerCon event.
Our first look at this device can be seen below courtesy of Verizon's George Koroneos who shared a video which offered only brief glimpses of the hardware in question. Some more details on the Verizon news site calls this the "world's first 5G Gaming Handheld" and confirms it uses Qualcomm's Snapdragon G3x Gen 1 chipset, for those interested in the tech powering this device.
As indicated by the fact that they included it in the name, the 5G aspect of this device is meant to be one of its big selling points.
"This Android handheld gaming device will give you access to games you love, whether they are downloaded to play locally, streamed from your console or accessed directly from the cloud — all over 5G Ultra Wideband," Verizon's tease said.
BREAKING: @Verizon, @Razer and @Qualcomm are teaming up on the world's first 5G mobile gaming handheld—Razer Edge 5G! It will allow you to play your favorite games regardless of whether you are gaming in the cloud, on an app or streaming from your console. https://t.co/TYPw5xFyeF pic.twitter.com/F9Vg3CfABl
— George Koroneos 🗿🍹 (@GLKCreative) September 28, 2022
For those who've been keeping up with the various handheld devices released in response to the dominant options like the Nintendo Switch and the Steam Deck, you may recall that the Logitech G Cloud Gaming Handheld was revealed prior to this. That device, by comparison, requires a Wi-Fi connection with no 5G support offered.
We know that the Logitech device will retail for $349.99, but we don't yet know how much the Razer Edge 5G will cost. The Steam Deck starts at $399 and goes up from there depending on storage specifications and add-ons, so it wouldn't be surprising to see the Razer device come in somewhere around that price point given that it hopes to be a competitor and offers native and cloud-based gaming options.
It's also worth noting that the end of the video above features the Xbox logo which suggests that this device will support Xbox Game Pass games as well. We'll hopefully learn more about that and other features on October 15th during the RazerCon event.