Dell working on a gaming handheld?
By Paul Miller 
posted Jan 31st 2007 4:14PM
posted Jan 31st 2007 4:14PM
Surely you jest! But we don't, you see, 'cause it comes straight from the horse's proverbial mouth. The worldwide head of gaming for Dell, Abizar Vahkaria, was recently asked by UK publication PC Plus whether Dell was planning to release some sort of gaming-oriented handheld, to which Vahkaria replied: "You know, that's definitely one that's on the radar screen, but we have no plans to talk about anything today." That's not quite a tacit admission, and there's no telling how comprehensive Abizar's radar screen happens to be, but it's a pretty exciting word all the same from a company whose product range seems to be shrinking rather than growing of late, given the demise of the DJ and lack of updates for the Axim (pictured to the right, rocking a bit of Quake III). Along with the doubt of the actual implications of this statement, it's really anyone's guess what sort of form a Dell "gaming-oriented handheld" might take -- it could be anything from a souped-up UMPC to a specifically designed Axim -- but while we're conjecturing, why might as well go hog wild and assume they're building a PSP / DS / iPod killer, right?[Via Brighthand]
Who the hell wants to play Quake with a vertical orientation?!
Erm thats not their gaming device, thats an X51V PocketPC running Quake 3, please use your brain.
This is what they need: A full featured PDA with a bad ass processor and gaming button layouts. Intergrated GPS would be a nice touch. Also it must have no more then a half-ass attempt to prevent people from hacking it. Once it is hacked it will emulate NES, SNES, Genesis, N64, AND..... Playstation 1. Also a hard drive, with around 20 - 30 gigs. Nice touches would be: Wifi, Bluetooth (why not? everything else has it), slide out keyboard. And to top it all off, the visual glory of a QVGA (or maybe VGA?????) 3-4 inch screen. Then again, even if it offered ALL of these things, it would still only be competitive compared to products like in HTC's lineup.
itll be interesting to see if this actually goes anywhere...
i mean, dell makes some good PC's for the price, so we'll have to see if they can do anything in the gaming network...
In all fairness here, Scott didn't say that the picture was the new handheld device. I think his point focuses on playing games vertically regardless of handheld situation. I own an Axim and I certainly wouldn't play Quake with the screen set on portrait. Good thing I know how to use my brain...
It even says in the post that the Axim is pictured. Now, who isn't using their brain? I don't get why people modded you up.
@ Me
you are an idiot. That is stated right in the article. Next tyme try reading before you spout off some stupid ass comment.
If I could take PC games that I buy from the store, put the CD in my desktop's CD/DVD drive and install the game via USB onto a handheld...
Shit, I like that idea!
They could have it run a stripped down vista, connect via USB, firewire, n-draft, whatever and then have games that would normally install on a PC install on the handheld.
What I find funny about these articles about pc gaming handhelds is they show a game that is completely inappropriate for the handheld medium. Who wants to play quake without a keyboard and mouse? I remember seeing a similar article a couple of years back in pc gamer magazine and the game they had pictured was Everquest. Who would want to play an MMO that's so keyboard intensive on a handheld?
Recipe for good handheld gaming device
1. License the DS form factor.
2. Make the top screen a widescreen with 300 ppi hi-res display.
3. 60 GB of space (hard disk?)
4. Top face should be foldable to face outward like in some tablet PC designs. Except much sturdier. This would mean it can be used for playing video. But also it means the top face would have to gain touchscreen ability.
'License' the DS form factor..? Nintendo doesn't own the concept of a clamshell handheld device.
Any gaming platform lives or dies on the game selection available.
Games for both Pocket PC and Palm are lack-luster (compared with PSP, etc) and anything designed for a full-size PC isn't going to translate well to a portable device (not to mention you would likely be stuck with older, less graphics/hardware demanding titles). That leaves you with emulation (not the sort of bucket of worms a big-name computer company is going to want to get into) or exclusive titles (good luck in signing a lot of big-name developers for such a device).
At best, I could see a PDA / Media Player / ect. that also has some gaming controls, but I doubt they would come out with a dedicated gaming device.
Apparently you guys haven't seen the pocket PC build of Cube. That is NOT Quake III
Do you guys even realize what you're saying? All the stuff you would want in a PDA gaming device would cost so much money! I have a Palm TX and it's $300. That's more than a Nintendo Wii and the same as an Xbox360 Core system. For it to have 20, 30, 60 GB like some of you mentioned, plus to handle all the gaming capabilities of a PC would cost as much as a laptop, probably more because everything would have to be even smaller! Why can't people just be happy with a PSP/DS/iPod (granted some iPods are EXPENSIVE) and play games on those systems?
I wonder why the iPod was mentioned with the list of portable handheld gaming devices... O_O
Well, I might as well think of my dream gaming device that Dell could make: a 624 MHz processor, touch screen capability, dual analog nubs, D-pad, SD slot for add-on capacity, a built-in keypad (for touch typing), Windows Mobile 5.0 etc. In essence it would be the core of an Z51V, but with the PSP's screen (4.3" TFT LCD screen, only with touch screen technology), the DS's shape, the PSP's analog nub design (x2), a keyboard, and a D-pad. When not gaming, one could use it as a pocket PC, just like the X51V.
I really hope Dell makes an affordable UMPC, though. Mmmm
PDA is overally a way more useful device than a gaming device like PSP and DS. Of course when it comes to gamies both DS and PSP are way better, but games are fairly all they can run. And still, VGA screen of the x50v and x51v beats PSP's and DS's displays altoghether (even tough being said to be the worst VGA screen in PDAs!).