GPD Win Max 2 Crowdfunder Reveals Pricing

News
By Ian Evenden
published

More expensive than a Steam Deck

The GDP Win Max II
(Image credit: GDP)

GPD has finally revealed the pricing for its soon to be crowdfunded GPD Win Max 2 Steam Deck competitor. The GPD Win Max 2 has a 10 inch ‘bezel less’ screen and options for Intel Alder Lake and AMD Ryzen 7 6800U CPUs, is nicely differentiated from the Steam Deck in terms of hardware, but until now we haven’t known which is the better bargain.

GDP Win Max II

(Image credit: GDP)

Well now we do, even though crowdfunding hasn’t started yet. The Win Max 2 is a much more expensive handheld, starting out at $899 in its most basic incarnation, an AMD 6800U APU (eight cores, 16 threads, 12 GPU cores) with 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 128GB of storage. This model, of which only 50 will be produced, is marked as not for retail.

The real meat comes with the next model, which keeps the same specs apart from increasing the storage to 1TB for $999. Then a model with 32GB of LPDDR5 RAM comes in at $1,199, and a top-end model that takes those specs and swells the SSD out to 2TB is $1,299. Should your heart lay with Intel, a model sporting an Intel Alder Lake i7 1260P (four P-cores, eight E-cores, 16 threads, 96 GPU execution units), 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 1TB of storage will cost $999. Note that this is a step down from the i7 1280P CPU originally reported as being fitted to the machine.

With the Steam Deck starting to look cheap by comparison, the other differences between the consoles are less likely to win gamers to one side or the other. The Win Max 2 beats Valve’s machine soundly in terms of screen size and resolution, while the Win Max 2 has additional benefits of coming with Windows 11 installed, and had optional extras in the form of a 4G LTE module ($79) and an additional custom 1TB SSD for the board’s second M.2 slot ($139).

Crowdfunding on Indiegogo is yet to begin for the handheld, though the appearance of the prices is surely a significant hint that it’s not far away. Remember that crowdfunding a project is not a guarantee of receiving a finished product. Backing a crowdfunded project is akin to an investment, you believe in the project and want it to succeed. You are not purchasing a retail product.

Ian Evenden
Ian Evenden
Freelance News Writer

Ian Evenden is a UK-based news writer for Tom’s Hardware US. He’ll write about anything, but stories about Raspberry Pi and DIY robots seem to find their way to him.

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8 Comments Comment from the forums
  • -Fran-
    All things considered, the starting price is not that bad. The APU in this thing is way more powerful than the APU in the Steam Deck for sure (there's a preview of another handheld with the 6800U and it roflstomps the Deck's APU), so the asking price is competitive I'd say.

    This could definitely be worth considering from the specs alone, but I could not buy this blindly TBH. The shape of it and the keyboard make this more of a laptop replacement than a handheld, which is weird to say, but it looks and feels more like a laptop than console? The comfort aspect may suffer due to the shape. Also: battery. Weird, but oh well.

    Regards.
    Reply
  • salgado18
    -Fran- said:
    All things considered, the starting price is not that bad. The APU in this thing is way more powerful than the APU in the Steam Deck for sure (there's a preview of another handheld with the 6800U and it roflstomps the Deck's APU), so the asking price is competitive I'd say.

    This could definitely be worth considering from the specs alone, but I could not buy this blindly TBH. The shape of it and the keyboard make this more of a laptop replacement than a handheld, which is weird to say, but it looks and feels more like a laptop than console? The comfort aspect may suffer due to the shape. Also: battery. Weird, but oh well.

    Regards.
    I think it is not a direct competitor to the Steam Deck because of that. It is more like a netbook with joysticks, which already puts it in a different niche. I'd prefer it over portable console-like pcs for this reason, especially if I can just put it on the bed, connect a mouse and play first person games better than with the controllers, or even surf the web or edit some spreadsheet. To me, these are very different products.

    But it still makes me want a quad-core Zen 3 with the full 12 CU graphics unit.
    Reply
  • -Fran-
    salgado18 said:
    I think it is not a direct competitor to the Steam Deck because of that. It is more like a netbook with joysticks, which already puts it in a different niche. I'd prefer it over portable console-like pcs for this reason, especially if I can just put it on the bed, connect a mouse and play first person games better than with the controllers, or even surf the web or edit some spreadsheet. To me, these are very different products.

    But it still makes me want a quad-core Zen 3 with the full 12 CU graphics unit.
    That's an absolutely fair take and you're right. If you want an even smaller laptop, then this is a good product. Haha, it's kind of mindblowing from that angle... The size of it is just... Wow...

    Anyway, this is the video I mentioned for anyone curious:
    Bcfy6DaY5W8View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bcfy6DaY5W8

    Regards.
    Reply
  • AtrociKitty
    I have the original Win Max, and it's really the ideal formfactor if you're looking for a device like this. Small enough to be more portable than my usual laptop, but with a keyboard big enough that I can still type comfortably. Integrated controls make it easy to use on a plane, without needing to fit a controller into my personal bag.

    I see the Win Max line as more of an all-in-one type of device, rather than a dedicated console. Something like the GPD Win 3 is more of a Steam Deck and handheld competitor if that's what you're looking for.
    Reply
  • criticaloftom
    It never fails to surprise me after how many people get burned by crowdfunding how they still throw money at these shady operators. Just look at the Mr.Card Game kickstarter; people funded it, it came into being, but even though the investors which is what people consider themselves as when funding these projects ; they didn't receive what they were owed for the successful kickstarter and for all their hard work even years on they have nothing to show for it while the Mr. Card Game is still being sold for profit. All these crowdfunding platforms are merely scam websites and anyone who gambles a cool $1000 usd on anything through them is a fool with too much money soon to be parted.
    Reply
  • DingusDog
    That picture is photoshopped af
    Reply
  • CaptainBrowncoat
    criticaloftom said:
    It never fails to surprise me after how many people get burned by crowdfunding how they still throw money at these shady operators. Just look at the Mr.Card Game kickstarter; people funded it, it came into being, but even though the investors which is what people consider themselves as when funding these projects ; they didn't receive what they were owed for the successful kickstarter and for all their hard work even years on they have nothing to show for it while the Mr. Card Game is still being sold for profit. All these crowdfunding platforms are merely scam websites and anyone who gambles a cool $1000 usd on anything through them is a fool with too much money soon to be parted.

    You obviously don't know this, but GPD has been around for at least a decade. They're not perfect, but they've far from a "shady" company.
    Reply
  • CaptainBrowncoat
    What's with the weird embedded numeric keypad layout? They doubled the 7, 8, & 9 keys right under the normal ones, there's no basic math symbols, the zero is weirdly offset & overlaid onto the ALT key - it makes no sense. Why not use the standard laptop embedded numeric keypad layout?

    (https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/78904.image0.jpg from https://www.dummies.com/article/technology/computers/pcs/the-hidden-numeric-keypad-on-your-laptop-206927/)


    Also, I don't get why anyone bothers with pen support on a screen that doesn't fold over flat. If this had one of those double-hinges to flip the screen into a tablet mode, that'd make sense. It'd be great for artists and such (although it should have the pen included with a secure storage place built in).

    Fix these two things and I'd even be willing to spend an extra hundred or two for this.
    Reply