Acer is reportedly working on a 'Predator Atlas 8' handheld featuring Intel's Arc G3 chips — Panther Lake-based handhelds expected to be revealed at Computex 2026
The Arc G3 series would compete directly against AMD's Ryzen Z2 platform.
Intel is expected to host a grand reveal for its rumored "Arc G3" series of chips for handhelds at the upcoming Computex 2026 show. According to Videocardz, one of those handhelds is being cooked up by Acer and is called the "Predator Atlas 8," suggesting it's an 8-inch device, likely going up against the MSI Claw 8.
The Arc G3 series is Intel's expected handheld push based on Panther Lake silicon, customized for maximum efficiency and competing against the Ryzen Z2 platform, which it teased at CES (though without the "Arc G3" name).
The Predator Atlas would be Acer's fourth handheld following the three models from its "Nitro Blaze" lineup: Blaze 7, Blaze 8, and Blaze 11. You might've never heard of those names because Acer hasn't released the Blaze 8 and 11 in global markets, while the Blaze 7 was never marketed enough to make a splash. Donning the new handheld in Predator branding, though, would suggest a more serious attempt at converting some of the Acer Predator laptop audience to a handheld.
Apart from the fact that it may reportedly feature an 8-inch screen, we don't know anything else about the rumored Predator Atlas 8. We do know quite a bit about Panther Lake, however. The Arc G3 was known as "Core G3" up until a couple of months ago, with leaks suggesting that the series has been delayed into Q2 2026. Intel has also famously taken digs at AMD's Z2 series, claiming it uses "ancient silicon," so it'll be interesting to see how G3 performs.
As mentioned, Intel teased its handheld push earlier this year alongside the Core Ultra Series 3 launch, but we didn't really get any details at the time. Since then, rumors have pointed toward two different SKUs: a standard Arc G3 and a G3 Extreme — both are tipped to have the same 14 cores split across a 2P+8E+4LP-E configuration, with integrated graphics where the silicon is expected to differ.
The base model likely has an Arc B370 iGPU with 10 Xe3 cores based on the "Celestial" architecture. The same graphics, core config, and a (P-core) boost clock speed of 4.7 GHz are also seen on the Core Ultra 5 338H processor, so the G3 could be an offshoot of that silicon. The Arc G3 extreme reportedly houses an Arc B390 iGPU instead, which would consist of 12 Xe3 cores; the Core Ultra X9 388H and Core Ultra X7 386H have the same iGPU.
Given Panther Lake's advances in gaming performance and efficiency across the board, the Arc G3 lineup should easily stand its ground against AMD's Ryzen Z2 family. We should expect the Red and Blue Teams to trade blows at mid to high power levels, but at lower wattages, Intel may be hard to beat, considering Lunar Lake was already impressive in that department.
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Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he’s not working, you’ll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun.
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usertests They'll be the best handhelds, better than Strix Halo at lower power levels, but overpriced devices. Suffer.Reply -
Notton I was one of the people looking forward to the Blaze 8, but since it was vaporware, I opted for the LeGo S.Reply
I was also looking forward to the Blaze 11, but it looks like they're abandoning that size entirely?
I understand it's a niche of a niche, but a bit of a shame, considering there aren't any windows tablets or laptops from the major manufacturers with a sub 12" screen these days. -
cp0x Call us when Intel actually demonstrates something real. No doubt that they can do it, but reprinting their childish barbs in the absence of anything to show is ... um ... childish?Reply -
usertests Reply
Panther Lake has already been tested against Strix Point/Halo at various wattages, and it's doing well. It's possible these could go into handhelds and beat Z2 already, just not ideal.cp0x said:Call us when Intel actually demonstrates something real. No doubt that they can do it, but reprinting their childish barbs in the absence of anything to show is ... um ... childish?
With the handheld focused chips, some P-cores are being sacrificed, hopefully allowing the GPU to be pushed harder at low TDPs, increasing FPS. Is this better than disabling Panther Lake CPU cores in software? Maybe someone will test it and find out.
AMD has used the "Z2" series and its convoluted naming scheme to refresh the Steam Deck APU with RDNA2 graphics. Which was not a bad chip for its time but is on a far inferior node.