#CES2020: Alienware ?Concept UFO Revealed

Nintendo brought something big to the table with the Nintendo Switch. A hybrid of a home console and a portable was something big at the time, and still is if sales are anything to go by. Hate it or love it, the Switch is on it’s way to being another iconic console in Nintendo’s line up. So it makes perfect sense that there will be copycats, spinoffs, and people who are “inspired” by this technology. Enter, the Alienware UFO.

Moving from here, it’s important to remember that this is all proof of concept. Dell is still quite a ways away from perfecting it, but this’ll be a good first look into what they’re trying to do. Looking at it and hearing the sales pitch, you can already tell what it wants to do. Nintendo Switch, but for PC games. Which means the UFO will have to be more powerful while keeping a similar form factor. Which, it seems to be able to do. But from what I see and given the measurements so far, this thing is massive. It has an 8-inch screen and two big controllers on the sides that of course slide off and can come together with an attachment to make a controller. But that thing is bulky. It also comes to a bit of a surprise that despite how big the detachable controllers are, they do not function as the Joycons do. I haven’t seen anyone using one as a standalone controller yet, but that could be coming down the line.

Aside from the huge hardware, the main draw is that it’ll cater more to the PC market which…I’m not sure is wise? I can see it drawing in people who don’t play PC but want to play the PC library of games (which is enormous), but I am not sure of PC players hopping on this as opposed to their already powerful PCs. Though, I will say that being able to play some of the PC exclusive games on the go does sound pretty good. Particularly the indie games, of course. So I won’t shoot the idea down, but I would like to see more of it for the sake of seeing what they’re after.

While it’s hard to get an idea of the framerate in some of these videos, I hear reports that it’s almost able to reach 60 FPS with F1 Racing and World War Z being the games tested. Given that the Switch struggles in that department, it could be an angle worth going after. A portable with enough power and battery to play games at 60 FPS with few compromises? Since this is meant to be a portable PC, I think that would be what Dell would have to make in order to compete. I’m kind of intrigued, honestly. This could be a rise of the “hybrid console” market and if so, I’m down. But what about you guys? Has that market been cornered or do you see the potential? Let us know in the comments.

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