GPD teases what could be the most powerful handheld gaming PC in the world — but there are many questions still to answer

2025 is shaping up to be an exciting year for the handheld gaming PC. While much attention has been directed towards ASUS, Lenovo, even Xbox, GPD has quietly been over there doing its thing.

Now, its next handheld is getting ready to break cover. In a short teaser posted on X, GPD showed us the Win 5, notable for being the first handheld to use an AMD Strix Halo APU, specifically the Ryzen AI Max+ 395.

Firstly, it’s dark. But our pals at Tom’s Hardware have already done a little Photoshop work and discovered that the controls are as you’d hope. Offset thumbsticks as the good lord intended, a d-pad, standard ABXY buttons.

There are some other areas that are impossible to properly make out, but there are some other buttons, potentially even a tiny trackpad or fingerprint reader.

The handheld is supposed to be breaking cover at Chinajoy in August, so we’ll know more on what it actually looks like, then. Hopefully how thick it is, too, because with a Strix Halo APU inside, we’re going to need a chonky battery.

What we can see from the teaser is Black Myth: Wukong, a carefully chosen title no doubts because it’s one of the most demanding out there right now.

All signs in the short video point to good. I mean, look at that frame rate! We’re also seeing the chip remain fairly cool despite pushing 55W and slightly above.

Let’s not forget the Z1 Extreme in the ROG Ally is only configurable up to 30W. The upcoming Z2 Extreme is configurable up to 35W. This is something else. From our own experience, the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 can crush games like Forza Horizon 5, Black Ops 6, and Cyberpunk 2077.

However, what we don’t know are what settings are being used, for one. We also don’t know basically anything else about the hardware. The battery is going to be the key. If you’re pushing 55W, it needs to be large, lest it drain in half an hour while gaming.

There’s also no word yet on price, but I’ll tell you right now, be prepared for it to be expensive. There are some Mini PCs and laptops using the Ryzen AI Max+ 395, such as the ASUS ROG Flow Z13, and they’re not cheap.

Obviously the ROG Flow Z13 is significantly larger than the Win 5 is going to be, but display size aside (and possibly battery), it’s probably not far off the sort of hardware GPD will be using.

It’s currently selling for $2,299.99 at Best Buy in a configuration with 32GB RAM and 1TB of storage.

The few mini PCs currently using the same chip all exceed the $1,000 mark, and they don’t have a display.

In any case, it’s an exciting development. This could easily turn out to be the most powerful handheld gaming PC on the planet when it launches. But we’re going to need to know a lot more before deciding if it’s something worth shelling out a large sum of cash for.

Richard Devine is a Managing Editor at Windows Central with over a decade of experience. A former Project Manager and long-term tech addict, he joined Mobile Nations in 2011 and has been found on Android Central and iMore as well as Windows Central. Currently, you’ll find him steering the site’s coverage of all manner of PC hardware and reviews. Find him on Mastodon at mstdn.social/@richdevine