The Nintendo Switch is a fine gaming machine, but what if it could handle PC games? This is pretty much raison d'être of the Concept UFO, an Alienware prototype that's exactly, well, a portable PC imitating the Switch form factor.
“Imagine a world where you have access to AAA games wherever you are,” the company boldly states at the Dell CES 2020 conference. “You could be gaming on your laptop at home, pause, pick up another device for your commute and pick up right where you left off.”
If you know what the Switch is all about, then you know what the deal of the Concept UFO is. It is, essentially, a tablet with a detachable controller on each side. The tablet portion has an 8-inch display, making it larger than the Nintendo device, and carries an as yet unspecified Intel 10th generation Core processor and, possibly, the first Intel Xe discrete GPU, the DG1.
Making the Concept UFO even more like the Switch is the fact the tablet not only has a kickstand, but can slot into a dock for play on a larger display. In such a case, players can either detach the controllers off the magnetic rails and slot them into a grip, or connect a keyboard and mouse to the dock for use as a regular PC. After all, the Concept UFO remains a full-fledged PC running on Windows 10, if with a customer launcher on top.
While admittedly impressive, the CES 2020 prototype raises at least one question-- will it ever become become a real product? After all CES has hosted the launches of more than a few pieces of vaporware over the years. The Dell-owned company is tight lipped on the matter, especially since it refuses to even fully detail the innards of the machine. As such, the Concept UFO might remain exactly that, a concept.
We will publish any further details of the Concept UFO, if indeed any should be available, as soon as they make their way down the grapevine.