I tested Acer’s wild flip-and-swivel handheld — why Project DualPlay Mini is the ultimate netbook love letter

(Image credit: Future) I miss netbooks. There, I said it.In the late 2000s, Asus Eee PCs and Acer Aspire Ones took over the world. They were ultra-portable and fundamentally awful to use — sluggish Intel Atom chips and zero hope of running 3D games. But damn, I loved them.Then I walked up to Project DualPlay Mini on the IFA 2026 show floor, and it felt like stepping into an alternate timeline where the netbook grew up and went to the gym.Because while everyone is racing to copy the Steam Deck, Acer’s 8-inch concept is reviving the lost art of the netbook. It’s a dedicated handheld console when you want to lounge on the train, and an actual clamshell laptop when you need to type an email or play a classic shooter.Put simply, I’ve seen a lot of prototypes come and go where I thought, “this is cool, but nothing people will actually buy.” This is the first time I’ve looked at something and openly begged a company to release it.Flip, swivel and play (Image credit: Future)So let’s get into it, shall we? In its traditional handheld form, it looks weird with its protruding sides. But it's still comfortable to play games on.But the central focal point is that flip-and-swivel display. The central hinge feels fundamentally stable, and the display flips with a smooth, gracious ease to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard — not big enough to rewrite War and Peace, but definitely enough for the daily essentials and expanding your game collection beyond just controller-preferred titles on the go.Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. (Image credit: Future)And that 8-inch touchscreen display manages to hit that golden ratio: large enough to display Windows 11 UI elements and game HUDs without squinting, but small enough to maintain that handheld (and netbook) balance.Also, shout-out to the small details too. Legacy is important, and with Acer celebrating its 50th anniversary, you’ll find “Acer 50 since 1976” embossed in Morse code on the rear cover to celebrate its golden jubilee.The big friction test (Image credit: Future)Since this is an 8-inch device, we have to address the physical limitations. The keyboard is smaller than other full QWERTYs. It's still sizable enough not to be just a thumb-typing tool, and you'll get a comfortable feel for the WASD when playing a first-person shooter.In handheld mode, the keys fold right back in, and you’re back to gaming mode with all the same ergonomic comfort you’d expect from the best handheld gaming consoles in 2026. But wait, what about the lack of a touchpad?You do have to rely on touchscreen Windows, which can be hit-and-miss, but not the end of the world. If Acer wanted to go truly crazy with this, a ThinkPad-style optical track nub would’ve been God mode for them. But with that touch panel up top, I found myself quickly getting into that flow of tapping and typing.Serious power in a tiny shell (Image credit: Future)Performance-wise, Acer can only say it has an “Intel chip,” but given what I was able to get out of it (100 FPS on Forza Horizon 6 with XeSS3), I’m inclined to believe it’s an Arc G3 Extreme.That’s maintained with rear dual-fan active cooling borrowed from the Predator Atlas 8, and the result is a massive contrast to the 2008 netbook experience and today. This tiny chassis has the thermal headroom to run full Windows 11 and AAA games — not just a single browser tab.Will Acer actually sell this? (Image credit: Future)So here’s the bad news. Acer explicitly labeled DualPlay Mini as an “innovation concept,” while launching the standard Predator Atlas 7 alongside it.But if you’re loud enough, companies will bend.The gaming handheld market has become dangerously boring, with every brand releasing identical plastic slates. Project DualPlay Mini proves that form-factor experimentation isn’t dead, and it’s actually cool as hell.Acer shouldn’t leave this in the R&D lab; the audience that loved netbooks — and the PC gamers who want a true all-in-one travel machine — are ready to buy it. I can feel it in my bones. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. More from Tom's GuideI tested the $1,299 ROG Xbox Ally X20 — with that OLED display, the $300 price hike is surprisingly palatableForget Framework — I just popped open Acer's new modular laptop and it could be the end of throwaway PCsI tested 6 RTX Spark laptops for gaming — and the winner completely shocked me Jason brings a decade of tech and gaming journalism experience to his role as a Managing Editor of Computing at Tom's Guide. He has previously written for Laptop Mag, Tom's Hardware, Kotaku, Stuff and BBC Science Focus. In his spare time, you'll find Jason looking for good dogs to pet or thinking about eating pizza if he isn't already.