The Smach Z is a handheld gaming PC that’s been under development for years. But the specs were recently finalized and the Smach team is showing off a (non-working) prototype at Embedded World this week.

Now the company has announced that it’ll begin taking pre-orders for the Smach Z on March 15th, offering a 10 percent discount to the first 10 thousand customers.

That means you can score a Smach Z for $629 or a Smach Z Plus for $809 (down from the list prices of $699 and $899, respectively). But there’s no word on when those devices will actually ship.

Rather than promise a delivery date that might be delayed (again), the team is holding off on publicly stating an estimated ship date.

The Smach Z features a 6 inch display surrounded by physical gaming buttons and customizable touchpads similar to those found on Valve’s Steam Controller. Using touchpads instead of analog sticks allows you to play games designed for mouse input without plugging in a mouse.

While this isn’t the first handheld gaming PC announced, the Smach Z should be a lot more powerful than rival game systems from GPD.

The upcoming GPD Win 2 has an Intel Core M3-7Y30 processor, Intel HD graphics, and a 720p display. The Smach Z has an AMD Ryzen Embedded 1605B quad-core processor with Radeon Vega 8 graphics and a 1080p screen. It’s expected to offer 2-3 times the gaming performance of the Win 2.

Smach has provided some benchmarks for popular games:

  • The Witcher 3 (720p Medium settings) ~ 40 FPS
  • Alien: Isolation (1080p Low settings) ~ 50 FPS
  • GTA 5 (720p Normal settings) ~ 60 FPS
  • League of Legends (1080p High settings) ~ 60 FPS
  • Rocket League (1080p Normal settings) ~ 60 FPS
  • Dark Souls 3 (720p Low settings) ~ 40 FPS

Keep in mind that we won’t actually be able to confirm those numbers until Smach launches a functional prototype using the final design.

The Smach Z is expected to come in two versions: the entry-level model has 4GB of DDR4-2133 memory and a 64GB solid state drive, while the Smach Z Pro has 8GB of memory, 128GB of storage, and a 5MP camera.

Both versions feature DisplayPort, USB Type-A, Type-C and micro USB ports, an SD card reader, WiFi, Bluetooth, and a headset jack. The system is said to support Windows 10 Home or “Smach OS Linux” and it comes with a USB Type-C charger.

With the company still showing what appears to be a 3D printer case and non-functional hardware, it’ll likely be a little while before the Smach Z is actually ready to ship. But the company does promise that customers who pre-order at the discounted price will “receive the console before the market release,” whenever that is.

press release

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,547 other subscribers

24 replies on “Smach Z handheld gaming PC pre-orders open March 15th for $629 and up”

  1. I preordered the Win2. I was about to preorder the Smach Z, but after a small amount of research into the Smach Z I realized the incredible risk it would be to back the Smach Z. The Win2 is a product by a team with a more proven track record. Granted, the Win2 features lesser specs, but lesser specs compared against an imaginary product are in fact better specs. I predict the Smach Z will either never be delivered or will be delivered as a product that fell short on its promises.

    If however the Smach Z is not only delivered but matches or exceeds its promises then I will consider selling my Win2 to get a Smach Z. However, my gut tells me I will not have to undergo this hassle.

  2. How long will this scam go on? They have not shown anything working but two pieces of uncompleted PCBs and a case made with 3d printing.

  3. I don’t mean to be a negative Nancy but this product has never shown any signs of releasing in the last 4 years while gpd has released 2 handheld windows 10 Pc’s since the 2016 announcement.

    For the plus model you could get a gaming laptop with a 1050 ti, and that laptop actually exists while the smach z has never proven itself in the last 4 years that it will ever come put.

    For the price of the base model you can get a gpd win, full keyboard built in, is on the market and is smaller,sleeker and actually portable.

  4. those saying .. burning hands .. it wont. Microsoft surface and those alike run on 15W chip on a very thin tablet.
    what happens is that those tablets will boost the cpu/gpu but after a few minutes it will reduce the clock as it quickly reaches the max heat allowed and thus it throttles.

    I have one of those tablets. it does get warm though when pushing the chip for long period

  5. Looks like their pre-orde market scam is paying off. there were tons of people going to indiegogo to “invest” some money on it.
    if they are preselling it, them why didn’t they stop the indiegogo? Its cheaper there (but much riskier).
    Presale cant deliver prior to backers, so June at best.

    the benchmarks could easily be running on 25W and just showing off the chip capability not what it would really be once stepped back to 12 or 15W

  6. I believe they have received a lot from both Kickstarter and Indiegogo… They better deliver those first before anything else. In my humble opinion, i will rather wait for the final product in the event they actually succeed in delivering it.

  7. Not pre-ordering. Too risky. I’ll be keeping an eye on this though since if they pull off a decent handheld with Ryzen, it’d be an instant buy but that’s when they actually accomplish it.

  8. A fool and his money are soon parted.

    That ought to be the Smach motto. Probably is.

  9. Battery life
    Performance
    Portability
    …..Pick two

    The revised specs of the Smach Z looks like it will be barely faster than the GPD Win2, but it will generate a lot more heat, thus noise and surface area increases AND offer a significant cuts to battery life. These are not positive trade-offs. Overall, it makes it inferior to the GPD Win2 spec-wise, which is not only cheaper but is pretty much available to purchase. They should’ve just copied GPD and gone with a similar i7-7Y75, and simply differentiate the product based on the touchpad form-factor.

    …but no, these people do not want to create a good product, they merely are looking for a way to take money from individuals who don’t know better.

    (PS The Witcher3 rating, for one, looks fake… as a more powerful 2500U system struggles to hit 720p/Medium/30fps… this would probably offer 720p/Low/20fps at best. )

  10. Beware, never preorder stillborn hardware. Smach Z is still until today untrustworthy. Full of missed deadlines, broken promises and delays. And again another marketing video just like the previous one.

    1. Here is an update for those who have no access to their secretive backers only forum. Yet another delay possibly another month or more because the PCB is flawed. Like I have said earlier, there is always some delay.

      1. More delays and more problems as predicted. Also the PCB shown was never functional at all to begin with. This is latest from backer’s eyes only update…

        PCB manufacturing: We have received the new version of the main PCB so we’ll be able to start working with it next week. However, we had a problem with the Core PCB: The manufacturer was not able to finish the work due to lack of technology to create such small lines. So we just sent it to another manufacturer. This is a bump for the project, since it’s going to delay the time to see the final unit working at least until the end of April. There is nothing else we can do to accelerate it. All PCB manufacturers take 15 days or more to produce the Core PCB.

        Plastic molds: We begun the final plastic molds production. We will do it in China, as they can do it much faster than in Europe. They should be ready at the beginning of May to start injecting all the plastic pieces.

        Windows 10 license: We met with Microsoft this week and they confirmed that they can’t sell “injected licenses” to devices under 7-inches. Also, if our device would be 7-inch the license would cost $111 because of the hardware specs, so it’s cheaper to buy the licenses from a distributor. The possibility to get licenses from Microsoft at a reasonable price gets narrower. We understand your frustration and we’re continuing to work on finding solutions. In any case, we will offer Windows 10 support and firmware as promised in the Kickstarter stretch goal, so you can install it yourself.

        Delivery date: After the new delay on the PCB manufacturing, we can confirm that we will need to move the estimated delivery date at least to June or July if we manage to complete the development of the final unit in May and start production in June. Many of you have asked about the September date on the website: This is the estimated ship date for new pre-orders, you will be the first to get the console.

  11. YOu turds are missing the whole point in the pre order. If you believe in the team and product, pre order it! It’s your choice! You’re always pointing out the obvious ya cheap bastards.

    1. Well, can you enlighten us “turds” what is the reason for a preorder after 4 years of delays and mumbo-jumbo with fake prototypes? You save $99 on the retail price – if it ever deliver actually. And even if it eventually do deliver, that retail price might go down after a short while. So all you do is give money to a company with shady background, and a promise of a device you don’t know much about, since no mortal men have seen it working and could review it. Oh boy, where do I sign up?

    2. ^I thought this was Liliputing, not WCCFTech. At any rate, I reported this post.

  12. Yeah, first do that “working prototype” thing, then maybe you can ask for money upfront. Given SmatchZ’s track record I’d be cautious until at least three guys I trust review the finalized product.

  13. Is this a joke? They show off a non-working prototype and then open up pre-orders? Sorry, but anyone who buys into this deserves to get their money stolen.

  14. Do not ever pre-order it, until they show anything tangible like an actual working final production model. This thing has been delayed numerous times. Since 2014 until now still can’t produce any actual functional working prototype using either the previous Merlin Falcon chip or with the new Ryzen chip. That is worse than Dragonbox Pyra or Spectrum Vega Plus. These pre-orders sounds very much like another round of cash grab after crowdfunding ends.

  15. Is that an SSD or a Wi-Fi module in the photo? Anyway, I’m not pre-ordering since who knows when this actually gets released and I’m sure the first batch or 2 or 3 will have issues given this is their first device ever.

  16. Definitely interested in Ryzen in a handheld device but I won’t be spending any money until this actually ships. Plus if it has more than 4 hours of battery life and doesn’t burn my hands.

Comments are closed.