The GPD Win 3 is a handheld gaming computer that features a 5.5 inch touchscreen display in the center and game controllers on the left and right sides. The screen can also slide up to reveal a keyboard that you can use for entering usernames, passwords, or chats.

First revealed in November, the GPD Win 3 is set to go up for pre-order for $799 and up during an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign set to launch at 10:00AM Beijing time on January 15, 2021 (that’s 9:00PM Eastern Time on January 14, 2021).

Update: The GPD Win 3 Indiegogo campaign is now live and you can pre-order the little computer for $799 and up.

Liliputing’s GPD Win 3 Preview article is also now live, featuring an in-depth look at a pre-production prototype of the handheld gaming PC. You can also check out our YouTube video to see it in action.

There will be two pricing/configuration options during crowdfunding:

Those prices will likely go up after the Indiegogo campaign ends. But GPD notes that the entry-level model costs just $20 more than the company’s 8 inch Win Max mini-gaming laptop which features a Core i5-1035G7 processor, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and a very different design.

Update: GPD had originally priced the two models at $829 and $969, respectively, but has reduced the crowdfunding price and revealed that black will be the standard color for the GPD Win 3, but there will be a limited edition $899 silver model. The company has also made it clear that these prices do not include the optional docking station. More details on the dock will be revealed in the future.

Prices are also very competitive with the latest gaming handheld from rival One Netbook – the OneGx1 Pro has a less powerful processor, detachable game controllers (sold separately for $50), and a starting price of $1360.

While GPD has been putting out tiny gaming computers for a few years, the Win 3 represents a brand new design for the company. Rather than a clamshell notebook device, it’s modeled after Sony’s discontinued Vaio UX series of ultra mobile PCs.

The Win 3 doesn’t fold in half like a laptop. Instead, it looks sort of like a small Nintendo Switch at first glance, but the screen slides upward to reveal a hidden backlit keyboard. It’s a capacitive touch keyboard, which means the keys won’t move at all when you touch them. And since you can’t really put the Win 3 down on a flat surface and still see the screen while typing, it’s obviously not meant for touch-typing. But the keyboard should be good enough for entering the small bits of text required by many PC games.

If you want to use the computer for non-gaming tasks, you’re probably going to want to connect an external keyboard.

There are also two customizable keys on the back of the computer that you can use to do things like hit the Esc key during a game without sliding up the display to reveal the keyboard in the middle fo the action.

The new model is also GPD’s first device available with up to a Core i7-1165G7 processor, which should bring better gaming performance. And since the little computer has a 720p display, the Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics should be good enough to handle many modern PC games running at up to 60 frames per second.

While 720p resolution might seem kind of low for a gaming machine, the display is only 5.5 inches, so it packs 268 pixels per inch. That’s a bit on the low side for a smartphone screen, but higher than you’d get from most larger gaming laptops.

For what it’s worth, the Nintendo Switch Lite also has a 5.5 inch, 1280 x 720 pixel display.

Other features for the GPD Win 3 include LPDDR4x-4266 memory, PCIe NVMe M.2 2280 SSD storage, WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, a Thunderbolt 4 port, and dual heat pipes plus a fan for cooling.

The computer is also designed to work with a docking station that features HDMI 2.0b output, Gigabit Ethernet, and several USB 3.2 ports.

Alternately, if you want to hook up an external graphics dock, the Win 3 has a Thunderbolt 4 port with support for 7.86 GB/s data throughput.

Here’s a run-down of most of the key specs for the GPD Win 3:

Display5.5 inch, 1280 x 720 pixel IPS
84-percent NTSC color gamut
Gorilla Glass 5
Slides up to reveal keyboard
CPUIntel Core i5-1135G7 or Core i7-1165G7
15W to 28W TDP
GPUIntel Iris Xe
80 EUs (Core i5) or 96 EUs (Core i7)
Memory16GB LPDDR4x-4266
StorageM.2 2280 PCIe NVMe SSD
microSDXC card reader (supports A2 cards with 160MB/s speeds)
WirelessWiFi 6
Bluetooth 5.0
Battery & charging44 Wh battery
65W power adapter (1.5 hours for a full charge)
Battery life (estimated)3 hours of heavy use
6-8 hours of moderate use
14 hours of light use
Ports1 x Thunderbolt 4
1 x USB Type-A
1 x 3.5mm audio
CoolingActive (fan + dual heat pipes)
KeyboardCapacitive touch
Backlit
Hidden behind screen
Game controllersAnalog L2/R2 triggers
Dual analog sticks (press down for L3/R3)
D-Pad
X, Y, A, B keys
Dual vibration motors
Fingerprint sensor
Docking station1 x HDMI 2.0b
1 x Gigabit Ethernet
1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C (10 Gbps)
3 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A (10 Gbps)
MaterialsMagnesium alloy & ABS plastic
ColorsAll black or silver black
Dimensions198mm x 92mm x 27mm
(7.8″ x 3.6″ x 1.1″
Weight560 grams
(1.23 pounds)

The company says the Win 3 will ship in 2021, but GPD hasn’t announced the exact ship date or the start date for the crowdfunding campaign yet.

This article was originally published December 19, 2020 and last updated January 11, 2021. 

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27 replies on “GPD Win 3 hits Indiegogo Jan 15 for $799 and up (handheld gaming PC with Intel Tiger Lake)”

  1. PS vita is still king. Not too mention Nintendo will be releasing a revision of their switch within the next year or two with an OLED screen capable of upscale 4k and I’m sure it will cost half as much

  2. Too bad I use the Win 2 as a UMPC + gaming handheld to more easily justify the purchase. With that touch keyboard, I wouldn’t find the Win 3 that useful as a PC and I’m not talking about work/productivity (I wouldn’t type this comment on the Win 3’s keyboard). So pass on the Win 3.

    Seems like a good gaming only handheld though. So people who can justify the price for gaming only stuff should be happy.

  3. I have retail GPD MicroPC I got for $350:
    1. The battery died twice so far (TBD on the 3rd one).
    2. The keys and mouse buttons sometimes register double presses.
    3. The mouse pointer has an annoying “inertia” thing where it keeps going a bit when you stop your thumb.
    4. The RS-232 port stopped working at some point so I’m back to USB adapters.

    For $350, I’d still tell my past self to buy the MicroPC because UMPCs are cool. However, I will not buy anything from GPD for > $400 no matter what their costs are. I hope the MicroPC 2 is $300 IGG and < $400 retail.

  4. It would be really nice if a more reputable manufacturer would make something like these or the GPD XD. There seems to be a market for these things so I’m not sure why that doesn’t happen (besides companies being overly conservative).

    1. I share the exact same opinion. I’d much rather buy something like this from a traditional retailer, where I’m given more protection as a consumer.

      And I’d also prefer if these products were developed by a company that has an interest in offering a warranty. Because that would mean they would have an invested interest in quality control.

      Call me cheap, but I’ll never risk that much money on a Chinese laptop with no warranty, much less on a pre-order…

  5. The fact that GPD continues to “hide” behind a Crowdfunding page is a bit concerning. I don’t hear particularly great things about their quality control, or their customer support.

    The fact that they choose to continue selling new products on crowdfunding pages is telling of what kind of company they are. Crowdfunding platforms take HUGE transaction fees from payments (most of them are around 10% of the amount paid), compared to most traditional e-commerce platforms which take usually less than 1%. For most groups, there is a huge motivation to move away from Crowdfunding as quickly as possible, but it isn’t easy if your products are crap. Paying 10% to a Crowdfunding site is better than losing 100% when someone claims fraud on their credit card.

    When a company chooses to continue selling new products on Crowdfunding sites, it tells me that they are concerned about mass amounts fraud chargebacks from credit card companies. Crowdfunding sites process charges along the same lines as a donation. So your credit card company isn’t going to consider helping you if you don’t receive a product, or if it is faulty.

    GPD doesn’t need to “raise capital” anymore. They’re using Crowdfunding to minimize their risk of losing money to fraud claims from unhappy customers.

    Any company with faith in their products would have moved onto selling their products on traditional channels. GPD typically only moves into selling their products elsewhere late in the product’s lifespan, which is also a telltale sign that vendors don’t want to assume the risk of pre-selling their products.

    I’d never consider buying a product from a company that launches their 3rd, 4th, or 5th product on Crowdfunding. If the product was any good, GPD would front the money themselves to develop it. Instead they want to pre-sell the product in a way that minimizes their exposure, and leaves consumers with no recourse. If they truly need to raise capital to develop new products, then that itself is telling of what kind of poor success they have had with past products.

    I like crowdfunding, but its not a sales platform that offers consumers any protection. And with their apparent lack of QC and customer support, I’m not convinced I should front money for any of their products.

    1. I’ve been wondering why GPD keeps doing crowd funding campaigns. Seems pretty shady at this point.

      I also found it odd that GPD customers seem to think this is normal practice and talk about how the IGG for x device will probably be yada yada like crowd funding is how established companies go about doing things.

    2. Every GPD device is something brand new and experimental. Their devices are all very niche with questionable market interest. Your comment would make more sense if they are making the same thing over and over again, but they are not.

      Also I don’t think they “don’t need to raise capital anymore”. If you look at prices of components they use and the prices of their devices, then their margins must be razor thin. I doubt they sell more than several thousand units and I don’t see how they could pay their engineers without crowdfunding. Their devices don’t have a very long lasting appeal, that could be sold and generate money for years, that is why I think they constantly release something new via crowdfunding.

      1. All fair points, but ultimately consumers need to do what is best for themselves. Their insistence on staying on crowdfunding isn’t the entire issue, its just a red flag given the fact that there should be a significant financial motivation to get away from crowdfunding, and the only motivation to stay on crowdfunding (that I can tell) is that it offers them less risk financially, at the expense of more risk taken by their customers.

        But in combination with the fact that they seem to offer almost no customer support, and they appear to have quality control issues, I’d never consider sending them $800 as a pre-order, even less so on a platform that offers me no financial recourse.

      2. Another thing I’ll say is that this defence of GPD’s selling strategy due to their making of niche and experimental products doesn’t add up.

        I agree that their products are unique. And yes, their low-volume nature means that profit margins are slimmer, but they spend no money on marketing, distribution, customer support, vendor support, warranties, etc…

        With all those expenses avoided, if they can’t afford to front the cash to develop a new product after launching nearly 10 different product SKUs in the past few years, then that should be an indication that they need to find another strategy. They would easily sell 10x more products if they opened a distribution channel to retailers internationally, and offered warranties.

        They’re going to run out of “early adopters” someday, people aren’t going to feel comfortable with crowdfunding products from a company that has a bad reputation.

  6. Nice idea, and I love the design. However, 60 fps on an Intel Iris Xe does not seem likely, even at 720p. You may get a decent (30-40) fps at low settings for most games, but you (most likely) won’t be able to play new games at all in about a year or two.

  7. DO NOT BUY!! I have had 3 battery failures with only two GPD devices: first my Pocket became swollen like a balloon, deforming the chassis, then my MicroPC refused to charge after the battery hit 0% – and now the replacement for that has begun to swell! Take a look at the MicroPC campaign comments and you will see hundreds of others experiencing problems – AVOID!!

  8. I got a retail Win 2: Dead battery and broken hinge. Plus some QC issues.

    IGG Win Max: Dead battery and broken screen (it had the halo issue before it broke). I’m sure the hinge will break at some point too.

    With my luck, if I get a Win 3, I’m sure the battery will die and the sliding mechanism will break among other QC problems. Although, the touch keyboard is the main deal breaker for me to not gamble on it anyway. A lot of money for something that can’t double as a UMPC very well.

    How’s One Netbook’s reliability? They’re asking for even more money for the OneGX1 Pro. I don’t mind the D-pad and I hear the controller latency was fixed on the non-Pro version already. However, I haven’t read much on the reliability front (maybe that’s a good thing?). I’m sure post-sales support is just as crappy as GPD though but if there’s a better chance of not needing to contact them, then that’s a plus.

    1. My experience is anecdotal, but there are issues with the A1. Battery drain when shutdown is the biggest one. Expect 20% battery loss in 24 hours. Don’t know about the OneGX line.

      Post sales support is not good for One Netbook. I only got a response when I hassled the official Twitter account.

      As far as GPD devices go, it’s troublesome to me that in something like 6 device iterations, they haven’t solved the battery issues. Those were problems with the GPD Win 1.

      1. Thanks for the info. While it’s anecdotal, your One Netbook experience is concerning. Seems like the prices GPD and One Netbook are asking for doesn’t quite match the quality I’d expect at those prices.

        I’ll continue looking for me reliability info on One Netbook devices. I already have an idea of GPD’s (un)reliability from my personal experience (production units at that) plus the various reports out there. Too bad it’s not looking good for One Netbook either.

  9. I have had three GPD devices now, with my current go to everyday device, the GPD Win Max. The first GPD Win had battery issues, the second one I realized I am getting old and found the screen to be too small (MS magnifying glass anyone lol). However, I gotta say, I was a backer of the Win Max and I am shocked how good it is. I do game on it, but I use it mainly as my go to computer at the Kitchen table while I watch my young kids during a very long lockdown. I’m able to get a lot of work done as well as use the ports to charge my other devices even when it is turned off (Galaxy watch, iPad, Note 10 etc) which actually helps me quite a bit with so many devices running all day in the household. With Xbox game pass, the games work pretty good on it and a lot of my older Steam games I wanted to finish. My main computers are pretty large and are in a completely different area of my house, so I find that luckily knock on wood, I didn’t get a lemon Win Max.

  10. At $800 for a GPD device that can’t really double as a handheld PC well (ie. the bad decision to use a capacitive keyboard), I just can’t convince myself to buy it. Plus, GPD quality control issues happen often enough where you seriously have to factor it in even when buying post-IGG production units.

    Anyway, I’m sure there’re enough rich kids spending their parents’ money and people who don’t mind spending that kind of money on gaming only devices to make the IGG successful.

  11. As far as I can see, it’s better to wait until after the initial issues are resolved. I bought the second gen of WIN with z8750 processor and metal cover and it still is working fine with just a scratched henge surface but no battery bloating or any of the other problems that came with the first gen except the WIFI which needs it’s driver fixed after each version upgrade in Windows.

    I recently bought a GPD WIN 2 and I have yet to experience any issues with it but I guess all the issues should be resolved by now.

  12. DO NOT BUY! Or at least buy with caution! Several months on now and GPD STILL hasn’t even begun fixing defective Win Max devices that were sent out to backers!! They have put in absolutely NO efforts to even begin fixing them.

  13. You back them up, they send you a lackluster device, with very specific charging requirements and a faulty battery, which they did acknowledge themselves but only mentioned it in their new device announcement, so if you didn’t respond quick enough, they didn’t send you a replacement. Not backing any GPD products ever again

  14. One of the main issues I have with GPD devices is the cost never matching the quality or value, why on earth would anyone dump $800+ for this? I understand the novelty of having a portable PC the size of my head for small task and some lightweight gaming, but there are laptops that can do this stuff more for cheaper. I find the design really cool though.

  15. Nearly $1,000 USD for a GPD device? No way.

    Given GPD’s track record of reliability issues and inherent design problems resulting in device failures coupled with nearly non-existent post-sales support, that is way too much money to risk losing.

    1. Given GPD’s consistent hinge problems, I wouldn’t be surprised to read users saying:

      “I slid the screen up and it just kept going. Now it’s dangling from the display’s ribbon cable. “

      or

      “The screen just flew off and shattered on the ground.”

      Losing that $1,000 is a very real problem when buying GPD devices.

  16. For that price and it won’t do non-gaming tasks well with that capacitive touch keyboard, I’m a hard pass. I can’t justify paying that kind of money for a gaming handheld. I don’t care how much the components cost GPD.

    It’s a bit easier to justify to myself getting the OneGX1 Pro LTE because it has a decent keyboard, removing the controllers is bonus for me and I always wanted LTE in my UMPCs. That is, it can do more than just gaming well in a single package. It’s unfortunate that the keyboard isn’t a thumb keyboard and it’s not a bit smaller though.

    1. I feel the same about the touch keyboard significantly diminishing the usefulness of the Win 3 outside of gaming. I can’t justify buying this for nearly $1,000.

    2. Reminds me when some idiot at GPD thought the Pocket 2 didn’t need a mouse pointer. Maybe they didn’t fire that person and ended up working on the Win 3.

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