The GPD Win 3 is a handheld gaming computer with a 5.5 inch touchscreen display surrounded by built-in game controllers, a slide-out capacitive touch keyboard, and an Intel Tiger Lake processor.
When GPD began taking orders for the Win 3 earlier this year it was available with choice of Intel Core i5-1135G7 or Intel Core i7-1165G7 processors. But now the company has announced that it’s upgrading the higher-end model to a Core i7-1195G7 chip.
GPD says backers of the Win 3 crowdfunding campaign who ordered a model with a Core i7-1165G7 processor but whose devices have not yet shipped will automatically be upgraded to a Core i7-1195G7 processor.
Or if you didn’t back the campaign, you can order a new GPD Win 3 with a Core i7-1195G7 processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. It’s available from AliExpress for $1125.
While GPD is phasing out the Core i7-1165G7 model, it’s likely that it will take a while for other stores that stock the computer to sell through remaining inventory, so prices and availability will likely vary from retailer to retailer.
The new processor is based on the same Tiger Lake architecture, but it has higher CPU and graphics frequencies, which should deliver slightly better performance in some situations.
Name | Cores / Threads | TDP | Base / Boost | Graphics EUs | Graphics Max | Cache | Memory |
i7-1195G7 | 4 / 8 | 12 – 28W | 2.9 GHz / 5 GHz | 96 | 1.4 GHz | 12MB | DDR4-3200 LPDDR4x-4266 |
i7-1165G7 | 4 / 8 | 12-28W | 2.8 GHz / 4.7 GHz | 96 | 1.3 GHz | 12MB | DDR4-3200 LPDDR4x-4266 |
i5-1135G7 | 4 / 8 | 12-28W | 2.4 GHz / 4.2 GHz | 80 | 1.3 GHz | 8MB | DDR4-3200 LPDDR4x-4266 |
I’m done with GPD. They do not support their devices when they have a 5% – 10% chance of having issues.
I’m going to take my “chances” with the Steam Deck for my next gaming handheld next year. It’s less expensive and Valve is more likely to have good customer service looking at the Index headset.
The Win 3 also got a SD card reader spec downgrade to USB 2.0 speeds.
I just can’t recommend GPD at all. They make unreliable devices and the specs you get is a random assortment of whatever they have in the parts bin.
I clicked on the IGG link and read some of the comments. GPD’s still the same since the Win 1 when I first heard of them:
They’re borderline scammers.
They’re not. It’s a small innovative company doing surprisingly well in a very tough tech business environment. They can make mistakes, and it does seem the Win 3 was not flawless, but I’m typing this on my trusty Win Max from last year so I can tell you they’re not scammers. Very happy with the thing after a year of use, almost considered upgrading to the Win Max 2021.
While it’s good for you that you got a good device, I cannot recommend buying from GPD directly, because it’s very much true that they do not care about you as soon as they have your money.
From the unnanounced changes to their specs, their handling of problems like:
Devices being dead on arrival
People not getting tracking numbers, devices not arriving and then after months of waiting, AFTER HAVING TO ASK ABOUT THE STATUS, being told to fork over another $290 because “The package got sent back” (multiple occurences, documented on the IGG page and reddit)
Used devices with scratches being sent to new customers (probably returned devices)
Not to mention quality issues that have lasted for multiple device generations like:
– The batteries dying within weeks to just a few months
– The BiWin SSD doing what BiWin SSDs do – dying within days
And the shady way they changed the IGG page to remove most mentions (most because they forgot to change the image because CTRL+F does not find text in images and they couldn’t even be bothered to do QC there on their totally-not-shady post-launch changes) of WiFi 6 speeds when it came out that a ton of devices got the wrong WiFi chip. Thank god someone saved the versions of it in the internet archive.
Not to mention in their latest IGG campaign for the Max 2021, they advertised a 500 NITS display.. that turned out to be barely 350 NITS, closer to 330 NITS when actually tested.
They are certainly not above trying to scam and defraud customers.
Have you read how they handle customers who had issues? GPD pretty much scams them.
Doesn’t matter if they’re a small company. There are some pretty high expectations when spending $1000+ USD.
They can ride on those excuses for their 1st to maybe 3rd product launch. After a dozen products they’re still not doing proper QA and QC before shipping out to their customers. They don’t honour warranties. And they hide behind crowdfunding platforms to ensure they don’t get credit card chargebacks or fraud reports (crowdfunding platforms charge several times more in fees than traditional e-commerce platforms, so there’s zero attraction to using them outside of exposure, which they don’t need).
There’s a major difference between USB 2.0 vs USB 3.0 SD card reader speeds. Much more noticeable than the differences in these CPUs and the “Wi-Fi gate” debacle if you use SD cards.
This upgrade is giving you ~400MHz extra on the CPU, and ~100MHz extra on the iGPU, at a slight battery life penalty. So its hardly going to make a difference or matter to the overall experience.
If they GPD, gave this upgrade, improved their QC/warranty, swapped the touchpad for a keyboard, did cost-cutting to 512GB SSD, removed Windows license, and sold it at all at a much cheaper price (USD $800). Then this thing could actually be enticing, and compete against the Aya Neo and Steam Deck.
As it stands, the Steam Deck is literally giving you more performance, better manufacturing/customer experience, all at a cheaper price. GPD’s only advantages of doesn’t actually matter, such as ThunderBolt since its pointless for eGPU, and its smaller size since these are not pocketable, and both need to be carried in a backpack. This is not a good year for GPD.
Yeah, with the increased size of the Win 3, it’s no longer pocketable. The Win 2 was the limit to being pocketable for me. The clam shell form factor helped with pocketability too.
If I need to carry a bag anyway, what’s “portable” becomes a looser term which includes the Steam Deck. It’s a far more competitive device due to being from Valve: Steam Deck > anything from GPD.
I’m not spending $1000+ USD on a GPD device that has a non-trivial chance of breaking in less than year. Maybe arrive DOA with no option to replace/refund.
did you hold steamdeck in your hand? how do you know it is better?
or people like you said that steamdeck is good because “another dude say so”?
Valve > GPD scammers