A curious new AMD gaming handheld has just launched from Chinese manufacturer GPD, which enables you to hook up an external GPU. The new GPD Win Max 2 2025 is more than just a typical handheld too, with a two-in-one design that includes a bigger touchscreen display, integrated keyboard, and gamepad controls – it feels more like a mini gaming laptop.
Unusual design or not, don’t dismiss this new GPD handheld, because it has a few tricks up its sleeve. The new Strix Point AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 APU it uses gives it a competitive edge against some of the best handheld gaming PCs you can currently buy, and as earlier HX 370 benchmarks show, it could stamp over any Intel-powered alternatives right now.
While this 2025 edition of the Win Max 2 isn’t the first hybrid mini laptop handheld that GPD has launched, the form factor stands out among its competitors. It weighs 2.21lb, measures 8.93 x 6.29 x 0.9 inches in size, and has a 10.1-inch, 10-point touchscreen display. Above the keyboard, there’s also a panel with gamepad controls, including D-Pads, back triggers, and analog sticks.
Under the hood, the new HX 370 APU with its integrated Radeon 980M GPU should, theoretically, make this handheld pretty solid for 1080p gaming in its own right, but there’s an ace up its sleeve – an OCuLink port.
While it hasn’t gained huge popularity just yet, OCuLink technology allows you to connect external PCIe devices such as graphics cards, meaning you could easily hook up one of the best graphics cards, such as the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090, to the GPD Win Max 2 2025 using an external GPU enclosure.
The latest standard of OCuLink supports eight PCIe 4.0 lanes, so you don’t get the full 16 lanes, but that’s still enough bandwidth to cope with a powerful GPU. The GPD handheld also supports Thunderbolt GPU enclosures, thanks to the supplied USB 4.0 port.
Incredible graphics potential aside, the GPD Win Max 2 2025 also includes 64GB of LPDDR5X-7500 RAM – that’s a stonking amount for any handheld, and easily beats the 16GB in the Steam Deck OLED. There’s also plenty of storage, with 1TB and 2TB capacity options on offer, with support for both 2280 and 2230 M.2 form factor expansions.
The handheld also includes a microSD slot and several USB ports, including USB-C 4.0 and USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, along with a HDMI 2.1 port. The GPD Win Max 2 2025 also includes Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 6E connections, and it even has a built-in LTE 4G modem for portable internet access.
According to GPD, the Win Max 2 2025’s 67Wh battery should offer up to nine hours of battery life during light usage, although only 2.5 hours during intensive gameplay.
If you’re looking for a foldable mini gaming device that’s both a gaming laptop and a mini gaming handheld PC, but with the potential to use desktop-quality graphics cards, then the GPD Win Max 2 2025 should seriously be on your radar. It’s going to be expensive though, costing around $1,463, which is several hundred dollars more than an Asus ROG Ally X.
If the price doesn’t put you off, however, you can grab it via Indiegogo right now, with deliveries expected to begin this month. Although GPD hasn’t commented on any other plans, we’d assume a wider retail launch will occur in the near future, should the device prove popular.
Want a machine that’s a bit bigger for your portable gaming sessions? Check out our best gaming laptop guide for some high-powered alternatives, with bigger screens and more powerful specs than this hybrid handheld.