The Topton L21 is brand new small 10.5 inch touchscreen handheld game console that aims to fill in the budget segment of handheld game consoles. To keep costs low Topton have opted to use the Intel N95 CPU with 4 cores, 4 threads and a turbo frequency of 3.4GHz. At first glance this seems unusual given the popularity of the Intel N100 CPU that offers a bump in performance for not much more. Not to mention the Intel N97, N150 and N300 offering better performance.
Interestingly Topton have included two removeable joysticks that initially remind you of the Nintendo Switch joycons. They feature the buttons you’d expect – two joysticks, dpad, ABXY buttons and L/R triggers. Don’t expect to find hall effect triggers with these. he handheld has an inbuilt kickstand and it can be used as a tablet without the controllers.
Under the hood this handheld has a single M.2 NVMe 2280 SSD slot for storage, a single DDR4 SODIMM slot for up to 32GB of RAM at 3200MHz and Intel 12th Gen UHD Graphics.
Given these hardware specifications this handheld is an excellent choice for those wanting to do emulation gaming, or very light Windows gaming. Anything high end, like Cyberpunk, Robolox and other AA/AAA titles will not be suitable.
For connectivity there is WiFi dual band, Bluetooth 4.2 and for ports there’s both a USB-A 3.1 5Gbps port and a USB-C port. It’s not clear if the USB-C port supports Display Out, however Topton have mentioned that USB-PD power delivery charging is not supported. Instead charging of the 4500mAh 4.7V battery is via the DC port.
Currently the Topton L21 Intel N100 handheld gaming console is available from AliExpress with prices starting from $265 USD.
Since this article was published, CRELANDER have since released their version of the console on AliExpress.
Topton L21 Specifications
- Display: 10.5″ touchscreen with 1920×1280 Resolution
- CPU: 12th Gen Intel Alder Lake N95, 4 cores 4 threads, up to 3.4GHz
- GPU: 12th Gen Intel UHD Graphics
- Memory: DDR4 SODIMM RAM (8GB-32GB)
- Storage: M.2 NVMe 2280 SSD (128GB-2TB)
- OS: Windows 11 Pro (Activated)
- Connectivity: WiFi ac 2.4GHz/5GHz, Bluetooth 4.2
- Ports: DC Power, USB 3.1 5Gbps, USB-C (PD passthrough not supported), 3.5mm Audio, microSD slot
- Camera: 2.0MP 30fps
- Battery: 4500mAh lithium, 7.4V
- Power Adapter: 12V/2.5A
- Weight: ~1kg
- Product size: 235 x 170 x 20mm
