Huawei Starry One gaming handheld rumours debunked after sketchy image posted online

Huawei is gearing up to bring the world's first tri-fold smartphone to global audiences later this month. By contrast, Samsung is expected to persist with the Galaxy Z Fold6 (curr. $1,499 on Amazon) until at least the summer. By contrast, it is still unclear when Samsung's first tri-fold will be ready at this stage.

The latter is rumoured to be considering releasing a gaming handheld too, although this seems to be at an even earlier stage of development than its debut tri-fold. A recent rumour appeared to suggest that Huawei was close to beating Samsung to a new market once again. According to YouTuber Retro Gaming with Deadfred, an apparent screenshot of the Huawei 'Starry One' gaming handheld has been doing the rounds on Chinese social media.

While one would reasonably expect a Huawei-powered gaming handheld to run HarmonyOS over other operating systems, there are tell-tale signs that the image has been AI-generated in one form or another. For example, a pair of A and X buttons can be made out, all with visible distortion. Likewise, the area to the right of the device's left shoulder button simply runs out rather than having defined edges. As a result, we suspect that this is nothing more than fancruft until more reliable evidence surfaces separately.