Wistron Dual Fusion: iF Design Award winner reimagines the dividing line between laptop and gaming handheld

Devices like the Lenovo Legion Go or Asus ROG Ally (curr. $406.99 - refurbished on Amazon) have been doing their best impressions as gaming handhelds in the last few years, despite being Windows PCs at their core. Wistron has now inverted that paradigm with the Dual Fusion, which effectively makes a laptop out of a gaming handheld.

On the face of it, the Dual Fusion looks like a compact laptop with an oversized trackpad. However, the trackpad is actually a display linked to a removable housing, much like Acer's Project DualPlay concept showcased at IFA 2024 last September. While the Project DualPlay imagines this detachable portion as a controller, the Dual Fusion uses hinges to hide the gaming handheld's buttons when they are not in use.

The Dual Fusion is a concept, not a retail device, just like the Compal Infinite before it. As a result, it is unlikely to ever see the light of day in its current form, if at all. Nonetheless, the proof of concept has been awarded an iF Design Award; Wistron would have paid for the Dual Fusion to be considered by iF Design.