The GPD Win 3 is a powerful handheld PC and quite possibly one of the most eye-catching products of its kind currently available. It has a small uniform body, a cool slide-up screen that reveals a sleek touch keyboard underneath, as well as a full array of buttons you’d need for any console game. Unfortunately, one huge flaw let it down in my eyes. The ergonomics. If you played anything that made heavy use of the d-pad and the face buttons, you’d soon discover how uncomfortable their placement under the thumb-sticks is. GPD was quick to announce a new silicone grip in an attempt to make it less of an issue, and it has finally made its way into the customer’s hands. Is it worth the hefty 40 dollar price tag? Let’s find out.
Once you see it in person, you’ll surely notice a big difference in how they described the product and how it appeared in the promotional pics. It is nowhere near as translucent. This is more of a huge slab of grayish silicon. I don’t have a silver model of the device, but with my black unit, it looks just fine. Regardless, this isn’t the type of grip you’d equip if you care about looks. It serves a functional purpose, yet in my opinion, it heavily harms the premium look of the Win 3. That being said, I’d much rather have a comfortable gaming experience than worry about its appearance.
Wrapping the grip around the device is a pretty straightforward process. The simplest method I’ve found is to fold the top section and slide the device in. Removing it is just as easy. You simply fold the top and pull it out from either side. This will become rather important as I’ve been told it does not work with the Win 3’s dock. I don’t own the official GPD Win 3 carrying case either, but the cheapo one I use that was made for the Switch Lite is too small if the grip is around the device. Looking at pictures of the official cases, I’d wager it is much the same story on that front, though you should take that statement with a grain of salt. It only appears that this grip was a knee-jerk response to the outcry about the Win 3’s ergonomics as it doesn’t fit into the prior ecosystem.
Despite the negatives I’ve listed so far, it is undeniable that a lot of thought and care was put into the design of this grip. It has a downward curvature at the bottom to allow access for the mouse/gamepad toggle, is low enough to flip the screen up and access the keyboard, and even has a small puncture up top for that well-hidden mic I’d bet most Win 3 owners didn’t even spot. It adds about 3 inches to the overall length and an inch & a half for its height. That increase in overall size makes a world’s difference, as do the curvatures. The primary curvatures are found at the bottom sides for your hands to comfortably grip and the bottom back for your fingers to rest on. It feels really darn nice in comparison to how it is without the grip wrapping the device. This makes using the d-pad and face buttons an indescribably better experience. Its curvature on the back and the depth added by the cutouts in the silicone also make accessing the extra buttons far easier to use. You could actually use them for reliable additional inputs in games now, while in the past, they’d be for infrequent micros such as taking pics or something of that nature that didn’t require a fast reaction.
Also noteworthy is the increased protrusion of the power and volume buttons. It is far more pleasant to find and press them and easily differentiate between them. This was never much of an issue in the first place, but it just makes it less likely for one to accidentally press the power button while scrambling for the nearby volumes keys. There are cutouts for the USB A and C ports, the audio jack & mic, and the airflow vents. It retains all of its functionality. Nothing is blocked for use by having this case on, other than fitting into the Win 3’s Dock or a carrying case. While not necessarily an impediment, per se, it could have allowed more airflow from their small cutouts for the speakers. It has a dual vertical and horizontal silicone layer that does make the audio sound muffled. The cutout simply doesn’t allow the audio to freely get through and traps it inside, degrading the quality of these decent for what they are speakers. I fully intend to cut a hole around this area after taking pictures of the grip for this review.
Another area I intend to cut out myself is the area in the back with the GPD logo. Having easily identifiable brand recognition is nothing new, but their placement is questionable, to say the least. It covers an extreme amount of the vent to let the air flow in. All that is left is a small square directly around the fan. Your device will get hotter due to this, even if you can’t feel it, thanks to the silicon being between you and the device itself. The entire area directly atop the intake vent serves no purpose and is just for show. It looks cool but doesn’t let any air in or make it more comfortable for the user. Why couldn’t they just remove it entirely and have their brand there instead of choking the system’s air intake?
Something I’ve found from testing out a couple of games to give this thing a fair shake is that it does make it slightly more challenging to use the back L2 & R2 triggers. The added width in the sides and its cut around the triggers are too modest. The cut around them should have been more. It feels too square-shaped now. Pressing those back triggers requires a finger position similar to that of going for L1 or R1, i.e., going at them directly from the top. This is nothing deal-breaking. I just find reaching those back-triggers a better experience without the grip. My personal use case for this grip is to strap it on the device whenever playing a non-shooter. It is easy to remove or put back in. Using the triggers isn’t unbearable by any means, so many will just opt to not bother as the grips do make everything that is not a shooter much more playable. I’m pretty sure I got hand damage testing out fighting games for my original GPD Win 3 review, and now this grip has me booting them up willingly.
Jokes aside, while I do have problems with the GPD brand covering up a ton of intake air for the device and the speakers being slightly muffled from not leaving enough space for the sound to exit freely, this is a rather solid grip. It even enhances the Win 3 in unexpected ways. When I’m playing anything that is not an FPS, you can bet I’ll be having it on. The thing is, this will cost forty US dollars. That is a significant sum to alleviate a design issue from your $1000+ priced device made specifically for gaming. It’s not like this is a carrying case or a secondary accessory along those lines. The ergonomics directly affected its primary purpose, and the added price is a bit much all that considered. I don’t mean to be overly harsh with GPD, and to be fair, that is the risk of innovation from their usual clam-shell design in all of their previous products. This is all something I simply feel everyone reading should know before considering buying this grip or the Win 3 device itself. It is an overall good solution to fix a bad design and lets the Win 3’s excellent buttons truly shine.
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