ZOTAC ZONE is powered by AMD Ryzen 7 8840U

We obtained a spec sheet of the upcoming ZONE gaming handheld.

A new handheld is on the horizon, this time from ZOTAC, better known for its graphics cards and Mini-PCs. The gaming handheld market is entirely new for this company, but it’s not their first gaming-oriented product. ZOTAC previously offered VR backpacks . A handheld device will need much less power and be much easier to carry; however, it is not powerful enough to support a VR headset.

According to the spec sheet that we obtained, the ZONE handheld will use an 8-core Ryzen 7 8840U processor . The company has only confirmed its Ryzen APU, which means it’s the latest Hawk Point variant and not the Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip speculated by other media. This also means it will use Radeon 780M integrated graphics featuring 12 RDNA3 Compute Units. The specs mention it will run at 15W by default, but it can be unlocked up to 28W.

In terms of the screen, it’s a 7-inch 120Hz AMOLED display with a maximum brightness of 800 nits . More importantly, it has a 1080p resolution, so it’s the same size, resolution, and refresh rate as the ROG Ally, but the technology is entirely different. Onboard, there is 16GB of LPDDR5X memory, which probably means 7500 MT/s. The device supports M.2 2280 SSDs, and it comes with 512GB storage by default.

The battery size is 48.5 Wh , and ZOTAC estimates 1.25 hours of runtime. Battery life will definitely not be a strong point for this handheld. Especially given the upcoming Ally X featuring 80 Wh battery.

The demo unit, which will be shown at Computex next week, is not a final version of the device. For this reason, the weight is not listed precisely, but it is said to be lower than 700 grams.

ZOTAC confirms that the ZONE will launch next quarter without specifying the exact date. Regarding pricing, we learned that ZOTAC is expected to price it higher, given it’s a premium handheld with an AMOLED display, but the exact pricing is yet to be determined. Furthermore, there are no details on the system user interface, which is incredibly important for a gaming handheld.

Handheld Gaming Consoles Specs
VideoCardz	ZOTAC ZONE 🆕	ASUS ROG Ally X 🆕	ASUS ROG Ally 2023	Lenovo Legion Go	Valve Steam Deck OLED
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Architecture	AMD Zen4 & RDNA3	AMD Zen4 & RDNA3	AMD Zen4 & RDNA3	AMD Zen4 & RDNA3	AMD Zen2 & RDNA2
APU	AMD Ryzen 7 8840U 8C/16T up to 5.1 GHz	Ryzen Z1 Extreme 8C/16T up to 5.1 GHz	Ryzen Z1 Extreme 8C/16T up to 5.1 GHz or Ryzen Z1 6C/12T up to 4.9 GHz	Ryzen Z1 Extreme 8C/16T up to 5.1 GHz or Ryzen Z1 6C/12T up to 4.9 GHz	AMD Sephiroth (6nm) 4C/8T up to 3.5 GHz
SoC GPU	AMD iGPU 12CU @ 2.7 GHz	AMD iGPU 12CU @ 2.7 GHz	AMD iGPU 12CU @ 2.7 GHz [Z1E] 4CU @ 2.5 GHz [Z1]	AMD iGPU 12CU @ 2.7 GHz [Z1E] 4CU @ 2.5 GHz [Z1]	AMD iGPU 8CU @ 1.6 GHz
External GPU	USB4	USB4	ROG XG Mobile (up to RTX 4090)	USB4	Not officially
Memory Capacity	16GB LPDDR5X-7500	24GB LPDDR5X-7500	16GB LPDDR5-6400	16GB LPDDR5X-7500	16GB LPDDR5-6400
Storage Capacity	512GB	1TB	512GB	1TB/512GB	512GB/1TB SSD
Storage Type	M.2 NVMe 2280 SSD PCIe 4×4	M.2 NVMe 2280 SSD PCIe 4×4	M.2 NVMe 2230 SSD PCIe 4×4	M.2 NVMe 2242 SSD PCIe 4×4	M.2 NVMe 2230 SSD PCIe 3×4
Display	7″ 1080p AMOLED 120Hz, 800 nits	7″ 1080p, 120Hz, 500 nits, 7ms, VRR	7″ 1080p, 120Hz, 500 nits, 7ms, VRR	8.8″1600P IPS, 144Hz, 500 nits	7.4″ 800p OLED, 90 Hz
Connectivity	TBC	Wi-Fi 6E, BT 5.2	Wi-Fi 6E, BT 5.2	Wi-Fi 6E, BT 5.2	Wi-Fi 6E, BT 5.3
Battery	48.5 Wh	80 Wh	40 Wh	49.2 Wh, 900 mAh	50 Wh
Weight	< 700g	678g	608g	854g	640 g
Dimensions (L×W×H)	TBC	28.0 × 11.4 × 3.7 cm	28.0 × 11.7 × 3.2 cm	29.9 × 13.1 × 4.1 cm	29.8 × 11.7 × 4.9 cm
Default OS	Windows 11	Windows 11	Windows 11	Windows 11	Steam OS/Win 11
Retail Price	TBC	TBC	$699/€799 [Z1E] $599/€699 [Z1]	$749 [Z1E+1TB] $699/€799 [1E+512GB]	$649/€679 [1TB] $549/€569 [512GB]
Release Date	Q3 2024	June 2024	June 2023 [Z1E] September 2023 [Z1]	October 31, 2023	November 2023

Source: VideoCardz