ZONE has AMOLED screen and AMD’s Ryzen 8000 processor, but it is not a small device
ZOTAC is finally presenting its ZONE gaming handheld at Computex
ZOTAC, better known for its high-end graphics cards and Mini-PCs, is entering a market of gaming handhelds. It will take a few months before gamers get their hands on the ZONE, company’s first handheld.
The new handheld is officially announced to sport Ryzen 7 8840U APU (Hawk Point), which is an 8-core Zen4 processor with 12 RDNA3 Compute Units. ZOTAC is not confirming at what TDP the device will run, but we have already exclusively revealed that the default TDP is 15W and maximum is 28W.
The new handheld features a AMOLED screen of 7 inches and a 120Hz refresh rate. It is now confirmed to be native portrait screen, which some gamers do not like considering lackluster Windows and game support for this type of panel. Some say it only affects a small number of screens and gamers, but even during our testing of handhelds we often encounter issue of games displaying in a wrong direction. Definitely something to be aware of. It is also revealed that the handheld has no VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) support, as it uses a MIPI screen.
The handheld is also quite large, measuring 31.0 × 13.5 × 4.0 cm officially, which is larger than Steam Deck. The screen is only 7 inches in size, but it has a relatively large bezel. The handheld is even bigger than the new ROG Ally X which features a 64% larger battery.
According to the reports, ZOTAC plans to launch its gaming handheld in September, with a pricing has been more or less confirmed to be around $800 USD/EUR (reports Geeknetic ). This is a high price for a device that won’t even feature the latest APU at the time (Ryzen AI 300 will be released at that point). It seems that ZOTAC is making the same mistake MSI made with the Claw handheld, which is pricing their device at a premium when there are better alternatives.
| Handheld Gaming Consoles Specs | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VideoCardz | ZOTAC ZONE 🆕 | ASUS ROG Ally X 🆕 | ASUS ROG Ally 2023 | Lenovo Legion Go | Valve Steam Deck OLED |
| Picture |  |  |  |  |  |
| 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 PCIe4x4 | M.2 NVMe 2280 SSD PCIe4x4 | M.2 NVMe 2230 SSD PCIe4x4 | M.2 NVMe 2242 SSD PCIe4x4 | M.2 NVMe 2230 SSD PCIe3x4 |
| 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 | Wi-Fi 6E, BT 5.2 | 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) | 31.0 × 13.5 × 4.0 cm | 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: Pierre Le Goupil , OKestGamer , Geeknetic , Cary Golomb