ZOTAC ZONE preorders start at €849/£849: Is it too late and too expensive?
ZONE pricing may be an issue.
ZOTAC, which has a strong presence in Germany, has just unveiled its first-ever gaming handheld, the ZONE, at Gamescom, an event held in the same country. The company has confirmed the pricing and announced that the product will be launching soon. Today, we have an update on the release date and preorders.
Speaking of preorders, while we generally don’t encourage preordering, it’s worth noting that, at least within the European Union, customers can return items at no cost, so that shouldn’t be much of a concern. What should be a concern, however, is the ZONE’s pricing, which is, quite frankly, too high for what the device offers.
The ZONE is powered by the Ryzen 7 8840U, the same silicon found in the Ryzen Z1 and Ryzen 7040 series, with minor changes to NPU (Neural Processing Unit) speed or its absence (the Z1 doesn’t have NPU enabled). The key detail is that all these chips share the same underlying architecture, which is Zen 4 and RDNA 3. Performance differences between devices using these APUs should largely depend on the power profiles they use and their thermal characteristics, which can also affect clock speeds.
ZONE Pricing in Europe
We checked on ZONE availability and found the first listings for these handhelds in Europe, particularly in Germany, the United Kingdom, and Poland. The ZONE is now listed for sale at €849, £849, and 3,899 PLN, respectively. Depending on the region, this pricing is comparable to what one would pay for the ROG Ally X, which costs €899, £799, and 3,899 PLN in the same countries.
According to German Caseking, the ZONE will be in stock on September 12th, while the Polish retailer says it will be in stock on 24th.
So, what does the ZONE offer that other handhelds do not? Its main feature is the 7-inch AMOLED screen, the first AMD Phoenix handheld device to feature this technology. Most companies are still using IPS screens. On the other hand, the system only offers 512GB of storage by default and 16GB of LPDDR5X memory, which is much less compared to the 1TB SSD and 24GB RAM on the Ally X.
ZONE handheld, Source: ZOTAC
The ZOTAC ZONE has no reviews yet, aside from a few hands-on videos from Gamescom. While the hardware might be great, there’s much more to consider, such as software, drivers, and real-world testing, including battery life and screen performance. As of now, it seems that the ZOTAC ZONE is launching too late and at an absurdly high price, especially considering it’s the company’s first system of this kind and in comparison to competitors. It’s worth noting that the ROG Ally 2023 and Legion Go are now often available for under $600. The Legion Go, for example, is currently retailing at $542 , which looks much better compared to the ZOTAC ZONE $799 MSRP.
| Premium Handheld Gaming Consoles | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VideoCardz | ZOTAC ZONE 🆕 | ASUS ROG Ally X | ASUS ROG Ally 2023 | Lenovo Legion Go |
| Picture |  |  |  |  |
| Architecture | AMD Zen4 & RDNA3 | AMD Zen4 & RDNA3 | AMD Zen4 & RDNA3 | AMD Zen4 & RDNA3 |
| 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 |
| 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] |
| External GPU | USB4 | USB4 | ROG XG Mobile (up to RTX 4090) | USB4 |
| Memory Capacity | 16GB LPDDR5X-7500 | 24GB LPDDR5X-7500 | 16GB LPDDR5-6400 | 16GB LPDDR5X-7500 |
| Storage Capacity | 512GB | 1TB | 512GB | 1TB/512GB |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Battery | 48.5 Wh | 80 Wh | 40 Wh | 49.2 Wh, 900 mAh |
| Weight | < 700g | 678g | 608g | 854g |
| 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 |
| Default OS | Windows 11 | Windows 11 | Windows 11 | Windows 11 |
| Retail Price | $799/€849 | $799/€899 | $699/€799 [Z1E] $599/€699 [Z1] | $699/€799 [1E+512GB] |
| Release Date | September 2024 | June 2024 | June 2023 [Z1E] September 2023 [Z1] | October 31, 2023 |
Source: VideoCardz