Zotac reveals first-ever gaming handheld to battle ROG Ally X & Steam Deck
Zotac has entered the PC gaming handheld ring with the Zotac Zone, a new Windows-powered handheld that’s big in size and price.
There’s no shortage of PC gaming handhelds. Whether it’s theSteam Deckor the never-ending supply of boutiqueAyaneo handhelds, there’s one everywhere you look in every shape and design you can imagine.
Despite this ongoing onslaught of portable gaming devices, Zotac, a name mostly associated with mini PCs, has announced a handheld of its own. Set to be a Windows-powered device similar to that of theAsus ROG Ally, the Zotac Zone will mark the first instance of a gaming handheld by the PC brand Zotac, and is set to be powered by the AMD Ryzen 7 8840U APU.
Theupcoming handheldis currently being shown off at the Zotac booth at Computex 2024. The AMD Zen 4-based handheld will feature 16GB of LPDDR5X memory, a 512GB M.2 NVMe SSD, along with WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 support.
According to Zotac, the handheld also features an AMOLED 7-inch “multi-touch” display with a 120 Hz refresh rate, and a front-facing camera, something we haven’t seen on a handheld since the PS Vita.
Zotac also boasts that the Zone will come with two-stage adjustable triggers andhall effect sticks, to fight against any stick drift issues. Unlike the Valve handheld, the Zotac Zone is expected to be one of the biggest handhelds there is.
A full specs sheet obtained byvideocardzrevealed that the handheld is expected to weigh just under 700g and come in at 12.2 x 5.3 x 1.5 inches. The reasoning behind its hefty size isn’t known. Whereas theAsus ROG Ally Xweighs more than its predecessor likely because of its new 80 Wh battery, the Zone is only expected to launch with a 48.5 Wh battery.
Its price point is also on the large size. According to a report byGeeknetic, the Zotac Zone is expected to launch at $800. This is a steep contrast to the Steam Deck, where even the 1TB OLED model is $151 cheaper than the alleged Zone MSRP.
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