Zotac already teased that the Zone would have an OLED display, one thing that solely the Steam Deck OLED has managed in PC handhelds earlier than — in addition to two-stage adjustable triggers like an Xbox Elite gamepad and drift resistant Corridor impact joysticks. However do you know it’ll even have symmetrical PlayStation-esque joysticks, programmable dials round each, twin Steam Deck-like trackpads, a small built-in kickstand, a Home windows Whats up digicam as a substitute of a fingerprint reader, and each prime and backside USB4 ports?
The hand held’s powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 8840U chip, and also you shouldn’t essentially anticipate lots from it — it’s largely the identical because the 7840U that powered prior handhelds, with the identical Radeon 780M iGPU inside. However just like the ROG Ally X and Lenovo Legion Go, it does improve to LPDDR5X-7500 reminiscence, which seemingly gave the Legion a slight efficiency bump over the unique Ally — and at a extra modest 1080p decision.
Much less pleasingly, Zotac seems to have outfitted it with a modest 48.5 watt-hour battery pack as effectively, smaller than that of the Steam Deck OLED and vastly smaller than the 80Wh packs that Asus and MSI simply introduced — and its 7-inch 120Hz OLED display doesn’t assist variable refresh charge any greater than the Steam Deck’s one did. It does sound good and shiny at 800 nits, nonetheless, and I’m intrigued by the programmable jog dials.
As chances are you’ll know, Zotac was one of many first corporations to attempt AirJet’s intriguing solid-state cooling tech in a mini-PC, and PCWorld’s Adam Murray took the chance to ask if Zotac was planning to make use of the tech in a handheld, too. However whereas AirJet maker Frore Methods appears to assume it’d work, Zotac urged the present AirJet isn’t but designed to chill chips as excessive wattage because the 8840U — and that value may additionally be a priority. For now, the Zone has a single conventional fan and a few smallish vents to assist hold it cool.
In accordance to Geeknetic, the Zone ought to value round $800 in September of this 12 months. That’s on the excessive finish of client gaming handhelds, although the Ally X, with its dramatically larger battery, can also be launching at that value.
Zotac, if you happen to’re studying this: we’re pleased to get the small print from you subsequent time!