Zotac Gaming is the latest hardware manufacturer to break into the handheld gaming market. It has just been revealed that the ‘Zotac Gaming Zone’ is available to preorder. Zotac unveiled the Zone at Computex 2024 in June, announcing its intention to enter the growing handheld gaming race.
This means that the Zotac Gaming Zone will start to compete with the likes of the ROG Ally, the Lenovo Legion Go, Steam Deck, and MSI Claw.
Next Generation
The Zotac Gaming Zone is a fine contender compared to the current market leaders. It boasts an AMD Ryzen 7 8840U with RDNA 3 graphics and Zen 4 architecture for maximum gaming power. It enters the running with 16 GB of LPDDR5X-7500 RAM, which means it’s half as capable in that respect as the ROG Ally X released just weeks ago.
Out of the box, the Zotac Gaming Zone features a full HD AMOLED display, which is the best screen currently available in the realm of handhelds. It will be capable of putting out a 120Hz refresh rate and is rated at 800nits of brightness, which edges out the ROG Ally X and the new MSI Claw.
It’s perhaps restricted slightly by the 512 GB NVMe SSD, but it does have a UHS-II microSD card reader for expansions.
Perhaps where the Zotac Gaming Zone shines the brightest is in the overall build of the unit and the controls. It features a few innovations that are sure to make it stand out among the competition:
- Drift-resistant analog sticks
- Hall-effect triggers with two-stage adjustment
- Radial dials around the sticks for on-the-fly tweaking
- Dual trackpads (like the Steam Deck)
- Dual USB ports rated for rapid charging
- Front-facing camera and onboard microphone
All that and it also has a touch of RGB to really impress the gamer in you.
It hasn’t been confirmed how much the Zotac Gaming Zone will cost, but it’s expected to retail for around $800. It was recently announced that the Zone will be playable at Gamescom, so we’ll be hands-on with the device later this week.
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