ZOTAC has unveiled its brand new ZONE handheld gaming console which packs an AMD Ryzen 7 8840U & launches this September for $800 US.
ZOTAC Zone Goes All Out With AMD Hawk Point APUs, LPDDR5X Memory, Stunning AMOLED Design With Launch Planned For September
There's no doubt that 2024 is the year of the PC gaming handhelds with almost every big and small brand offering one of their design. Now, ZOTAC has also unveiled its brand new gaming handheld which aims to be a little bit different than the other offerings so let's start with the specifications.
The ZOTAC Zone gaming handheld will feature the AMD Ryzen 7 8840U APU which packs 8 cores based on the Zen 4 core architecture, up to 5.1 GHz clock speeds, 16 threads, and a Radeon 780M iGPU with a total of 12 compute units.
This chip can be configured between 15-30W and has been one of the most popular choices for the handheld market in its Ryzen 7040 and Ryzen Z1 variants which are essentially the same thing with some minor tunings. The Ryzen Z1 offers some additional power management for low-power platforms like handhelds while the Hawk Point Ryzen 8040 APUs feature higher AI TOPs.
Other specifications of the ZOTAC Zone gaming handheld include 16 GB of LPDDR5X memory running at 7500 MT/s and 16 GB capacities. It has 512 GB of M.2 NVMe SSD storage based on the PCIe 4.0 standard and is a 2280 slot design that can be upgraded.
The display on the ZOTAC Zone is quite the thing, boasting a 7-inch FHD (1920x1080) AMOLED panel with multi-touch capabilities. The screen is going to have a maximum brightness of 800 nits. The battery is a 48.5 WH pack. I/O on the ZONE includes a 3.5mm headphone jack, 2 USB4 (Displayport 1.4 + PD 3.0), and a UHD-II MicroSD card reader. The Zone also boasts some additional features such as a 2-stage adjustable trigger layout and Radial dials. There's also a front-facing camera and the touch pad is a dual-design. Wireless connectivity includes WIFI6E and BT 5.2 support.
ZOTAC will also include its One Launcher software suite which is a one-go solution to access all of your games within a single interface within the Microsoft Windows 11 operating systems. The software suite will also offer other key features such as control customization and quick settings for the device.
As for the design, the ZOTAC Zone handheld comes in a matte black look which slightly resembles the Steam Deck and has dimensions of 310x135x40mm. We were told by ZOTAC that the launch is planned for September of this year and the pricing should be around $800 US for the base model.
About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
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