Computex 2024: Zotac showed Zone, its handheld console

There are elements of Valve, Sony, and Microsoft consoles all rolled into one.

It’s laptop season, and the Asus ROG Ally X and MSI Claw 8 AI Plus — aren’t the only second-generation Windows gaming laptops. GPU maker Zotac officially unveiled its Zone at Computex, and it’s a bit different from the competition.

And it’s a bit different from the competition.

Zotac has already revealed that the Zone will feature an OLED screen, which previously only Steam Deck OLEDs had in portable PCs, as well as two-stage adjustable triggers like the Xbox Elite gamepad and drift-resistant Hall-effect joysticks. But did you know it will also have symmetrical PlayStation-style joysticks, programmable dials around each one, dual Steam Deck-style trackpads, a small built-in footrest, a Windows Hello camera instead of a fingerprint scanner, and top and bottom USB4 ports?”

The Steam Deck OLED will also have a Windows Hello camera instead of a fingerprint scanner, and top and bottom USB4 ports?

Thanks to the journalists who converged on Taipei this week, we know everything — some of them took good photos, including the entire spec sheet. PCWorld even shot a 20-minute video tour:

The laptop is powered by AMD’s Ryzen 7 8840U chip, and don’t expect much &#8212 it’s pretty much the same as the 7840U that powered previous laptops, with the same Radeon 780M iGPU inside. But as with the ROG Ally X and Lenovo Legion Go, it has LPDDR5X-7500 memory, which seems to have given the Legion a slight performance boost over the original Ally — and at a more modest 1080p resolution.

And it’s the same as the ROG Ally X and Lenovo Legion Go.

Less pleasingly, Zotac appears to have equipped it with a modest 48.5Wh battery, smaller than the Steam Deck OLED and significantly smaller than the 80Wh battery that Asus and MSI just announced, and its 7-inch 120Hz OLED screen doesn’t support variable refresh rates any more than the Steam Deck’s. Still, it sounds nice and bright at 800 nits of brightness, and we’re intrigued by the programmable rotary switches.

And we’re intrigued by the programmable rotary switches.

As you may know, Zotac was one of the first companies to try out the intriguing AirJet solid-state cooling technology in mini-PCs, and PCWorld’s Adam Murray took the opportunity to ask if Zotac plans to use the technology in portable PCs as well. But while AirJet maker Frore Systems thinks it would work, Zotac suggested that the current AirJet isn’t yet designed to cool chips as high-powered as the 8840U, and that cost could also be an issue. For now, the Zone has a single traditional fan and a couple of small vents to help keep things cool.

The AirJet is designed with a single traditional fan and a couple of small vents to help keep things cool.

According to Geeknetic, the Zone will cost around $800 this September. That’s a very high price for a consumer gaming laptop, although the Ally X, with its significantly higher-capacity battery, is also hitting the market at that price.

Zotac, if you’re reading this: we’d love to hear more from you!”