Zotac Zone (early review) - insane 120Hz OLED and class-leading inputs!

With the Zone, Zotac ventures into Windows-based gaming handhelds and immediately sets itself apart with a gorgeous 120Hz OLED, class-leading inputs, and a whole bunch of clever ideas.
But not everything is sunshine and rainbows, and in some areas, Zotac still has a bit of homework to do if they want to compete in the Steam Deck or ROG Ally X.

Time Stamps:
0:00 – Intro
0:55 – Specs, Overview, Chassis
2:31 – Ports, Dock
3:03 – Inputs
5:12 – Display
6:18 – CPU/GPU - Performance
7:18 – Software
8:20 – Gaming - Performance, Benchmarks
9:20 – Fan Noise + Noise/Speaker Samples
9:58 – Battery Life
10:27 – Summary

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[NotebookcheckReviews]

Hey guys, at 0:59, we meant 692g and not kg ... that would be one beefy handheld!

[VarjoPira]

That screen is gorgeous, but at this point it's smarter to wait for a proper gen 2. Props to Zotac for pushing the competition, though.

[Javiilin]

From a functionality perspective, this looks like a handheld of dreams, but a 780m based APU this late in the game is such a dealbreaker. Hopefully this gets a Strix refresh asap!

[truenetgmx]

Wish more handhelds had trackpads like steamdeck - combined with 8 inch screen (looking at you legion go) would be winning combinationt.

[MackDaddyVic]

Finally, another handheld with SYMMETRICAL JOYSTICKS! Jesus Christ why is that so hard for these other companies to just DO! And it’s a Windows OLED! Man, about time lol

[DarrenPC]

This thing sounds incredible. Really hoping they wait for the next cpu generation, switch the speakers to front-facing, and add either a 32 or 24 gb ram option and maybe an oculink port. If they could do that they would have the best handheld on the market

[vncube]

Someone finally had the sense to design a Windows handheld PC with symmetrical front controls in line with our symmetrical human hands but the touchpads seem redundant and battery too small. This is the closest we've gotten to an high power x86 PS Vita successor. I really hope Zotac are working quickly to fix these quirks!

[Joker-TMF]

Loving to see all you handheld coming! The future is good, honestly my Lenevo legion go replaced my laptop

[TheDarkguide]

That touch pad is real clicks unlike Steam Deck's simulated tactile click which is a very convincing and satisfying feeling.

[beliveinurself]

Battery makes this a non-starter for me.
Deck OLED was the gold standard until ROG dropped an 80wh atom bomb.

[juniferbilagantol]

Been waiting for the first early or proper review about this product since its appearance at CES 2024. Wish the bezels are thinner though.

[KnightMD]

Add Bazzite and that's the Steam Deck right there

[Burbanana]

this with lunar lake could be a good gaming combo with the single core performance and igpu

[nathanjuan]

Ally X became the standard handheld PC specially now that OS can be booted from windows to bazzite to steam OS which valve already confirmed. Once a new handheld enters it will be compared with the ally not having 80wats batter or faster and more ram or even VRR 1080p screen. If a handheld PC did not meet ally X specs it will not be competitive. Probably the only competitor on ally X will be the MSI claw AI. Hoping that Alienware UFO will enter once again and surprise us with a better specs.

[denverag]

7:20 While i understand why most people would want performance profiles, i find that they are often counter intuitive with most of the "performance" and "turbo" profiles reducing performance because of a CPU power bias.
What would be nice is if there was a way in software to drop down to 4 cores and lock the frequency to under 3Ghz allowing most of the power to go to the GPU, MCLK, and FCLK as many of these handhelds are running in 2:1 and even 4:1 with the memory.
And its not a limitation of FCLK, my 8700G can run to 8800 in 1:1 with MCLK and 2:1 with FCLK/UCLK and thats under a Noctua NHP1 passive cooler.

I think a happy medium would be a battery life slider, and a CPU/GPU power bias slider with a little toggle for 'auto' that just picks something that performs best for most games, or maybe uses the NPU to test different profiles as you play a game to find whats best for that game.

If i didnt need the special features of the Lenovo Legion GO this would be my top pick just for the buttons and controls.

[Alp]

I'm glad it went with the steam deck/Playstation layout. I hate the xbox layout on ROG Ally and Lenovo GO.

[kaibaborp]

design language reminds me SO much of my OneXFly device, honestly so do the specs lmao

[rometherevenant]

Ill get it just to add to my gaming handheld collection

[fourtii]

Remember unlike in steamos, you CAN NOT freely change screen refresh rate to match frame rate in windows which makes any non vrr screen unusable becuase of vsync judders...I like some of the design ideas of the zotac zone but because the ally x has set the bar too high, im not gonna buy another handheld thats not better both in terms of specs and features

[rahulmaron]

I hope they release with a more powerful cpu. This will be my next upgrade. The dock is a great bundle. I've been using my Ally like a console connecting it to any tv available and enjoyed it a lot.