For all the handheld gaming PCs from major manufacturers out there, none have come close to taking on Steam Deck OLED with their own self-emissive panels. Zotac may put an end to this trend, however, as the company gears up to give Valve a run for its money with its own ‘Zone’ handheld. Zotac will share more details on its device at Computex, but an alleged specs list for the system has already leaked containing references to an AMOLED screen.
Even now, as we remarked in our Steam Deck OLED review, its display is head and shoulders above the backlit panels used by rivals including ROG Ally and Legion Go to name a few. In fact, it’s the main reason I find it difficult to entertain swapping from Steam Deck OLED to another handheld despite the promise of more performance elsewhere. Zotac clearly understands this, and the inclusion of OLED tech may in Zone may make it a more tantalising alternative than ROG Ally X and other devices with backlit screens.
Zotac teased its Zone handheld on X, sharing little else other than a handheld draped in shadows. In its post, the company includes hashtags for Computex 2024, pointing to a likely reveal during the show. Since then, however, Videocardz has acquired a specs sheet that pretty much tells-all about Zone.
Zone could boast significant advantages over Steam Deck OLED according to this leak, both in its display and core specifications. For starters, its AMOLED panel features a higher 1080p resolution and 120Hz refresh rate, compared to Steam Deck OLED’s combo of 800p and 90Hz. Naturally, more pixels demands more performance, and AMD’s Ryzen 7 8840U appears to be the APU of choice for Zotac. The company hasn’t skimped on memory or storage either, apparently, with 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and a 512GB PCIe 4.0 SSD.
While any assessment of Zone’s ergonomics compared to Steam Deck OLED naturally have to wait until a proper review, we’re pleased to see Zotac is targeting a weight of less than 700g. The device will sport hall effect joysticks and two-stage adjustable triggers, though, so it’s looking positive from a playing perspective. That is, of course, unless Windows 11 spoils the party for Zone with its so-far middling support for handhelds.
The leak alleges that Zone will be available in Q3 2024 and Zotac will hopefully confirm this during Computex 2024, alongside the specs described above. There’s sadly no word on price, but we imagine it will sadly cost more than Steam Deck OLED given its more-modern APU among other uplifts. We’re sadly still no closer to knowing what plans Valve has for Steam Deck 2 specs, but Zotac’s Zone should serve as a fine stand-in (if not outright replacement).