Zotac’s Steam Deck Competitor Has a Major Edge Over the ROG Ally X

Zotac has recently released the Zone gaming handheld, now available for pre-order, with a unique design feature that sets it apart from other Windows-based handhelds.

The competition among brands for a new gaming handheld is fierce. The Steam Deck stands out with its highly competitive pricing, while other contenders such as Ayaneo’s devices, the ROG Ally X, and the Lenovo Legion Go are all vying for a share of the market.

Months ago, Zotac announced the release of their Zone gaming handheld. Recently, the company announced that the handheld, which is based on the Ryzen 8840U, will cost $799 and feature a 7-inch, 120Hz AMOLED screen, 16GB of LPDDRX memory, and a 512GB base storage capacity. Additionally, the storage can be expanded through a MicroSD slot.

Zotac Zone render on purple background with display — Zotac

The Zotac Zone offers everything one could desire in a handheld device, and it also boasts a unique feature that only the Steam Deck has successfully implemented: trackpads located below each analog stick.

The distinguishing features of the Zotac Zone in comparison to its main competitor, the ROG Ally X, are its display and trackpads. The only other handheld device, besides the Steam Deck, that offers trackpads is Ayaneo’s Next 2, which was announced two years ago but has not yet been released.

Despite having similar specifications, there has been no brand that has utilized AMD’s Strix Point APU in a handheld device. This could potentially result in a significant improvement in performance compared to the commonly used 8840U, 7840U, and Z1 Extreme chipsets in other handheld devices.

Zotac Zone trigger render on purple background — Zotac

Zotac is scheduled to showcase their upcoming handheld at Gamescom 2024, and pre-orders for the device are currently open. Despite its launch, there have been no independent reviews of the system published at the time of writing.

Therefore, if you are considering purchasing one, it might be wise to hold off and observe if Zotac has successfully incorporated its key selling features, namely the trackpad and the AMOLED display.