Wednesday, June 5th 2024
Hands On with the Zotac ZONE Gaming Handheld, and Mini PC Shaped eGPU Box
Zotac took the plunge into the emerging market of Windows-based gaming handhelds that a lot of PC hardware brands are getting into off late. The device has a 7-inch 1080p AMOLED multi-touch display, but you can connect an external display using over DisplayPort. At the heart of the Zotac ZONE is the AMD Ryzen 7 8840U "Hawk Point" processor, with its Radeon 780M graphics. This chip is wired to 16 GB of LPDDR5X-7500, and a 512 GB M.2 NVMe SSD. The device features an M.2-2280 Gen 4 slot, so you are spoiled for choice with SSD upgrades.
The Zotac ZONE handheld console uses Windows 11 Home, but with its first-party One Launcher UI that organizes your games across DRM platforms, lets you configure input, tweak performance or battery life, and much more. The star attraction with this device's connectivity is its two USB4 type-C ports, one of which has DisplayPort passthrough), and PD 3.0. There's also a microSD UHS-II reader. A 4-pole 3.5 mm headset jack handles analog audio. Wireless connectivity includes Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. Powering it all is a 48.5 Wh battery. The device measures 310 mm x 135 mm x 40 mm, and is expected to weigh under 700 g.
We spotted an optional accessory for the Zotac ZONE, the ZD-04 Docking Station. You connect this to one of the USB4 ports with the DisplayPort passthrough, and it gives you a standard size DisplayPort 1.4, an HDMI 2.0, a couple of USB 3.0 ports, and a gigabit Ethernet port. Zotac also has a first-party design carrying case that's part of the Optional package.
Switching gears from the Zotac ZONE, we ran into the Zotac EGB AD3500, an external GPU box that's designed to be compact, and looks quite a bit like a mini-PC, with a volume of just 2.67 liters. Internally, the AD3500 uses an MXM 3.1 type-B slot. The star attraction is the GPU, which is an NVIDIA RTX 3500 Ada Generation (not to be confused with the GeForce RTX 3050). This is a professional GPU based on the newer Ada graphics architecture, with 5,120 CUDA cores on tap, and 12 GB of 192-bit GDDR6 memory. Besides 5,120 CUDA cores, it has 160 Tensor cores, and 40 RT cores. It boasts of up to 369 AI TOPS performance. The EGB-AD3500 is hence meant more for professional graphics, AI development, and some AI acceleration. It connects to the host over Thunderbolt 3. Display outputs include three DisplayPort 1.4a. The GPU has a typical graphics power of 115 W, and comes with a power brick.
The Zotac ZONE handheld console uses Windows 11 Home, but with its first-party One Launcher UI that organizes your games across DRM platforms, lets you configure input, tweak performance or battery life, and much more. The star attraction with this device's connectivity is its two USB4 type-C ports, one of which has DisplayPort passthrough), and PD 3.0. There's also a microSD UHS-II reader. A 4-pole 3.5 mm headset jack handles analog audio. Wireless connectivity includes Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. Powering it all is a 48.5 Wh battery. The device measures 310 mm x 135 mm x 40 mm, and is expected to weigh under 700 g.
Switching gears from the Zotac ZONE, we ran into the Zotac EGB AD3500, an external GPU box that's designed to be compact, and looks quite a bit like a mini-PC, with a volume of just 2.67 liters. Internally, the AD3500 uses an MXM 3.1 type-B slot. The star attraction is the GPU, which is an NVIDIA RTX 3500 Ada Generation (not to be confused with the GeForce RTX 3050). This is a professional GPU based on the newer Ada graphics architecture, with 5,120 CUDA cores on tap, and 12 GB of 192-bit GDDR6 memory. Besides 5,120 CUDA cores, it has 160 Tensor cores, and 40 RT cores. It boasts of up to 369 AI TOPS performance. The EGB-AD3500 is hence meant more for professional graphics, AI development, and some AI acceleration. It connects to the host over Thunderbolt 3. Display outputs include three DisplayPort 1.4a. The GPU has a typical graphics power of 115 W, and comes with a power brick.
14 Comments on Hands On with the Zotac ZONE Gaming Handheld, and Mini PC Shaped eGPU Box
I can't imagine not using an OLED screen in current year. And to make matters worse, the original SteamDeck has one of the worst screens to ever exist.
The OLED panels also tend to be slimmer, which allows for either a better cooling or a larger battery to be fit inside of the device. The main issue with the OLED screen is the price, but hey - that's the downside of the nice things in general.
On the same brightness level the OLED screens tend to consume less and that's my entire point. Getting a 3000 nits OLED TV is quite a bit more expensive, than a 3000 nits micro-LED for example. The brightness tends to be a bit of a luxury with the OLED technology.
Do you really want to pay that much more compared to a switch or even a fullsize TV console, but actually have much worse specs?
There is even dual-boot for the Steamdeck, if you want to keep SteamOS.Have you experienced OLED? Seeing your answer, probably not.
And burn-in is...misunderstood. IPS can suffer burn-in as well, but are not as prone as OLED.
My C2 OLED has about 8500 hours of runtime in 2 years, more then Rtings, and it has no burn-in.
I have not added any protective measures, I only use the ones included in the TV which are on by default, like auto-dimming and pixelshift.
But I do use HGiG for HDR tonemapping, which is generally a bit dimmer, but also closer to the real colors in games.
Burn-in is only an issue with static content that is visible for hundreds of hours, like playing the same game over and over for a thousend hours without playing something else.
I have a true mixed usage with movies, animes, games, reading mangas, youtube and general surfing. So I have no burn-in problems even with over 8000 hours.
You will profit from OLED if you play games with RT/PT or games with much shadow, especially horror or stealth games.
Or if you like to watch movies.