ZOTAC Launches The ZONE Handheld Gaming PC at Gamescom 2024

[AleksandarK]

ZOTAC GAMING proudly announces the much-anticipated premium gaming handheld, the ZOTAC GAMING ZONE, is ready to begin accepting preorders in select regions and e-tailer platforms. The ZONE, which emphasizes premium hardware and elite controls, was announced COMPUTEX 2024 with great anticipation. Visitors arriving at GAMESCOM 2024, one of the largest video game trade fairs held annually in Cologne, Germany, will be the first to experience the thrills of gaming on the ZONE. The ZOTAC GAMING ZONE is the first handheld gaming PC on the market to incorporate premium hardware and elite control features that players will not find on other handheld PCs, offering gamers more immersion and advantages in PC games like non-other.

The ZOTAC GAMING ZONE is powered by AMD's Ryzen 7 8840U, an efficient powerhouse with bleeding edge Zen 4 architecture and RDNA 3 graphics that enables even AAA gaming at native 1080p resolution. Along with the 16 GB of LPDDR5X-7500 Memory on board, the ZONE makes the full spectrum of experiences that PC gaming can offer through stunning visuals and performance, and take advantage of AMD's driver-level Fluid Motion Frames (FMF) and FidelityFX Super Resolution technology to enhance gameplay performance and immersion further. Also featured are a full-sized 2280 512 GB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 x4 SSD and a UHS-II microSD card reader to cover every gamer's storage needs.




The ZOTAC GAMING ZONE is equipped with a premium 7'' Full HD AMOLED Display, a first in Handheld PCs. With the deep blacks and Wide Color Gamut that only AMOLED displays can provide, gamers are guaranteed to be blown away by the unmatched visual immersion. To add to the players' competitive edge, the display also benefits from a fast 120 Hz high refresh rate and up to 800 nits of brightness, making for smooth visuals and crystal clear details.

ELITE CONTROLS
While hardware performance is crucial for Handheld Consoles, the ZOTAC GAMING ZONE steps up the ante through an entire suite of elite control options that are typically only found on premium game controllers.

Hall Effect Sensors
Triggers and Analog Sticks utilize hall-effect sensors, which enhance precision and prevent drifting from wear and tear.

2-Stage Adjustable Triggers
Designed to meet the needs of the modern gamer, the ZONE features 2-stage adjustable triggers so gamers can play like a pro on the go. Rapid fire with the short-travel hair triggers, or assume full control with traditional analog triggers with a flick of a switch.

Radial Dials
For those times when you can't take your hands off your game, the ZONE's got your back. The Radial Dials around both Analog Sticks allow gamers to adjust system settings with a single twist.

Dual Trackpads
Twin trackpads flank both sides of the ZONE to provide an alternative means to control the desktop or play your favorite mouse-heavy PC titles without additional peripherals.

Such features enhance the gaming experience and give gamers an edge against in a competitive environment. Additionally, a full-sized gamepad, rear twin macro buttons, and even button types are deliberately chosen, with the D-Pad utilizing clicky microswitches for greater feedback.

ERGONOMICS
Aside from added buttons, the overall shape of the ZOTAC GAMING ZONE has been carefully considered and designed for a stable, balanced grip that will stay comfortable for hours on end of continuous usage. Button layouts are also designed in a symmetrical fashion, which allows players a more positive grip on the device as opposed to offset controller layouts.

Dual USB4 Ports
Two full-speed USB4 Ports are strategically positioned on the top and bottom of the device, allowing for greater flexibility for usage. Transfer large files or charge rapidly using the port of your choice.

Connectivity
With Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 on board, offering users with high bandwidth, and high-speed internet connectivity to download larger titles and play with lower latency, and opens up usage of additional Bluetooth accessories and peripherals. The ZONE will also be equipped with a front-facing camera and microphone for impromptu video calls, as well as a fingerprint reader power button that supports secure login to the ZONE via Windows Hello.

Accessories
Alongside the ZOTAC GAMING ZONE itself, ZOTAC GAMING is also introducing two bespoke accessories to expand the gaming handheld's use cases: a docking station with a well-rounded selection of ports as well as an interface for an additional fast NVMe SSD storage to convert the handheld gaming into a full-fledged desktop; as well as a carrying case with additional storage space so players can game on the go with the peace of mind that their ZONE will be well-protected.

XBOX Game Pass
To allow gamers to jump right into the ZOTAC GAMING ZONE, each unit will come bundled with a free one-month XBOX Game Pass Trial so that gamers can dive straight into the world of handheld gaming. Discover your next obsession, or rediscover gaming classics all in one membership, and with games added all the time, there is always something to play.

GAMESCOM 2024
From August 21 to 23, ZOTAC GAMING, in partnership with Be Quiet! will be showing off specimens of the finalized ZOTAC GAMING ZONE handheld in addition to its well-known graphics cards and ZBOX Mini-PC lineup of products to present guests with ZOTAC's latest product developments in the gaming market.

Aside from its ZBOX E-Series MAGNUS demo machines, ZOTAC GAMING will also set up a trove of ZOTAC GAMING ZONE handhelds for all to try, and get in the ZONE's stunning AMOLED display and elite controls, which one has to see to believe how truly remarkable it is.

We invite GAMESCOM visitors to meet us and our partners from Be Quiet! in hall 10.1, booth A-078 to get exclusive insights on our latest and to-be-released products, and a chance to win a ZOTAC GAMING ZONE handheld on-site.

AVAILABILITY FOR ZOTAC GAMING ZONE
The ZOTAC GAMING ZONE ZGC-G1A1W-01 is ready for pre-order now on exclusive e-tailer platforms in select regions, in a ready-to-go configuration with 16GB LPDDR5X memory, 512GB M.2 SSD, and Windows 11 Home preinstalled.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[eidairaman1]

Zotac is Nvidia based on gpus, Parent Company is PC Partner which used to Make Sapphire's Motherboards. It is unheard of for them to use a Radeon component.

 

[Ferrum Master]

Triggers and Analog Sticks utilize hall-effect sensors, which enhance precision

Let's not be so hasty pulling such claims out of PR departments arse without consulting the actual hardware engineer telling you it is neither.

 

[eidairaman1]

I hope it becomes a viable competitor to Nv shield, Steamdeck

 

[FoulOnWhite]

Seems pretty good, pretty well done on the control options and specs.

 

[watzupken]

If this runs Windows, then the 16GB ram is going to be a problem. For 799, this should come with more RAM. Instead, it’s probably dead on arrival when compared against the Ally X. The OLED screen is great but pointless if game frame rate consistency is poor. I also think the touchpad is a good idea.

 

[_roman_]

It seems those "gaming" handhelds with slow motion feature are selling a lot in pixel mode. (summary: 20 fps with 720p screen resolution with small battery)

After those ususal graphic cards companies like MSI?, ASUS? now ZOTAC joins.

Next week: Asrock press announcement for a gaming handheld

New bullshit bingo: AMOLED, FULL HD, USB4.0, Hall-effect, bleeding edge, preorder

I really wonder how many mainboards have USB4.0. I really wonder if it utilizes the full speed for data transmission. I wonder if the device is than capable to be fully charged with 80 or 90 Watts over USB 4.0 in less than 20minutes.

An Add in USB 4.0 Card for my ASUS X670-P Prime costs around 100 Euros. That card has two ports and one can charge with arund 70 or 80 Watts.

Hall effect is not really something special. It is very old from the electronics perspective. My Ampere Clampmeter is physically based on that principle (A device to "wireless" measure current of one single strand of cable).

 

[CosmicWanderer]

Someone needs to help Zotac with the definition of "bleeding edge" processors. Both Zen 4 and RDNA 3 are already considered last-gen in mobile.

 

[The Quim Reaper]

16GB of RAM & 512GB of storage.

..not enough on either front for a new handheld launch.

 

[lexluthermiester]

If this runs Windows, then the 16GB ram is going to be a problem.

No it isn't. Windows 10/11 runs very well on 8GB with a dGPU. So 16GB shared with the Radeon will be just fine.

16GB of RAM & 512GB of storage.

..not enough on either front for a new handheld launch.

Wait what? Please explain.

Seems pretty good, pretty well done on the control options and specs.

Agreed! This seems like a quality bit of kit!

 

[Chrispy_]

I hope it becomes a viable competitor to Nv shield, Steamdeck

Shield and Deck don't compete with these.

Shield is a different product that's essentially a glorified Android tablet for android gaming and game streaming from other local devices or cloud services.
Deck is SteamOS and completely unrivalled for Steam gaming because none of these Windows handhelds can solve the issue of Windows being a garbage-tier OS for this form factor.

The other problem with Windows handhelds is that they're in an arms race to provide the best specs - so fastest storage, fastest CPU+GPU, and highest resolution/refresh rate display - and yet Steam Deck owners will tell you that their deck is powerful enough that they are often reducing the TDP and capping framerates to extend playtime on battery. For something like an Ally or Go, the high-refresh screen is wasted when the hardware's not even capable of a 60fps experience in most titles, and the fastest storage is meaningless when the game load times are practically unchanged even on an ancient PCIe Gen3 SSD using only half the lanes.

The Deck is basically successful because of SteamOS, not the hardware.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Windows being a garbage-tier OS for this form factor.

In it's default form after a fresh, from microsoft install. However, after debloating and customizing, it goes from being garbage to be top-tier. I do this all the time for older systems and know my craft.

 

[Chrispy_]

In it's default form after a fresh, from microsoft install. However, after debloating and customizing, it goes from being garbage to be top-tier. I do this all the time for older systems and know my craft.

This is true for any device, and beyond the scope of most buyers of these handhelds.

The customisations Asus, Lenovo, and MSI have made to Windows have been poorly reviewed by just about everyone as they're incomplete solutions and the underlying OS is still fully-bloated with its sub-par experience for a device that doesn't have a traditional keyboard and mouse, and a physical display size that's smaller than even the TabletPC and Surface devices Microsoft kludged touch features into the OS for. I judge these devices on how they're sold, not on how they could potentially be if you are willing to mod them yourself.

Microsoft have no excuse really - the Xbox OS is a better fit than Desktop Windows 11 and could be used as a base to make a handheld OS better than Windows11, but that appears to be a dead end for now.

 

[Vayra86]

No Steam OS on launch? Mmmhmm yeah instant skip. Just forget it. Windows ain't The Way on these devices and it never will be.

I already own a PC to spend hours screwing around with configuration options. The seamlessness of Steam deck is its strength, I don't even care what hardware's inside, shit just works. Its like the Iphone vs Android.

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

Someone needs to help Zotac with the definition of "bleeding edge" processors. Both Zen 4 and RDNA 3 are already considered last-gen in mobile.

I was going to say the same thing....I'm sure a handheld with Zen5/RDNA3.5 with the 16CU 890m will come out in a week and make this thing obsolete (unless rhe price is cut in half)

 

[bonehead123]

y/A/w/N.....

Anutha day, yet ANUTHA same ole same same, boring AF gamr toi for da gamr bois (or gurlz)....

 

[HOkay]

Shield and Deck don't compete with these.

Shield is a different product that's essentially a glorified Android tablet for android gaming and game streaming from other local devices or cloud services.
Deck is SteamOS and completely unrivalled for Steam gaming because none of these Windows handhelds can solve the issue of Windows being a garbage-tier OS for this form factor.

The other problem with Windows handhelds is that they're in an arms race to provide the best specs - so fastest storage, fastest CPU+GPU, and highest resolution/refresh rate display - and yet Steam Deck owners will tell you that their deck is powerful enough that they are often reducing the TDP and capping framerates to extend playtime on battery. For something like an Ally or Go, the high-refresh screen is wasted when the hardware's not even capable of a 60fps experience in most titles, and the fastest storage is meaningless when the game load times are practically unchanged even on an ancient PCIe Gen3 SSD using only half the lanes.

The Deck is basically successful because of SteamOS, not the hardware.

As an ex-Steam Deck owner I will tell you that the screen is too small & low resolution & the hardware is slightly underpowered & no USB4 are all a bit limiting & are why I bought a Legion Go. Was the Go horrible out of the box & did I immediately regret getting it after having a Deck? Yes. But after a few days when I made that mental switch to "oh it's just a PC", then I fixed or worked around the annoyances & started to love it.
I fully agree that if you want a handheld that just works out the box, absolutely Steam Deck is the way, & is what I'd recommend to most friends. However if you want to run any Windows application or game, or play around with eGPUs, the Go is great. For me that little bit of extra screen real estate makes a world of difference for games.

 

[eidairaman1]

No it isn't. Windows 10/11 runs very well on 8GB with a dGPU. So 16GB shared with the Radeon will be just fine.


Wait what? Please explain.


Agreed! This seems like a quality bit of kit!

Ran w10 32bit on 2GB before, upped to 4GB, it for sure was smoother

 

[Chrispy_]

As an ex-Steam Deck owner I will tell you that the screen is too small & low resolution & the hardware is slightly underpowered & no USB4 are all a bit limiting

That's an unpopular opinion you have there:

The Legion Go is a reasonable bit of hardware but the vastly more popular Ally and Deck have 7" screens, 7.4" in the case of the OLED Deck, and the even more popular Nintendo Switch is only a 6.2" screen. For every 8.8" Legion Go sold, there are 500 handheld gaming systems sold by Asus, Nintendo, or valve with the smaller screens you're complaining about.

I'm not sure what you need USB4 for. It's a handheld. Having to plug in is already missing the point but sometimes necessary. Having to sit plugged in at a desk with a powered eGPU dock, short USB4 cable, and $500 of additional hardware makes no sense, other than to literally tinker. For the price of the Legion Go, eGPU dock, PSU, and GPU, you could get yourself a pretty tasty PC that runs circles around any of these handhelds (and calling the Go a "handheld" is pushing the definition of a handheld a little bit, IMO because it's a real chonker - 1.9lbs compared to the Ally and Deck at 1.4lbs, and it's also the largest device by total volume by a considerable margin. By that margin, my 16" gaming laptop is a handheld because I can hold in my hands, I just don't want to!)

 

[HOkay]

That's an unpopular opinion you have there:

The Legion Go is a reasonable bit of hardware but the vastly more popular Ally and Deck have 7" screens, 7.4" in the case of the OLED Deck, and the even more popular Nintendo Switch is only a 6.2" screen. For every 8.8" Legion Go sold, there are 500 handheld gaming systems sold by Asus, Nintendo, or valve with the smaller screens you're complaining about.

I'm not sure what you need USB4 for. It's a handheld. Having to plug in is already missing the point but sometimes necessary. Having to sit plugged in at a desk with a powered eGPU dock, short USB4 cable, and $500 of additional hardware makes no sense, other than to literally tinker. For the price of the Legion Go, eGPU dock, PSU, and GPU, you could get yourself a pretty tasty PC that runs circles around and of these handhelds.

I'm sorry that my opinion is wrong, but there are dozens of us! Dozens! We have a Facebook group & everything, with 55k members don't you know . I'd like to think everyone will come around sooner or later, same as they did with bigger phones & bigger TVs, I've always gone for products that everyone thought were ridiculous sizes, only for them to have the same size products within a few years.

Was that 500:1 ratio made up to make your point or based off real sales numbers? Obviously the Steam Deck will have sold the most of the PC handhelds by far, their market reach is crazy, but it'd be interesting to know rough numbers of them all. I've no doubt the Go will be the worst seller though yes.

I use my Go on the sofa mostly, so I usually keep it plugged into power when playing since there's no reason not to, it just suits my use case perfectly. If I travelled a lot & needed to fit it in a tightly packed bag then I'd probably appreciate a smaller device.

The eGPU argument is always a fun one, I think my favourite answer is that the Go could serve as your only computing device. You dock it up for real work or games of hours-long sessions, then undock it if you wanna play or be less productive whilst also chilling on the sofa, & you can easily take it out the house too. A lot of people want that portability either around the house or out & about, & I'd bet the majority of handheld owners also have desktop PCs or gaming capable laptops, so the real question is why would most people bother with those in addition to a handheld? Obviously there's use cases where you need a laptop outside the home, or you want a top-end rig for maximum pretties in your games etc. but for the average person just needing to do a bit of computing & some casual gaming, you actually don't need anymore than a handheld that you can dock up to an eGPU & monitor/mouse/keyboard. I think everyone also assumes people pay sticker price for eGPU enclosures, which I guess some must do, but I paid £120 for a Razer Core X off eBay & used a spare PSU I already had (but could buy one for ~£50 or so since you only need enough to power the GPU). The GPU is then dealer's choice depending on your demands & what resolution & refresh rate you're targeting. That said, GPU performance scaling over USB4/TB3 ain't that great, but maybe next gen with TB5 or OCuLink I could actually think about not bothering with a desktop anymore.

 

[Chrispy_]

I'm sorry that my opinion is wrong, but there are dozens of us! Dozens! We have a Facebook group & everything, with 55k members don't you know . I'd like to think everyone will come around sooner or later, same as they did with bigger phones & bigger TVs, I've always gone for products that everyone thought were ridiculous sizes, only for them to have the same size products within a few years.

Was that 500:1 ratio made up to make your point or based off real sales numbers? Obviously the Steam Deck will have sold the most of the PC handhelds by far, their market reach is crazy, but it'd be interesting to know rough numbers of them all. I've no doubt the Go will be the worst seller though yes.

I use my Go on the sofa mostly, so I usually keep it plugged into power when playing since there's no reason not to, it just suits my use case perfectly. If I travelled a lot & needed to fit it in a tightly packed bag then I'd probably appreciate a smaller device.

The eGPU argument is always a fun one, I think my favourite answer is that the Go could serve as your only computing device. You dock it up for real work or games of hours-long sessions, then undock it if you wanna play or be less productive whilst also chilling on the sofa, & you can easily take it out the house too. A lot of people want that portability either around the house or out & about, & I'd bet the majority of handheld owners also have desktop PCs or gaming capable laptops, so the real question is why would most people bother with those in addition to a handheld? Obviously there's use cases where you need a laptop outside the home, or you want a top-end rig for maximum pretties in your games etc. but for the average person just needing to do a bit of computing & some casual gaming, you actually don't need anymore than a handheld that you can dock up to an eGPU & monitor/mouse/keyboard. I think everyone also assumes people pay sticker price for eGPU enclosures, which I guess some must do, but I paid £120 for a Razer Core X off eBay & used a spare PSU I already had (but could buy one for ~£50 or so since you only need enough to power the GPU). The GPU is then dealer's choice depending on your demands & what resolution & refresh rate you're targeting. That said, GPU performance scaling over USB4/TB3 ain't that great, but maybe next gen with TB5 or OCuLink I could actually think about not bothering with a desktop anymore.

Opinions are never wrong, just popular or unpopular!

I pulled that 500:1 number out of my ass, but on closer inspection it's in the right ballpark at least. We're talking optimistically up to two hundred thousand Legion Go vs hundreds of millions for the other handhelds I mentioned.

Nintendo, Valve, and Asus combined sales figures are at least 150 million units, because that total is 2023 data from Valve and Nintendo and they've been selling more since then for sure.

• The Ally isn't selling anywhere near as well as the deck, Asus claimed the Ally had sold 70-80K units in January 2024, which means it'd been on the market for about 7 months at that point but that figure is disputed as far too high. Tellingly, that interview was pulled at Asus' request and only articles citing those original interviews still exist. Based on Amazon's "x sold in the last month" stats, the Ally is outselling the Go by a factor of about 3:1
• By contrast to Nintendo, even Valve are small-fry, The Steam Hardware survey has 3 million Steam Decks listed, and not every Steam Deck user will agree to the survey or even be using their Deck for Steam. Analysts put sales at 6.5M units in Q1 2024, so maybe 7-8M Decks sold today?
• Nintendo are up to 144 million sales of the Switch as of this month

As for the eGPU thing - you can do it cheap with $150 aliexpress open docks that just have a GPU slot and mounting frame for an ATX PSU, but you still wouldn't want to go too cheap because you do lose dGPU performance over USB4 - mainly from the latency the dock adds, and on top of that there's absolutely no point in having the dock if it can't significantly outperform the Legion Go's own APU by a decent margin. If the Go can run CP2077 on 1440p low settings at 35fps, you're probably not going to want a $200 GPU like a 3050 or RX6600 to achieve similar results in an eGPU dock. You're probably looking at $400 of GPU (to perform like a $300 GPU in the dock). You'll likely have a better idea of what you need than me, since I have neither a TB3 dock, nor a Legion Go!

 

[HOkay]

Opinions are never wrong, just popular or unpopular!

I pulled that 500:1 number out of my ass, but on closer inspection it's in the right ballpark at least. We're talking optimistically up to two hundred thousand Legion Go vs hundreds of millions for the other handhelds I mentioned.

Nintendo, Valve, and Asus combined sales figures are at least 150 million units, because that total is 2023 data from Valve and Nintendo and they've been selling more since then for sure.

• The Ally isn't selling anywhere near as well as the deck, Asus claimed the Ally had sold 70-80K units in January 2024, which means it'd been on the market for about 7 months at that point but that figure is disputed as far too high. Tellingly, that interview was pulled at Asus' request and only articles citing those original interviews still exist. Based on Amazon's "x sold in the last month" stats, the Ally is outselling the Go by a factor of about 3:1
• By contrast to Nintendo, even Valve are small-fry, The Steam Hardware survey has 3 million Steam Decks listed, and not every Steam Deck user will agree to the survey or even be using their Deck for Steam. Analysts put sales at 6.5M units in Q1 2024, so maybe 7-8M Decks sold today?
• Nintendo are up to 144 million sales of the Switch as of this month

As for the eGPU thing - you can do it cheap with $150 aliexpress open docks that just have a GPU slot and mounting frame for an ATX PSU, but you still wouldn't want to go too cheap because you do lose dGPU performance over USB4 - mainly from the latency the dock adds, and on top of that there's absolutely no point in having the dock if it can't significantly outperform the Legion Go's own APU by a decent margin. If the Go can run CP2077 on 1440p low settings at 35fps, you're probably not going to want a $200 GPU like a 3050 or RX6600 to achieve similar results in an eGPU dock. You're probably looking at $400 of GPU (to perform like a $300 GPU in the dock). You'll likely have a better idea of what you need than me, since I have neither a TB3 dock, nor a Legion Go!

I don't think it's fair to compare to the Switch, the walled garden of Switch games designed to accommodate kids vs totally open ecosystem of handhelds more geared at adults are quite different beasts. I'm not sure many people are deciding between the two. If there's 55k in this Facebook group I'm expecting most of those have a Go, & that's just a Facebook group which definitely won't cover everyone who owns one so maybe the Go isn't selling that differently to the Ally. The new Ally certainly has advantages over the Go though - that battery life for a start!

Did I convince you just a little bit about why having eGPU support could be useful for a reasonable number of people? I agree that you need to spend a few hundos on a GPU for it to be worth getting one, but we're then talking total cost around the £1k mark, which could buy you a desktop PC sure, but then you have zero portability. Or it buys you a laptop which is similar but covers different use cases. I just think it's getting towards being a good option for the average person who wants a device they can do it all on. A phone + a Go + a dock kinda does it all. If you don't game much on external screens then you don't even need the eGPU, just a cheapo USB to HDMI dock.

All this said, I'm not giving up my top end gaming rig yet but by the time it needs upgrading there's actually a chance I won't bother & will just go handheld + eGPU. It's a good time to be a tech enthusiast!

 

[Chrispy_]

Are the hundreds of PEGI-18 Switch titles like Doom or Red Dead Redemption II "designed to accommodate kids"?
Is Steam not also a walled garden? Granted the Ally/Claw/Go/Ayaneos aren't walled to Steam but the Deck has vastly outsold all of those combined.

Regardless, the switch is by far the most popular handheld and has a 6.2" screen even though you're calling 7.4" too small. That's the original point you made and have now started strawmanning secondary issues that are unrelated.

As for eGPU, I don't think it's a valid use for a handheld. I dock my Deck but honestly an eGPU isn't a valid use for most people, and unless you already have parts lying around to make a dock, it's not really economically viable for a Go. The same argument could be made that if you have a gaming GPU and PSU worth using just lying around, you might as well just build those into a gaming PC that would be a gaming machine since they're not being choked by USB4.

I can certainly see the use case for a docked gaming system that acts as a desktop when it's not a handheld, but it's a miniscule niche for someone who can afford a Legion Go and an eGPU dock, and a GPU worth installing to actually offer an improvement over the Go's own graphics performance, we're talking about something that's a luxury that's not economically viable. It's likely that economic viability isn't a concern for someone who's investing probably around $2000 in that setup once you add a gaming display, audio, keyboard, and mouse - and at the end of it you have a 30W Ryzen 7 with 16GB RAM which isn't really befitting a $2000 rig.

 

[HOkay]

Is Steam not also a walled garden?
Is Doom 2016 a kids game?

Regardless, the switch is by far the most popular handheld and has a 6.2" screen even though you're calling 7.4" too small. That's the original point you made and have now started strawmanning secondary issues that are unrelated.

As for eGPU, I don't think it's a valid use for a handheld. I dock my Deck but honestly an eGPU isn't a valid use for most people, and unless you already have parts lying around to make a dock, it's not really economically viable for a Go. The same argument could be made that if you have a gaming GPU and PSU worth using just lying around, you might as well just build those into a gaming PC that would be a gaming machine since they're not being choked by USB4.

Steam itself is, Steam Deck isn't. You can install other launchers & add non-Steam games to the Steam UI & generally try installing & playing anything that'll work. My point around being kid friendly is the usability of the device for kids. My daughter can use a Switch & everything works perfectly thanks to the walled garden & bespoke OS, but if I give her a Steam Deck sooner or later she'll need help because some game won't launch, or the controls are screwy in a particular game, or she can't get past an in-game screen that needs you to type something etc.

I don't deny that the Switch is by far the most popular & has the smallest screen, I'm making counter arguments for why I personally think it's not the optimum size. I also suspect people aren't choosing the Switch because of the screen size, so we can't know whether it would have been even more successful if the screen was bigger, but it does start to lose the kid friendly ergonomics if you go too big. I'm glad they bumped it up a bit for the OLED personally though.

I don't agree that eGPUs aren't economically viable. If I only have a Go, then buying an enclosure, PSU & GPU is obviously much cheaper than buying a full desktop system. A motherboard, CPU, RAM, storage & case will be hundreds on top of a PSU & GPU. You're right about the USB4 limitations, but if casual 60fps gaming at high resolution is your bag, it's kinda fine tbh. If you're getting sweaty chasing 144fps+ then an eGPU ain't going to cut it & would be a terrible choice. Also, you can always decide later that an eGPU isn't good though & carry over the PSU & GPU into a full build if you want. The only wasted money then would be the eGPU enclosure, which if you buy secondhand you can sell on for almost no loss since their secondhand values seem pretty steady. At least until TB5 or OCuLink make it to the mainstream anyway.

Edit: One other thought, do you think eGPUs are a valid use case for laptops? If so, why is that different to a handheld?

 

[Chrispy_]

Steam itself is, Steam Deck isn't. You can install other launchers & add non-Steam games to the Steam UI & generally try installing & playing anything that'll work. My point around being kid friendly is the usability of the device for kids. My daughter can use a Switch & everything works perfectly thanks to the walled garden & bespoke OS, but if I give her a Steam Deck sooner or later she'll need help because some game won't launch, or the controls are screwy in a particular game, or she can't get past an in-game screen that needs you to type something etc.

I don't deny that the Switch is by far the most popular & has the smallest screen, I'm making counter arguments for why I personally think it's not the optimum size. I also suspect people aren't choosing the Switch because of the screen size, so we can't know whether it would have been even more successful if the screen was bigger, but it does start to lose the kid friendly ergonomics if you go too big. I'm glad they bumped it up a bit for the OLED personally though.

I don't agree that eGPUs aren't economically viable. If I only have a Go, then buying an enclosure, PSU & GPU is obviously much cheaper than buying a full desktop system. A motherboard, CPU, RAM, storage & case will be hundreds on top of a PSU & GPU. You're right about the USB4 limitations, but if casual 60fps gaming at high resolution is your bag, it's kinda fine tbh. If you're getting sweaty chasing 144fps+ then an eGPU ain't going to cut it & would be a terrible choice. Also, you can always decide later that an eGPU isn't good though & carry over the PSU & GPU into a full build if you want. The only wasted money then would be the eGPU enclosure, which if you buy secondhand you can sell on for almost no loss since their secondhand values seem pretty steady. At least until TB5 or OCuLink make it to the mainstream anyway.

Edit: One other thought, do you think eGPUs are a valid use case for laptops? If so, why is that different to a handheld?

I think we can agree to differ.

Certainly it's nice that there's a range of sizes on the market so if you can tolerate a real chonker of a handheld there's a product you'll enjoy using. One of the best things about competition is the variety of options available, having more options doesn't invalidate or take away any other offerings.

As for eGPUs, there's definitely a valid niche but the overlap between "casual 60fps" and what the APU in the Go can already do is a pretty narrow range. If you have the parts lying around I guess it's not dumb but if you have to buy anything it's a moot point since the window between it being of little benefit and it being more expensive than a full PC is pretty small, as far as I can see.

As for laptops, that's very different. Almost all of the eGPUs for laptops are used for laptops that don't have gaming capabilities at all when undocked. You're literally taking a laptop that's not a gaming system and turning it into one for the price of a dock and just like the discussion we're having regarding a docked Go, there are countless forum threads that have explained the issues with that for laptops too. Once you get to the point where a dock is more expensive than a superior second system, it's basically not economically viable. That doesn't stop you from doing it, you're just overpaying for what you get - expecially since higher-end GPUs in laptops are abysmal value compared to desktop GPUs in a desktop.

These gaming handhelds are already very capable gaming systems and you're trying to walk the line of making it a better one without it costing more than a superior discrete system. I'm seeing complete systems selling on ebay for $500 that are Ryzen5 5600 or Intel i5-10400 with RTX 3060 or similar. That's basically the cost of a used eGPU dock, PSU, and more powerful 3070 you'd need to even approach native 3060 performance without the bottlenecks of a TB3 connection.