Controls and Ergonomics

Let's start with the buttons located at the front of the device. The four face buttons are made of translucent plastic, they are slightly convex, and feature a firm but not too stiff feedback when pressed despite being of rubber dome variety—they feel great to use. They rattle very slightly, less than Steam Deck's and much less than the face buttons found on the ROG Ally. Compared to the face buttons on an Xbox Series controller, these are slightly stiffer, don't wobble nearly as much, and are less rattly. Well done, Zotac.


Moving on to the Start, Menu, and Zotac Zone-specific buttons, they're clicky with firm yet reassuring feedback and feel great under the fingers when pressed. The two trackpads are compact, featuring tight, laptop trackpad-like feedback when pressed. A bit hollow sounding but pleasant-feeling nonetheless. The button with the Zotac logo summons the One launcher and opens the launcher's menu, the three-dot button opens Quick Menu, and the one with the home icon minimizes the active app and takes the user to desktop.


The two Hall Effect analog sticks are very precise without exhibiting cardinal snapping issues. They include just the right amount of tightness, and feature concave rubber tops that are slightly ridged around the outer border, making them super grippy. Surprisingly, the Zotac Zone thumbsticks are the first handheld thumbsticks that I didn't think needed aftermarket grips, as they provide excellent grip right out of the box. That said, I strongly recommend dressing them up in thumbstick grips because those rubber caps will wear out eventually. And since the joysticks are installed on the top of the two PCBs, replacing them could end up being a rather complex procedure.


The thumbsticks have a square active zone (we used the HardwareTester website to test the inbuilt controller), resulting in diagonal dead zones maxing out at about 70% stick deflection, but this didn't bother me during testing. I played 2D platformers and Metroidvanias, first and third-person shooters, driving games, and streamed games from my PC via Moonlight, and I didn't for a second find the square active zone problematic, but your mileage may vary. Some people consider square-zone thumbsticks to not be as precise as regular thumbsticks with a circle-like active zone, but I'm not one of them.


Next, we have the D-pad. It's clicky but not stiffly clicky like the one on the Xbox Series controller. The D-pad's clicky switches require low force to actuate but aren't too easy to activate, thus not jeopardizing input precision when playing fast-paced platformers or fighting games. Hollow Knight moves around wonderfully when controlled with the D-pad, and moving and dropping blocks in Lumines Remastered is seamless and precise. This is one of the best, if not the best, D-pad I've had the chance of using. Personally, I find it just as good as the one on the 8BitDo 2.4G Ultimate controller, which was my favorite D-pad until I tried the one on the Zotac Zone.


As for the triggers and the bumpers, the former are very wide and long with a slight inward curve that provides excellent comfort for your index fingers. The triggers require just the right amount of force to fully actuate, which, combined with the comfy design and precise thumbsticks, makes them perfect for driving games. While the triggers on my Deck are as comfy, they are too loose. My ROG Ally, on the other hand, has triggers that have just the right amount of resistance but are too short and narrow. The Zone's triggers combine the best of both worlds, making them one of the best triggers on a PC gaming handheld.


You can turn the triggers into clicky bumper-like buttons with the two switches at the bottom of the device. Once adjusted, the triggers behave like regular buttons, are very easy to press, and offer a great alternative in games where you don't need analog triggers.


The Zone shines the brightest when playing racing games thanks to its phenomenal triggers, accurate and pleasantly tight thumbsticks, and the best rumble you can find on a PC gaming handheld, period. Instead of treating it as an afterthought like Valve did or using tiny haptic motors found in the ROG Ally, the Zotac Zone employs proper rumble motors you can find in controllers, just a tad smaller.

They create an incredibly powerful rumble for a handheld. Playing games such as Forza Horizon 4 and 5 and Rush Rally 3 feels brilliant on the Zone, and I'd like to see Zotac pushing the envelope further and implementing trigger rumble as seen on the Xbox Series controller on their next PC handheld, which would further enhance the already impressive rumble setup.


Another unique feature of the Zone is the pair of radial dials encircling the thumbsticks. They are relatively easy to rotate and give off a satisfying ratcheting feedback, similar to a quality ratcheting screwdriver or a well-made bidirectional watch bezel. They're straightforward to use, even when gaming, with the left dial used to control display brightness and the right one used to control RGB brightness.

You can reassign their role for different games, at least in theory, because no matter what I did, I couldn't make custom gamepad mode profiles to work. On the flip side, the desktop controller mode worked fine, so I ended up using the left dial for display brightness and the right one for controlling the volume, and I've got to say that they work flawlessly. This well-thought-out innovation objectively enhances the experience of using the Zone.


If only custom controller profiles had worked, I could adjust the volume in-game without being forced to reach for the volume rocker, which is very hard to press down. The power button is easier to press, and the inbuilt fingerprint reader works without issues. You can find three LEDs next to the volume button that show the battery level and light up when charging the battery. Neat but not really useful.

The bumpers are clicky with firm feedback when pressed; they remind me of the bumpers on the Xbox Series controller, just with tighter actuation feedback. They are easy to press, no matter which part of the bumper you rest your fingers on. Another win for Zotac in the hardware department.


Lastly, we've got the two rear buttons. They are clicky and relatively easy to press but not too light to actuate on accident. Their elongated design allows you to press them either with a middle or a ring finger. Unfortunately, I couldn't use them during testing because you cannot edit the default controller profile, and I simply couldn't make custom controller profiles to work. But more on that later.


The buttons and triggers on the Zotac Zone are nigh perfect. The only complaint from me is regarding the trackpads. They're quite compact and behave like your regular laptop trackpads, meaning they don't have that "inertia" when you move fingers across like the ones on Steam Deck do, which makes them hard to use on Windows. You can adjust their sensitivity in Windows settings, but even after tweaking them, I found them not nearly as good as Steam Deck's.

Another point of contention is that both the left and right click are mapped to the right trackpad, which functions as a mouse, while the left trackpad is used for scrolling. This solution often leads to clicks failing to register because pressing the trackpad near the middle usually gets ignored. Mapping both the left and right clicks to the right trackpad also makes double-clicking pretty impossible at times because your finger just slips away from the trackpad since you've got to press it near the border for the right type of click to register.

Allowing owners to remap the right and left click would make the experience of using the Zone's trackpads much more pleasant. Right now, though, the trackpads require lots of time to adjust, and even after you get the hang of it, your clicks will often fail to register.

Ergonomics

The Zotac Zone is a chonker, but the internal weight distribution and curvy design make it very comfortable to hold even during long gaming sessions, as long as you're gaming in a sitting position. And no, that pointed bottom won't bury into your palms when holding the device.

When lying down, I had slight issues reaching the face buttons and have to reposition the console in my hands relatively often. Nothing serious that would make me bounce off the Zone; just a tad annoying when playing games where you have to control the camera and constantly use the face buttons. My hands are fairly average size-wise.

Also, despite the curves that improve the overall ergonomics and make the Zone very comfortable to hold, I started noticing discomfort in my left wrist after about an hour of gaming on the Zone. The discomfort never turned into a proper pain like it does when gaming on the Deck for longer periods, most likely thanks to a more ergonomic design, but it was definitely there.

In general, the Zotac Zone has excellent ergonomics when gaming while seated. If you have small or medium-sized hands, you might face issues reaching face buttons and switching between bumpers and triggers with your index fingers when gaming in supine and semi-supine positions. If you suffer from wrist pain, gaming on the Zone while lying down has a good chance of triggering said pain, especially during longer gaming sessions.