Introduction

Zotac, primarily recognized for their graphics cards, has been branching out into other product categories in recent years. They offer a variety of mini PCs, and their latest venture has led them into the realm of PC gaming handhelds. Today, we're testing the Zotac Zone, Zotac's first gaming handheld. This device introduces several innovations to the Windows gaming handheld market, such as an HDR OLED display, adjustable triggers, and dual radial dials for adjusting settings like screen brightness, audio volume, and RGB.



The Zone is based on AMD's Ryzen 7 8840U APU, consisting of an 8-core/16-thread Zen 4 CPU and a Radeon 780M GPU. You're also getting 16 GB of LPDDR5X memory, 512 GB of PCIe 4.0 SSD storage, and a UHS-II microSD card slot. Other goodies worth mentioning include dual trackpads and a built-in kickstand. While the 7-inch OLED display is the star of the show, the Zone is much more than just a pretty OLED face, as you'll see on the following pages. Before we move on, we'd like to thank Zotac for providing the review sample.

Packaging and Contents

The Zone comes packed inside a fancy box that opens like gullwing doors on supercars such as the Mercedes SLS AMG and the DMC DeLorean. You get to lift two panels to open the box, which are magnetized, so there's slim chance that it will open inadvertently. The sides of the package list key features and other relevant details, including the addresses of the three Zotac branch offices.


Upon opening the box, a cardboard panel greets you, shielding the console beneath it. This panel is adorned with a gamery slogan. Snugly tucked in a cardboard cradle, the Zone is well-protected. Wrapped in a plastic cover, the console features a print that guides users on how to power it on for the first time.


Below the console, you can find a quick start guide and a safety info pamphlet along with a notice for early adopters that the One launcher, responsible for handheld-specific features, might not be found on the device itself, in which case you should download it manually. Below the documentation are two small boxes housing the charger and the charging cable.


The entire package includes the console, three pieces of documentation, a GaN charger with three power plug adapters, and a charging cable.

A Closer Look

The front of the Zone includes the usual mix of face buttons, d-pad, thumbsticks, and extra buttons, as well as two rather compact and clickable trackpads. You've also got a 1.0 MP webcam, a tiny mic hole on the upper left side, and two radial dials that function like bidirectional watch bezels.


The back includes two programmable buttons, a massive air intake grille, two switches for turning the triggers into clicky bumper-like buttons, and a built-in kickstand. There's also a long RGB strip that closely follows the air grille curves.


The topside features a wide air vent for blowing hot air out of the device, a power button that also plays the role of a fingerprint scanner, a 3.5 mm audio jack, a volume rocker, and one of the two USB4 ports found on the Zotac Zone.


Finally, the bottom side includes two speaker grilles, a microSD card slot, and the second USB4 port.

Zotac Zone Charger

The included GaN charger delivers up to 65 W of power and supports USB Power Delivery. It works great with other devices as long as they need 65 W of power or less.


The detachable USB-C charging cable that comes with the charger measures only 122 cm, which is too short for comfort when gaming while hooked to the charger. I'd like it if the cable measured at least 180-200 cm, which is long enough to allow you to game in any position while charging the device.