Whoa, so this is about Zotac’s ride into the gadget wonderland, huh? They’ve got this flashy handheld thingy at Computex 2025 that’s all about mixing a snazzy screen with AMD’s brainy stuff — called the Ryzen AI HX 370, from some Strix Point family. And hey, instead of going the predictable route with Windows or SteamOS, they’ve thrown Manjaro Linux into the mix. Pretty brave, right? They’re calling this gizmo Zone 2 for now, but who knows, they might just change it on a whim.
Zone 1, the first version, showed up last year — powered by the slightly older Ryzen 7 8840U. Zotac’s taking their sweet time compared to rivals, though. CES in January gave a sneak peek, and here we are at Computex again, still guessing. “Zone 2” might stick as the name, but it’s all still kind of up in the air, just like the price and when we can actually hold it.
About the engine — this Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 APU is a beast. It’s got 12 cores, split though (like 4 Zen 5 ones and then 8 of those other Zen 5c smaller ones). Radeon 890M is in there too, with 12 graphics dealies or something, and there’s a 50 TOPS NPU — some crazy fast number-crunching thing, I guess? Everyone else seems to be playing it safe with some Ryzen Z2 Extreme, while Zotac revs up their engine to full throttle. Plus, there’s 24/32GB memory and a big ol’ 1TB SSD you can swap out if you’re feeling techy.
Visual stuff is important, right? So, this 7-inch screen’s all AMOLED with 1080p and has the bells and whistles — 120 Hz refresh rate, a brightness that can blind your cat (800-nits), and HDR. It’s also got a kickstand like the Nintendo Switch. Touchpads, some fancy joysticks, and… a radial dial? Who thought that up?
Runs on Manjaro Linux with KDE Plasma 6, for those keeping score at home. Game compatibility might get sticky with Proton — that anti-cheat stuff could throw tantrums on online games. But hey, you could opt for Windows just to shake things up.
Battery talk: 48.5Wh Li-ion, supposedly like the first Zone. Loads of ports, like USB4 for speedy stuff, microSD, and the good old headphone jack because, well, why not? WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 are in, too. The back has more buttons, heat venting mesh — it screams “gamer device!”
More reveals will probably drop whenever Zotac feels like it. And if you want more tech babble, apparently Tom’s Hardware on Google News is the thing to follow. I’m probably just gonna wait and see if this thing actually exists or the tech fairy’s just teasing us again.
