Sure thing, here goes:
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Alright, so Zotac’s got this booth at Computex 2025, and they’ve thrown this nifty handheld into the mix. It’s packing a 7-inch AMOLED screen. I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a screen so crisp. It’s running on AMD’s Ryzen AI HX 370 APU — sounds kinda sci-fi, right? Anyway, they’ve ditched Windows for Manjaro Linux. Way to zig when everyone else zags. They’re calling it Zone 2 for now, but that’s about as permanent as a scribble on a napkin.
Remember the Zone 1? They popped that one out back in the day, like last September. Something about AMD Ryzen 7 8840U, which dropped in late ’23 — feels like forever ago, but whatever. Zotac’s been taking their sweet time rolling these out. They first teased this at CES in January, and folks are saying we’re looking at a launch sometime this year, but you know how these things go.
Now, this Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 chip they’re using? It’s like a beast with 12 cores — not the kind you cook with, but hey, we’ll take it. It’s got this Radeon 890M graphics thing too, and a neural processing unit or something — 50 TOPS, which I guess is impressive? Zotac’s sidestepping the usual safe bet and going all out with this hardware. Options for 24 or 32GB RAM, and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD that you can swap out. Feels like they want you to tinker with it — go nuts, I say.
And let’s talk about the screen. It’s got this AMOLED, 1080p majesty, 120 Hz refresh rate. Apparently, it can shine at 800 nits — no, I don’t know what that means, but it’s bright. Like, sunglasses indoors kind of deal. They’ve chucked in a kickstand too, which feels very Switch-like but I’m not complaining.
The whole system’s running on Manjaro Linux with KDE Plasma 6 — it’s all techy-sounding and, you know, probably pretty intricate. Even mentioning Proton here makes me think they’re trying to placate gamers with that sort of lingo, but I’m getting pulled off track. Anyway, anti-cheat stuff might be dicey, but that’s the gaming world for you. Oh, and if you’re feeling rebellious, swap out the OS because why not?
Batteries, batteries — this one’s a 48.5Wh, matching the old version’s runtime. Ports galore: microSD slot, 3.5mm jack, USB4. The works. It’s got WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2, so you’re connected like a social butterfly. Around the back, there’re extra buttons and some mesh thing for the heat — all the bells and whistles.
You know, they’re tight-lipped about further details. I guess we’ll find out more when they decide to drop this thing worldwide. Whenever that is.
Keep an ear out and follow Tom’s Hardware if you’re keen on tech updates. Or don’t. Life’s a choice.
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There it is, a scribbled map through Zotac’s Zone 2 chaos!
