Zotac introduced its first handheld gaming PC in 2024, and now the company is showing off a prototype for a new model that looks… nearly identical. But the new version should bring a significant boost in CPU and graphics performance.

While the original Zotac Gaming Zone handheld was powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 8840U Hawk Point processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD, the Zone (2025) is powered by a Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 Strix Point processor and features 32GB of memory and a 1TB SSD.

Zotac Gaming Zone (2025) via TechPowerUp

That means instead of 8 Zen 4 CPU cores and 12 RDNA 3 GPU compute units, the new model has 4 Zen 5 CPU cores, 8 Zen 5C cores, and 16 RDNA 3.5 GPU compute units. The NPU has also been upgraded from one that delivers up to 16 TOPS of AI performance to a 50 TOPS NPU, although it's unclear how much that matters for a gaming handheld.

Some things that haven't changed? Both models feature 7 inch FHD 120 Hz AMOLED displays, LPDDR5x memory, and an M.2 2280 slot for user-replaceable PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs. It has the same 48.5 Wh battery and support for WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. Ports still include two USB4 ports, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a microSD card reader.

It also has a set of controllers that includes dual analog sticks, a D-Pad, action buttons, and dual touchpads – one on the left controller and another on the right.

Zotac Gaming Zone (2024)

The folks at TechPowerUp got a chance to go hands-on with the new prototype, which has a white chassis, suggesting that it's at least possible Zotac could offer new color options (the 2024 model had a black case).

There's no word on when the Zotac Gaming Zone (2025) handheld will be available for purchase or how much it will cost. But the original was never made widely available in the US – it only recently went on sale at Micro Center, where you can pick one up for $750.

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