Zotac’s Upcoming Next-Gen Gaming Zone Handheld Features Linux-Based OS

Zotac is set to unveil the next generation of its Gaming Zone handheld at Computex in Taiwan later this month, following its initial entry into the portable gaming PC market last summer. This upcoming device will feature the powerful AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor and, surprisingly, will run on a custom Manjaro Linux-based operating system specifically designed for handheld devices as reported by Liliputing. This represents a departure from using Windows or adopting Valve’s SteamOS, which powers the popular Steam Deck.

The next-gen Zotac Gaming Zone will boast a 7-inch OLED display with a 120 Hz refresh rate. Inside, the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 Strix Point chip makes a big leap in performance compared to the first version (the first-gen Zotac Gaming Zone featured an AMD Ryzen 7 8840U Hawk Point processor with an 8-core Zen 4 CPU and 12-core RDNA 3 graphics). It has 12 Zen 5 CPU cores and 16 RDNA 3.5 GPU compute units. It also comes with a better NPU to handle AI tasks. Other features include LPDDR5x memory, a PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD slot (M.2 2280), Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2, two USB4 ports and a 48.5Wh battery.

While Manjaro has been developing a handheld-focused Linux distribution for some time—previously only known to be planned for the long-delayed Orange Pi Neo—Zotac’s adoption marks a significant endorsement of this software approach. Despite not using SteamOS, the device should still be capable of running many Windows games through Valve’s open-source Proton compatibility layer.

The prototype was first showcased at CES in January, however Computex attendees can expect to see the refined version later this month.