Zotac’s Zone gaming handheld switched from Home windows to Linux

Handheld gaming PCs are superior. Handheld gaming PCs working Home windows are… measurably much less superior. That’s most likely why the launch of SteamOS on a number of units past the Steam Deck is so thrilling. However Zotac goes for one thing a bit completely different with the up to date model of the Zone handheld: working a customized Linux. Adam Patrick Murray bought his palms on a prototype at Computex 2025.

The brand new Zotac Zone appears, properly, an entire lot like the unique Zotac Zone. The exterior physique appears nearly equivalent, notably together with twin touchpads on both aspect just like the Steam Deck. Beneath the beige physique is a brand new AMD Ryzen AI 9 370 HX processor, which is massively highly effective for a brand new handheld, together with extra RAM and storage.

However the massive information is that it’s working Linux out of the field. As a substitute of going with Valve’s official SteamOS a la Lenovo, Zotac labored with the builders of Manjaro Linux to construct one thing new. Don’t fear, it’s nonetheless working Steam as a sport supervisor and it additionally has a pleasant Steam handheld/Massive Image Mode hyperlink proper on the desktop.

Will that assist the brand new Zone make a much bigger splash than the unique? It could nearly must, as a result of final yr’s Zone launched with little or no fanfare and remains to be nearly inconceivable to search out. We don’t know when the brand new one will land (someday this yr?) or how a lot it’ll value, although the unique appears to be going for properly over $1,000 USD from just a few smaller shops. That 370 HX chip wouldn’t make this one low cost, both.

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