Zotac’s Zone gaming handheld switched from Windows to Linux

Handheld gaming PCs are awesome. Handheld gaming PCs running Windows are… measurably less awesome. That’s probably why the launch of SteamOS on multiple devices beyond the Steam Deck is so exciting. But Zotac is going for something a little different with the updated version of the Zone handheld: running a custom Linux. Adam Patrick Murray got his hands on a prototype at Computex 2025.

The new Zotac Zone looks, well, a whole lot like the original Zotac Zone. The external body looks almost identical, notably including dual touchpads on either side like the Steam Deck. Underneath the beige body is a new AMD Ryzen AI 9 370 HX processor, which is massively powerful for a new handheld, along with more RAM and storage.

But the big news is that it’s running Linux out of the box. Instead of going with Valve’s official SteamOS a la Lenovo, Zotac worked with the developers of Manjaro Linux to build something new. Don’t worry, it’s still running Steam as a game manager and it also has a friendly Steam handheld/Big Picture Mode link right on the desktop.

Will that help the new Zone make a bigger splash than the original? It would almost have to, because last year’s Zone launched with very little fanfare and is still almost impossible to find. We don’t know when the new one will land (sometime this year?) or how much it’ll cost, though the original seems to be going for well over $1,000 USD from a few smaller stores. That 370 HX chip wouldn’t make this one cheap, either.

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