Zotac Zone review
Zotac Zone review
Zotac surprises with considerate hardware once again held back by rotten software.
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Oh trackpads! Nice
...
Windows 11
16GB RAM
Full HD
RGB
When will they learn?
RGB on the back
Hall effect joysticks and should buttons are nice to have.
16GB RAM I don't think is a big deal when you're running a slimmed-down linux distro, but with Win11 it seems like a bad idea. Most people who buy this won't be installing another OS on it.
The trackpads are one of the key features that makes a handheld's interface so much more effective, and all the other Steam Deck competitors kept getting called out for omitting them. Nice to see here.
Aside from the cruddy software, I don't understand these complaints?
Yes, it's Win11. Terrible interface, awful setup, and I'm not a fan of it.
16GB of RAM is what's in my Steam Deck, and the Ally X goes above that with 24GB.
This seems to be a 1080p, 120Hz, OLED display. Is your issue the lack of HDR/color depth? Or are the resolution and refresh rate too high for the battery? Or is it actually like, RGB lighting on the handheld?
Both devices have integrated memory, so that 16 GB will look more like a 11/5, 12/4, or maybe even 14/2 split. The Steam Deck is also $400 for an LCD model or $550 for the OLED, not $800. It’s reasonable to expect more performance when you pay more.
Because the Steam Deck has a lower native resolution, that means that less of the RAM will be used for the integrated GPU. Downscaling from 1080p to 720p doesn’t look good, either - and you could downscale to 540p if supported, but if you need to do that (vs choosing to for an emulated game) it probably won’t be pretty, either.
This device is also running Windows, rather than a streamlined Linux-based launcher, meaning that more of that RAM will be taken up by OS processes by default.
The article talks about how the 8840U benefits from more, fast RAM. You won’t get near the 8840U’s full potential gaming with 16 GB. 24 GB, on the other hand, would have been enough that games expecting 16 GB of system RAM would have been able to get it, even while devoting 6-7 GB to the GPU and 1-2 GB to the OS.
Thanks!
I didn't know/understand the integrated memory thing.
It seems like this thing is like 80% of the way to an amazing machine. Hall Effect sticks and a great screen and chip set, but the Windows 11 nonsense and the short RAM keep it from being an auto-recommend.
If SteamOS goes public, I'd really hope to see how this device fares.
I own a Steam Deck too and I can't see a Full HD display being necessary at this form factor/display size. 1280x800 is a bit small, yes, but I really want someone to try 1600x1000 which I theoretically consider the sweet spot if you have slightly beefier graphics to support it. Also FreeSync or something similar would be cool imo.
16GB is just enough. According to a guy who modded his Deck to have 32GB RAM it only reduced stutters in AAA games, but at least 24 GB would be a nice have to be future proof. Keep in mind that the 16GB also hold video memory and games are getting hungrier for VRAM.
RGB lights anywhere are just an unnecessary gimmick. This is but a personal opinion and comes down to preference and taste.
1600x1000
That's really not that much different from 1080p.
1280x800 is totally sufficient on my Steam Deck, and I would very much rather have some better battery life and quieter fans on a handheld than more pixels.
The only things this has that I wish my Steam Deck had are:
- OLED display (not worth upgrading my OG Steam Deck for)
- better CPU
- 2280 NVMe drive - more upgrade options
- second USB-C - never needed it, but it looks like it has one on top and bottom, which could make for a cool dock stand
The joystick layout seems worse, the bezel doesn't seem any better, and the trackpads seem uncomfortably low (I use them a lot on point & click adventure games). It's also unclear if Steam OS is compatible (though I imagine it or something like Bazzite would get there soon). And for $800, I don't think the negatives outweigh the positives here.