At Computex 2025, Zotac Zone got an update and some interesting improvements over the first iteration and what’s surprising is that Zotac is ditching Windows for Linux after all. Let’s talk about it.

Computex 2025 Zotac Zone

The Zotac Zone comes in the exact same package as its predecessor, which is nice – so, you are still getting trackpads on the front, hall-effect joysticks with adjustable resistance, trigger-locks and that solid build I must say, puts a lot of handhelds to shame. The current generation, which also happens to be the first generation, comes with Ryzen 8000 Series with Radeon 780M that can withstand or handle games efficiently as the Ryzen Z1 Extreme we find in handhelds.

You still get the 7” FHD OLED display, Macro Buttons and all that goodness. The new one however, amps up the experience a lot more. For starters, it’s still in the prototype phase with improvements still being made – but at the time, we checked out, it touted the new AMD Ryzen AI 9 370 APU which is a pretty powerful processor to begin with and seeing how Zotac isn’t taking the Z Series route is interesting. However, what comes as a shocker is their new OS they are opting for.

The Zotac Zone prototype features an all-new Manjaro Linux-based OS which is specifically designed for Handheld PCs. Now, for starters, Manjaro has been around for a while now and we all know how SteamDeck took the Linux route as well with theirs.

But this move with Zotac specifically is an exciting one, just recently we found out how Windows isn’t really optimized on handheld PCs and the experience leaves a lot to be desired. And Lenovo recently launched the SteamOS version with the same hardware as the Windows variant, only to have it perform a lot better than the Windows counterpart.

Now, Zotac isn’t entirely leveraging over SteamOS, however, with the same API used to translate these games and run efficiently under Linux, it still proves one thing for sure: that many Handheld PC makers are siding with Linux. Will they make a SteamOS version, we aren’t too sure but granted users have the ability to customize, I am sure it still will run like a champ with no issues whatsoever.

There’s no information on when this refreshed version is going to be released but make no mistake, because when it does, the Handheld PC competition is about to get a lot exciting.

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