The first Z2 Extreme handheld is launched, and the next-generation handheld competition is launched

The competition began to become popular after Valve released Steam Deck in 2021. OEMs such as Huasheng, Lianxiang and MSI launched their own electronic handhelds, which has a small overall shipment but is extremely popular. AMD also took advantage of the launch of the first non-customized palm-operated processor Z1, which aims to dictate the vocabulary of the palm-operated unit.

Later, although Intel also launched Meteor Lake into the handheld market and jointly launched the Claw series handheld with MSI, Meteor Lake is limited by its production process, and its real strength lies in the fact that low-watt consumption products such as handhelds cannot be used, resulting in most handhelds on the market still using the AMD platform. Although the Lunar Lake launched later has turned the craze with the most outstanding energy consumption performance of x86 today, because the processor itself is not low, the market still uses palms that use the AMD platform as the main body, such as the Ally series of China.

Although products like electric handhelds are not very sensitive to hardware specifications, the hugely successful Z1 series processor has been more than two years since its first release. If we just look at the life cycle of the processor itself, it should have changed to the next generation. Therefore, AMD officially released the next generation of handheld processor Z2 at CES this year, and released three models for different grades of handheld machines at one time, including the highest-level Z2 Extreme, Z2 and the most in-depth Z2 Go, which also opened the prelude to the next-generation handheld competition.

Who is in the handheld war?

However, it is strange that although AMD was in a hot spot at CES, several regular customers (such as Huashui and Lianhua) in the market that use AMD as the main platform for handhelds have not launched the corresponding new handhelds in the first time. The next-generation long-range XBOX Ally, which was jointly released with Microscope last month, will not be officially launched until the fourth season of this year. On the contrary, as soon as he joined the handheld war, MSI, which has been using Intel's platform, has recently taken the lead in selling the next-generation handheld Claw A8, which has equipped the Z2 Extreme, and has fallen below the market eyeglasses.

As the first Claw A8 in the market to use the next-generation palm processor, it is naturally also viewed by the media using amplification lenses. Whether AMD's Z2 can carry the favor of Z1 and resist the Lunar Lake with higher positioning. Media evaluation results show that the Z2 Extreme has achieved significant growth compared to the previous generation of Z1 Extreme game performance, and is comparable to its twin brother HX 370. The game performance can also be matched with its rival Lunar Lake. However, it is better to design and think about energy efficiency than Lunar Lake.

So it seems that the next-generation handheld platform battle will continue to fight with Intel's Lunar Lake and AMD's new Z2 family. MSI has also become the only brand in the market that has two major platform handhelds at the same time. It is a typical strategy to sell handhelds as a PC, because the situation of using different processor platforms is quite common on PCs for the same model. Next, let’s see what sparks will bring after the launch of other Z2 Extreme, including XBOX Ally, which has already announced that it will use a brand new palm machine as an industrial system. What is the level of development of the electric palm machine in the future? It is exciting!

Extended reading: Does the handheld really need to be upgraded like PC frequency updates? Where is AMD's NPU back to the handheld processor? Talking about Xbox Palm: Micro, don't mess it up again this time XBOX palm machine photos leaked, is the real battle against the national era?