We're only a few weeks into 2025 and it's already been a big one for chipmakers, and AMD overhauled a lot of its chip lineup for the new year. That massive overhaul included a new series of handheld gaming PC processors.
At CES 2025, I sat down with AMD's Director of Product Marketing, Adam Kozak, to chat about AMD's dominance in the handheld gaming PC space. The Ryzen Z1 and Z1 Extreme powered most of the gaming handhelds we've seen in the last few years, and the Ryzen Z2 series is poised to do the same.
But what differentiates the Ryzen Z2 from the Z2 Go or the Z2 Extreme?
Ryzen Z2 series differences
AMD's Ryzen Z2 series includes handheld gaming PC chips for handheld gaming PCs, from the more budget 4-core Ryzen Z2 Go to the 8-core 35Watt Z2 Extreme.
You might be wondering why the Z2 series includes three generations of AMD architecture on the CPU and GPU. Kozak tells Laptop Mag that the reason for the Z2 series structure is simply "so our partners can build different devices at different price points, different thermals, they can customize it to meet whatever they want."
If the Z2 Go and Z2 look similar to the Z1 and Z1 Extreme, well, there are some differences even if they use the same architecture. "I'd say the Ryzen Z2 is very similar to the Z1 Extreme that we had before, optimized, obviously, for 2025. The software can now do more tricks. AFMF, which is our frame generation software technology, I think some parts started using it this year, where we're trying to get them to default it automatically."
But more than just price points differentiate the Z2 series. While Kozak believes the Z2 Go will be a popular choice for handhelds in the coming year because of how economical it is, "the guys who want to kind play the latest games with the full settings... it's night and day."
So handheld enthusiasts who want the best performance will want to look out for that Ryzen Z2 Extreme CPU on systems like the Lenovo Legion Go 2, while those looking to save their wallet would be better with the Legion Go S, which is just $399 for the SteamOS version.
If you'd like the best balance of price and performance, the Z2 would be the way to go.
AMD Ryzen Z2 series specs
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | CPU Architecture | iGPU Architecture | CPU cores | CPU threads | GPU cores | Cache | cTDP |
| Ryzen Z2 Extreme | Zen 5 | RDNA 3.5 | 8 cores | 16 threads | 16 cores | 24MB | 15-35W |
| Ryzen Z2 | Zen 4 | RDNA 3 | 8 cores | 16 threads | 12 cores | 24MB | 15-30W |
| Ryzen Z2 Go | Zen 3 | RDNA 2 | 4 cores | 8 threads | 12 cores | 10MB | 15-30W |
What to expect from Ryzen Z2 handhelds
We're expecting plenty of gaming handhelds this year, between the newly unveiled Nintendo Switch 2, the Lenovo Legion Go S and Legion Go 2, Acer's Nitro Blaze line, and The Sunday Dragon 3D One from Tencent. These handhelds are going to use a ton of different chips, but the Legion Go S and Legion Go 2 will both be powered by the Ryzen Z2 series.
It's also likely we'll see Ryzen Z2 upgrades to existing AMD handhelds like the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally X. So 2025 is shaping up to be quite the year for handheld gaming PC. After all, the year kicked off with the revamped MSI Claw 7 and 8 AI+.
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