AMD has been piggybacking off its Z1 Extreme chip for over two years now. Since its debut in the Steam Deck, the chip has been used across handheld PCs including the ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go. Only MSI has managed to to build a device without AMD and that didn’t go down too well. 2025 will see the company usher in the AMD Z2 Extreme and alongside it, new handhelds.
The news comes right out of IFA 2024 where AMD confirmed the hardware during a Q&A session between Microsoft and Digital Trends. AMD says the company is targeting an “early 2025” release for the Z2 Extreme.
AMD’s Jack Huynh was quite vocal about the current chip and expressed his dream for the future. He says he wants to play Black Myth: Wukong for three hours on a handheld and not 45 minutes. He says that is the current trend across these gaming handhelds.
We know that AMD is working on advanced AI features for the Z2 Extreme including Fluid Motion Frames which can help extend the battery life. It will, of course, come with more power and better energy efficiency. However, AMD hasn’t shared any details on these specs just yet.
The company is currently working with a number of partners to refresh their handhelds with Z2 Extreme chips. We will likely see the ASUS ROG Ally 2 and Steam Deck successor make use of the chip. Valve currently has the Zen 2 chip in the Steam Deck OLED making it the weaker of the bunch.
The AMD Z2 Extreme will bring with it some exciting new handhelds. It means that 2025 will be another year to splurge on this tech. Of course, we do have the Intel Lunar Lake scenario on the cards too. The MSI Claw 8 AI+ will pack the new Intel chip instead of AMD. We don’t know what performance to expect from it. MSI has pushed the release of that hardware into 2025.
Source: Digital Trends
