Ever wondered how the Ryzen Z1 APU that's found in the Asus ROG Ally Z1 and Lenovo Legion Go would fare in a mini PC? You don't have to wonder much longer, because as we speak mini PCs with that exact APU are already being tested. YouTuber ETA PRIME has been testing with exclusive access to a prototype unit of the Phoenix Edge Z1.
Oddly enough the Edge Z1 mini PC may not even come to market. As it stands, the manufacturer may be planning to have this mini PC's release crowdfunded, and on top of that doesn't even have a solid price to attach to the unit yet.
Regardless, this presents a good opportunity to see how the AMD Z1 can fare outside of a handheld scenario. In theory, this should allow for the fullest potential of the chip to be showcased, as it's no longer confined by the severe thermal limitations of a handheld gaming PC.
ETA's video runs through the gamut of unboxing and a spec overview before jumping into a TDP breakdown, where things start getting interesting. While the Mini PC on show is officially rated for 54 Watts, it can only reach an actual maximum of 40 W according to ETA Prime's testing, even with an in-software target of 68 W.
Afterward, he moves onto synthetic benchmarking followed by a few games. My focus here is on those benchmarks, though.
The synthetics results show some promise, since the 3DMark Fire Strike result of 1,755 on this Mini PC is, at least, better than the Ally Z1. Unfortunately, the aforementioned TDP issue still means this PC is still being constrained at least a little.
The gaming benchmarks are a bit less directly-comparable to the handhelds, but do seem to push the Z1 closer to the Steam Deck when gaming in certain titles. The Z1 is still firmly below the Ally, though, and increasing TDP can only do so much to improve on such a cutdown APU.
On that note, since ETA Prime mentions that a Z1 Extreme model is already planned, it really seems like this mini PC is going to end up either drowned by Deck or cannibalized by its own manufacturer. ETA Prime is thinking the price will be around $299, while I'm thinking anything higher than that is too close to the Steam Deck, using an AMD Aerith processor.
