AMD Z2 Extreme chip for handheld consoles tipped for an early 2025 launch

Even though AMD tailor-made the Ryzen Z1 Extreme (and its non-Extreme variant) for handheld consoles, the chip only ever found itself in two mainstream handhelds, the Asus ROG Ally (curr. $569 on Amazon) and Lenovo Legion Go (three if you count the ROG Ally X). Still, that has not deterred AMD from developing its successor. Digital Trends has learned about its existence at IFA 2024.

Apparently, the AMD Ryzen Z2 extreme is on track for an early 2025 launch. Unfortunately, there's no word about its specs. This is important because the performance difference between AMD's Zen 5 laptop CPUs (Strix Point) and Zen 4 (Hawk Point) is remarkable. After all, the Ryzen Z1 Extreme and Ryzen Z1 were essentially modified versions of the Ryzen 7 7840U and Ryzen 5 7640U.

It wouldn't be implausible to assume the Ryzen Z2 Extreme to follow suit with the Ryzen 7 8840U. Alternatively, it could use a yet-to-be-announced eight-core Strix Point/Kraken Point SKU with an up-to-date RDNA 3.5 GPU. The latter alone will give it a much-needed edge against Intel Lunar Lake, which has proven to be a formidable competitor this generation.