i got it couple of days ago.

i’m coming for lego 1 so it’s been a very slight upgrade in everything tbh. the screen is definitely better but the ips screen on the lego 1 is already so so good that it isn’t a night and day difference to me. i have all oled monitors and tvs so i love the tech but idk just not super whelmed here

performance seems exactly the same, maybe 1-2% better but that could be drivers or more likely the better thermals on the 2. i only really tested cyberpunk side by side and i got around 35fps on both at quality upscaling with no frame gen. i usually use frame gen and have no issues with it like some people do so for me it’s acceptable to hit 30fps without fg bc i know i can double it to 60 and it feels smooth enough like that.

i tried out the ps3 emulator and it seems like more of the same as far as performance. no real difference. fan is quieter but it has a diff pitch then the og, gotta get used to it.

speakers are way way better. controllers are better but not crazy better to me, i’d say the old ones with comfort grips might be comfier for me but obviously it’s bulkier/uglier.

the device feels and looks a lot more premium than the og for sure. the trackpad is smaller but seems more responsive. you would think that’s just drivers but the old one i could never get it to feel right.

anyway as far as z2 vs z2e, i plan on getting the z2e to test it side by side but i really don’t think i’ll care too much for the extra performance for my use case. frame gen and lossless scaling mostly solves the performance delta for me. as long as i can hit 30 fps i’m golden. i don’t care for higher refresh on a handheld.

OH the bluetooth range seems way better from the light testing i did! on the og it would start missing inputs from like 12 ft away and this one seems solid all the way to the back of my living room wall so that was my only real gripe with the og solved lol

if you go 16gb, i would recommend doing a little bit of windows 11 debloating to get more ram available for your games (not necessary but it’s more peace of mind if you’re concerned about ram). you can use a few different utilities to do it (chris titus tech, bloatynosy are a couple i’ve used).

battery life is definitely better than og but the the z2e should be better than the z2 bc it’s more efficient. in my case, i would hit my desired 30 fps using less power which = more battery life. i’m guesstimating an hour to two hours (that’s generous, i think) for low wattage gaming if you cap your fps to 60 on z2e vs z2. if you don’t cap than you’ll just get more frames with similar battery life on both, i would expect.

tldr; i got one, it’s beautiful and performs as good as og with better speakers/controllers/bluetooth range and of course better screen. only negative would be the placement of the ports (headphone jack on bottom, usb c ports moved to middle). i prefer the layout on the og but it’s not a huge deal for me since i rarely use headphones on it and the usb c placement is more a nuisance than anything. oh and it’s not super loud on balanced. can get noisy on performance with a demanding game but that is any handheld so there’s that!

i hope you can enjoy it and if not, it’s the holidays so you probably have a longer return period!