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Asus ROG Ally – Specs, Features, Release Date, Price And More
Asus is entering the handheld gaming PC segment with style! Here is everything you need to know about ROG Ally.
Asus has been working on a gaming handheld for a long time, and it teased the launch of the same on April Foolds Day. Even though many thought of it as just an April Fool joke, the company later clarified it isn’t a joke and ROG Ally is real.
ROG Ally is a Steam Deck competitor that Asus promises to use the fastest AMD APU yet. The company told Linus Tech Tips on the ROG Ally preview video that Ally has doubled the performance of Steam Deck at 35W and up to 50% more performance than Steam Deck at 15W. The device runs on Windows 11, and you can use various game launchers like Xbox Store with Game Pass, Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG, Battle.net and more.
Take a look at the official teaser for ROG Ally from Asus:
In this article, we will discuss everything about ROG Ally, including its price, availability, specifications, software and more.
ROG Ally Release Date
Asus has officially announced ROG Ally, and the full launch is scheduled for May 11. Here’s the launch event stream on YouTube, which you can turn on notifications for:
ROG Ally Price And Availability
Asus is yet to reveal the price of ROG Ally officially. But the prices have been leaked by Best Buy, the retail partner of ROG Ally for US and Canada markets. Asus will launch ROG Ally on May 11, 2023, with simultaneous launch events planned for New York at 10 AM, London at 3 PM and Taipei at 10 PM.
Asus has mentioned that ROG Ally will be available globally. This means the gaming handheld will be available not only in US and Canada but also across Europe, the UK, India and more.
ROG Ally Design
ROG Ally comes in an all-white design that stands out against Steam Deck. It uses an Xbox-like controller format; it has two joysticks on either side, a D-pad on the left and the X, Y, A and B buttons on the right side. You have a set of RGB lights surrounding the joysticks.
The device has additional paddles on the back, like an Xbox controller. There are no trackpads like the Steam Deck, so you’re also left with using the controller for mouse movements. The joysticks work as regular joysticks in games, and when you exit to Windows mode, the joystick emulates mouse movements with the triggers simulating left and right clicks, respectively. Asus does this switch automatically using its Armory Crate software. ROG Ally measures 11.0 x 4.4 x 0.5 inches and weighs 608g, lighter than the 669g of Steam Deck.
ROG Ally Display
ROG Ally has a 7-inch display with a resolution of 120Hz and an aspect ratio of 16:9. The display can go up to 500 nits in brightness. It is much better than Steam Deck because it has a higher resolution and can go up to 120Hz refresh rate, and the device is powerful enough so that some games can take advantage of the high refresh rate.
ROG Ally Specifications And Features
| Display | 7-inch Full HD LCD with touchscreen & 120Hz refresh rate |
| CPU | AMD Z1 |
| GPU | RDNA 3 |
| RAM | 16 GB LPDDR5 |
| Storage | 512 GB NVMe M/2 SSD |
| Weight | 608g |
ROG Ally is powered by AMD Ryzen Z1 series processors, the latest AMD processor made exclusively for gaming handhelds. The Ryzen Z1 processor used in ROG Ally uses x86 architecture, and it comes with a Zen 4 CPU and RDNA 3 graphics. It is built on a 4nm node. The current-gen Ryzen 7000 desktop chipsets use 5nm and 6nm nodes. Also, the APU comes with 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and storage of up to 512GB PCIe 4.0 SSD. The storage can be expanded by micro SD card expansion. The full list of device configurations isn’t yet known; we will update it once it is available.
ROG Ally supports external GPU by using Asus XG Mobile external GPU, which will hook your ROG Ally to the power of Nvidia RTA 4090 graphics. Ally also supports the ROG dock accessor to connect with an external monitor and use it as a gaming PC. But the issue here is that ROG Ally cannot be docked in a while charging as there is only one USB-C port, which is used for display-out and charging.
ROG Ally Software
ROG Ally comes with Windows 11 out of the box, unlike Steam Deck, which is geared towards the Steam marketplace because the device runs SteamOS based on Linux. It takes a little workaround to run other game stores such as the Xbox, Epic Games, etc. But ROG Ally doesn’t have that restriction; you can just install these third-party stores like you would on any Windows device. Asus also promotes Xbox Game Pass, which comes with a three-month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription. And it can run Steam, Epic Games Store, Unisoft Connect, GOG, Battle.net, etc.
Asus bundles its Armoury Crate software with ROG Ally, and you’re mostly just using it after you install a game. Armoury Crate Software lets you control everything about Ally, such as performance modes, cooling profiles, key mapping, aura sync, etc. It also shows your entire game library from all the clients, such as Steam, Xbox, Epic Games, etc. That means you don’t have to go through different game launchers to launch your games with the messy touch screen and joystick-as-mouse controls in Windows 11 on Ally; you can jump straight into games from Armoury Crate using the dedicated Armoury Crate button and joysticks.
ROG Ally Battery
The better performance and better display would mean little if ROG Ally doesn’t have the battery life to power it over extended gaming sessions.
Asus hasn’t revealed the battery life of Ally officially yet, but Asus has mentioned it can last upto nearly 8 hours, depending on the game you play. Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch can vary between 2 to 7 hours based on the games being played. But given how Ally is more powerful than Steam Deck and has a higher resolution display with a 120Hz refresh rate, we can safely assume the battery life of ROG Ally might not be better than the Steam Deck’s.
How To Buy Asus ROG Ally?
Asus ROG Ally is available exclusively through Best Buy in the US and Canada. In the UK, Currys is the exclusive retail partner for Ally. More retailers will be revealed after the launch of ROG Ally.