This is no April fool’s joke! ASUS has just announced its first gaming handheld console the ROG ALLY.
Following their recent Youtube video post, their goal is to bring true pc performance to our lives on the go.
It is a Windows 11 ran handheld gaming device much akin to Valve’s Steam Deck, that aims to support and play your PC gaming libraries wherever you go, whenever you want.
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ASUS ROG Ally – The Specs
According to their online store specs, the Asus ROG Ally will come with a 7″ display at a 16:9 ratio full HD 1920 x 1080 (500 Nits) resolution. An obvious edge to their console given Steam Decks resolution is just 1280 x 800 (400 Nits).
Also, the refresh rate of the Ally is double that of the Steam Deck coming at a whopping 120Hz (-5ms) compared to 60Hz on the Deck.
It has a custom AMD Ryzen APU as its CPU, much like Valve’s Steam Deck’s Aeirth SOC. However, Asus makes the bold claim that it is in fact the fastest one from AMD so far.
Humorously, ASUS has had to clarify on Twitter a couple of times that this is indeed an actual product and not an April Fool’s Day gag.
Given the magnitude of goofy posts online around this time, you cannot help but not blame people for being just a little bit cautious. It had us fooled. In hindsight maybe they should have announced a spoof product to begin with as that would have been pretty funny.
Can the Asus ROG ALLY compete with the Steam Deck?
But with Valve’s Steam Deck and even considering Nintendo’s own Switch currently dominating the handheld console gaming market will the Asus ROG Ally be able to stand a chance and make a dent in the market?
To us, the answer lies within the price of the console not so much the specs. Although the Asus Rog Ally appears to have the Deck beaten on the specs front the consumer more often than not takes affordability over performance.
However, if hands-on reviews and gamers find that the Ally just outperforms Valve’s Steam Deck on all fronts then that might be enough to sway the tide in ROG’s favor.
Reports suggest that at the launch of the Asus ROG Ally, there will be two colors white or black.
How Much is the Asus ROG Ally?
Much like the Steam Deck, the storage capacity is what dictates the price of these consoles. Supposedly we will be looking at:
- 512GB SSD – $649
- 1TB SSD – $899
And, to add to this supposedly we are looking at a release window of around October 2023
Now, this might beat out the competition a fair bit with Valve’s Steam Deck prices having their 512GB model be around $710 dollars.
But we have yet to hear of a smaller 64GB or 256GB model. The Valve Steam Deck offers these models at $436 and $574.
Size Does Matter
One factor to consider would be if the Asus Rog Ally’s hard drive can be swapped out. The Steam deck has some limited capability in that department but requires a fair few Youtube tutorials and know-how to pull off properly.
It is doubtful the Asus ROG Ally would be fully modular in this department given the finicky nature of handheld devices. We will have to see though.
(this has yet to be confirmed so please do take these speculations with just a tad bit of salt.)
You can pre-order the Asus Rog Ally here at their website now!
