ASUS had today lifted the lit off the ROG Ally, its new handheld Windows 11 gaming device that pushes things beyond anything we’ve seen from the likes of the Steam Deck and AYANEO devices.
Whilst ASUS didn’t reveal the price or release date, they did say it’d be under $1,000 USD (~$1,491 AUD) and with the launch event set to take place on May 11th, it seems like the launch is coming in the very near future.
Just like AYANEO devices, the ASUS ROG Ally will run Windows 11 out of the box which means you’ll be able to run games from the likes of Steam, Epic, Xbox Game Pass, EA Play, Ubisoft Connect and more, with three months of Xbox Game Pass included in the box.
As far as specs go, the display is a 7″ 1080p 120HZ touch display, so on specs alone, it’s better than anything we’ve seen in a handheld of this calibre. It also has a custom AMD Ryzen Z1 Zen 4 RDNA 3 GPU meaning it should offer a hefty performance boost on both the AYANEO 2 and Steam Deck which use RDNA 2 architecture. It’ll have a 512GB SSD for storage and quick booting of games. ASUS also called out the weight of the device at 608G which is a decent 50 grams lighter than both the Steam Deck and AYANEO 2.
Other inputs include a finger print detection power button and mappable back triggers. As far as the OS goes, it’ll run Windows 11 but ASUS has created a special version of its software called Armoury Crate SE that will provide a launcher for your games, as well as the ability to easily customise your console.
ASUS also revealed a heap of accessories for the device depending on how you’re using it. If you’re using it as a portable, there’s a case and noise cancelling headphones, if you’re playing at home with friends, there’s a charging dock with HDMI output as well as controllers that you can purchase separately to connect.
If you’r wanting to really up your game, you’re able to buy the ROG XG Mobile to connect a laptop GPU (up to a 4070) as well as keep your device charged, with a bunch of extra ports for USB, SD Card and HDMI 2.1 support to turn this into a fully fledged PC.
We’ll keep you posted when we have more concrete launch details, but the handheld PC gaming space is moving at lightning pace, and this is definitely one to watch.
