[Bullet Club]

Leak: the Asus ROG Ally will cost $699.99 with an AMD Z1 Extreme

Incredibly, it appears Asus is gunning straight for the Steam Deck.[

Sure, Asus can build a faster Steam Deck-like handheld gaming PC, but there's no way it could compete with Valve on price, right?

Guess again. The higher-end Asus ROG Ally will apparently cost just $699.99. That's for the model with an AMD Z1 Extreme chip, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD — meaning that Asus' 512GB handheld costs just $51 more than a 512GB Steam Deck.

That's according to data shown to The Verge by reliable gadget leaker Roland Quandt, a leaked screenshot from BestBuy provided by Wickedkhumz, and an earlier leak by SnoopyTech. The data we've seen leaves little room for confusion — even the product number associated with the $699.99 gadget identifies it as the Z1 Extreme model with 512GB of storage, and we've got a long list of marketing claims in our possession that also look legitimate. I'm pretty sure it's the real deal. Though it's always possible the price is a placeholder; we won't know for sure until May 11th.

If the Z1 Extreme starts at $699.99, what would a Ally with a vanilla AMD Z1 cost? (Asus confirmed to The Verge this morning that both will go on sale.) Well if Asus really wants to push, the Steam Deck starts at $399 with 64GB of eMMC...



The ROG Ally is 11.02 inches wide, 4.37 inches tall, 0.83 inches deep and weighs 608 grams (1.34 pounds) if the data we've seen is correct. A feature list also boasts you can upgrade the M.2 2230 SSD with a single screw, has an IPS screen protected by Gorilla Glass DXC, and that the Ally will charge from 0 to 50 percent in just 30 minutes using a bundled 65W USB-C power brick.

The Steam Deck is slow to charge by comparison, though Valve told us that's something its handheld intentionally doesn't do to preserve the longevity of the battery.

My colleague Monica suggested that price, battery, and software were the three big remaining questions with the ROG Ally. We might be down to two as of today.

Asus didn't immediately reply to a request for comment.

Source: The Verge

 

[regawdless]

Everyone can put competent hardware into a small device these days and get the specs right. But it all comes down to the OS, the UI and the SW features. This is where the Steam Deck shines and it's pretty hard to do.

 

[zebraStraw]

TBH until the SD I never even considered a handheld PC. Without Steam's deep integration I couldn't care less.

Also I'm not going back to a flat handheld ergos.

 

[Mirabilis]

Impressive, but I guess everything comes down to the reviews and the support.

 

[Bullet Club]

Asus ROG Ally Review - IGN

The Asus ROG Ally has the potential to be a serious contender against the Steam Deck. While it's not perfect, there's a lot to love about this powerful new handheld.

www.ign.com

Asus ROG Ally updated review: it’s a bit better now

I don’t know who at Microsoft needs to hear this.

www.theverge.com

Hands on: Asus ROG Ally review

A worthy competitor to the Steam Deck

www.techradar.com

 

[Ferdinand the Cowfish]

Pre-ordered yesterday. It should arrive by June 13th.

 

[Stilton Disco]

Looks like a great bit of Kit. Hope it sells well, although I'm more than happy with my SD for the foreseeable.

Ideally this will expand the marker enough to get Xbox and Playstation in on the handheld scene. Chasing the high end of hardware is just not a viable long term strategy anymore. Nintendo and Valve have demonstrated these efficient little handhelds are more than up to the task of being great gaming machines.

 

[ManofTwo]

Wow only 1 cent less than 700….savvvvvings!!!

 

[Bullet Club]

 

[Bullet Club]

Hope it sells well, although I'm more than happy with my SD for the foreseeable.

Same. Happy with the current Steam Deck until Valve update the chipset in a few years.

The ROG Ally does look good though. ASUS normally make quality stuff, and this seems like it's no exception.

The two main issues with it seem to be Windows not being a great OS for a handheld, and battery life. Battery life isn't great on any of these handhelds though.

 

[Hostile_18]

This does seem like a good product BUT Asus is on fire at the moment. Sponsers dropping them left and right due to shady business practices.

 

[Bullet Club]

 

[MildWolverine]

This is the start of this wave of products.

China competitors have been tossing these things out like crazy, now more major players will join in.

This does seem like a good product BUT Asus is on fire at the moment. Sponsers dropping them left and right due to shady business practices.

Eh? Like what?

 

[HariSeldon]

Now those performance figures are good, but it's a chunk more than the SD, and I'm not sure that performance bump is enough to offset the advantages of the Steam Deck with its brilliant Steam UI, linux desktop, etc, for me. Admittedly for normies the linux is less of a system seller, but I struggle to see this machine providing the same quality of experience and remaining open as a general computer in the way the Steam Deck does, literally the best of all worlds.

 

[Hostile_18]

This is the start of this wave of products.

China competitors have been tossing these things out like crazy, now more major players will join in.



Eh? Like what?

Started with a Bios update they said would void people's warranties. Doubling down on it, lies, throwing partners under the bus, deleting things from their website etc.

 

[Ferdinand the Cowfish]

This is my main reason for buying it (and the Steam Deck).

 

[MildWolverine]

Started with a Bios update they said would void people's warranties. Doubling down on it, lies, throwing partners under the bus, deleting things from their website etc.

Cool, well if they go bottom up these things will be great on clearance.

 

[infinitys_7th]

I still want a good device with dual screen clamshell. A lot of DS/3DS games just don't work right on a single screen.

 

[Ferdinand the Cowfish]

I still want a good device with dual screen clamshell. A lot of DS/3DS games just don't work right on a single screen.

I think clamshells are awkward as fuck, but I'd love some sort of non-permanent peripheral to add a second screen for DS/3DS games

 

[Hostile_18]

Give me one high quality screen that I'll use 100% of the time than two screens that wont be as good or smaller. Its a proper niche case having two screens and the skills to emulate. Not forgetting the extra BOM cost and weight. Better off just sticking with the original DS/3DS.

 

[HariSeldon]

Give me one high quality screen that I'll use 100% of the time than two screens that wont be as good or smaller. Its a proper niche case having two screens and the skills to emulate. Not forgetting the extra BOM cost and weight. Better off just sticking with the original DS/3DS.

Only thing is those things won't last forever. One option is a Steam Deck plugged into your tv - deck screen for the touch screen and tv for the main screen. Not so portable of course but it works.

 

[Hostile_18]

True it seems the ally is a bit to mainstream (in a good way. It has to sell in the hundreds of thousands to make a return. A DS 3DS device at a higher cost but only has to sell in a thousand or two is more Kickstarter territory IMO.

Perhaps a software solution, some kind of split screen maybe?

 

[Helljumper]

What a bizarre name for a device. Wonder how they came up with that.

 

[Hostile_18]

What a bizarre name for a device. Wonder how they came up with that.

Every gender can play on it

 

[Helljumper]

Just found out ROG stands for Republic of Gamers. It's an Asus motherboard brand.

 

[Epic Nemesis]

If this gets steam deck 2 into my hands faster then I'm sold. The UI and steam integration is what sells the steam deck. If they can get a windows shell that mimics that UI I'd be interested in a windows handheld, but I have no interest in using desktop mode on a portable 100% of the time.

 

[Bullet Club]

Just found out ROG stands for Republic of Gamers. It's an Asus motherboard brand.

It's what they call some of their laptops as well.

 

[Ferdinand the Cowfish]

If this gets steam deck 2 into my hands faster then I'm sold. The UI and steam integration is what sells the steam deck. If they can get a windows shell that mimics that UI I'd be interested in a windows handheld, but I have no interest in using desktop mode on a portable 100% of the time.

I probably wouldn't have been as interested in the Asus handheld as I am, if Steam would allow for easy dual-booting of Steam OS and Windows on the Steam Deck.

I know you can do it currently, but it's not as easy and seamless as it should be. They mentioned a dual-boot solution months ago but we haven't heard anything since.

 

[HariSeldon]

I probably wouldn't have been as interested in the Asus handheld as I am, if Steam would allow for easy dual-booting of Steam OS and Windows on the Steam Deck.

I know you can do it currently, but it's not as easy and seamless as it should be. They mentioned a dual-boot solution months ago but we haven't heard anything since.

Tbh most games run quite happily on Linux, and there's an excellent suite of applications available for most needs with wine/proton fixing the gaps for most cases. What's your windows requirement for the device? I might have a useful suggestion, might not, but it depends on what you need.

 

[Ferdinand the Cowfish]

Tbh most games run quite happily on Linux, and there's an excellent suite of applications available for most needs with wine/proton fixing the gaps for most cases. What's your windows requirement for the device? I might have a useful suggestion, might not, but it depends on what you need.

Xbox 360 emulation.

It runs OK on Windows. Doesn't run really at all on Linux

 

[HariSeldon]

Xbox 360 emulation.

It runs OK on Windows. Doesn't run really at all on Linux

Yeah fair enough - special case. I assume it's not games that run well on other platforms?

 

[Bullet Club]

So Is The new ASUS ROG Ally better than the Steam Deck? It's complicated and it going to come down to what you want and need in na handheld gaming PC. In this video we take look at the valve steam deck vs the ASUS ROG Ally by running some benchmarks at 15 watts, we also take look at battery life to see if one is better than the other.

 

[Bullet Club]

ASUS Rog Ally is a portable gaming PC with excellent performance. Let's take a look!

The ASUS ROG Ally seems to be the first real competitor to the Valve Steam Deck, so let's have a talk about the two, and some of the reasons you may prefer one over the other.

4K and 1440P Gaming on the new asus rog ally! In this video we take a look at docked mode on the ROG Ally using the ASUS Charger dock. You can easily turn the Ally into a desktop PC for Gaming, Work and Media playback just using the built in Radeon RDNA3 iGPU! Running CS Go and Forza horizon 5 at 1440P and Older games like Skyrim at 4K is possible on the ASUS ROG Ally.

Let's take a look at some emulators running on the ASUS Rog Ally, such as PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii U!

 

[Bullet Club]

We unlocked the true power of the all new ASUS ROG Ally using an eGPU! In this video we test out the XG Mobile Radeon RX 6850 XT External graphics card on the ASUS ROG Ally and the results are amazing! 4K and 1440P gaming in dock mode is so smooth on the ALLY and the Ryzen Z1 Extreme has more than enough power!

 

[Sean Mirrsen]

The Ally seems to be something you could buy if you want a portable semi-desktop moreso than a portable/handheld gaming device, whereas the Deck is more a handheld than a portable desktop.

Just the difference in available controls thanks to the Deck's thumbpads, makes the distinction clear.

I for one would prefer the Deck, even with the power disparity. As far as making a device and platform for gaming, I trust Valve rather more than Asus. Whatever advantage Asus has as an experienced hardware maker, pales in comparison to Valve's experience with making a good gaming platform.

 

[Bullet Club]

 

[Bullet Club]

ROG Ally hits Australia next month for AU$1,299, putting Valve to shame

It beats the year old Steam Deck to the antipodean market.

The ROG Ally handheld PC is not only pretty good, but unlike Valve's Steam Deck, Asus is actually bothering to bring it to Australia. Barely a month after hitting other markets, the ROG Ally's Australian release date is June 13. The company announced today that it'll be available through JB Hi-Fi for AU$1,299 (opens in new tab), and that you won't have to jump through hoops to get it. Hooray.

That price puts it slightly above the $699 price in North America (which equates roughly to AU$1,080 at the time of writing), but it's still very competitive and, even better, it's possible to buy a unit without risking various third-party dealers of wide ranging repute.

Detecting a sour tone, Valve? Yes, we've been waiting for the Steam Deck to release in Australia for over a year now, so it's nice that a readily-available and demonstrably great PC handheld will be purchasable in local shops within weeks. Dave James sang its praises in his ROG Ally review last week: "The ROG Ally is the best handheld gaming PC on the market, and probably the best budget gaming PC full stop," he wrote. You hearing this, Gabe? You can still release the Steam Deck in Australia, if you want. But don't strain yourself!

JB Hi-Fi is currently taking pre-orders (opens in new tab) for the ROG Ally, with a limit of one unit per customer. It looks like JB is the exclusive local retailer, but I've emailed ASUS to double check, though you can buy a unit direct from ASUS (opens in new tab) if you like, with a 90 day Xbox Game Pass sub thrown in.

Unlike the Steam Deck, which has three models determined mainly by storage, the ROG Ally has one 512GB model for AU$1,299. If you're in New Zealand, the price is NZD$1,499.

Source: PC Gamer

 

[Bullet Club]

Weeks in the works and delayed owing to BIOS issues, our review of the Asus ROG Ally is finally complete. We're looking at the highest specification PC handheld we've seen yet with the Z1 Extreme processor paired with fast memory and a 1080p 120Hz VRR panel. But we're also looking at Windows 11 - which has traditionally performed poorly in the handheld space. This is clearly the most powerful PC mobile device around - but is it the best?

 

[Bullet Club]

It's time to see if the ROG Ally lives up to the hype.

 

[Torrent of Pork]

Question for you PC guys. That external GPU for $799 seems to make it a pretty good 1440p machine when docked as far as I can tell, not as good as a dedicated desktop for the same exact price point, but close. I already have the Ally pre-ordered as my first foray into PC gaming in 20 years, would you consider the Ally and the external GPU a solid machine for $1500 total?

I like the idea of having a decent PC that I can just take with me on the road.