In early April, Asus officially unveiled the ROG Ally, its serious high-end handheld console competitor to Valve’s Steam Deck. We already had some information confirming to us that the Asus machine would be more powerful than the Steam Deck, and the brand is formalizing some specifications today, but not all, just to give an appointment next month.
The official specs of the Asus ROG Ally console
After the leaks of recent days, ROG formalizes the specs of its Windows console, called Ally.
- AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor
- AMD RDNA 3 graphics chip
- Bright, high refresh rate touchscreen
- Dalle Full HD (1080p) de 120 Hz 7ms
- 16 Go de RAM LPDDR5
- 512 Go de stockage M.2-2230 PCIe Gen4
- 500 nits maximum brightness
- Dual Fan Zero Gravity Cooling System
- Compatible FreeSyncTM Premium
- MicroSD slot for storage expansions
- Dual Dolby Atmos compatible speakers
- Weight of 608 grams
- Price unknown at this time
Obviously, Asus is careful not to communicate on the real power of its console for the moment, and invites us to wait until May 11 at 4:00 p.m. to discover all the secrets of its console, including its price.
The ROG Ally portable console runs on Windows 11, a definite advantage that will allow it, for example, to run streaming game services, and normally the PC Game Pass catalog.
Asus is also announcing a special Armory Crate edition, a version of the console that offers shortcuts to performance modes, game library, performance monitor, Aura Sync customization, and “much more”. ROG also offers a 90-day trial version of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
A console competing with the Steam Deck!
With its AMD Ryzen Z1 Series processor, its Full 1080p HD screen (significantly higher resolution than the Steam Deck), its 16 GB of RAM and its storage of 512 GB of storage also higher than the specifications of the Steam Deck, the Asus console has everything to overshadow Valve’s portable console!
ROG Ally will also offer additional features, such as “ROG Intelligent Cooling”, a MicroSD slot for storage expansions, Dolby Atmos compatible speakers, Armory Crate SE (which will allow key remapping, overlays and profiles) and will be fully compatible with Steam, Epic, Xbox Game Pass and Windows 11. All of this makes it an attractive choice for gamers looking for a portable console that can rival the capabilities of a desktop PC.
Although the exact release date is not yet known, the alleged leak revealed that the ROG Ally is expected to release in October 2023. The price of the console is expected to range between $649 and $899, which is comparable to the Steam Deck.
By comparison, the Steam Deck uses an AMD Zen 2 processor and has 16GB of RAM, but has a maximum storage capacity of 512GB using an NVMe SSD, with a MicroSD card slot for expansions. While capable of running Valve’s Linux operating system, the Steam Deck doesn’t have the same screen resolution as the ROG Ally and can be considered less appealing in terms of design. The ROG Ally appears to be a superior choice in terms of hardware and features for gamers looking for a high-quality portable console, but we’ll have to wait a little longer before drawing any immediate conclusions.
