Asus Republic Of Gamers has announced its handheld gaming machine, the ROG Ally will be released on June 13 worldwide.
The machine will be selling for USD $699 (roughly RM3,128) (nice). No official MSRP for Malaysia was given at the time of writing, so expect to be around that converted price range.
The ROG Ally is poised as the Steam Deck competitor, which has recently made the handheld PC- an already established PC form factor- into the mainstream.
However, compared to the Steam Deck the ROG Ally is higher specced, which explains the higher price range, and comes with Windows 11. So you can install all your PC games from all the different launchers (Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG, Microsoft Store- including PC Game Pass) from the get-go.
On that note, ROG Ally includes three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, which includes PC Game Pass.
Play All Your Games is the marketing tagline, smart.
ROG also worked with specific developers including Xbox Game Studios, Capcom, HoYoverse, Level Infinite, 505 Games, Team 17, Nacon, Techland, Squanch Games, and Fatshark to ensure their games work well on the Ally.
There will be two different specs for the ROG Ally, the difference being the main processor, both being the new AMD Ryzen Z1 processor. The Z1 Extreme version brings a significantly higher performance- the Z1 Extreme is an 8-core compared to the Z1 6-core and the GPU teraflop numbers are more significant. But both variants operate using similar power wattage.
Here are the specs for the ROG Ally:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme, AMD Ryzen Z1
- GPU: AMD Radeon (AMD RDNA 3 architecture- 8.6 teraflops, AMD Radeon (AMD RDNA 3 architecture- 2.8 teraflops)
- RAM: 16GB LPDDR5 6400MHz
- Storage: 512GB PCIe Gen 4, UHS-II microSD slot
- Display: 1080p, 120 Hz refresh rate, 100% sRGB, AMD FreeSync Premium, 500 nits, 7ms response time, touchscreen
- OS: Windows 11
- Price: USD 699
The Ally has all the buttons you’d expect from a controller built onto it, including haptics and gyro. The device supports WiFi 6E, 65W USB Type-C PD 3.0, and Aura Sync. The latter means that there is RGB lighting.
The ROG Ally can also be paired with ROG’s XG Mobile external GPU dock, built for the ROG Flow. So if you want more power than the already impressive processor could pump, especially if you dock the Ally to an external display, you can. the XG Mobile can support various PC-sized graphics cards.
ROG has made tablet-sized PCs before in the form of the ROG Flow, so seeing them capitalizing on the current hype the Steam Deck has created for portable PCs makes a lot of sense.
The ROG Ally may be a lot more expensive than the competition, it’s at least a much, much lower entry point to any of the ROG PCs and laptops, which see prices above RM5,000 these days.
Media outlets in Malaysia have recently had a hands-on with the ROG Ally, so it’s a question of when, not if, the Ally gets a local MSRP.