Asus has started teasing Their portable gaming console, ROG Ally, is positioned by the company as a high-end product for the handheld PC gaming market. With ROG Ally, Asus joins the rise of x86-based portable gaming consoles inspired by the Steam Deck system and further fueled by game developers’ enthusiasm to optimize their titles for these low-power portables I’m trying PC.
What was revealed this week was an April Fool’s joke, a questionable time joke that wasn’t really a joke, but rather than an announcement, it’s a teaser about what Asus is working on. As a result, Asus isn’t revealing much about detailed specs, let alone a release date or price. Nonetheless, the company feels confident enough in the product at this point, and is showing off a prototype that will whet gamers’ appetites, presumably before a proper release later this year.
Starting at the heart of Asus handheld consoles, CPUs and GPUs are the cornerstone of all gaming systems. That’s why ROG Ally Asus went with what it calls a custom AMD system-on-chip with a Zen 4 general-purpose core and an RDNA 3-based integrated GPU. The SoC is made by TSMC on one of the N4 process technologies (4nm class), but its configuration is unknown and whether ROG Ally is just using a semi-custom configuration of one of AMD’s Phoenix APUs. , or really go with a truly custom-designed SoC with specific perks exclusive to the console.
(Image credit: Dave2D)
Asus ROG Ally comes with its own two-part connector. One part carries PCIe 3.0 x8 data and the other part is a USB-C connector responsible for power and USB data transmission. Its connector can be used for external connections. Asus ROG XG Mobile Docking an external GPU (up to a GeForce RTX 4090 laptop GPU) and an external display connector essentially transforms a portable gaming console into a higher performing desktop gaming system. Most portable game consoles work with an external display, and some even allow you to connect an external GPU (although there are some tricks), but enabling this feature by default is what Asus did to differentiate his ROG Ally. It’s one of the major features we’re looking forward to making.
(Image credit: Dave2D)
It then uses Alloy’s custom APU to drive a 7-inch Full HD (1080p) display that delivers a maximum brightness of 500 nits and a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz. Including such a high-performance display in a battery-constrained device is certainly an interesting choice, and while it may seem like overkill, the YouTuber Dave2DOne of only two people to have seen the console early on, said that the built-in GPU is indeed capable of taking advantage of high refresh rates.
As far as other hardware features go, the Asus ROG Ally console has soldered-on (probably) LPDDR5 memory, M.2-2230 NVMe SSD, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth adapters, MicroSD card slot, USB Type-charging and display. C port for output and TRRS audio connector for headset.
(Image credit: Dave2D)
In terms of software, Asus ROG Ally runs Microsoft’s Windows 11 operating system and is compatible with all the latest games developed for the Windows platform, including those available from Steam, Epic Games Store and Xbox Game Pass. There should be. This is, of course, the key trump card the Asus ROG Ally has against Valve’s Steam Deck, which runs a custom version of Linux and isn’t compatible with all games. set of assignments.
According to Dave2D, the Steam Deck still outperforms the ROG Ally when it comes to ergonomics. Still, the Asus portable game console is quieter and runs cooler when running in 15W mode.
(Image credit: Dave2D)
The Asus ROG Ally game console is certainly impressive from a hardware perspective. Meanwhile, Dave2D suggests that the company’s software is in the early stages of development and the software won’t be available anytime soon. This is probably why Asus decided not to disclose the final specs of the game console, only providing it to two of his YouTubers for a test drive.
Asus is reportedly priced competitively for its ROG Ally console, which is twice as fast as Valve’s Steam Deck ($699) and about 50% more expensive ($999). from $1099 etc.) is a rather vague statement. The price-performance ratio is very good, so it can be said that it is price-competitive. The good news, on the other hand, is that Asus will release the unit globally.
Either way, Asus’ attempt to enter the portable game console market looks exciting (on paper) from a hardware perspective. We still don’t know how comfortable it will be to use a console, how much it will ultimately cost, or how long we’ll be able to use a high-spec device on the go.
