rear Misleading April Fool’s Announcement, Asus makes it 100% clear. The Asus ROG Ally gaming handheld is the real deal, coming soon and coming in two different configurations powered by custom AMD processors.
These two processors are AMD Ryzen Z1 and Ryzen Z1 Extreme. Both will use Zen 4 cores with RDNA graphics on the 4nm process. While the regular Z1 is a 6-core, 12-thread CPU with four RDNA 3 compute units for graphics, the Z1 Extreme bumps it up to 8 cores and 16 threads with 12 RDNA 3 compute units. is increasing toAbove steam deckValve’s Ryzen-based Aerith SoC has four cores, eight threads, and eight RDNA 2 compute units for graphics.
| APU | core/thread | graphic | cache |
| AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme | 8/16 | 12 AMD RDNA 3 compute units | 24MB |
| AMD Ryzen Z1 | 6/12 | 4 AMD RDNA 3 compute units | 12MB |
Whichever APU you use, Ally comes with 16 GB of DDR5 RAM and a 512 GB PCIe 4.0 SSD (for storage expansion, you can use the system’s UHS-II micro SD card at low speed, max speed You can also use up to 312 MBps). Both match the top $649 Steam deck, but the Steam deck uses a slower UHS-I micro SD card slot. Connectivity includes Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth, but like the Steam Deck, Asus is skipping 5G and 4G LTE.
The display is a 7-inch, 1080p touchscreen with a 16:9 aspect ratio and runs at up to 120 Hz using Gorilla Glass Victus. Asus claims a maximum brightness of 500 nits. The Steam Deck screen is also 7 inches, but with a 16:10 aspect ratio, a low resolution of 1280 x 800, and a 60 Hz refresh rate.
Clearly, outside of aspect ratio, Asus wins on paper. However, there is an open question as to how many games will utilize a 120Hz refresh rate and how that will affect battery life. When checking the Steam Deck, Valve said battery life estimates were capped at 30 frames per second. We need to see what the is like.
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Asus runs Windows 11 on ROG Ally. The advantage here is that basically everything runs on Windows: Steam, Epic Games, Nvidia GeForce Now, Xbox Game Pass, various launchers from game publishers. SteamOS, which Valve uses on its handhelds, only plays Steam games, but you can install Windows on it if you want.
But while SteamOS works great with controllers, Windows leaves a lot to be desired there. Asus has its own Armory Crate UI and overlays for making changes during the game, but you’ll have to spend some time to see if it’s good. You can also control it, switch between handheld, keyboard, and desktop modes, and customize the joystick dead zone.
Another advantage of using Windows concerns performance. There is no emulation like games that use Proton on the Steam Deck.
The company touts a “zero-gravity thermal system” to keep Ally cool. Compare to the cooling system we use in 2019 ROG Mothership (quite noisy) and Flow Z13 Tablet. Asus claims it hits 30 dB with one fan running, but it’s 20 dB quieter with both fans.
At 608 grams (1.34 pounds), Ally is lighter than the Steam Deck. Without the touchpad, the footprint is also significantly reduced. Asus is using an Xbox-style layout here, which makes sense given what most PC games use. There are buttons, bumpers and triggers. The Steam Deck has four rear buttons, while the ROG Ally has only two. Asus also includes a fingerprint reader on the power button for use with Windows Hello.
Some models work with Asus’ XG mobile graphics dock.Currently that Up to RTX 4090 It costs a whopping $2,000. However, if you do own one, plugging Ally into your monitor allows for high-fidelity gaming.
Frustratingly, Asus hasn’t announced the actual price yet. The most expensive Steam Deck is $649 with 512GB of storage and an anti-glare screen, while the cheapest is $339 with 64GB of eMMC storage (both with carrying cases). not. With these specs, it’s clearly playing in the top tier category. can), but we’ll know whenever Asus decides it’s ready for an announcement.
For the time being, if you are interested in advance reservation information Sign up on the Best Buy website (opens in new tab) Learn more about the system when you’re ready to sell. In its own release, AMD said that he will have more information on pricing and availability on May 11th.
