ASUS isn’t going to let the likes of Ayaneo or Valve have the handheld gaming PC market to themselves. After an April 1st announcement that prompted skepticism (don’t announce real products on April Fools’ Day, folks), ASUS has confirmed that it’s building its own handheld, the ROG Ally. While the company is light on details, it notes the system will run Windows 11 and use a custom AMD Ryzen chip. You can even plug in an external GPU.
As The Verge notes, YouTuber Dave 2D has learned that the ROG Ally has a 7-inch touchscreen, but it’s a 16:9 ratio 1080p display with a 120Hz refresh rate versus the Steam Deck’s 16:10 panel that only manages 800p and 60Hz. Despite this, ASUS’ handheld is narrower, thinner and slightly lighter than Valve’s machine. It’s not clear how that screen will affect battery life.
The company hasn’t shared pricing or release dates. However, you can sign up for an alert when pre-orders begin at Best Buy.
Whether or not the ROG Ally does well largely depends on its price and performance relative to the Steam Deck (starting at $399) and higher-end handhelds like the $850 Ayaneo 2. As ASUS’ early marketing suggests, though, there are potentially strong advantages. Unlike the Steam Deck, which is officially limited to running games in your Steam library (and only some, at that), the Ally can theoretically run most any game its hardware can handle. And while brands like Ayaneo and GPD are relatively small, ASUS is a major name — you’ll likely have an easier time finding the Ally.
All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. All prices are correct at the time of publishing.
