Asus shares more insights on the upcoming ROG Ally handheld PC

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Earlier this month, Asus made some jokes and dropped the first details about their Steam Deck killer, the Rog Ally, on April Fool’s Day. Within a few days, Asus confirmed that the portable beast was real.

Around that time, content creators started getting handsy with the ROG Ally. They broke down a lot of the details that they could figure out from their hands-on previews. But, some holes were still left in the equation.

Now that it’s been a few weeks, the Asus ROG Ally decided to strike the iron again. AMD dropped some details about their newest, sexiest processor line.

The Ryzen Z1 and Ryzen Z1 Extreme Processors are designed for high performance in handheld PC consoles. Additionally, they namedropped the Asus ROG Ally as being “available first.

The Verge did a fantastic hands-on review of the ROG Ally this week. In the in-depth take, they were impressed with the machine itself. Instead of directly trying to compete with the Steam Deck, it feels like an entire PC in the palms of your hands.

Could the ROG Ally be the perfect gaming machine for 2023?

The Steam Deck is gaming first, with the ability to load up Windows or do other tasks as a side job. The Asus ROG Ally comes equipped with Windows 11. This means that anything that can run on a Windows PC should work fine on the Ally.

The Steam Deck, unfortunately, requires much more in terms of workarounds if it isn’t specifically designed for it. On the other hand, The ROG Ally will come with a three-month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription to drive the point home.

Most importantly, the pricing of the system is another tidbit of information that we don’t have yet. According to all official news, including the AMD Ryzen Z1 Series announcement, we will find out the pricing on launch day, May 11th.

It’s theorized that it could go two separate ways with the price: “Steam Deck Killer” or “PC Of The Future.” Going low on the pricing could try to sweep a portable gaming market in a single flash entirely.

This could work, especially if it’s close to the Steam Deck’s price. However, going high could set a precedent for the future of gaming, post-pandemic, allowing people to travel and game to their heart’s content.

Needless to say, the Steam Deck is meant to be a competitor to the Nintendo Switch. The ROG Ally may be something more here. We recommend signing up at Best Buy to find out the details as they drop if you’re in the US.

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Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.