Preorder the $700 ROG Ally gaming handheld, due out in June, to take on the Steam Deck
At a launch event today, Asus unveiled the eagerly anticipated ROG Ally portable, announcing its pricing and a June release date.
Today, Asus officially announced the price and timing of the ROG Ally, the company’s eagerly awaited gaming handheld. Other device manufacturers, like Valve and Logitech, decided to test the waters once the Nintendo Switch’s form factor found popularity. Some products, like the Logitech G Cloud, are only cloud gaming platforms. Some of them, such as the Valve Steam Deck, are complete gaming PCs that have been squeezed into a compact, handheld design.
Asus announced that the ROG Ally will go on sale for $700 on June 13 during a global launch event. The gaming portable is now available for pre-order from Asus, and the ROG Ally will also be sold at big-box stores like Best Buy. Interestingly, the business said that the ROG Ally will ship with three complimentary months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Given that one major benefit of Game Pass Ultimate is the ability to stream games, it would appear that Asus views the ROG Ally as a cloud gaming option.
Even though Asus hasn’t disclosed all of the ROG Ally’s technological details, we do already know a few things about the gaming handheld. It will run Windows 11, so all the games you would regularly play on a gaming laptop or computer are supported. This is combined with a 1080p screen, which is comparable to what we’ve seen so far in the gaming handheld market. Although Asus promises that the ROG Ally can run current AAA games without a hitch, we’ll have to put that claim to the test for ourselves.
The ROG Ally will be able to dock, just as the Nintendo Switch and other items in the gaming handheld sector. This will enable you to improve the visual experience by connecting the ROG Ally to a TV or monitor. Additionally, the ROG Ally stands out for having full external GPU support, allowing you to connect a desktop-grade GPU to the device for improved performance. With these two capabilities, the ROG Ally might be your primary gaming PC at home and on the go.
The AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme CPU in the ROG Ally is based on AMD’s latest architecture and is expected to deliver reliable performance. The ROG Ally’s battery life, like that of other handhelds, is a major concern. There isn’t much place for a large battery because these gaming handhelds provide laptop or desktop-class performance in a relatively tiny form factor. It would be interesting to see whether Asus can make improvements in this area because that has been a major complaint with the rival Steam Deck.
