Asus ROG Ally X hands-on: my brief experience with a possible Steam Deck killer

I love my Steam Deck OLED, but the Asus ROG Ally X has a case as a gaming handheld that you should have your eyes on right now.

Announced on Sunday, this new iteration of the 2023 ROG Ally is far from a ROG Ally 2. It doesn’t have significantly improved power or a dazzling new display, but Asus has made a bunch of small but important upgrades to everything in the margins. .

Based on a brief hands-on demo of the ROG Ally

Asus ROG Ally X: Specs and upgrades

To be perfectly clear, again, this is not a direct sequel to the ROG Ally. Anyone who bought this device a year ago shouldn’t feel the imminent need to upgrade just yet. To demonstrate why, here are the basic specifications of the Ally X, with the differences noted:

• 7-inch 1080p display with 120Hz refresh rate

• AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor

• AMD Radeon GPU

• 24 GB LPDDR5 integrated memory (compared to 16 GB on ROG Ally)

• Up to 1TB of SSD storage (compared to 512GB on ROG Ally)

• 3.5mm audio jack

• MicroSD card reader

• Two USB-C ports (compared to one on ROG Ally)

So, on the surface, we’re looking at a device with the same screen, CPU, and GPU as the current $699 model. And yes, it runs Windows 11 like the previous model.

Press attendee holding the Asus ROG Ally
Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable / Allisa James

This part is important because it gives Asus an inherent, out-of-the-box advantage over Steam Deck, a device that runs a custom version of Linux – unless you go out there and DIY it yourself. Pre-installing Windows 11 gives users increased access to games from storefronts like the Epic Games Store and Xbox game Pass. Steam Deck owners, on the other hand, have to work harder to get these things.

But if you thought the upgrades were just about more RAM, storage, and another USB-C port, you’re sorely mistaken. Asus has redesigned the motherboard to include an M.2 2280 slot so users can more easily upgrade the device’s storage on their own. Perhaps most importantly, the device now has an 80Wh battery, literally twice as big as the battery on the old ROG Ally.

Asus was able to do all this by redesigning the exterior, giving it a new black color and a slightly more ergonomic button layout. The new analog sticks should last longer (Asus claims they can survive 5 million cycles), the rear buttons are smaller to reduce the risk of accidentally pressing them while gaming, and the analog sticks and buttons on the face are now placed slightly higher. friendly angle, so moving your thumbs from one to the other should be more comfortable.

Asus ROG Ally X: practical

This woman does NOT sleep very well with a man playing video games right next to her with the lights on.
Credit: Asus

My actual contact time with the Ally X was brief – and there was no original Ally ROG nearby for the sake of direct comparison. But even in just a few minutes of playing with the device, it was clear that this was a more substantial upgrade than initially expected.

For starters, the new ergonomic button placements are very comfortable, regardless of how they compare to the original design. Sliding my thumbs from the sticks to the face buttons was never awkward, and the handles on the back help give it a stable center of gravity. I never felt like I was in danger of letting him down or anything like that. And no, I never accidentally pressed any of the back buttons, which I to have made on my Steam Deck.

The Asus ROG Ally X held on its side
Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable / Allisa James

Asus claims that the ROG Ally less in the short term. One thing Asus promises about the Ally . This will be something to watch out for when units ship to customers later this year.

When it comes to game performance, you shouldn’t really expect any major differences from the original ROG Ally (the CPU and GPU haven’t changed). More RAM helps theoretically, but we’ll have to wait for detailed benchmarks for hardware-intensive AAA games like Cyberpunk 2077. The only game I was able to play with was the 2020 one. Battle Toadsa 2D beat-’em-up with crisp, punchy, and impressive visuals on the ROG Ally X’s screen. It also ran well above 60 FPS, which is fine, but not really surprising.

The internal components of the Asus ROG Ally
Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable / Allisa James

With a price tag $100 higher than the existing high-end ROG Ally, it’s hard to convince someone to run out and upgrade from that device to the Ally X. However, it’s a case study explaining why early adoption is occasional. for suckers. It may not be the ROG Ally 2, but the Ally X seems like the device the original version should have been. A handful of thoughtful internal and external changes give it real potential, especially in a suddenly crowded portable gaming PC market.

The fact that it only has Windows from the start is also huge. Honestly, that should be the selling point, even with how much I love the Steam Deck.