The Asus ROG Ally handheld gaming PC is available now from Best Buy after pre-orders began in May. The new gaming handheld is equipped with AMD’s Z1 Extreme processor and a 512 GB SSD $699.99 – Only $50 more than Valve’s most featured Steam Deck. A less powerful version is planned $599.99 in the third quarter of 2023.
It’s just after the ROG Ally’s somewhat misguided April Fool’s Day debut that we had the opportunity to give it an in-depth review. Just as expected, the combination of the AMD Z1 Extreme processor and 16GB of fast LPDDR5 RAM allows PC games to run with fewer visual compromises than we’re used to from the Steam Deck (which itself isn’t a problem). Not to mention the 1080p display has a higher resolution and doubles the refresh rate – up to 120Hz – for smoother gameplay.
It’s worth noting that since we published our review, Asus has made a number of pre-launch improvements to the ROG Ally to boost its performance and stability. The patches improved ROG Ally’s performance when running at higher wattages and resulted in up to a 20% increase in performance in some games compared to what the old firmware was capable of. The efficiency in games with lower wattage has also been improved. As noted by The edgeas well as from YouTube personality, Dave2DROG Ally is now significantly better at running games at 9W or 15W – something the Steam Deck excels at. Asus claims to have improved the battery life as well.
Where can I buy the Asus ROG Ally?
Best Buy is the only US retailer to sell the ROG Ally, and you can buy it now $699.99. The Best Buy list is available for $599.99 Model with the AMD Ryzen Z1 processor and 512 GB of memory, but will not ship until the third quarter of 2023. We’re looking for links from other retailers.
Update (June 13): Now that the ROG Ally is available for purchase, we’ve updated this post with relevant information about updates the handheld PC received prior to its launch.
