Since Asus announced the ASUS ROG Ally officially on May 11th 2023, I have been refreshing my local Philippines Datablitz website for a pre-order listing non-stop. And why not? This Windows 11 based mobile gaming device seems to be the handheld I was waiting for: powerful graphics, beautiful screen, and compatibility with my existing games:
Check out the ASUS ROG ALLY Technical specifications below:
- CPU:AMD Ryzen™ Z1 Extreme Processor (“Zen4” architecture with 4nm process, 8-core /16-threads, 24MB total cache, up to 5.10 Ghz boost)
- GPU:AMD Radeon™ Graphics (AMD RDNA™ 3, 12 CUs, up to 2.7 GHz, up to 8.6 Teraflops)
- TDP: 9-30W
- 7-inch, FHD (1920 x 1080) 16:9, IPS-level glossy display sRGB:100% Adobe:75.35%
- Gorilla® Glass DXC + Gorilla® Glass Victus™
- Touch Screen (10-point multi-touch)
- Refresh Rate:120Hz, Response Time:7ms, Brightness:500nits, FreeSync Premium
- 16GB LPDDR5 on board (6400MT/s dual channel)
- 512GB PCIe® 4.0 NVMe™ M.2 SSD (2230)
- 1x 3.5mm Combo Audio Jack
- 1x ROG XG Mobile Interface and USB Type-C combo port (with USB 3.2 Gen2, support DisplayPort™ 1.4)
- 1x UHS-II microSD card reader (supports SD, SDXC and SDHC)
- 1x 3.5mm Combo Audio Jack
- 1x ROG XG Mobile Interface and USB Type-C combo port (with USB 3.2 Gen2, support DisplayPort™ 1.4)
- 1x UHS-II microSD card reader (supports SD, SDXC and SDHC)
- 40WHrs, 4S1P, 4-cell Li-ion, with 65W AC Adapter
- Weighs 608g
Let me translate those specs to something more tangible for Pinoy Gamers:
- The ASUS ROG Ally will be able to play your current steam games library but not only that, but your Epic, and Battle.net games as well without much tinkering.
- It will give you more framerates than the Steam Deck, except at 10W and below and not as many extra frames as ASUS promised in their marketing materials.
- The 1080p screen looks fantastic and the 120HZ refresh rate helps, but you wont be able to run many recent games at 120HZ, unless you crank the resolution down to 720p but what would be the point of having a 1080p screen then?
- The price of the Ryzen Z1 Extreme version of the ASUS ROG ALLY here in the Philippines is expected to be around the current price of the 512GB Steam Deck, which has been reduced in price at around PHP 39K, but i think the Ryzen Z1 Extreme Ally price in the Philippines will range from PHP 45-50K once currency adjustments and revenue margins are included. Conversely, The non extreme Z1 version of the ROG Ally would be around 5K cheaper. I wouldn’t be surprised some people selling US/Best Buy bought ROG Ally units to be sold at a much higher price.
- Emulation performance on the Ally is fantastic according to sources on the internet, PS3 God of War is said to be running at 60fps. Noice.
- Since it is a Windows device, you can use it to do office and other activities you normally do on your Windows laptop or desktop.
- You can attach the Ally to an external screen, and add a mouse and keyboard, if you wish.
- Yes, The ROG ALLY will be able to run Diablo 4 and Path of Exile (FYI The Steam Deck can as well, with some crafty settings)
- Yes, the Ally also is slightly lighter than the Steam Deck
There i said it: the main reason I am buying one is to play Diablo 4 on a handheld device on a random coffeeshop. BUT the ROG Ally is not perfect, it has some potential major flaws:
- Based on tests, the Z1 Extreme version of the Ally requires more power to run similar games at similar settings vs the Steam Deck. This is probably due to optimizations that valve has done and performance gains with Steam Deck on a linux based OS.
- This means the device will be power hungry, like 1 hour duration for games running the max 40W and maybe 2-4 hours on lower TDPs. The Steam Deck in comparison can reach up to 5-7 hours with adjustments to its settings.
- SteamOS interface is much better than Armory Crate, at the moment.
- Some early reviewers are reporting button locking issues
- Also, Asus promised a LOT of things in their launch, not all of it is true as per early reviewers.
For my use cases, I don’t think i will be gaming much in locations where i don’t have access to a plug so these potential limitations doesn’t matter to me as much. But to some people, these issues may be deal breakers especially those who plan to use it like a Nintendo Switch and play games on long flights or trips and for those who don’t like Windows.
Take note though that Valve has had a year’s worth of head start to iron out the kinks in the Steam Deck, ASUS is expected to continually update and optimize the Ally post launch so we can expect to see improvements similar to what we saw with the Deck in it’s first year.
The release of the ASUS ROG Ally only means competition in the handheld space has become more tougher. Hopefully, this will mean better handheld devices for gamers moving forward. I, for one, am looking forward to Valve’s response to the ROG ALLY, not to mention Nintendo’s successor to the very popular Nintendo Switch.
