Or rather, it could be.
Actually ASUS ROG Ally it doesn’t yet have a price, an element that could really decide the fate of this new device. In short, technically it seems to have everything a gamer could want but will the cost be higher or lower than its direct competitor, Valve’s Steam Deck?
The official statements of ASUS make us think that the cost will be much higher than other portable consoles, in fact we are talking about “less than 1000 dollars“.
Justified? Actually yes considering the characteristics of the newcomer.
What is ASUS ROG Ally?
We got our hands on a still “work in progress” version of ASUS ROG Ally and we particularly like the user experience.
But before telling you our first impressions, let’s try to understand what are the characteristics of this portable console.
The ROG Ally design is certainly not new: display in the center, controls on the sides and on the back, keys positioned along the profiles… In short, the path followed by ASUS is the one traced years ago by Nintendo and, more recently, by Valve.
However, there are some obvious differences. The Asian giant created dozens of prototypes before finding the “perfect fit“, that is the shape that is more comfortable for the players. The result of this long study are inclined corners that favor the grip and accompany the palm of the handa texture with a triangular pattern that increases gripan opaque shell that does not retain fingerprints and the typical layout of Xbox controllers therefore with asymmetric sticks which, in this case, are surrounded by LED RGB. Then there are the triggers on the rear profile and macro keys on the back while the front buttons are designed to withstand 10 million pressures.
Great attention also to the weight: 608 grams which are certainly not few but which are really well distributed.
On the front we find a 7-inch display with FullHD resolution, a refresh rate of 120 Hz and a response time of 7ms. There is no shortage of support for AMD Freesync and data protection Corning Gorilla Glass
Obviously there is no shortage of speakers, complete with support for Dolby Atmos and Hi-Res audio for a truly immersive user experience.
Under the body we have a custom processor. Indeed, actually two. ASUS ROG Ally will be available in two versions: one with the AMD Ryzen Z1 chip and one with the Ryzen Z1 Extreme. What changes? Both are based on the Zen4 architecture with RNDA 3 and both are 4nm ma the Z1 has 6 cores while the Extreme has 8.
Cooling is entrusted to two fans that promise noise reduced to the limit.
The software? Windows 11 and a customized version of Armory Crate called SE. Compared to the PC version this Special Edition will collect games installed from any hub, from Xbox Game Pass to Steam, so you will have all your games in one place and from there you can launch them with ease.
Armory Create will also allow you to choose the mode – Gamepad, Keyboard / mouse and Desktop – and to set the sticks, haptic feedback and much more.
We also point out the presence of the lfingerprint ector in the power buttonto increase security, and del WiFi 6E for even faster connectivity.
3 usage scenarios imagined by ASUS for ROG Ally:
- alonetherefore as a classic portable console;
- connected to the TV cable to have a bigger screen available;
- desktop, then with the use of mouse, keyboard and ROG XG Mobile.
First impressions
As anticipated, we were able to touch ASUS ROG Ally by hand for about 15 minutes and the experience was certainly interesting.
First of all, it’s really comfortable: we didn’t find it uncomfortable, heavy or annoying. Playing it is a real pleasurewith the screen that is not OLED – which we would have somewhat expected from ASUS – but still manages to give us an immersive experience.
The RGB LEDs of the sticks are particularly noticeable on the white shell by Ally, giving you that extra “gaming” touch.
However, what surprised us is the intuitiveness: apart from the 4 buttons that we find near the display – 2 on the left and 2 on the right – all the others are super familiar. Pick up the console and you immediately know how to move easily, without difficulty.
The performance also seemed very good, with Doom Eternal never batting an eye during our test and the console that showed no signs of warming up.
In short, ASUS ROG Ally really looks ready to give us the same performance as a PC in a super compact format. Now we await its arrival on the market to really put it to the test.