What first seemed like another April Fools’ joke has now been confirmed to be the real thing as ASUS officially unveils its new handheld gaming PC. The brand oddly decided to introduce the machine on April Fools’ Day 2023 as “ROG’s First Gaming Handheld Console,” but the new handheld gaming PC is now officially confirmed as a real thing with a Best Buy pre-order listing on the way (sign up for the waiting list here). Head below for a closer look and some additional details on the new ASUS Steam Deck competitor.
The ASUS handheld gaming PC is real and looking to take on Steam Deck
The brand’s new handheld gaming PC, or the ROG Ally as it is officially known, runs on Windows 11 and packs a customized AMD Ryzen APU – ASUS claims it is AMD’s fastest yet – under the hood alongside a 1920 x 1080 7-inch display (16:9 and 500 nits of brightness) at 120Hz. By comparison to Valve’s Steam Deck, arguably its closest competitor considering the internals here, it is said to be lighter, quieter, and more compact at 280mm x 113mm x 39mm (the Steam Deck measures 298mm x 117mm x 50.5mm).
While some suggest Windows 11 might have a negative effect on overall battery life by comparison to SteamOS, it sounds as though specifics on its capabilities are yet to be divulged. YouTube user Dave2D (seen below), who seems to be the only one who has had a chance to actually go hands-on with the machine, has confirmed as much alongside the still nowhere to be found price tag.
In terms of actual controls, it appears to be a pretty standard setup with a series of face buttons, dual thumbsticks, a D-pad, back-mounted buttons, and shoulder triggers. The usual system buttons are present for accessing menus and the like, but ASUS is also apparently integrating functionality with its ROG XG Mobile eGPU so folks can access the machine’s full potential alongside its gaming laptops or the big screen as well.
The new ASUS ROG Ally still has no official release date or, as we mentioned above, a price tag, but Best Buy is readying the pre-order listing as we speak. You can enter your email address on this special landing page to be informed of any changes and upcoming details on the new machine as well.
In the meantime, check out some of the lates deals and releases from the ASUS gaming camp:
- Game for over 75 hours on a single charge with the ASUS ROG Keris wireless mouse at $60
- ASUS’ VivoBook 16X Radeon Vega 7 Laptop sees second discount to new $600 low, more
- ASUS Chakram X wireless gaming mouse has hot swap switches and Qi charging for $130
- ASUS VivoBook Pro 16X laptop has a 4K OLED screen and RTX 3050 Ti at low of $1,100
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