What you need to know
- ASUS has revealed more details on the ROG Ally handheld PC following its unusual April Fool's Day debut.
- It features one of AMD's newly announced Ryzen Z1 Series processors.
- Despite its size the Ally still boasts a 1080p 120Hz display.
- A full launch event is scheduled for May 11, 2023.
The ROG Ally appearing on April Fool's Day wasn't ASUS' finest marketing strategy but thank goodness they weren't pulling our chains. The company's first handheld gaming PC is very real and is set to receive the full launch event treatment on May 11.
But ahead of that we have some further details on the hardware, and let's just say that the Steam Deck might be a little worried. No, we don't know how much the ROG Ally is going to cost yet, and yes, it's probably going to be expensive. But based on what we know so far, it might actually be worth every single penny.
ASUS has worked in tandem with AMD, just as Valve did on the Steam Deck, and the ROG Ally boasts its own purpose-built APU. The new AMD Ryzen Z1 will contain RDNA 3 graphics and be backed with up to 16GB of dual-channel LPDDR5 memory and up to a 512GB PCIe 4.0 SSD.
AMD announced its Ryzen Z1 and Ryzen Z1 Extreme processors today. The Ally will be the first device to run on either of those chips. The Ryzen Z1 promises up to 8.6 teraflops of power while the Ryzen Z1 has 2.8 teraflops.
The display looks like being one of the standout features, though. ASUS has managed to squeeze not only a 1080p panel into the ROG Ally's small form factor, but one with a 120Hz refresh rate, too. Brightness of 500 nits means it shouldn't be totally useless in bright light, and with FreeSync support you can enjoy your games without those nasty tears.
Other specs of note include a microSD card slot to expand the internal storage, dual front-facing speakers with Dolby Atmos support and a weight of just 608g.
And of course, it runs Windows 11. That might be a positive or a negative depending on your opinions of Windows on a small screen, but it is what it is. At least you'll be able to play Destiny 2 on it.
The ROG Ally does not yet have a price or a release window, but we'd expect to be hearing much more on May 11.
