The handheld gaming console market is populated by the likes of Valve (Steam Deck), AYANEO, GPD, and more. And Asus—a veteran in the gaming phone and gaming laptop/PC industry—has officially joined in on the fun with the "ROG Ally". So let's learn more about the Asus ROG Ally including its features, specs, availability, expected price in Nepal, and more.

Asus ROG Ally Overview:

By the way, the company first announced the ROG Ally on April 1, which most of us dismissed as a simple April Fools' joke. But no, it's an actual product that you'll be able to purchase starting next month.

Design

Asus says it has designed ROG Ally with optimal comfort in mind. This consists of slanted chassis for easier grip, careful button placements, and a fairly thin and lightweight design. Compared to the Steam Deck which measures 45mm thick and weighs 669 grams, the Ally is just 32mm thick while weighing around 608 grams. Available in a single white color option, this Windows handheld machine has all the control options you could ask for. Including ABXY, directional buttons (D-pad), left/right analog thumb sticks with customizable RGB, left/right bumpers, and left/right hall triggers. On top of this, the ROG Ally also has view and command center buttons on the left, a menu and Armoury Crate button on the right, and a couple of programmable macro keys at the back.Interestingly, Asus has reserved all the I/O options at the top of the device. You can find one 3.5mm headphone jack, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port (with DisplayPort 1.4), one microSD card reader (UHS-II), and one ROG XG mobile interface. Then there's a power button with Windows Hello-certified fingerprint reader embedded into it and the volume rockers too.

Display and Audio

Getting to the display, Asus ROG Ally has a glossy 7" IPS LCD screen with an FHD resolution, a 16:9 aspect ratio, and a 120Hz refresh rate. To compare, Steam Deck features a 7" FHD IPS display too, but with a 60Hz refresh rate and a taller 16:10 aspect ratio. With a 7ms response time and AMD FreeSync Premium support, ROG Ally's display is also a step above most other Windows handheld devices.As for color accuracy, this touchscreen covers 100% sRGB and 75.35% AdobeRGB color gamut. To maintain better outdoor visibility, the ROG Ally gets as bright as 500 nits while there is Corning's DXC coating to minimize screen reflections. Oh, and the display itself is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus. In terms of audio, Asus has set up a couple of front-firing speakers that support Dolby Atmos.

Performance

Performance-wise, the Asus ROG Ally comes in two flavors of AMD chips; Ryzen Z1 and Ryzen Z1 Extreme. Both of these processors are pretty similar to AMD's latest "Phoenix" Ryzen 7040 series of APUs but customized for handheld devices.Here, Ryzen Z1 is 6 cores/12 threads CPU with 2.8 teraflops of performance, a boost clock of 4.90 GHz, and a 4-core Radeon 740M GPU. While the Z1 Extreme is the real deal with 8 cores/16 threads CPU and a whopping 8.6 teraflops of performance, 5.10 GHz of max turbo frequency, and a 12-core Radeon 780M GPU. Built on TSMC's 4nm process, Zen 4 CPU architecture, and RDNA 3 GPU architecture, Asus is promising some serious performance from these APUs. Around 50 – 60 fps at 1080p in most modern AAA titles.And if you've been keeping score, you'll know that the Z1 Extreme is pretty similar to Ryzen 7 7840U. Anyway, can configure the Asus ROG Ally with three power profiles in total, ranging between 9 – 30W. Here, the "Silent" keeps the power consumption to a minimum at 9W, while the "Performance" and "Turbo" modes crank it up to 15W and 25W, respectively. And if you're on AC power, this Windows handheld can even suck up to 30W of power.

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More. power.

If that's not enough GPU horsepower for you, then Asus even gives you the option to hook up an NVIDIA RTX 4090 or AMD RX 6850M XT external GPU via the aforementioned ROG XG Mobile Interface. Besides the extra bit of performance itself, Asus ROG XG Mobile docks also add a bunch of I/O options, including one HDMI 2.1, one ethernet (RJ45), one SD card reader, and one USB Type-A port. And in the case of ROG XG Mobile GC33 (the one with RTX 4090), an additional USB Type-C port too.Memory options for the ROG Ally include 16GB LPDDR5 RAM in dual channel and 256GB SSD in the Ryzen Z1 or 512GB SSD in the Ryzen Z1 Extreme version. Both of them use an M.2 2230 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD, by the way. To keep things nice and cool, Asus has used a dual-fan design with something called "anti-gravity" heat pipes that apparently provides better airflow when the device is upside down.And of course, it runs on Windows 11 (Home). So, unlike the Steam Deck which can only play games from your Steam library, the ROG Ally essentially lets you enjoy all the PC games. Asus is even throwing away 3 months of free "Xbox Game Pass Ultimate" here. On a related note, the Asus-made "Armoury Crate SE" app is there to help you make all sorts of customizations like limiting FPS, key mapping, power presets, and more. Or it can just double as a hub for all your installed games as well.

Battery and others

ROG Ally gets its juice from a modest 40Wh battery. And according to Asus, you can expect up to 2 hours of screen time with heavy gaming under "Performance" mode. Or up to 6.8 hours of YouTube/Netflix playback under "Silent" mode. On the other hand, it has WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 wireless connectivity.

Asus ROG Ally Specifications:

• Body: 270.90 x 111 x 20.83 – 32.51 mm, 608 gm
• Color options: White
• Controller: Hall triggers (LT/RT), LB/LB, D-pad, ABXY button, 2x customizable hotkeys, Windows control buttons
• Display: 7" glossy IPS LCD touchscreen, 120Hz refresh rate, 500 nits peak brightness, Gorilla Glass Victus, 7ms response time
• Resolution: FHD (1920 x 1080 pixels), 16:9 aspect ratio 
• Color gamut: 100% sRGB, 75.35% AdobeRGB
• Audio: Front-firing speakers, Dolby Atmos, Hi-Res Audio
• Processor: 4nm, AMD Zen 4/RDNA 3 architecture, 9 – 30W TDP– Ryzen Z1 (6C/12T, 4.90 GHz boost clock, Radeon 740M GPU)– Ryzen Z1 Extreme (8C/16T, 5.10 GHz boost clock, Radeon 780M GPU)
• Storage: M.2 (2230) PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD– Ryzen Z1: 256GB– Ryzen Z1 Extreme: 512GB
• RAM: 16GB LPDDR5 (dual-channel), 6400MT/s
• I/O: 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C (with DisplayPort 1.4), 1x UHS-II microSD card reader, 1x 3.5mm headphone jack, 1x ROG XG Mobile Interface
• Sensor: 6-axis IMU (gyro), HD haptics
• Security: Built-in fingerprint sensor, Microsoft Pluton security processor
• Connectivity: WiFi 6E (triple band), Bluetooth 5.2
• Software: Windows 11 Home, Armoury Crate SE pre-installed
• Battery: 40Wh (4S1P) Li-Ion battery, 65W AC adapter (USB Type-C)

Asus ROG Ally Price in Nepal and Availability

According to Asus, the ROG Ally with AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip will be available from June 13 for USD 699. Whereas the USD 599 Ryzen Z1 variant is arriving sometime later in Q3 2023. We expect the Asus ROG Ally price in Nepal to start at NPR 98,999 if and when it launches here.

• Meanwhile, check our AYANEO Air review