When Valve introduced the Steam Deck OLED, I called it “everything the original should have been.” Asus is trying to do the exact same thing with the new ROG Ally X.
After months of leaks, teases, and exclusive first details from you, it’s official: the ROG Ally X portable gaming PC is up for pre-order today for $799.
When it ships on July 22, it will have double the battery, double the storage, double the number of USB-C ports and quadruple the USB bandwidth, 7,500 MHz memory 50% more (and faster) for up to a 15% performance improvement, significantly revised ergonomics, revamped internal layout, and a long list of other tweaks.
In fact, there are so many changes that I spent two hours on the phone with Sascha Krohn, Asus’ technical marketing director, to find out more. I also visited the company’s US headquarters to open a ROG Ally X with my own screwdrivers and play with the new version. I took a lot of pictures, because I want you to make fun of me.
But first, let me remind you what the ROG Ally X offers is not. Here’s what I wrote last month:
Don’t call it an Ally 2: When it ships in the second half of the year, the Windows-based Ally not quite like the Steam Deck OLED, where Valve had AMD overhaul its chip for better battery life and stability and added a new, larger, brighter, beautiful OLED panel with a time improved response and slimmer bezels.
The ROG Ally X is a revision, not a sequel, and it’s more expensive. It still runs on Windows, and I still firmly believe that Windows is dragging gaming handhelds down. But the Ally does not feel heavy, one that fits my average-sized hands better than any Windows handheld I’ve tried.
1/18
1/18 At 1.49 pounds (678 g), the ROG Ally its thickest point. It’s almost exactly the same weight as the original Steam Deck, and is almost half an inch thinner, but with twice the battery capacity inside. How? While the larger battery added more than 120 grams of weight, Asus was able to offset half of that by slimming down other components. Krohn says a stronger, thinner, lighter chassis offered the biggest savings: the weight of the talc-filled ABS/polycarbonate composite dropped from 176 grams to 134 grams by the time Asus finished. (I’ve experienced a side effect of the stiffer plastic mix: it’s harder to open for repair.) The Ally more powerful, as the company’s in-house design team created its own custom set of 77 ultra-thin blades that dwarf the original’s 47. Krohn says you might see the Ally running a few degrees lower, and the thinner blades also help reduce audible noise at around 5,000 Hz. And there’s a new set of vents that allow the Ally X to cool its touchscreen more effectively – up to 6°C cooler. 1/11 1/11 Joysticks are another place where they are both better And Lighter: Completely revised modular boards now use the same high-quality potentiometer-based ALPS sticks you’ll find in a PS5 or Xbox game controller, with a much tighter reach than the original Ally, concave tops Delightfully sticky a la Steam Deck OLED, wider bases for better dust resistance, and low-friction POM plastic stems for smoother action when scraping against the edge of the joystick ring. They’re rated for 5 million rotation cycles, up from 2 million, and if that’s not enough, they’re modular – ready for a drift-resistant Hall effect magnetic joystick upgrade kit that Gulikit already has in stock. development. (Krohn says few players prefer Hall Effect sticks to be standard, which…maybe?) And Asus has seemingly addressed almost all of the biggest I/O complaints: You now have a full-length M.2 2280 PCIe 4 SSD slot, which also supports double-sided drives, opening up both the highest capacity and most cost-effective storage options on the market. Asus has also ditched its proprietary XG Mobile eGPU port for a second USB-C port, which also offers all the benefits of Thunderbolt 4: 40Gbps speeds, 100W USB-C PD charging, DP video output 1.4 and 4 PCIe lanes for standard eGPUs. (No Oculink, sorry.) Both ports are top-mounted, but Krohn says this allows even the weakest one to offer 100W charging and 10Gbps data. And yes, Asus says you get a new SD card reader which is not the same one that Asus won’t admit has a problem with. Here are some of the little details I learned: Finally, there’s an Easter egg in the new comfortable grips: just like the PS5’s controller is dotted with impossibly small PlayStation symbols, the ROG Ally X’s grips are covered in “ROG ROG ROG”: I can’t wait to get a review of this handheld, because battery is king in the world of portable gaming PCs, and the Ally X is poised to become king of portable batteries. Don’t necessarily expect it to dethrone the Steam Deck OLED, because Asus can’t do without a more efficient chip and display – and because I’m still not sure how I feel about it to the deterioration of Asus’ reputation for support. Some little news today too, however: Asus has just announced that all ROG Ally devices in North America now come with a two-year warranty. Photography by Sean Hollister / The Verge