The ASUS ROG Ally is happening and it has the potential to threaten the Steam Deck.
ASUS isn’t scheduled to reveal more about the ROG Ally until May 11, but leakers have gotten the jump on the Taiwan-based tech company. For example, the pricing for the top-spec ASUS ROG Ally Extreme in the United States has leaked as has the price for the base model. But, while the cheaper variant probably won’t disrupt the market if the pricing is to go by, the EXTREME might, especially now that another pricing leak has come out.
This time around, the price for the ASUS ROG Ally EXTREME in Europe has leaked, and it will reportedly sell for €799 once it launches in Europe.
In comparison, the most expensive Steam Deck, the 512GB version, sells for €679 in the same territory.
This is a €100 premium but you are getting what you paid for with the ASUS ROG Ally Extreme. In addition to its portability, the EXTREME comes equipped with a custom octa-core AMD Ryzen Z1 processor with RDNA graphics. It also has 512GB PCIe 4.0 SSD storage, which boasts transfer speeds of up to 4,5GB/s. Finally, the ASUS ROG Ally will reportedly support UHS-II MicroSD expansion and come equipped with 16GB LPDDR5 RAM out of the box.
As the icing on top of the cake, the ASUS ROG Ally comes with a Full HD, 120Hz IPS panel with a 1000:1 contrast ratio and front-firing speakers that support Dolby Atmos.
Now, you might be wondering, why are most leaks talking about the more expensive variant? Isn’t what usually happens is that the cheaper variant gets leaked ahead? Well, there’s a good reason for this.
The source claims that the low-end ASUS ROG Ally will launch at a later date in the United States and Europe and, presumably, the rest of the world as well.
It’s unclear why ASUS is handling the Ally SKUs this way. A prevalent theory is ASUS can’t keep up the supply of the custom CPU for both the basic and more powerful AMD Z1 CPU. As a result, ASUS may focus on the more expensive (and saleable) variant first.
Regardless of which ASUS ROG Ally you’ll buy, you’re more likely going to end up with a more powerful handheld console compared to its Steam Deck counterpart. The custom Z1 chips are considered more powerful and energy efficient because it’s designed specifically for portable devices.
If ASUS succeeds with its plans for the ROG Ally, expect the market to be flooded with similar hardware.
