Asus’ Flashy ROG Ally Steam Deck Competitor is Actual
Most firms will keep away from making actual product bulletins on April Fools’ Day, because the information will inevitably get buried beneath a mountain of pranks from firms incorrectly assuming they are often humorous. However not Asus. It used April 1 this yr to announce its first handheld gaming device, leaving followers questioning if it was actual… till Asus confirmed the ROG Ally this morning on Twitter.
Not like current handhelds from Logitech and Razer, that are primarily designed to be used with both sport streaming providers or Android cell video games, the ROG (Republic of Players) Ally sounds prefer it’s being positioned as a handheld gaming PC, just like the strategy Valve took with its Steam Deck. At the least, that’s if we go off the restricted specs and options revealed throughout a considerably unhinged announcement video Asus shared on YouTube on April 1. (Why are there zombies on the finish?)
What we do know is that the ROG Ally shall be a Home windows gaming handheld powered by a custom-made AMD APU (accelerated processing unit, or a processor with built-in graphics capabilities). For reference, the Steam Deck additionally makes use of a {custom} AMD APU, though we wouldn’t be stunned to see the Ally boasting more moderen tech, as Valve’s APU makes use of a Zen 2+ processor and RDNA2 graphics, that are a number of generations behind. Boasting, “Full HD gaming,” the Ally’s display will most likely max out at a 1080P decision, and the hand held appears to be like to function a pair of quiet cooling followers to maximise efficiency whereas guaranteeing the machine doesn’t get too heat to really maintain.
The ROG Ally will play AAA video games natively from varied sport libraries, and whereas it should inevitably require efficiency tweaks and compromises for sure video games to play easily in handheld mode, the machine could be docked and related to the ROG XG Mobile eGPU, permitting extra demanding video games to be performed in full high quality on a bigger display at better resolutions.
Particulars on when the Asus ROG Ally shall be accessible or how a lot it should price haven’t been disclosed but, however Asus’ tweet this morning is pointing players to a landing page on Best Buy’s website, the place they will signal as much as be notified when the hand held is prepared for pre-order.
Except for out-of-the-box eGPU help, what appears most noticeable right here is that the hand held seems to be a contact smaller than the Steam Deck, and bears the identical sort of over-the-top branding as ROG laptops. We’ll see how properly it may possibly compete with different Steam Deck alternate options just like the Ayaneo Geek once we can really maintain it in our palms, hopefully with out being interrupted by zombies.
