Between the editorial staff who have the ASUS mobile platform in their hands, and the manufacturer who releases information to anyone who wants to hear it, we are starting to know almost everything about the Asus Rog Ally. Here is a summary.
The Asus Rog Ally is a portable console-PC from the “Republic of Gamers” (ROG) brand from Asus. Compared to Valve's Steam Deck, it's lighter, has a better screen and runs Windows 11. and should be available mid/late May. Like a PS1000 or the Xbox Series, the Ally uses AMD hardware for its CPU and GPU.
Service orders
The Rog Ally is based on the standard design of a gamepad consisting of two analog sticks, triggers, four front buttons and a directional pad. Unlike the Steam Deck, it does not have 2 touchpads that emulate the mouse. The Steam Deck also has two sets of buttons on the back, while the Ally only has one button on the left and one on the right.
Weight
The Ally is lighter and easier to transport than the Steam Deck. Although the weight difference isn't huge on paper, 608 grams for the Ally versus 669 grams for the Steam Deck.
Toys & books
A big difference between the two consoles is that the Steam Deck can only play Steam games unless you install and configure third-party apps. The Ally, on the other hand, has pre-installed software to access most gaming platforms. The Asus console uses a custom version of the Armory Crate software which allows you to choose your performance mode and launch the games. A 90-day trial version of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is offered with the console.
Screen
Based on early feedback, the Ally has a cleaner, more capable screen than the Steam Deck. The Steam Deck only has 1280 x 800 pixels and a 60Hz refresh rate, while the Ally offers a more standard 1920 x 1 pixels and 080Hz refresh rate, with a brightness of 120 nits.
performances
AMD has unveiled its line of Ryzen Z1 and Z1 Extreme processors designed to power the Asus ROG Ally PC console. The processors are based on Zen 4 cores for the processor part and RDNA 3 for the graphics card part and are engraved on the same chip in 5 nm. The Z1 Extreme is rated at 8,6 TFLOPS at 30 watts, putting the ROG Ally close to Sony's PlayStation 5 (10,28 TFLOPS).
Tests have shown that ROG Ally and Z1 Extreme can run games at 1080p with framerates ranging from 48 fps for Red Dead Redemption 2 to just over 120 fps for Forza Horizon 4.