Asus’ Steam Deck competitor was not an April Fool’s joke

When Asus ROG announced its handheld gaming PC on 1st April, many people were sceptical.

One weekend later, and either Asus is showing way too much commitment to the bit, or its handheld PC is real.

Titled the ROG Ally, much hasn’t been officially announced in terms of specs or price, but here’s what we’ve seen of it so far.

In the above video, Asus announced the ROG Ally has been made in collaboration with AMD, which has designed a custom Accelerated Processing Unit for the device. By using ROG’s Intelligent Cooling, Asus also alleges the Ally will stay “cool and silent” when in handheld mode.

ROG Ally will run on Windows 11, and Asus’ Armoury Crate program will act as the hub for launching games and customising key mappings. It’ll also be compatible with the RPG XG Mobile external graphics for playing on a monitor or TV.

So far, we know prototypes have been sent to YouTubers Dave Lee and Linus Tech Tips who have shared a bit more on the specs of the ROG Ally. The screen has a resolution of 1080p, compared to the Steam Deck’s 800p, and a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. And of course, there’s customisable RGB lighting.

Price will surely be an important factor in the success of ROG Ally, though there’s been no word on price point yet. Anyone in North America who’s interested can sign up for pre-order notifications on Best Buy.

Since Valve launched the Steam Deck last year, it’s not faced any significant competitors in the handheld PC market. I would definitely be interested to find out what Digital Foundry thinks of the Asus ROG Ally if they get their hands on one.