ASUS ROG Ally: Steam Deck competitor is real, not an April Fool’s joke

On April 01, 2023, ASUS introduced the ASUS ROG Ally, a real competitor for Valve’s Steam Deck. Due to the date, however, many thought the announcement was an April Fool’s joke. In the meantime, the company stated: the Ally is real and wants to conquer the handheld throne.

ASUS ROG Ally: This is what we already know about the new gaming handheld

While Razer started the second quarter of 2023 with the Razer Razer (razor) with an obvious and funny April Fool’s joke, no one was really sure about ASUS. The manufacturer announced the ASUS ROG Ally, a gaming handheld, in an ironic trailer that is supposed to rival Valve’s Steam Deck.

We were left in the dark for days whether the device is real or not. In the meantime, it has been clarified via Twitter that the Ally is real and will actually be released.

https://twitter.com/ASUS_ROG/status/1642882143193010176?s=20

However, not many details about the gaming handheld are known yet. We do know that all game libraries can be accessed thanks to the Windows 11 interface – even outside of Steam.

The ASUS ROG Ally is supposed to use a bright 1080p display with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. However, details about the display’s size and brightness are still scarce.

The handheld has a simple, white design with front-facing stereo speakers, analog sticks with RGB lighting and an RGB LED strip on the back. Inside, an unspecified APU from AMD is used, which is supposed to be more powerful and faster than all previous AMD chips – including the one used in the Steam Deck.

The ASUS ROG Ally can also be connected to an external monitor or TV via a docking station. It also supports the eGPU ROG XG Mobile, which is equipped with high-end graphics cards and improves gaming performance even more.

ASUS ROG Ally: First hands-on video provides additional details

Tech-YouTuber Dave2D was already able to lay his own hands on the ASUS ROG Ally and provides additional details about the gaming handheld in his hands-on video. According to him, the device relies on a 7-inch display that gets 500 nits bright.

The Ally is actively cooled and powered by an AMD chip complete with Zen 4 cores, which are supported by an RDNA3 graphics chip. Thus, the handheld realizes significantly more performance than Valve’s Steam Deck, at least on paper.

• More from ASUS: ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 review: With RTX 4090 to the top of the notebook

Price and Availability

When and at what prices the ASUS ROG Ally gaming handheld will be available is currently still completely unclear. You can be notified via BestBuy, at least in the US, when pre-ordering is possible. If and when the handheld will come to us is still unknown.