During the recent Kinda Funny Xcast episode, Phil Spencer was interviewed regarding the acquisition of ABK, Redfall’s reception, and various other questions regarding Xbox. It’s a good interview that you should watch/listen to. However, as Phil Spencer usually does, he was hiding something in the background that you’d miss if you weren’t paying attention. This time around, it’s the upcoming Asus ROG Ally. He eventually mentions what it was at the end of the interview, but I sure had my eyes on it when I first saw it.
It doesn’t hurt that Asus is working with Xbox, so it can run Xbox Game Pass titles natively, which is something you can’t do on the Steam Deck.
The Asus Rog Ally is an upcoming mobile PC similar to the Steam Deck and the Ayaneo devices. It’s a big deal, based on everything we’ve heard. Recently, the price for the device has leaked, and if the leaks are accurate, then Asus may have a competitor on its hands.
According to the leak, the 256GB version of the ROG Ally with the AMD Z1 CPU will cost $600, while the 512GB version with the AMD Z1 Extreme CPU will be priced at $700. To put that in perspective, the 256GB version of the Steam Deck is priced at $530, and the 512GB at $650. As you can see, the ROG Ally is being priced aggressively to compete against Valve’s handheld wonder.
The ROG Ally has a better processor, a higher resolution screen with a faster refresh rate, 16GB of memory, and 512GB of storage for all models. There is a concern about the battery life, which is 40wh, the same as the Steam Deck, and we all know how quickly that battery dies with continuous gaming. Lastly, while the Steam Deck runs Linux, the ROG Ally will run Windows 11 with a customized version of ROG’s Armoury Crate.
Sadly, we haven’t had any hands-on with the device, but we’ll try to get our hands on it as soon as it’s available for sale.
Again, be sure to give this episode of Kinda Funny Xcast a watch, as the crew asked Phil Spencer the hard questions, and Phil didn’t toss out any excuses. It’s a great interview.
