What started out as an April Fool’s joke has become a reality. The ROG Ally is a portable gaming PC under Windows to which we have grafted a screen, and which can run all the latest games with good graphics quality. It is now available for pre-order at 799 euros.
If portable gamer PCs resembling portable consoles are not new, it is thanks to Valve’s Steam Deck that the market has opened up to the general public. A little over a year after its competitor, Asus followed suit with its ROG Ally, a lighter and more modern machine, but also, and above all, more efficient. Everything would seem to be a successful bet for the Taiwanese brand, but could the price not be a hindrance?
Where to pre-order the Asus ROG Ally?
Indeed, the Asus ROG Ally is more expensive than the Steam Deck. One costs 799 euros when the other is 679 euros, i.e. 120 euros difference for an equal storage capacity, namely 512 GB. It is available at FnacDarty, Baker And Cdiscount. For the launch, the brand still offers you a pair of Asus Rog Cetra True Wireless Headphones.
Note that the official release date is set for June 13, 2023.
Where to buy
Asus ROG Ally at the best price?
Asus ROG Ally: better than the Steam Deck?
With the Asus ROG Ally, we have a very different design from the rival from Valve. If the Taiwanese portable gamer PC also takes on the look of a portable console, the feeling once in hand is not comparable. Already, Asus has chosen not to put touch pads on both sides of the machine, for an obvious space saving. This makes it especially more compact and less imposing. The layout of the buttons is not the same, because the ROG Ally simply takes that of the Xbox controller, with asymmetrical joysticks, a directional pad allowing diagonal movements, as well as 4 buttons: A, B, X, Y .
When we wear the ROG Ally, our fingers easily fit all the available keys, both front and back. Its lighter weight of 61 grams than the Steam Deck is then a great asset for night parties in bed, which will tire your raised forearms less during the session. However, we regret a fairly cheap plastic, but the finding is almost similar on Gabe Newell’s console. On the back, we also notice a nice aesthetic touch with the RGB LED which lights up, and which is moreover customizable.
Well, the comfort will be to everyone’s taste, but what will above all make the difference with the Steam Deck is indeed the technical sheet. Yes, with a higher price, the Asus ROG Ally can afford to embed state-of-the-art technologies such as a Full HD IPS LCD screen (1,920 x 1,080 pixels) offering a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz , not to mention the compatibility with FreeSync. The rendering is therefore much higher than what Valve offers, especially since the performance is almost doubled thanks to the AMD Z1 Extreme chip and the support of its Zen 4 and RDNA3 technologies. In short, AAA games will run in very good graphic conditions, especially on a 7-inch panel.
8 /10
The biggest downside concerns the autonomy of the machine. Count a little over an hour of play with maximum settings (performance, brightness, refresh rate, etc.). This figure swells if you yourself lower certain options of the machine or the title you are playing. As you will have understood, consumption is very variable, especially with Windows installed. The Microsoft OS is not perfectly adapted, but offers great freedom of use, to install software, but also your launchers favorites such as Epic Games, Steam, GoG, GeForce Now and many more.
To find out even more, do not hesitate to read our complete test on the Asus ROG Ally.
In order to discover the other gaming solutions that currently exist on the market, we invite you now to consult our guide to the best video game consoles in 2023.
Want to join a community of enthusiasts? Our Discord welcomes you, it is a place of mutual aid and passion around tech.