ASUS ROG Ally Handheld Official: Steam Deck Rival Powered By AMD Ryzen Z1, Starting At $599 On 16th June

ASUS has officially announced its ROG Ally handheld gaming console featuring the AMD Ryzen Z1 series and starting at just $599 US.

The ASUS ROG Ally is definitely the closest contender to Valve's Steam Deck. The latter starts at $399 US and goes up to $649 US for the 512 GB variant. The ASUS ROG Ally starts at $599 US for the 256 GB Ryzen Z1 and $699 US for the Ryzen Z1 Extreme variant while the performance is on a whole different level.

The First AMD Ryzen Z1 Powered Handheld

ASUS has officially worked with AMD on the Ryzen Z1 series processors. These chips are designed first and foremost for handheld gaming consoles and come in two flavors, the standard Z1, and the higher-end Z1 extreme. Both chips feature the Zen 4 CPU and RDNA 3 GPU. Specifications include 8 cores, 16 threads, 12 RDNA 3 cores, 24 MB cache for the Ryzen Z1 Extreme, & 6 cores, 12 threads, 4 RDNA 3 cores, and 22 MB cache for the Ryzen Z1.

While the specs might look a bit similar to the AMD Ryzen 7040U "Phoenix" APUs, the Ryzen Z1 chips get better power management and have a TDP rating between 9W and up to 30W. These new APUs are said to deliver 50% higher performance than the Steam Deck at 15W and 2x the uplift when running at its peak 35W performance mode. There's also the added advantage of FSR & RSR support which can drive performance even further. You can see some raytracing and FSR benches of the RDNA 3 iGPU here.

One big advantage of having a low TDP range like the one offered by the ASUS ROG Ally is that you can switch to silent mode for light-weight activity such as watching YouTube or streaming Netflix & get far better battery times than what the standard 15W mode offers.

Handheld Design In A Lightweight Body

The overall design choices of the ASUS ROG Ally handheld gaming console mirror similar designs we currently see in the handheld industry, from chunky handles to ergonomic grips, & looks very similar to Valve's Steam Deck, One-Netbook's OneXPlayer, and others. It also appears that the company researched detachable gamepads, which only a few have dabbled into using for their designs.

The ASUS ROG Ally's screen is a 7-inch 120Hz panel (5ms response time) with a max resolution of 1080P FHD and offers up to 500 Nits brightness. The new console is expected to weigh 669g. The new Ally from ASUS ROG will feature two thumbsticks, a D-Pad, and the ABXY button layout typical with all current handhelds, sans Nintendo, who opted to reverse those buttons. There are other buttons along with trigger sticks on the top and back.

The front of the ASUS ROG Ally is where the stereo audio output is located, along with the large exhaust vents on the rear. The new system offers a dual-fan exhaust featuring an integrated heat pipe. The ASUS ROG logo is placed on the back, and the system provides an active accent LED strip when powered on the device. The whole device weighs just 608g.

I/O on the ASUS ROG Ally handheld gaming console includes a DisplayPort, HDMI 2.0, USB-Type C, TFT port, audio jack, and buttons on the back of the system for added macros.

Want More Power? XG Mobile Has Your Back!

The ASUS ROG Ally can also support the ASUS XG Mobile external module (eGPU), which offers NVIDIA graphics as high as the RTX 4090 family. While this eGPU can bring a lot more power to the handheld's capabilities, it also costs $2000 US which is a steep price to pay unless you really are a gamer on the go and want the best possible solution next to you all the time in compact designs.

The AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme offers compute TFLOPs on par with the PS4 Pro which is a huge deal for a handheld gaming console while the Ryzen Z1 offers more compute TFLOPs than the original PS4 (a 50%+ increase).

The Ryzen Z1 targets 1080p low-quality gaming at 60 FPS using RSR (upscale from 720P) while the Ryzen Z1 Extreme targets over 60 FPS with higher visual fidelity using RSR. I should also point out that since these are different architectures, the TFLOPs comparison is just for reference and not meant to point out the actual performance difference between the consoles.

Top-Notch Zero Gravity Cooling With Double The Fans

For cooling, the ASUS ROG Ally adopts the latest ROG Intelligent Cooling and Zero Gravity tech which offers dual-fan cooling with heat pipes, ultra-thin aluminum fins, and even a dust filter to ensure that your devices run cool, produces less noise and the internal remain clear of dust.

Also, the ROG Ally is the only dual-fan handheld. A demo shows how a single-fan ally runs much hotter and produces more noise compared to the final retail unit that ships with dual fans.

Pricing Close To Steam Deck, Starting At $599 US!

The ASUS ROG Ally is now available for pre-order at a starting price of $699 US. This is the variant with the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme APU and will be available on the 13th of June. Meanwhile, the Z1 standard variant will be available in Q3 and that starts at $599 US.