ASUS ROG Ally prototypes and new photos of the console’s internals
ASUS gaming console pictured up close.
ASUS ROG Ally prototypes, Source: Engadget
What is pictured above are proposed designs for ASUS ROG Ally consoles that were at some point considered. The design has evolved and has seen numerous shapes and screen sizes from what is shown in this photo. However, not once did ASUS consider using trackpads like Steam Deck does. Furthermore, it appears that the company considered using detachable game pads at an early stage of the design.
The new pictures from Engadget show the full PCB of the console featuring AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme chipset powered by Zen4 and RDNA3 architectures. This chip is The console has full support for ASUS XG Mobile external GPU, which goes up to NVIDIA RTX 4090 series.
ASUS ROG Ally PCB, Source: Engadget
There is no significant difference between the custom APU for Ally and what AMD has showcased at CES, except for some capacitors missing or being moved around. Sadly, there are no new photos of Phoenix pictures because most Ryzen 7040HS chips that went into the ASUS laptop review unit use liquid metal. For this reason, reviewers are not eager to remove the cooling simply to take a picture.
ASUS ROG Custom Ryzen Z1 APU vs. AMD Phoenix, Source: Engadget/AMD
Other photos show the console from all angles, but this design has already been shown in early previews. Worth noting that the console has the same label and product code (RC71L) that we discussed in the previous report. This more or less confirms that the Ryzen Z1 chip is indeed based on Ryzen 7 7840U.
The fact that we see new photos from a closed ASUS event confirms that the launch is imminent, and the console is now being shown to the press. It is expected that ROG Ally could make a debut this quarter.
| Handheld Gaming Consoles | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| VideoCardz | ASUS ROG Ally (Extreme) | ASUS ROG Ally | Valve Steam Deck |
| Picture |  |  | |
| Architecture | AMD Zen4 & RDNA3 | AMD Zen2 & RDNA2 | |
| APU | AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme 8C/16T up to 5.1 GHz | AMD Ryzen Z1 6C/12T up to 5.0 GHz | AMD Van Gogh 4C/8T up to 3.5 GHz |
| SoC GPU | AMD RDNA3 12CU @ 2.8 GHz | AMD RDNA3 4CU @ 2.7 GHz | AMD RDNA2 8CU @ 1.6 GHz |
| External GPU | ROG XG Mobile (up to RTX 4090) | Not officially | |
| Memory | 16GB LPDDR5 | 16GB LPDDR5-5500 | |
| Storage | 512GB PCIe Gen4x4 | 256GB PCIe Gen4x4 | 64GB eMMC (PCIe Gen2x1) 256GB/512GB NVMe (PCIe Gen3x4) |
| Display | 7″ 1920×1080, 120Hz (VRR), 500 nits, 7ms | 7″ 1280×800, 60Hz | |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2 | Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5 | |
| Battery | 40 Whr, 4S1P, 4-cell Li-ion | 40 Whr | |
| Weight | 608 g | 669 g | |
| Dimensions | 28.0 x 11.3 x 3.9 cm | 29.8 x 11.7 x 4.9 cm | |
| OS | Windows 11 | Steam OS/Win 11 | |
| Release Price | $699 (Z1E+16G+512GB) | $??? (Z1+16G+256GB) | $399 (16G+64GB) $529 (16G+256GB) $649 (16G+512GB) |
| Release Date | May 11th (Announcement) | February 2022 | |
Source: Engadget
