Please note that this post is tagged as a rumor.
Cheaper ASUS ROG Ally might cost $599
ASUS upcoming handheld product has starting price of $599, claims The Verge.
As we mentioned in our previous story, ASUS is working on two models of ROG Ally. One with Z1 Extreme APU and 512GB storage and the other with Z1 non-Extreme and 256GB drive. The storage option for the less advanced models was not public before, but it appears that leakers have now confirmed our information.
Earlier reports were based on BestBuy leak, and since we are looking at the same sources again, chances are the same retail store might be in blame for this leak as well. Regardless of who leaked the price, it appears that the 6-core variant is to cost $100 less than 8-core model. Should the rumors be true, the ‘affordable’ ROG Ally would only cost $599.
Apart from the obvious CPU and storage differences, the Ally with Z1 chip would only have a third of the Extreme’s variant GPU power. Only four RDNA3 Compute Units are enabled on the Z1 non-Extreme compared to 12 on the flagship console.
What none of the reports have mentioned before, but we have already found this information is that both consoles are to be offered with three months of Microsoft Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership. Gamers will be able to jump into many games right away, or alternatively install any of their desired game launchers and play many of the free games.
At $599, the Ally would actually $70 pricier than Steam Deck with the same memory and storage option, and $50 cheaper than the most powerful variant of the Deck.
| 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) | $599 (Z1+16G+256GB) | $399 (16G+64GB) $529 (16G+256GB) $649 (16G+512GB) |
| Release Date | May 11th (Announcement) | February 2022 | |
Source: SnoopyTech via The Verge
