Asus ROG Ally hands-on: The Steam Deck is in trouble

The Asus ROG Ally is here to take on the Steam Deck. This Windows 11 handheld could unseat Valve’s popular device thanks to its 7-inch 1080p 120Hz display and powerful custom Zen 4-based AMD APU. Toss in official support from Xbox and the ability to play any Windows-compatible game out of the box, and the ROG Ally could be this year’s must-have gaming device.

I checked out the Asus ROG Ally during a recent press event and was impressed with the device. Not only do games look and run great on the Ally, but the device is also much lighter than I expected — certainly less bulky than the Steam Deck. I’ll need more time with Asus’ handheld to make a final determination, but I think it has the makings to be a legitimate Steam Deck rival.

Here are my first impressions of the Asus ROG Ally.

Asus ROG Ally hands-on: Specs

Asus ROG Ally hands-on: Price and release date

Asus hasn’t revealed when the ROG Ally will launch or how much it will cost. You can sign up to be notified when pre-orders go live at Best Buy (opens in new tab). This could indicate the handheld might arrive this year, though we can’t say that for certain.

Asus says the ROG Ally will be “competitively priced,” according to Dave2D (opens in new tab), a YouTuber who tested the device. The highest-end Steam Deck with 512GB of storage costs $649. Competitors like the GDP Win 4 and AyaNeo 2 are more powerful than the Steam Deck but cost more as well, hovering around the $1,000 mark.

If the ROG Ally is comparable to these machines it may have a similar price tag, but that remains to be seen.

Asus ROG Ally hands-on: Design

The ROG Ally has a striking all-white design that helps distinguish it from the all-black Steam Deck. RGB lighting under the two analog sticks stands out nicely against the white chassis. The front air vents are strategically placed near the bottom and seem to point toward the screen, which is a nice touch.

The ROG Ally is great to hold thanks to its light weight and even weight distribution. Its sturdiness makes it feel like a premium product. Using the analog sticks and pressing buttons feels as natural as using a game controller.

Design-wise, the Ally shares similarities to the Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck. On the left side, you’ll find an analog stick and a D-pad. On the right, you’ll find the face buttons and another analog stick (at an offset angle). Each side has two vents and two buttons for navigating the user interface.

Along the top, there are power and volume buttons, a PCIe port to connect to the ROG XG Mobile (opens in new tab) external GPU, a USB-C port and a headphone jack. There are also more air vents up top. Lastly, there are two buttons on the handheld’s back and more air vents.

The ROG Ally measures 11.0 x 4.4 x 0.5 inches and weighs 1.3 pounds. In contrast, the Steam Deck measures 11.73 x 4.60 x 1.93 inches and weighs 1.5 pounds. Overall, Asus’ handheld is smaller and weighs less than the Steam Deck.

I can’t say whether or not the ROG Ally is comfortable to use over an extended period. Based on my brief time with the device, I imagine it will be, since it feels good to hold and is so darn light.

Asus ROG Ally hands-on: Display

The ROG Ally has a 7-inch display 120Hz 16:9 display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080. Asus says it can hit 500 nits of brightness. The Steam Deck also has a 7-inch display, but it has a maximum resolution of 1280 x 800 and a 60Hz refresh rate. Valve says the Steam Deck can hit 400 nits of brightness but it peaked at 170 nits of brightness in our lab test.

I didn’t think I’d be able to tell the difference between 720p and 1080p on a 7-inch display but I’m happy to say I was wrong. When playing Forza Horizon 5, I was impressed by the crispness of the environment and how easy it was to see fine details. I’ve played the game on Steam Deck and the difference from the view on the ROG Ally is stark. The ROG Ally’s higher resolution compared to the Steam Deck is a game changer.

The ROG Ally’s higher 120Hz refresh rate helps make games run buttery smooth, especially compared to the Steam Deck’s 60Hz. Ghostrunner, which has you traversing around a cyberpunk-inspired city in first person, ran flawlessly, as did the aforementioned Forza Horizon 5. This is the smoothest handheld experience I’ve had yet.

Asus ROG Ally hands-on: Performance

The Asus ROG Ally packs a new AMD Ryzen Z1 series processor, which features RDNA3 architecture-based graphics. The new chips feature up to 8 cores and 16 threads and have the efficiency of Zen 4 architecture, according to AMD.

AMD’s new processors are built on x86 architecture and are compatible with Windows 11. The company announced the Ryzen Z1 and Ryzen Z1 Extreme, though it’s currently unclear if the ROG Ally will have models featuring both chips or if it’s only using one of them.

Asus claims the ROG Ally has double the performance of the Steam Deck. The company told Linus Tech Tips (opens in new tab), who also previewed the system, that the Ally is twice as fast as the Steam Deck at 35 watts — with the latter topping out at 15W. The Ally might not hit 35W at launch but it would place the APU in AMD’s U-series chips, which go between 15W and 28W.

The aforementioned AMD chip powering the handheld is a custom Zen 4 RDNA3 4nm APU. The Steam Deck also uses an AMD APU, but its CPU is based on Zen 2 architecture while the GPU uses RDNA 2. That chip has four Zen 2 cores and eight RDNA 2 compute units. In comparison, the AMD Ryzen Z1 has six Zen 4 cores and four RDNA 3 compute units.

Both of the games I mentioned above performed great during my hands-on with the ROG Ally. Frame rates weren’t always consistent, but the games generally ran at high fps. I got better performance when I bumped the resolution down to 720p, naturally. I’d like to play games with a frame counter running to see what the machine is truly capable of.

One of ROG Ally’s potential secret weapons is the ability to connect to the ROG XG Mobile, which is an external GPU that’s compatible with the company’s Flow laptops like the Asus ROG Flow X13. Powered by an Nvidia RTX 4090 laptop GPU, the XG Mobile could give the ROG Ally a serious performance boost. In addition, the device has a slew of ports — which is great considering the handheld only seems to have a single USB-C port. However, the mobile GPU’s steep $1,999 asking price will no doubt be a major barrier to entry for many people. 

Asus ROG Ally: Battery life

Battery life is one of the big questions hanging over the ROG Ally. Its power might not mean much if the handheld runs out of juice too soon. Keeping the best gaming laptops plugged in is common but that’s something you don’t want for a portable device like this one.

The ROG Ally turns to the same ROG Intelligent Cooling technology used by Asus’ laptops. This could presumably give the Ally a long-lasting battery life, though it’s too early to say whether or not it will surpass the competition.

The Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch can last between 2 to 7 hours, depending on what you’re playing. If this handheld can deliver a consistent 5 to 6 hours, that should make most customers happy. An Asus PR rep at the event said the Ally can last nearly 8 hours, depending on what game you’re playing and its graphical settings. Of course, we’d have to put that claim to the test ourselves to confirm.

I noticed the ROG Ally became warm after a few short minutes. It didn’t become uncomfortably warm, but the heat was noticeable. This makes me wonder how hot it will run during extended play sessions — especially when running graphically-demanding games.

Given how the ROG Ally has a higher resolution display with a faster refresh rate and that it supposedly has double the performance of the Steam Deck, its battery life might not be better than Valve’s handheld. But we’ll see if the machine’s cooling technology can help it last for a decent amount of time.

Asus ROG Ally hands-on: Outlook

The Steam Deck is currently my favorite gaming handheld of all time thanks to its ergonomic design, powerful hardware and SteamOS operating system. It’s a hard system to beat because of these features — but I think the Asus ROG Ally has a decent shot of unseating Valve’s machine. However, I still have questions.

Battery life and price could make or break Asus’ handheld. Given how it’s more powerful than the Steam Deck, it’s hard to imagine the Ally will have a similar price. But if Asus can sell the Ally for $650 like the high-end Steam Deck, that’d be great. Battery life is also a concern given how the machine’s high specs will surely tax the battery.

If the Asus ROG Ally is reasonably priced and has good battery life, it might be able to take on the Steam Deck. It could also make a stronger case for Windows 11-powered gaming handhelds, especially since Asus is manufacturing the device. I can’t wait to put the Asus ROG Ally through its paces and see if it can outshine my beloved Steam Deck.