Asus Unveils New ROG Ally, Considered a Joke

The ROG Ally, a competitor for the revolutionary Steam Deck, is possibly on the horizon. Unfortunately, Asus announced it at the most confusing of times. Asus went to Twitter recently to unveil its handheld gaming PC, the ROG Ally. The problem is, of all the days they could have chosen, they decided to do it on April 1st.

People understandably had mixed reactions to the announcement. While some felt ecstatic about the forthcoming of a new handheld powerhouse, others were highly skeptical. The fact that the system was announced on April Fools made everyone second-guess the product right off the bat. Everyone was asking themselves: Is this even real? Is this Asus’ April Fool’s joke for the year? Is there even a ROG Ally for real? Well, we were forced two wait two days before getting an answer. But, was it already late?

Two days after their perplexing announcement, Asus confirmed that ROG Ally is indeed real. It isn’t a clever joke looking to crush the excitement of many gamers worldwide. While this confirmation rekindled the interest of most people, some aren’t about to just give Asus a pass. You’d still see some comments on their original announcement of people that are not buying it. Nevertheless, thanks to YouTube channels Linus Tech Tips and Dave2D, we had a closer look at what ROG Ally has in store for us.

ROG Ally Hardware

According to them, the Asus ROG Ally boasts a 7-inch touchscreen and a 16:9 ratio 1080p display with a 120Hz refresh rate. Truly impressive, considering that the Steam Deck only packs 800p and 60Hz. Asus’ announcement also noted that the system will run Windows 11. It also comes with a custom AMD Ryzen chip. Additionally, for those that want more power, you can plug in an external GPU as well. 

Another advantage of ROG Ally over Steam Deck is the number of games you can play on it. Whereas the latter can only play games that are within your official Steam library, the former can purportedly run any game as long as its hardware can handle it. As for the system’s battery life, there are no details about it as of yet.

How Much Does it Cost?

As of the moment of writing, the company is yet to release an official ROG Ally pricing announcement. Asus encouraged interested gamers to sign up on various marketplaces to get notifications when pre-orders for the product begin. 

However, this did not stop people from speculating what its final price tag may be. Intended or not, ROG Ally will undoubtedly enter the market as a competitor of the highly-successful Steam Deck. You can expect it to be the same price as Steam’s handheld juggernaut, which is $399. Seeing as its specs sound better, we can estimate that the ROG Ally could fall somewhere around $499. Don’t quote us on that, however.

Truly, it is now harder than ever to discern what is real from what is but a joke. The fact that such an exciting announcement happened on exactly April Fools’ Day made it all the more frustrating. You no longer can just get hyped at something right from the beginning. Nowadays, you must investigate first to not look like a fool. Thankfully, Asus cleared the air immediately. If they waited for another day or two, they may just see everyone tune out. After everything, ROG Ally is real, and we cannot wait to see what it can do.