The Asus ROG Ally X is official — and I took a peek inside

When Valve launched the Steam Deck OLED, I known as it “all the things the unique ought to have been.” Asus is making an attempt to do the very same factor with the brand new ROG Ally X.

After months of leaks, teases, and unique early particulars from yours actually, it’s official: the ROG Ally X handheld gaming PC is occurring preorder as we speak for $799.

When it ships on July twenty second, it’ll include double the battery, double the storage, double the USB-C ports with quadruple the USB bandwidth, 50 % extra (and quicker) 7500MHz reminiscence for as much as a 15 % efficiency increase, dramatically revised ergonomics, an overhauled inner structure, and an intensive listing of different tweaks.

There are such a lot of modifications, the truth is, that I spent two hours on the telephone with Asus technical advertising and marketing director Sascha Krohn to listen to about all of them. I additionally went to the corporate’s US headquarters to open up an ROG Ally X with my very own screwdrivers and play with the brand new construct. I took loads of pics, as a result of I need you to nerd out with me.

However first, let me remind you what the ROG Ally X isn’t. Right here’s what I wrote final month:

Don’t name it an Ally 2: when it ships within the second half of the 12 months, the Home windows-based Ally X could have the identical AMD Z1 Excessive chipset and the identical 7-inch 48–120Hz VRR display. It’s not fairly like the Steam Deck OLED, the place Valve obtained AMD to revise its chip for higher battery life and stability and added a bigger, brighter, beautiful new OLED panel with improved response time and slimmer bezels.

The ROG Ally X is a revision, not a sequel, and it’s a pricier one. It nonetheless runs Home windows, and I nonetheless firmly imagine Home windows drags gaming handhelds down. However the Ally X may be one of the best Home windows handheld but — as a result of Asus has crammed a monster 80 watt-hour battery right into a handheld that doesn’t really feel heavy, one that matches my average-sized palms higher than any Home windows handheld I’ve tried.

At 1.49 kilos (678g), the ROG Ally X is simply 0.15 kilos (70g) heavier than the unique, and it’s solely 0.18 inches (4.5mm) thicker at its thickest level. It’s nearly precisely the identical weight as the unique Steam Deck, and nearly half an inch thinner, however with twice as a lot battery capability inside.

How? Whereas the larger battery added over 120 grams of weight, Asus was capable of offset half of it by making different parts lighter. Krohn says a stronger, thinner, lighter chassis provided the most important financial savings — the load of the talcum-filled ABS / polycarbonate composite went from 176 grams to 134 grams by the point Asus was finished. (I did run into one aspect impact of the stiffer plastic mix: it’s more durable to pop it open for restore.)

The Ally X has lighter circuit boards, too, shaving away a number of pointless board, and a lighter cooling module — together with 23-percent smaller followers which might be truly extra highly effective, as a result of the corporate’s in-house design staff created its personal customized set of 77 ultra-thin blades that trump the 47 of the unique. Krohn says you would possibly see the Ally run a pair levels cooler, and the thinner blades assist scale back the audible noise bump at round 5,000Hz, too.

And, there’s a brand new sequence of vents that permit the Ally X cool its touchscreen extra successfully — as much as 6°C cooler.

The joysticks are one other place the place they’re each higher and lighter: utterly revised modular boards now use the identical high-grade potentiometer based mostly ALPS sticks you’ll discover in a PS5 or Xbox gamepad, with far tighter throw than the unique Ally, delightfully cheesy concave tops a la Steam Deck OLED, wider bases for higher mud resistance, and low friction POM plastic stems for smoother motion once they scrape towards the joystick ring’s edge.

They’re rated to five million rotation cycles, up from 2 million, and if that’s not sufficient, they’re modular — prepared for a drift-resistant Corridor Impact magnetic joystick improve equipment that Gulikit already has in growth. (Krohn says not sufficient players want Corridor Impact sticks for them to come back customary, which… possibly?)

And, Asus has seemingly addressed nearly the entire greatest complaints about I/O:

You get a full-length M.2 2280 PCIe 4 SSD slot now, one which helps double-sided drives too, opening up each the very best capability and probably the most value efficient storage choices in the marketplace.

Asus has additionally ditched its proprietary XG Cellular eGPU port for a second USB-C port, one that gives all the advantages of Thunderbolt 4 too: 40Gbps speeds, 100W USB-C PD charging, DP 1.4 video output, and 4 lanes of PCIe for normal eGPUs. (No Oculink, sorry.)

Each ports are top-mounted, however Krohn says that lets even the weaker one provide 100W charging and 10Gbps knowledge.

And sure, Asus says you get a new SD card reader that’s not the identical because the one that Asus gained’t admit has a difficulty.

Listed here are among the smaller particulars I discovered:

• The D-pad isn’t solely eight-way now, it’s additionally bigger and extra comfy. I vastly want it.
• The face buttons are 3mm taller, inside an extended tube for extra stability. I discovered they’ve a flatter press.
• The audio system have a barely bigger chamber for barely extra quantity and bass.
• The haptic actuators have moved to the sides of the system, beneath palms, for extra pronounced suggestions and weight distribution.
• The shoulder buttons are mounted in another way on the board so that they don’t break as simply in a fall.
• The triggers are wider and product of smoky semi-transparent plastic that appears cool.
• The rear consumption vents are barely bigger.
• The joystick tops at the moment are hooked up with screws, so you could possibly theoretically 3D print your personal tops or stem extenders.
• Equally, the brand new again buttons are screwed into the rear shell now, so you could possibly theoretically transfer their place in your personal 3D printed rear shell.
• There’s a hoop across the fingerprint energy button now to seek out it simpler by really feel.
• The Turbo mode nonetheless operates at 25W, however Silent has been bumped from 10W to 13W, and Efficiency from 15W to 17W.
• The battery is now rated to have 80 % remaining capability after 3 years of biking, up from 70 %
• The hand-held makes use of a special IMU now.
• It nonetheless has magnetic Corridor Impact triggers, however revised barely to ensure they don’t intervene with the audio system or vibration motors.
• Whereas it does assist 100W charging now, it nonetheless comes with the identical 65W adapter.
• It’s not appropriate with present circumstances and mounts, however Asus is in contact with fan favorites JSAUX, Deckmate and Dbrand to supply new ones.
• Present Ally homeowners will be capable of migrate settings to an Ally X with a cloud backup.

Final however not least, there’s an easter egg within the cozy new grips — identical to the PS5’s controller is studded with extremely tiny PlayStation symbols, the ROG Ally X’s grips are coated with “ROG ROG ROG”:

I can’t anticipate a evaluation unit of this handheld, as a result of battery is king in handheld gaming PC world, and the Ally X is about to be king of handheld battery packs. Simply don’t essentially anticipate it to dethrone the Steam Deck OLED, as a result of there’s solely to date Asus can go and not using a extra environment friendly chip and display — and since I’m nonetheless unsure how I really feel about Asus’ deteriorating status for assist.

Some small information as we speak there too, although: Asus has simply introduced that every one ROG Ally units in North America now have a two-year guarantee.

Images by Sean Hollister / The Verge