Asus’ Flashy ROG Ally Steam Deck Competitor is Actual

Most corporations will keep away from making actual product bulletins on April Fools’ Day, because the information will inevitably get buried underneath a mountain of pranks from corporations incorrectly assuming they are often humorous. However not Asus. It used April 1 this 12 months to announce its first handheld gaming device, leaving followers questioning if it was actual… till Asus confirmed the ROG Ally this morning on Twitter.

In contrast to latest handhelds from Logitech and Razer, that are primarily designed to be used with both recreation streaming providers or Android cell video games, the ROG (Republic of Avid gamers) Ally sounds prefer it’s being positioned as a handheld gaming PC, much like the strategy Valve took with its Steam Deck. Not less than, that’s if we go off the restricted specs and options revealed throughout a considerably unhinged announcement video Asus shared on YouTube on April 1. (Why are there zombies on the finish?)

What we do know is that the ROG Ally will likely be a Home windows gaming handheld powered by a custom-made AMD APU (accelerated processing unit, or a processor with built-in graphics capabilities). For reference, the Steam Deck additionally makes use of a {custom} AMD APU, though we wouldn’t be shocked to see the Ally boasting more moderen tech, as Valve’s APU makes use of a Zen 2+ processor and RDNA2 graphics, that are a number of generations behind. Boasting, “Full HD gaming,” the Ally’s display screen will most likely max out at a 1080P decision, and the hand held appears to be like to characteristic a pair of quiet cooling followers to maximise efficiency whereas guaranteeing the gadget doesn’t get too heat to really maintain.

The ROG Ally will play AAA video games natively from numerous recreation libraries, and whereas it should inevitably require efficiency tweaks and compromises for sure video games to play easily in handheld mode, the gadget will be docked and linked to the ROG XG Mobile eGPU, permitting extra demanding video games to be performed in full high quality on a bigger display screen at larger resolutions.

Particulars on when the Asus ROG Ally will likely be accessible or how a lot it should value haven’t been disclosed but, however Asus’ tweet this morning is pointing players to a landing page on Best Buy’s website, the place they’ll signal as much as be notified when the hand held is prepared for pre-order.

Other than out-of-the-box eGPU help, what appears most noticeable right here is that the hand held seems to be a contact smaller than the Steam Deck, and bears the identical sort of over-the-top branding as ROG laptops. We’ll see how properly it may compete with different Steam Deck options just like the Ayaneo Geek once we can truly maintain it in our arms, hopefully with out being interrupted by zombies.