Asus has been building the ROG Ally for 5 years and here are the hideous prototypes to prove it

pcgamer.com:

Asus has been at pains to make clear that it was making the ROG Ally handheld gaming PC long before Valve launched its Steam Deck(opens in new tab). Sure, it's an AMD-powered PC console, just like Valve made, but Asus has released an image of a selection of different prototype models from the five years of iteration before settling on the Ally design. Just like Valve released(opens in new tab).

The company has just unveiled the ROG Ally ahead of its full launch on May 11 this year, and we've been talking with Asus about the machine itself, and how it fits into the burgeoning handheld gaming PC market.

But would the Ally exist were it not for the Steam Deck, we asked?

«Yes, it would still exist,» Galip Fu, Asus' global marketing director tells us, «but perhaps not as soon as 2023. Valve has been a central figure in the PC gaming industry for decades and has a special place in the hearts of gamers, including us.

»While we have had the design for a Windows-based PC gaming handheld device ready for some time, we were waiting for something that could offer the ultimate gaming experience—something that could meet the performance demands of gamers."

And that's where these sometimes grim-looking prototypes come in—like, I mean what the hell is this meant to be?! It looks like some sort of 1950's pseudo futuristic TV, and I have no idea whether that's a stand or where you're meant to be holding the device.

And this? Is this prototype literally just a phone with a lump of brown modelling clay attached (my brain keeps going towards excrement, but I live with a pair of toddlers so that's a given)?

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