Asus Is Making Its Own Handheld Gaming PC to Compete with Steam Deck
Asus is developing its very first gaming handheld PC, the ROG Ally, to compete with the Steam Deck.
Although the company released the trailer for the PC gaming handheld on April Fools' Day over the weekend, the PC gaming handheld is the real deal — and you can register to pre-order it from Best Buy.
According to Asus, the Ally runs on Windows 11 and carries a customized APU developed by Asus and AMD to make it the fastest APU to optimize gameplay performance on the go. It also has dual fans that keep the handheld cool while running a graphically demanding game as quietly as possible.
Introducing ROG’s first gaming handheld console!Taking your PC games out of your gaming room is no longer a fantasy!Play wherever you are, whenever you want. With the #ROGALLY, you’ll never have to stop gaming again!
To further confirm that the Ally is a reality (or going to be), YouTuber Dave2D released a preview video where he took a deep dive into its specs — though not deep enough to give away the frame rate. The Ally has a 7-inch screen just like the Steam Deck, but has a resolution of 1080p instead of 800p, and the display performance goes up to 120Hz. The volume for its fans is 20dB on load — 17 decibels lower than the Steam Deck, which runs the fans at 37dB.
Other companies have tried to compete with the Steam Deck with handheld PCs of their own, like Ayaneo, a small company in China that has developed the Ayaneo Air and Ayaneo 2 — both of which were released within six months. Asus is the first company within the US to try and create a handheld PC whose performance may surpass that of Valve's coveted device.
There's no word on when pre-orders for the ROG Ally will go live. You might want to keep your eyes open for an email from Best Buy
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