Asus ROG Ally is the Steam Deck rival we didn't expect

pocket-lint.com:

Asus has surprised everyone with a Steam Deck rival seemingly launched from nowhere. The Asus ROG Ally is a Windows 11 gaming handheld with dual fan cooling and a custom AMD APU chipset. It will be available to pre-order soon, but Asus is yet to announce when. It does have a sign-up page on Best Buy in the US, however, so you can enter your email details to be notified.

The Asus ROG Ally is a PC gaming handheld that runs on Windows 11 and a custom AMD chipset. It has a Full HD display and can play PC games from multiple platforms.

Its announcement was accompanied by a rather cheesy video released on 1 April, so many wondered whether the Ally was an elaborate April Fools joke, but it isn't. The device really is coming to steal Valve's thunder.

There are relatively few specification details at present, with just a custom AMD APU chip and ROG XG Mobile eGPU mentioned in the video. The display technology is also yet to be revealed, although there's confirmation that it has a Full HD (1080p) resolution.

In terms of games, considering it runs on Windows 11 there's every likelihood it'll work with multiple game platforms — maybe even Steam. Asus' Armoury Crate software will give access to games and settings, which includes the ability to customise all buttons.

There's one big difference to the Steam Deck that we can see from the bat — there's no trackpad. That will make playing strategy games rather difficult, we feel, as you'll likely have to map the right thumbstick to mouse control instead. However, considering the Windows operating system, you'll at least also be able to run games via Xbox's Cloud Gaming, we'd imagine. Nvidia's GeForce Now might be useable too, as well as other cloud gaming services.

At this early stage,