Leaked $700 pricing for the Extreme ROG Ally could kill the Steam Deck for me

pcgamer.com:

One of the key issues with Asus' big Steam Deck(opens in new tab) rival is just how much it's going to charge for the ROG Ally(opens in new tab). Well, it seems we no longer have to wonder because, as expected, the launch price has seemingly been listed and the high-end Z1 Extreme version is going to cost $700.

Which, I will admit, is a bit of a surprise to me. When Asus told us that «200% it will be below $1,000» I was still concerned that it was only in reference to the lower spec AMD Z1 version and not the Z1 Extreme ROG Ally. There was still a part of me that expected Asus to miss the mark and price the top-end handheld at $1,200 citing some ultra-enthusiast BS to justify it.

But no, Asus is seemingly about to absolutely ace the handheld market with what is looking increasingly like a more than worthy successor to the Steam Deck. 

At $700 that would put the ROG Ally Z1 Extreme handheld at just $50 more than the top 512GB Steam Deck. And if you look at the relative performance on offer with Asus' device the difference will be night and day.

With the Z1 Extreme sporting some 12 RDNA 3 compute units you're looking at raw GPU performance practically on par with a desktop RX 6600 graphics card. That's proper 1080p gaming performance in a handheld(opens in new tab).

But how confident can we be that this leaked $700 figure is legit? I think pretty damned confident actually, because the device is launching in less than two weeks, is being sold exclusively via Best Buy in the US, and it's a Best Buy listing that gives us the most concrete evidence of price.

Best Buy product page leaked the price of the Asus ROG Ally. It will be priced at $699 dollars for the 16GB/512GB variant. pic.twitter.com/CbfERTkGT4April 27, 2023

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