The
Asus
ROG
Ally
was
the
first
true
Steam
Deck
challenger;
while
I’d
argue
it
fell
a
little
short,
it
legitimately
improved
the
state
of
affordable
Windows
handheld
gaming
with
its
plugged-in
performance
boosts
and
smooth
variable
refresh
rate
screen.
Now,
Asus
is
beginning
to
reveal
its
successor:
the
ROG
Ally
X.
Don’t
call
it
an
Ally
2:
when
it
ships
in
the
second
half
of
the
year,
the
Windows-based
Ally
X
will
have
the
same
AMD
Z1
Extreme
chipset
and
the
same
7-inch
48–120Hz
VRR
screen.
It’s
not
quite
like
the
Steam
Deck
OLED,
where
Valve
got
AMD
to
revise
its
chip
for
better
battery
life
and
stability
and
added
a
larger,
brighter,
gorgeous
new
OLED
panel
with
improved
response
time
and
slimmer
bezels.
“We’re
not
looking
at
30
to
40
percent
more
capacity.”
But
the
newly
black-colored
handheld
will
have
a
substantial
battery
life
improvement,
Asus
SVP
Shawn
Yen
tells
The
Verge
—
because
Asus
will
cram
a
substantially
larger
battery
pack
into
the
Ally
X’s
revised
shell.
“We’re
not
looking
at
30
to
40
percent
more
capacity,”
he
tells
me.
“We’re
looking
at
way
more
than
that.”
Asus
won’t
talk
specific
specs
today.
Instead,
Yen
asks
me
how
much
battery
life
I’d
realistically
like
from
a
revised
handheld.
I
say
I’d
want
to
double
the
worst-case
battery
life
to
three
hours
since
I’m
currently
seeing
maybe
1.5
hours
in
intensive
games.
“It
won’t
disappoint
your
worst-case
scenario,”
he
tells
me.
Asus
confirms
the
new
Ally
X
will
come
in
black
—
so
perhaps
this
tease
from
the
other
day
is
it?Image:
Asus
Yen
says
battery
life
has
been
the
single
biggest
request
since
launch;
Asus
has
seen
how
the
community
sometimes
straps
giant
external
batteries
to
their
handhelds,
even
though
the
Ally
theoretically
had
room
inside
for
a
larger
battery
pack.
“When
we
launched
[the
original
Ally],
we
didn’t
have
such
a
clear
understanding
that
the
battery
might
be
something
people
desire
more
than
a
lighter-weight
device,”
he
admits.
Battery
isn’t
the
only
change
Asus
is
talking
about
today;
the
Ally
X
is
about
addressing
many
of
the
community’s
top
priorities
for
how
to
revise
the
original.
“We
think
about
battery
and
storage,
graphics
and
memory,
ports...
our
goal
is
to
fit
as
many
of
those
as
possible
into
a
device
like
this,”
says
Asus
senior
product
manager
Gabriel
Meng.
Again,
no
specs
today,
but
Asus
says
the
Ally
X
should
now
have
more
than
its
current
16GB
of
RAM
so
that
you
can
allocate
lots
of
it
to
the
GPU
without
impacting
the
rest
of
the
system.
It
should
have
a
longer
M.2
2280
SSD
slot,
so
buyers
can
more
easily
find
and
purchase
larger
SSD
upgrades
than
the
current
M.2
2230
allows.
The
Ally
X
should
also
be
even
more
repairable,
with
redesigned
joystick
modules
that
are
more
interchangeable
—
and
upgradable,
I
imagine,
if
Gulikit
steps
up?
While
I
didn’t
get
to
see
it
for
myself,
Asus
says
the
handheld
will
be
slightly
heavier
due
to
the
larger
battery,
with
revised
grips,
and
slight
tuning
to
things
like
the
D-Pad,
joysticks,
and
triggers.
Above:
a
video
showing
the
inside
of
the
original
ROG
Ally.
And,
while
Asus
still
won’t
admit
that
the
Ally’s
SD
card
reader
ever
had
any
fault,
tells
me
it’s
the
same
exact
SD
card
reader
it
uses
in
its
laptops,
and
says
it
doesn’t
believe
any
issues
actually
had
to
do
with
overheating,
the
Ally
X
will
have
a
rearranged
motherboard
layout
that
sounds
like
it’ll
move
it
away
from
the
system’s
vents.
“We
don’t
want
people
to
think
that’s
what
we
had
to
do,”
Meng
says
of
moving
the
SD
reader.
“We
had
to
move
things
around
the
board
to
make
them
fit.”
Asus
says
the
Ally
X’s
improvements
will
come
at
a
cost;
unlike
the
Steam
Deck
OLED,
which
largely
replaced
Valve’s
LCD
model
at
the
same
price
points,
the
Ally
X
will
start
at
a
higher
price
than
the
original.
The
original
2023
ROG
Ally
will
also
continue
to
stick
around
and
may
see
discounts.
As
far
as
a
ROG
Ally
2
goes,
Asus
agrees
that
it
has
a
similar
philosophy
to
Valve:
it
wants
to
build
a
true
successor
when
it
can
offer
a
significant
performance
boost,
not
just
an
incremental
one.
And
while
Asus
doesn’t
plan
to
sell
an
aftermarket
battery
upgrade
for
original
Ally
buyers
it
has
a
big
software
update
coming
for
those
buyers
as
well:
Armory
Crate
SE
1.5
is
not
only
a
very
fresh
coat
of
paint
and
navigation
improvements
—
it’ll
finally
let
players
share
their
button
mappings
for
various
games
with
other
Ally
owners.
Asus
tells
me
it
still
believes
in
Windows.
While
Meng
says,
“We
are
very
open-minded
to
looking
at
other
solutions,”
and
that
the
company
does
have
conversations
with
Valve,
Asus
says
it
has
philosophical
and
logistical
reasons
to
stick
with
Microsoft’s
OS,
including
a
desire
to
have
the
“inclusiveness
of
all
different
game
platforms”
instead
of
relying
on
Steam.
I’ll
tell
you
about
some
of
the
logistical
reasons
in
a
future
story.
Asus
says
it’ll
formally
announce
the
ROG
Ally
X
on
June
2nd.
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