Following the success of the Nintendo Switch and the Valve Steam Deck, more hardware manufacturers are taking the portable gaming PC market seriously. When the ASUS ROG Ally was first revealed in the spring as a high-performance substitute for the Steam Deck, many doubts lingered about its ability to compete with the Deck in terms of both cost and platform. Today, pricing and the release date of the flagship model for the ASUS ROG Ally were revealed along with other significant information.
Today, ASUS announced that the ROG Ally will be on sale on June 13. The mainstream performance model, which uses the normal Z1 APU processor, will start at $599 USD, while the high performance Z1 Extreme APU chip will debut at $699 USD. Although there are many technical details to go over with this gadget, in general, it's amazing for the price. With Windows 11, up to two hours of gaming time per charge, 512 GB of fast NVME storage, a 7-inch 1080p 120Hz display, and a docking station, the Z1 Extreme edition is smaller and lighter than the Steam Deck.
The amount of cutting-edge technology that is included in this device cannot be overstated. To obtain the whole picture, you need examine the technical specifications in contrast to the Steam Deck. Consider this an overview of the significance of the ASUS ROG Ally.
Picture courtesy of ASUS
Pros and drawbacks of ASUS ROG Ally vs. Steam Deck
The AMD Z1 Extreme APU processor powers the Ally, greatly surpassing both the Switch and the Steam Deck in the majority of games. If you apply the proper settings, you can play recent AAA games on the ROG Ally at 1080p with 60 frames per second. It's amazing to imagine that there will be many options to play lightweight and older games at 120 frames per second on this portable.
It's basically a $50 USD overcharge over the flagship Steam Deck for much superior hardware once you start comparing costs. However, optimization is important, and in some game benchmarks, the Steam Deck is competitive with the Ally.
Picture courtesy of AMD
The Steam Deck doesn't seem to be superior unless you take the user experience into account. The Steam Deck integrates with the Steam store seamlessly and runs SteamOS. For people who are used to using consoles, this greatly improves accessibility to the Steam Deck. The drawback of this benefit is that it doesn't work with programs like Game Pass, the Epic Games Store, or any other game that doesn't work with Steam.
The remedy involves installing Windows as a second operating system on the Steam Deck, but you will also need to handle all the problems associated with unofficial support. You can see why there is a definite opportunity for the ROG Ally to serve a bigger audience by taking a look at our numerous instructions on the Steam Deck to learn what it takes to get popular games like Warzone running on the platform.However, Valve is truly all about the whole product experience, not just the technology. Touchpads on the Steam Deck are made specifically for the SteamOS, whereas the Ally's touchscreen is said to be difficult to use and lacks precise input control. Additionally, valve makes it simple to change the Steam Deck's storage and get new components in case anything goes wrong. An SD card may be added to the Ally to increase storage capacity, but ASUS has not yet made any accessible user maintenance and repair efforts public, raising concerns about what will happen if a basic component fails.The ASUS Armoury Crate control software is available for launching games and other applications on the Ally, which is officially powered by Windows 11. Although evaluations claim that SteamOS offers a better user experience than ASUS's handheld, the company has worked with Microsoft to enhance the portable experience. Nevertheless, there is a sizable audience that will find the Ally appealing, and it is compatible with Game Pass right out of the box. Since the Ally is also Windows-based, Steam support is unavoidable.With the Switch's dated technology, there is a strong argument for competition from portable PCs, and Nintendo will need to innovate to maintain its hegemony in the handheld market.
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