TL;DR
- ASUS has confirmed that the ASUS ROG Ally release date will be May 11.
- A company spokesperson has said the price will be under $1,000.
- A leak suggests the price will be $699.
Earlier this week, some outlets got the opportunity to get some hands-on time with the ASUS ROG Ally. While impressions were positive, the biggest factor that will determine the device’s success remained a mystery — the price. But we may now know what that price may be, as well as the ASUS ROG Ally’s release date.
On the same day ASUS provided hands-on demos, the company confirmed when its handheld gaming PC will launch. The release date will be on May 11, and ASUS will be holding a launch event for the device at 10:00 AM ET. You can watch the event live right here.
Based on specs and descriptions of the experience, the handheld sounds like a formidable device. It offers a few advantages over its competitor — the Steam Deck — including less fan noise, a 1080p display with up to 120Hz refresh rate, and Windows 11. But its biggest advantage may be the AMD RYZEN Z1 series chip inside of it.
According to benchmarks provided by AMD, the standard RYZEN Z1 processor has a GPU performance of 2.8 teraflops. By comparison, the Steam Deck offers 1.6 teraflops. Far more impressive is the RYZEN Z1 Extreme, which delivers 8.6 teraflops. This puts it at nearly two teraflops under the PS5.
The one thing that could have held the system back is the price, but it looks like that won’t be the case. A leak courtesy of SnoopyTech suggests the RYZEN Z1 Extreme model will cost $699. A Steam Deck with 512GB of storage costs $649. So if this leak is true, the ROG Ally could be a Steam Deck killer.
It’s currently unknown what the cheaper model will cost. We also don’t know much about the battery life. However, ASUS claims the battery life is comparable to the Steam Deck.
