Asus has officially unveiled its refreshed Windows-powered handheld gaming device, the ROG Ally X, at Computex 2024 this past weekend. The official launch confirmed pretty much everything that leaked over the last few weeks and added a few more details to get handheld gamers frothing.
The ROG Ally X doesn’t mark a completely new generation of Asus’ handheld console. Rather, like the OLED-sporting refreshed Nintendo Switch, the ROG Ally X only changes a few things. The AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme chipset remains, as does the 7in 1080p 120Hz IPS display. However, the battery, memory, and storage have all been improved. As has the design, both internally and externally.
ROG Ally X confirmed improvements
The biggest upgrade has to be the 80Wh battery which now offers double the juice over the first model. While that won’t result in a higher overall framerate on its own, it does mean you can enjoy smooth gameplay for longer before power throttling kicks in.
The new Ally X also comes with double the base storage. It ships with 1TB of SSD storage over the original 512GB. That’s already good news but it gets better. Asus has redesigned its motherboard and found enough space to swap the M.2 2230 slot for the much more popular M.2 2280 form factor. This means game hoarders won’t have to go searching for affordable 2230 M.2 SSDs when their collection exceeds 1TB.
A bigger battery and SSD won’t make your games look prettier but the memory upgrade might help slightly with that. Not only does the ROG Ally X come with an additional 8GB of system memory for a total of 24GB, but it’s also faster. Seeing as this system memory is shared by the GPU while gaming, having more of it could mean you can bump the texture setting up a notch. But that will depend on what you’re playing so we look forward to trying it out ourselves.
Asus has redesigned the chassis which is now available in black — much more appropriate for a handheld device. The handles are slightly deeper, rounder, and textured for a comfier grip. The placement of the buttons and joysticks has shifted slightly and the original sticks have been swapped out for more durable drift-resistant Hall Effect magnetic modules which means they’re easier to replace. The D-pad also received an upgrade and now supports eight directional inputs.
Lastly, Asus has taken user feedback into account and redesigned the ROG Ally X’s I/O, ditching the proprietary XG Mobile eGPU connector for a second USB-C port. You get two ports in total — one USB4, the other USB 3.2 Gen 2 — both of which support DisplayPort and 100W Power Delivery.
They’re joined by a 3.5mm combo audio jack and a speedy microSD card slot. With the other changes to the chassis and internal cooling system, your cards will (hopefully) be safe in this one. With all the upgrades, you’d think the Ally X would be substantially larger and heavier than its older brother. Thankfully not. Asus has managed to keep the gains down; it’s only 70g heavier and less than 5mm thicker.
ROG Ally X: When and how much?
Asus has opened preorders overseas but South Africans will need to wait a little longer (and pay a little more). Local preorders for the ROG Ally X will be available from 27 June 2024 and it comes with a RRP of R18,000.