Sunday, June 2nd 2024
ASUS Announces the ROG Ally X: Improved Performance, Ergonomics, and Battery Life
ASUS today announced the ROG Ally X, its ambitious new handheld game console that's a step up from the ROG Ally that the company launched last year. The ROG Ally X is powered by the same AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor as the ROG Ally, but with 50% more unified memory—now up to 24 GB of LPDDR5X-7500, which runs at an 18% higher speed than the 16 GB LPDDR5-6400 of the original. The designers also implemented an M.2-2280 NVMe SSD slot, which opens the console up to the widest possible selection of NVMe SSDs. The console includes a 1 TB drive, which is double that of the 500 GB that the ROG Ally comes with. The company has also significantly upgraded the thermal solution of the console with a larger fan, and better thermal venting, which offers 6°C lower gaming temperatures.
Perhaps the biggest feature upgrade is the battery, which is 80 Wh, a 100% increase from the 40 Wh of the original ROG Ally. This may not be a linear 100% increase in battery life from the ROG Ally (due to the various hardware upgrades), but should still pose significant improvements to it. Other hardware updates include USB4, which includes DisplayPort passthrough from the iGPU; besides a separate USB 3.2 Gen 2 type-C. The console supports USB-PD with 140 W fast-charging, and is paired with a first-party GaN-based 140 W fast-charger. Dimensions are similar to those of the ROG Ally, except for 4 mm added thickness, and 70 g added weight (608 g vs. 678 g). Available from July, the ROG Ally X is priced at $799, and includes a 3-month Xbox Game Pass. We went hands on with the console at ASUS's pre-Computex event. Stay tuned for several more announcements form the company in the coming days.
Perhaps the biggest feature upgrade is the battery, which is 80 Wh, a 100% increase from the 40 Wh of the original ROG Ally. This may not be a linear 100% increase in battery life from the ROG Ally (due to the various hardware upgrades), but should still pose significant improvements to it. Other hardware updates include USB4, which includes DisplayPort passthrough from the iGPU; besides a separate USB 3.2 Gen 2 type-C. The console supports USB-PD with 140 W fast-charging, and is paired with a first-party GaN-based 140 W fast-charger. Dimensions are similar to those of the ROG Ally, except for 4 mm added thickness, and 70 g added weight (608 g vs. 678 g). Available from July, the ROG Ally X is priced at $799, and includes a 3-month Xbox Game Pass. We went hands on with the console at ASUS's pre-Computex event. Stay tuned for several more announcements form the company in the coming days.
11 Comments on ASUS Announces the ROG Ally X: Improved Performance, Ergonomics, and Battery Life
Laugh.
They also implemented USB4 for the 2nd USB-C port instead of that dumb proprietary XG mobile connector. Good call on ASUS for that.
Hopefully they learn from their shit when handling warranties with other people. They sent me a new Ally (box and all) when I RMA'd the previous model for the microSD issue, so I guess I'm one of the lucky ones.
www.techpowerup.com/309794/aya-neo-previews-next-ii-handheld-gaming-pc
www.techpowerup.com/320846/orange-pi-neo-launched-in-china-usd-599-usd-499-price-points-unveiled
Second, there isn't even a Z-variant of Hawk point, AFAIK, yet it's also used handhelds, see last link.
None of this has anything to do with Asus, but it just shows what's possible, and that we dont know if the Z brand is here to stay (because of Hawk point).It's the CPU cores that needs a cut down, 12 cores in a handheld is too much of a hand warmer.. even 8 is too much for that kind of graphics. 6 is enough, but then you have cut off too many cores and you're just wasting silicon. A smaller chip would be ideal.
But yeah, 16 CU's might not cut it.
And for sure we're not going to see a 6-core/12 CU or 16 CU combination since we haven't seen it with any of AMD's APUs yet, except for the 4-core/8 CU Sephiroth/Aerith one in the Steam Deck and the consoles.