ASUS Announces the ROG Ally X: Improved Performance, Ergonomics, and Battery Life

[btarunr]

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.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Chaitanya]

Hard pass, will pick up a used Steam Deck.

 

[SL2]

Laugh.

 

[Cheeseball]

The improvements on top of the original Ally are not bad. It would've been better to have it at an even 32 GB of RAM, but I guess thats for cost-cutting so they can put that 80Wh batttery in.

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.

 

[jpvalverde85]

Still no Hall sticks, even small chinese consoles from Anbernic and Powkiddy get this right, but Asus with his Big Kahuna Superspec ROG Ally Xxx cant get it right, damn...

 

[Prima.Vera]

God forbidden to RMA this or get any support... That alone, and I will not buy anything ASUS ever.

 

[SL2]

The improvements on top of the original Ally are not bad.

Indeed they are, but it's too late. That APU will soon be last generation. Strix point will come three moths later.

 

[Cheeseball]

Indeed they are, but it's too late. That APU will soon be last generation. Strix point will come three moths later.

I don't think AMD (or any of its OEM partners for handhelds) have an immediate plan for Z2 or Z2 Extreme yet. I hope I'm wrong though. 16 CUs (or probably the 12 CU version due to cooling) is a big enough improvement for iGPUs.

 

[SL2]

I don't think AMD (or any of its OEM partners for handhelds) have an immediate plan for Z2 or Z2 Extreme yet.

I think that's irrelevant at this point. First of all, there are handhelds out there with laptop chips. (Although I don't know if they are OEM partners)

AYA NEO Previews NEXT II Handheld Gaming PC

Competition in the handheld gaming PC space is heating up yet again with AYA NEO releasing more teaser material for its upcoming NEXT II model - an estimated late 2023 launch is touted. This model was first revealed last year, with the company choosing to drip feed information since then. We...

www.techpowerup.com

Orange Pi Neo Launched in China - $599 & $499 Price Points Unveiled

The Orange Pi Neo handheld gaming PC was first exhibited in Europe earlier in the year—where the Manjaro Linux team handed out demo units to attendees of FOSDEM. The initial batch of Orange Pi Neo handhelds were specced with AMD's ubiquitous Ryzen 7 7840U "Phoenix" mobile APU, but a recent...

www.techpowerup.com

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).

I hope I'm wrong though. 16 CUs (or probably the 12 CU version due to cooling) is a big enough improvement for iGPUs.

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.

 

[Cheeseball]

I think that's irrelevant at this point. First of all, there are handhelds out there with laptop chips. (Although I don't know if they are OEM partners)

AYA NEO Previews NEXT II Handheld Gaming PC

Competition in the handheld gaming PC space is heating up yet again with AYA NEO releasing more teaser material for its upcoming NEXT II model - an estimated late 2023 launch is touted. This model was first revealed last year, with the company choosing to drip feed information since then. We...

www.techpowerup.com

Orange Pi Neo Launched in China - $599 & $499 Price Points Unveiled

The Orange Pi Neo handheld gaming PC was first exhibited in Europe earlier in the year—where the Manjaro Linux team handed out demo units to attendees of FOSDEM. The initial batch of Orange Pi Neo handhelds were specced with AMD's ubiquitous Ryzen 7 7840U "Phoenix" mobile APU, but a recent...

www.techpowerup.com

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.

Yeah I know what you mean. I was talking about an official handheld APU that AMD themselves market like the Z1 and Z1E. I myself have a GPD Win Mini 7840U (and Minisforum V3) and the other "official" handhelds by the big names.

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.

 

[SL2]

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.

That's the way to go though, if AMD wants to maximize gaming performance for handhelds. We will probably see more variants similar to the one in Steam Deck in the future (even if it wasn't made for Steam originally).

 

[erpguy53]

just wanted to say that the BIOS/firmware & Driver Downloads for the ROG Ally X (2024) handheld are now available on the Asus ROG website