Last year, Asus released its answer to Valve's Steam Deck gaming laptop in the form of the ROG Ally, which ran Windows 11 and was powered by AMD's Ryzen Z1 Extreme chipset. Ahead of Computex 2024, the company is lifting the lid on an updated version of the gaming device, which will receive several upgrades and improvements as well as a new black screw.
The ROG Ally The model still uses the same circuitry as AMD's Z1 Extreme, but it's been significantly upgraded when it comes to the battery. The battery has been doubled to 80Wh from the original 40Wh, giving a noticeable increase in battery life.
To accommodate the larger battery, Asus had to increase the weight by 70 grams and rebuild the internals of the gaming rig, where everything from the motherboard to the cooling system was revised. Cooling now uses 23 percent fewer fans, but thanks to more densely packed fan blades along with new ventilation ducts, the cooler should be able to move more air than the original cooler, according to the company.
Other upgrades made are storage, with the ROG Ally X doubling this to 1TB. Furthermore, Asus is now using the M.2 2280 form factor for the SSD, making it easier to find a suitable upgrade drive if necessary. In addition, the main memory has been upgraded in capacity and speed to 24GB LPDDR5X-7500, which is comparable to the original 16GB LPDDR5X-6400.
When it comes to connections, the XG Mobile port has been modified from the original port, which was a proprietary solution for connecting an external graphics solution. This is replaced by a USB Type-C port, which is Thunderbolt 4 capable and can provide 40Gb bandwidth, for example, to external graphics card cabinets. There's also an additional USB Type-C port with USB 3.2 Gen 2 support, a Micro SD card slot, and a 3.5mm combo jack for audio.
Last but not least, the ergonomics of the chassis have been improved, with deeper handles on the sides for better grip. Additionally, the joystick modules have been replaced with more durable variants, while the crosshairs have been redesigned for better precision. The macro buttons on the back of the device have also become slightly smaller to prevent them from being accidentally pressed.
The Asus ROG Ally
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