ASUS has lastly launched the ROG Ally X, the corporate’s latest handheld gaming PC, which was initially revealed early final month. This isn’t the successor to final yr’s ROG Ally however quite a dearer variant that improves upon lots of the shortcomings of the authentic mannequin.
For starters, the most important enchancment on the ROG Ally X is the larger battery. ASUS has gone from 40Wh on the ROG Ally to 80Wh on the brand new mannequin. ASUS isn’t making any claims of precise battery life for the Ally X however we would not be stunned for those who obtained near double the lifetime of the unique mannequin.
Additionally improved is the storage and reminiscence scenario. The ROG Ally X comes with 1TB of PCIe NVMe SSD storage from 512GB of the unique mannequin. Extra importantly, the ROG Ally X makes use of the extra widespread M.2 2280 dimension drives in comparison with the 2242 dimension drive on the Ally, which ought to make upgrading the drive cheaper and simpler.
As for the reminiscence, it has been upgraded from 16GB 6400MHz LPDDR5 to 24GB 7500MHz LPDDR5. This implies now you can assign extra reminiscence to the GPU with out having to battle for it with the OS and the remainder of the apps on the system.
ASUS has additionally made a number of adjustments to the interior cooling system. The ROG Ally X makes use of new followers, that are slimmer however nonetheless supply 10% improve in airflow. The brand new design strikes air in the direction of the show as properly, which retains it cool whereas gaming. The corporate has additionally moved the microSD card slot, which tended to malfunction on the unique mannequin attributable to its proximity to the exhaust vent.
The outside has additionally been redesigned though it’d look comparable at first. The physique now has gentler curves in comparison with the sharper angles of the unique. The handgrips are deeper to supply a safer and comfy grip. The place of the joysticks and controls has been adjusted for simpler transition. The joysticks even have been improved to supply higher suggestions and have an extended lifespan. The D-pad has been redesigned and now has much less stickiness when performing round actions. The fingerprint sensor on the prime is now caved-in to make it simpler to find. And eventually, the again buttons have been made smaller to cut back unintended presses.
When it comes to connectivity, the ROG Ally X swaps out the mix USB-C + ROG XG Cell Interface connector for twin USB-C ports, certainly one of which is Thunderbolt 4 and the opposite USB 3.2 Gen 2. Lastly, as the price of all of those adjustments, the ROG Ally X weighs 678g, 68g greater than the unique.
As for issues that have not modified, the ROG Ally X has the identical Ryzen Z1 Excessive chip as the unique (there is no such thing as a non-Excessive variant for the X). It additionally comes with the identical 7-inch 1080p 120Hz IPS LCD with AMD FreeSync Premium. The audio system are the identical as is the wi-fi connectivity. You additionally get the identical 65W charger within the field. The software program has been up to date with a more recent model of ASUS Armoury Crate SE (additionally coming to authentic mannequin) however it’s nonetheless operating on Home windows 11 Residence.
Total, the ROG Ally X looks as if a giant step ahead in comparison with the unique mannequin regardless of not being a successor. It was particularly cool to see lots of the particular complaints raised in our assessment of the Ally (show getting scorching throughout gaming, fingerprint sensor being tougher to make use of, grips being shallow, again button being too simple to press unintentionally) being addressed within the new mannequin other than all the massive image stuff (battery, reminiscence, storage).
The ROG Ally X is now obtainable for pre-order. It comes solely in black and priced at $799 with a 3-month Sport Move subscription.