ASUS ROG Ally price leaks: Can it beat Steam Deck on performance value?
ASUS could be dangerously close to Valve’s prices.
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What you need to know
TheROG Allyis an upcoming PC gaming handheld going head-to-head with Valve for the portable gaming crown currently (and arguably) adorned by theSteam Deck. Officially, we’re still waiting for confirmation on the ROG Ally’s price, but that hasn’t prevented a flood ofROG Ally price leaksfrom spreading around the Internet, and they look as legitimate as it gets. Naturally, any leak should be taken with a sizable pinch of salt. Still, third-party retailer listings with matching specs hint at accurate prices, and they’re dangerously close to the competition.
Lining up witheverything we know about the ASUS ROG Ally, a collection of reliable sources recently leaked prices for both planned console models. Like the Steam Deck, the ROG Ally comes in two flavors: one with 256GB of solid-state storage and the other doubling it to 512GB. The real difference is that the larger variant also boosts its CPU power by including the beefierAMD Ryzen Z1 Extrememobile chip rather than the Ryzen Z1, both based on the Zen 4 architecture with RDNA3 GPU cores.
Best Buy product page leaked the price of the Asus ROG Ally. It will be priced at $699 dollars for the 16GB/512GB variant. pic.twitter.com/CbfERTkGT4April 27, 2023
Sharing info from leakersRoland QuandtandSnoopyTech, an implied price was backed up by leaked screenshots of accidental listings on Best Buy for the 512GB Z1 Extreme model at$699.99,reported by The Verge.
Barely a couple of days later, another slippery leak from the same sourceshit the Vergewith an apparent price confirmation of$599.99for the 256GB Z1 model. That’s two comparable options against thethree Steam Deck variants, apparently skipping only an entry-level 64GB eMMC model, which is an understandable move given the gigantic installation sizes of modern games.
Comparing the prices against Valve’s Steam Deck shows a much closer race than I anticipated, given the expected performance boost from ASUS' selected components lurking inside the ROG Ally. More detailsare expected on May 11as part of the big reveal, and if ASUS can offer the ROG Ally in more regions than the Steam Deck, it could be a formidable rival to the current portable PC gaming champion.
ASUS ROG Ally 7" AMD Z1 (not Extreme) = $599.9916 GB LPDDR5, 256 GB NVMe M.2 SSD https://t.co/X6hAE6ZtLF pic.twitter.com/ueKYpeMzusApril 28, 2023
Windows Central take
I use my Steam Deck daily and recommend it to whoever will listen. However, ASUS' choice to useWindows could give the ROG Ally an edge over the Steam Deckwhen connecting to a docking station for a more approachable desktop environment for those already comfortable with the world-leading operating system. This, plus the raw performance gains from building a handheld with more modern hardware, means there’s real competition for Valve.
Again, price leaks are anything but concrete, but these, in particular, seem to hold a lot of water when consideringASUS' place in the market. It won’t be long before ASUS officially unveils the ROG Ally, hopefully including plans for worldwide distribution and more in-depth details regarding battery life, which can make or break a handheld gaming experience.
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I’ll keep you posted if any other exciting information slips through the cracks, potentially making the ROG Ally announcement a repeat of what we already know.
Ben is a Senior Editor at Windows Central, covering everything related to technology hardware and software. He regularly goes hands-on with the latest Windows laptops, components inside custom gaming desktops, and any accessory compatible with PC and Xbox. His lifelong obsession with dismantling gadgets to see how they work led him to pursue a career in tech-centric journalism after a decade of experience in electronics retail and tech support.
