Your new friend in properly portable gaming could just be an Ally, which is basically a big PC made small.
If it seems like portable gaming has stopped with the Nintendo Switch, you mightn’t be alone.
The Switch is a great console with some excellent games, but there hasn’t been a new portable console from Sony or Microsoft in so long, and it seems like the phone is where the action is for many games. Add a gaming controller like the Backbone, and mobile gaming makes for a compelling option, too.
It’s not the only way to push mobile gaming forward, though. There’s also the PC, which thanks to improvements in technology have seen hardware getting smaller and smaller and smaller.
You can now bring a gaming computer with you in a similar form-factor to the Switch, making it possible to transport the ever-increasing library of PC games many of us have pretty much anywhere.
Valve’s SteamDeck is one of the ways to do it, but Valve hasn’t made getting that gadget easy in many parts of the world, Australia included, and that has left an opening for competitors.
Asus is one of them, and has this week launched its Republic of Gamers “ROG Ally” in Australia, with a release date of mid-June set to give mobile gamers a proper Steam Deck competitor released to people who want one.
The ROG Ally will come with an AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor, 16GB RAM, and 512GB storage when it arrives, with a Full HD 120Hz 7 inch touchscreen flanked on both sides by controls complete with LEDs around the sticks.
It’s a little like a big phone encased by a controller, except that rather than a big phone, you’re getting a full Windows 11 machine, complete with stereo sound supporting hi-res audio and Dolby Atmos, WiFi 6E, and a battery capable of handling up to two hours of heav gaming or up to almost seven for video watching.
The video card inside is built into the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip , and can reportedly provide 60fps in many titles on its 1080p screen, but you won’t be locked into that graphics card forever, provided you don’t mind sitting at a desk. An optional accessory will allow you to boost the graphics in the Asus XG Mobile external graphics chip, which will add a GeForce RTX 4090 to the setup later on.
Meanwhile, if you want to play in front of a TV, there’s a TV converter of sorts in the ROG Gaming Charger Dock, which will connect the ROG Ally to a TV and support extra controllers.
“Before the ROG Ally, handhelds were limited, only offering certain games often at lower resolutions and framerates,” said Shawn Yen, Vice General Manager for Gaming at Asus.
“We spent five years working to elevate that experience,” he said. “The ROG Ally offers high performance in Full HD on a platform that can play all your games, anywhere you go.”
In Australia, the Asus ROG Ally won’t necessarily be cheap, but then again few gaming laptops are. As such, you can expect this portable gaming PC to hit online and retail for $1299 when it lands on June 13.
