ROG Ally X: Next ASUS gaming handheld revealed with battery, SSD, RAM and SD card improvements teased
ASUS has now revealed its second ROG Ally gaming handheld. As expected, the device has not arrived as the ROG Ally 2, presumably owing to its reliance on AMD's Ryzen Z1 platform that powers the existing ROG Ally (curr. $669.99 on Amazon). However, the next ROG Ally will not be available as the ROG Ally 2024 either, contrary to pre-launch rumours.
Instead, ASUS has presented the new model as the ROG Ally X. As predicted, the new ROG Ally will feature a tweaked SD card reader. While it seems that the ROG Ally X will retain its predecessor's SD card hardware, it has a different motherboard layout, with ASUS senior product manager Gabriel Meng adding:
We had to move things around the board to make them fit.
Supposedly, the switch from M.2 2230 to M.2 2280 SSDs necessitated motherboard re-workings, as did the inclusion of a larger battery. For context, our ROG Ally with a Ryzen Z1 Extreme lasted less than an hour on its 40 Wh battery when playing The Witcher 3 at Ultra graphics settings. Allegedly, the ROG Ally X could yield twice as long runtimes, although ASUS has not confirmed exact details yet. Nonetheless, ASUS SVP Shawn Yen claims:
We're not looking at 30 to 40 percent more capacity... We're looking at way more than that.
The ROG Ally X will be available with more than 16 GB of RAM too, likely 24 GB or 32 GB going off current standards. ASUS will fully reveal the ROG Ally X on June 2 during Computex 2024, aligning with VideoCardz's recent leak. Currently, it remains to be seen how much the ROG Ally X will cost. With that being said, ASUS has somewhat set expectations by informing The Verge that the device will 'start at a higher price than the original'.
![Microsoft wants to know if you would consider getting a new gaming handheld in the next five years (Image source: Logitech [edited])](fileadmin/_processed_/a/0/csm_Logitech-G-Cloud_808bc92419.jpg)
