All Details On ROG Ally Revealed: Price, Launch Date

ASUS’ ROG Ally, a handheld device similar to the Steam Deck that promises to play PC games on the go, was revealed in its entirety today. Embargos were lifted on reviews and the price of the thing was confirmed ($700) with a release date of June 13. The big question on everyone’s mind is if this is going to be a Steam Deck killer. Now that all the facts are laid out, our opinion is….the Deck doesn’t have much to worry about.

There are plenty of advantages the ROG Ally has over the Steam Deck. Its CPU is more powerful, it has Windows 11 built in, and it supports more than just Steam games. But there are just as many disadvantages too, and some of them may be dealbreakers for a lot of people. Let’s get into it…

NO TOUCHPAD: The Steam Deck has a nifty touchpad that gives you “mouse” control. This is an important element because a lot of PC games assume you have a mouse. The ROG Ally has no touchpad, and you’d presumably use one of the sticks for mouse control — which is less than ideal.

CAN’T SUSPEND A GAME: Who let this slip through? Contrary to every other contemporary handheld like the Deck and the Switch, you can’t suspend a game for later by simply switching off the power button. “Any time you want to stop playing for longer than a simple pause, you’ll need to save and quit out of your game entirely, and load up again fresh the next time you want to play,” reports IGN. It is crucial that a handheld possess the ability to account for interruptions. This alone makes us lean toward the Deck.

DOCK IS SUPER EXPENSIVE: There are ways to “dock” both the Steam Deck and the ROG Ally so that they can be played on a big display like a TV. And unlike the Deck, the Ally will get a performance boost from being docked. However…the dock is more expensive than the Ally itself (and the Ally is already expensive). Polygon reports the price of ASUS’ proprietary dock is over $1000. This is the most disappointing fact for this reporter, as docking the Steam Deck reveals its wimpy 800p resolution and the Ally can do 1080p easily. But at that price who is going to bother?

BATTERY LIFE IS LOWER: Everyone expected this one, but it’s still bad. IGN only got one to one-and-a-half hours out of the ROG Ally per charge…and they were playing FIFA. Imagine how quickly it’ll crap out on Elden Ring.

The ROG Ally may work out for some people, but its flaws are hard to ignore. We’ll keep the Deck around; it’s got its own flaws, but has advantages where it counts.