A number of leaks have apparently confirmed the pricing of Asus’s upcoming handheld gaming console, the ROG Ally – or a minimum of, one model of it. And it seems like excellent news for these of us who’ve been wanting ahead to its arrival.
In accordance with a leaked Finest Purchase retailer screenshot from @wickedkhumz, a tweet from recognized {hardware} leaker @_snoopytech_, and one other separate declare made by ‘retail intelligence’ leaker Roland Quandt, the worth of the ROG Ally will likely be $699.99 – and that’s particularly for the high-end mannequin, which packs an AMD Ryzen Z1 Excessive processor, 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and a 512GB SSD.
Whereas we don’t know what cheaper fashions of the Ally will appear like but (it’s at present wanting like we’ll get a minimum of one different model, presumably with the usual Ryzen Z1 chip and 256GB of storage), that is some critically aggressive pricing.
Finest Purchase product web page leaked the worth of the Asus ROG Ally. It will likely be priced at $699 {dollars} for the 16GB/512GB variant. pic.twitter.com/CbfERTkGT4April 27, 2023
Wanting on the Steam Deck, the Ally’s essential competitor within the handheld PC gaming house, the high-end mannequin (with comparable storage however a much less highly effective AMD processor) prices $649 within the US. That further fifty {dollars} nets you an entire lot extra gaming efficiency, if AMD’s pre-launch statistics in regards to the Z1 and Z1 Excessive APUs show to be correct.
Naturally, since this can be a leak, warning is suggested. However with a number of sources corroborating the identical price ticket, I really feel fairly assured that’s the checklist worth we’re going to see when the Ally launches – and the leaked Finest Purchase screenshot means that it might be with us fairly quickly, because it lists a launch date of June 13.
A revolution for the hand held gaming house?
The most affordable Steam Deck (which solely has a measly 64GB of slower eMMC storage) will price you $349, so it’s honest to say that handheld PC gaming consoles nonetheless aren’t precisely accessible. The cheaper handheld console you should purchase proper now is definitely the Nintendo Change Lite, which prices $199.99 / £199.99 – however that’s a console operating six-year-old {hardware}, and also you’re restricted to Nintendo’s catalog of video games.
If Asus can present a sub-$500 worth for the Z1 mannequin of the ROG Ally, I’ll be intrigued; positive, it’ll nonetheless be costly, however the efficiency soar from the Steam Deck needs to be spectacular – and that opens up the sector for extra nice handhelds within the close to future.
Nintendo, Valve, and smaller firms like AyaNeo might want to step up their recreation in the event that they need to compete with Asus’s new handheld – which is sweet information for AMD, because it makes the APUs that energy all of those gadgets.
The Z1 chips might be precisely the kick within the pants the hand held gaming business must get again on its ft: ever because the enchancment of telephones as viable gaming platforms, the house has develop into somewhat desolate. With Asus placing up some critically good pricing and a high-quality console – judging by our hands-on evaluate – we will in all probability count on different producers to strike again later this 12 months.
So, Steam Deck 2? Nintendo Change 2? AyaNeo 3? All fairly seemingly. Hell, maybe we’ll even see Sony resolve to throw its hat again into the ring with a brand new PlayStation Moveable. Please, Sony. I’ll provide you with my firstborn youngster for a type of.