Gaming handheld ROG Ally X arrives on June 2 with a larger battery

Asus plans to unveil the new version of its gaming handheld "Ally" on June 2. It will not be called "Ally 2", as previously assumed, but "Ally X". According to the company, the changes are in response to requests made by previous users of the device.

As Asus has already confirmed in a YouTube video and in an interview with The Verge, the biggest innovation is a different battery. The short battery life of just over an hour in some cases when playing demanding games has been the biggest point of criticism since the Ally was launched a year ago. In a comparison of current gaming handhelds for PC titles by heise online, the Ally Z1 Extreme only lasted 58 minutes with Forza Horizon 5 at the highest performance level and a brightness of 200 cd/m³.

Standard SSDs and probably doubled battery life

The battery of the Ally X is expected to be significantly more than 30 or 40 percent larger. Asus also hinted at a roughly doubled battery life at The Verge. The rest of the inner workings will also be rebuilt: The RAM is to be larger than the previous 16 GB and the slot for M.2 SSDs will also accommodate 2280-format plug-ins, no longer just the previous 2230 SSDs. This increases the choice of mass storage devices for retrofitting. 2280 models in the usual format for notebooks and desktops are also usually cheaper than the short SSDs.

The display should remain unchanged, i.e. at 7 inches and with a variable refresh rate of 48 to 120 Hertz, which can also be set in the software to extend the battery life, for example. At most, the Ally X will be faster due to possibly more RAM. The SoC remains unchanged with the AMD Z1 - it is not yet known whether there will be different models with Z1 and the faster Z1 Extreme as before.

New, tidy interface

There are also no pictures of the device itself yet. However, it is likely to be heavier due to the larger battery. However, Asus states that the new Ally should be easier to repair, for example by allowing the joysticks to be replaced. This should also open up a market for third-party suppliers. Asus may also retain the previous housing, perhaps with changes to the connections and air vents, as there was still a lot of air built into the current Ally.

What the company has already shown, however, is a new, much cleaner interface called "Armory Crate SE 1.5". The games can also be sorted according to the respective platform, such as Steam or GOG, and uninstallation can be triggered directly via these launchers. The default settings for the games are also easier to manage. This is particularly important for handheld games to optimize the settings for performance and runtime per title - Steam provides default settings for the Ally's main competitor, the Steam Deck.

While the Steam Deck runs under the Linux version SteamOS, Asus wants to stick with Windows in the long term. This increases compatibility, but requires constant further development for the device-specific interfaces such as the Armory Crate. In addition to the thicker battery, this is likely to be the main focus of the presentation.

(nie)