Hands-on: Asus ROG Ally X: An impressive range of community-inspired improvements

The existence of the Asus ROG Ally X has been known for a while now, but now it has been officially revealed in full. Now that the cat is completely out of the bag, we know what its specifications are, as well as its price and launch date.

But how does it measure up in terms of performance, build quality, and more? I was able to briefly get my hands on the PC gaming handheld and try it out a bit, to see if it really seemed like a new model worth releasing. Fortunately, there are many quality of life changes, both outside and under the hood, that justify its existence.

Asus ROG Ally X: price and availability

The Asus ROG Ally

Currently, it is available for pre-order exclusively through Best Buy in the US and Curry’s in the UK at a retail price of $799.99 / £799. In Australia, you can pre-order it from JB Hi-Fi for AU$1,599. The price of the ROG Ally X is a bit higher than the original model, although the latter is still available for purchase and cheaper than ever.

Asus ROG Ally X: specifications

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broken PC gaming handheld on white table — (Image credit: Future)

Here are the Asus ROG Ally X specifications at a glance.

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Asus ROG Ally X specifications
Component	Specification
Display	7-inch FHD (1920 x 1080), 120Hz, 500 nits display
CPU	AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme
Chart	AMD Radeon Graphics
RAM	24 GB LPDDR5X-7500
Storage	1TB M.2 2280 SSD
Port selection	2 USB Type-C ports, 1 combo jack, 1 SD card reader slot
Weight	678g
Dimensions	280.2 x 114 x 36.9 mm (LxDxH)

Asus ROG Ally X: design

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PC gaming handheld on white table — (Image credit: Future)

There have been several changes to the design of the Asus ROG Ally Original ROG Ally for upgrades.

The chassis has been enlarged, allowing more space for an upgraded motherboard, more memory and storage, and a larger battery, among other changes. The larger chassis makes it much better suited to people with larger hands, especially since the button layout has also been adjusted to prevent accidental presses.

The joysticks have been completely redesigned to be more rigid and with 5 million rotation cycles, and just by testing them on a few games I immediately felt the difference. They’re also larger and the rubber grip is more comfortable, perfect for longer gaming sessions that leave your hands sweaty. Its D-pad is more precise and simply better designed, making menu navigation in and out of games much easier.

Internally, the larger chassis means the fans are superior: although they are smaller, they expel more hot air. As a result, the vents no longer expel extremely hot air from above when you reach for the upper controls. This also means Asus was able to update the components, taking a page from all those DIY videos showing buyers modifying for the same reason. This also means you can add upgrades more easily without ripping out the entire outer casing.

Asus ROG Ally X: performance

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While I wasn’t able to run proper benchmarks to test exactly what the Asus ROG Ally X is capable of, gaming performance is still as smooth and almost as stutter-free as before. The processor hasn’t been upgraded for this model, nor has the screen, which means it’s more or less the same experience.

The difference, however, is how all of these design improvements improve the gaming experience. The joysticks and D-pad make navigating game worlds much smoother, and the adjusted button layout, coupled with the slightly larger system, eliminates all the frustration of accidental presses and too small a chassis that the original system had.

Having more RAM to work with is a boon for the more intensive AAA titles that the ROG Ally sometimes struggled with, and the included storage is the perfect amount for installing an entire library of the best PC games.

Another potentially game-changing improvement is battery life, as the capacity has been doubled to 80Wh. We’ll have to test and see, but if the ROG Ally X could last six hours or more, that alone would be the best reason to invest in this system since even the Steam Deck can’t do it.

It will be interesting to see how much the improved specs affect performance, which we’ll test once we get our hands on the PC gaming handheld and try it out in more depth ourselves.

Asus ROG Ally X: first verdict

PC gaming handheld on white table

(Image credit: Future)

So far, the Asus ROG Ally X looks quite promising. While it only serves as a bridge for the eventual ROG Ally 2, it features tons of quality-of-life changes and improvements that address almost every issue buyers of the original ROG Ally had. For those looking for a new PC gaming handheld other than the Steam Deck, this could really be a contender for a true Steam Deck rival.

However, the only downside that might hold it back is that the processor hasn’t been updated, meaning performance probably won’t change too much from the original. And with the price of this model dropping while the ROG Ally X starts off quite expensive, this could end up being a major deciding factor in its success.