Elevating Portable Gaming: The ASUS ROG Ally X Sets a New Benchmark

As a leader in the portable gaming revolution, ASUS has been creating experiences that are powerful yet portable. By keeping this ethos in mind for the ASUS ROG Ally X, they have both improved upon their first entry into this space, and have also set a new baseline for where gaming handhelds can go. Here’s how the ASUS ROG Ally X is raising the bar for gaming.

The Evolution of the ASUS ROG Ally

The ASUS ROG Ally always had a narrow niche – it couldn’t be the ultimate mobile gaming powerhouse because of its tiny size. It was too big to be the ultimate mobile companion, but unlike a laptop it didn’t have a keyboard. The new ROG Ally X breaks apart from the original in loosening all of these constraints.

What’s New with the ASUS ROG Ally X?

The ASUS ROG Ally X’s interior is structured around the same Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip and the same 7-inch 120Hz LCD screen that powered its predecessor, but almost everything else is new and improved.

Enhanced Power and Performance

Battery life has been doubled to 80Wh and a 1TB M.2 SSD adds storage capacity. The memory has been doubled too, now to 24GB of lightning-fast LPDDR5X 75000 RAM. A new fan system cooling the X has been shrunk and made a lot more efficient, too.

Design and Ergonomics Refined

A new black shell with better (more ergonomic) grips and a more-refined button layout adds to the slickness-ratio that we’d expect from a dedicated handheld gaming system, while a new precision D-Pad and a sturdier implementation of the joysticks make the buttons feel more responsive. The rear paddles are also smaller, making it less likely to press them on accident. Perhaps most importantly, the system has added a second USB-C port with a cable that supports USB 4 and Thunderbolt 4. This means it will be straightforward to plug in supported external GPUs or utilize more peripherals all at the same time.

Why ASUS ROG Ally X Is the Handheld Every Gamer Wants

Beyond the technical improvements, it addresses many of the most pressing desirabilities of the portable gaming space: a longer battery life; greater comfort; and better versatility, by allowing it to transform from a potent console into a desktop-bound computer.

Setting New Benchmarks

We can see ASUS’s forward-thinking iterative approach at work here. There are two crucial ways in which the ROG Ally X refines the approach of the Steam Deck and answers questions that sceptics have raised about that device. The first is the addition of one more (genuine) USB-C port. This isn’t the peripheral pass-through facility that some ‘dockable’ Switch clones offer, which only allows power input. No, this USB-C port adds a new dimension to the ROG Ally X’s potential applications. Though it still allows for easy and elegant charging, it also means that, arguably for the first time ever on a gaming-focused Android handheld, you can have a device that folds up and fits in your pocket, but can plug into a monitor, keyboard and mouse, so you can do your typing and video editing in docked mode, for example. In other words, you start to see the beginnings of possibilities for repurposing a three-digit machine.

The Price of Progress

Perhaps surprisingly, in return for these and many other upgrades, the ASUS ROG Ally X is being sold not for a small fortune, but for a relatively reasonable $800 – only $100 more than its predecessor. In fact, by bringing premium gaming experiences into the mainstream, it feels like ASUS is hedging its bets.

Looking to the Future

Meanwhile, as rivals play catch-up, the ASUS ROG Ally X cements the brand’s leadership in the PC gaming handheld space with a first-mover edge. The ASUS ROG Ally X gives us a whiff of what portable gaming could be for years to come.

About ASUS

ASUS is one of the leading original design manufacturers in the world, with products ranging from high-end motherboards and graphics cards, to laptops, monitors and more. With products that encourage us to push the boundaries of technology and design, ASUS is a force to be reckoned with.