The cheaper $600 Asus ROG Ally is right here, and also you in all probability shouldn’t purchase it

For those who’ve been eying an Asus ROG Ally gaming handheld however can’t fairly justify the $700 price ticket… you’ll in all probability wish to carry on ready. At this time, the corporate has begun promoting a less-expensive $600 mannequin with a lower-performance AMD Z1 chip, however early evaluations recommend the Home windows gaming handheld is just too compromised to justify the acquisition.

Backside line: Z1 efficiency is reportedly worse than the $400-and-up Steam Deck, with none important battery life profit to make up for the lack of energy.

Temporary refresher: three months in the past, Asus started transport the ROG Ally, a Home windows gaming handheld designed to compete on value and efficiency with Valve’s Steam Deck. It had so much going for it, together with largely better-than-Deck efficiency, a superb 120Hz variable refresh charge display screen that makes the whole lot really feel smoother, a delightfully quiet fan, and a plugged-into-the-wall 30W Turbo mode that makes its Z1 Excessive chip much more potent.

However the handheld was held again by impotent software program that doesn’t make Home windows simple to make use of handheld, iffy battery life, a bizarre efficiency hole between transport units and the unique assessment items, and an SD card reader that tended (tends?) to burn out and continues to be below investigation.

Asus informed me in July that it might ship me the brand new $600 Z1 mannequin to check towards the unique Z1 Excessive, nevertheless it by no means did. Now, I see why: Digital Developments, Retro Sport Corps, and PC Magazine present it’s merely not an enchancment regardless of the additional cash in your pocket.

If Asus had despatched me one, I’d have appeared for the silver lining of battery life — maybe AMD’s weaker chip would get extra? However Retro Sport Corps, specifically, reveals that battery life is barely barely higher with weaker video games and will be comparable or worse with triple-A titles. When totally loaded, the Z1 Excessive may really be extra environment friendly.

None of that is sufficient to make the Z1 a nasty product; as you’ll see within the video above, there’s lots this technique can play moderately properly! And with my $700 Z1 Excessive assessment unit, I’m anecdotally discovering it’s a significantly better Starfield machine than the Steam Deck, notably for those who plug it into the wall.

However for those who’ve solely received $600 to spend, it appears fairly probably the Z1 ain’t it. And for those who’ve received $700, I positively wouldn’t trouble with it.

(Notice: The 512GB mannequin of the Steam Deck does technically retail for greater than the 512GB ROG Ally at $650 vs. $600, however the Steam Deck additionally begins at $400, and it’s simple to swap in a brand new drive your self — only one additional screw in comparison with my fan substitute video. Additionally, it’s on sale proper now.)