If you missed the ASUS ROG Ally X launch this weekend, we’re here to catch you up. We’ve been anticipating a souped-up version of the original Ally for a while now, but ASUS has truly outdone itself with this hardware refresh.
The big news from the Ally X launch is the battery improvement. The Ally X sports an 80Wh battery, double the size of the original. That makes the Ally X’s battery the biggest on the market, significantly larger than other portable gaming consoles like the Steam Deck OLED’s 50Wh and the Lenovo Legion Go’s 49Wh equivalents. Considering our biggest gripe with the original Ally was battery life, this makes the ASUS console a much more attractive proposition.
The battery isn’t the only big enhancement for the Ally X, with the console offering an improved 24GB of LPDDR5X-7500 RAM to take the visuals to the next level while playing the latest AAA titles. There’s also more space for those games, with every Ally X shipping with a whopping 1TB of storage, and a refined cooling system that promises better thermal dissipation despite a smaller fan.
It’s not just hardware alterations with the Ally X, though. ASUS has opted for something of an ergonomic redesign, moving around some of the button placements and introducing new analog sticks that promise a longer lifespan. The console itself is also available in a fresh black colorway, which we have to admit is pretty snazzy, and has some slight build changes to make it more comfortable to hold for long play sessions.
If you want to secure an ASUS ROG Ally X for yourself, pre-orders are now available via the official ASUS site and Best Buy. If you’d rather wait it out and see some reviews first, the official release date is July 22, so we’re expecting to see some coverage before then telling us what to expect from the Ally refresh.
There you have it, all the key details you might have missed from the ASUS ROG Ally X launch. While you’re here, check out what else is on the market with our guide to the best Steam Deck alternatives. Or, if you’re feeling nostalgic, turn back the years with our guide to the best retro handhelds.