Asus announces the ROG Ally handheld, claims to have two times the performance of the Steam Deck
When it comes to announcing anything on April Fools' Day, it's usually a silly prank reveal of a fake product, since nearly everyone expects such on that day. However, on very rare occasions, those almost unbelievable reveals turn out to be real. That was the case with Asus's new handheld device, which was initially believed to be an April Fools' joke, but turned out to be something that will actually be launching in the near future. Called the ROG Ally, it's designed to be a Steam Deck competitor, running Windows 11 with the ability to play Game Pass titles, and will utilize an AMD Ryzen APU. In the initial trailer, uploaded on April 1st, Asus shows the Ally using a home screen that collects games across multiple launchers--specifically Game Pass and Steam, and can apparently natively run titles like Resident Evil: Village, High on Life, Ghostrunner, Dying Light 2, and more. Notably, it also appears to support docking to Asus' ROG XG eGPU. for better performance on your TV when docked.
A Best Buy store page is available, where you can register for notifications as to when the ROG Ally can be pre-ordered. Asus also offered an early production unit of the Ally to YouTuber Dave2D, who got hands-on time with the handheld. It is claimed that the Ally will have "two times the performance of the Steam Deck", with a 1080p screen that can output 120hz. Asus has not announced the price of the ROG Ally at this time.