In June 2023, Asus became the first major PC maker to offer some competition to Valve"s Steam Deck in the portable gaming PC market. The release of the Asus ROG Ally, with a seven-inch screen, a new Ryzen Z1 CPU, and Windows 11, got somewhat mixed reviews from critics, who liked the power of the portable PC to play games, but felt there were issues with using Windows 11, along with a fairly brief battery life.
This week, there"s word that Asus is already working on a second-generation version of the ROG Ally, and that it could launch sometime in 2024. The India-based website Techlusive got some quotes from Asus India Vice President Arnold Su during a press event to promote the launch of the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED laptop in that country.
According to the site, Su stated:
. . . we most likely will launch a second generation [handheld gaming console] this year. We will still keep the Windows features, but we will focus more on gaming.
The mention of keeping Windows, but focusing more on gaming, suggests that the next ROG Ally will perhaps have a more gaming-centric user interface that will run on top of Windows 11. Su did not offer any more info on the second-gen ROG Ally in terms of its hardware specs.
Su did say that the current ROG Ally has done well in India, stating " . . . we sold around 70,000 – 80,000 units" in that country.
Ever since the launch of the ROG Ally, we have seen other major PC makers jump into the portable gaming PC market, and using the Windows 11 OS. The Lenovo Legion Go launched in October 2023, with a bigger 8-inch screen and detachable controllers. Earlier this month, MSI officially revealed its Claw portable gaming PC, although we don"t have a release date yet for that device.