One year ago, Asus announced it was entering the portable gaming PC market with the Asus ROG Ally. The Windows 11-based product had a seven-inch screen and was the first PC to have AMD"s Ryzen Z1 Extreme CPU that was made for devices like the ROG Ally.
Today, The Verge reports Asus will release an upgraded version of the ROG Ally later this year. It will be called the Asus ROG Ally X and it will have the same sized screen and the same Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip inside. However, there seem to be enough changes that even owners of the first ROG Ally might want to get this new version.
The report says that the biggest change is a bigger battery inside the ROG Ally X. Specifics were not revealed, but Asus SVP Shawn Yen is quoted as saying, "We’re not looking at 30 to 40 percent more capacity . . . We’re looking at way more than that.”
The poor battery life of the original ROG Ally was perhaps the biggest issue reviewers had with that device. While the battery on the ROG Ally X will be bigger, it will also cause it to be heavier than the original.
Other changes for the ROG Ally X include an unknown larger amount of RAM than the 16GB of RAM in the first ROG Ally. It will also support M.2 2280 SSDs for expanding its storage, rather than the smaller and harder-to-find M.2 2230 SSDs. The ROG Ally X will also have joystick modules that can be switched out and upgraded.
All of that will cause the ROG Ally X to cost more than the original ROG Ally did when it launched for $699.99. The exact pricing details have yet to be revealed. The original ROG Ally will continue to be sold and may get a price cut.