ASUS is set to reveal the successor of the ROG Ally at Computex next month, and it will be called the ROG Ally X. However, this won’t be a full-on overhaul of the gaming handheld, but more of an exercise in refinement.
Confirmation of the ROG Ally X was made on a ROG Global video on YouTube, hosted by Jake Kulinski and Whitson Gordon. The presenters make it clear that they weren’t going to be revealing a whole lot of specifics, and that it will be revealed on 2 June.
Here’s what we do know: as mentioned, the Ally X will be a refinement over the original Ally and will be rocking the same AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme SoC and 7-inch IPS VRR display and a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz.
One major update to the Ally X that ASUS is implementing is a larger battery, and one the brand says will not just be 30% or 40% bigger. Sawn Yen, ASUS SVP, tells The Verge that “We’re looking at way more than that.”
Other improvements with the Ally X include models that sport more than 16GB RAM, which we’re hoping means that an SKU with double the amount of memory will be available. It’ll also prove beneficial to the SoC – unlike discrete GPUs, processors with integrated graphics are dependent on the amount of RAM a system has to run efficiently. In very layman terms, more RAM equals a much happier gaming experience.
Another update ASUS is implementing with the Ally X is support for M.2 2280 SSDs, meaning that buyers can easily find and purchase SSD form factors that are larger, both in capacity and physical size, than the current M.2 2230 allows.
The one thing the short video doesn’t address is the cookout issue with the Ally’x microSD card slot. To date, ASUS still hasn’t owned up to the problem and in a conversation with The Verge, it says that it doesn’t believe it had any issues with the system overheating. What it has done with the Ally X is rearrange the motherboard and, hopefully, avert the issue.
On the software side, the Ally X will be launching with Armory Crate SE 1.5m which not only shows off a new look but only includes new features, such as allowing gamers to share their button mappings for various games with other Ally owners. Lastly, it also looks like we’ll be getting the console in an all-black theme, and not just white, if an earlier image of the alleged console is anything to go by.
