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ASUS ROG Ally release date, price, & specs announced

Yes, it's real. Here's everything we know about the ASUS ROG Ally release date and more

Updated: Jun 13, 2023 1:17 pm
ASUS ROG Ally release date, price, & specs announced

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That’s right folks, the ASUS ROG Ally release date is here, and yes, it’s real. Obviously, ASUS’ decision to announce it on April Fool’s Day was an interesting one, however, it’s shaped up to be a compelling device. A further official announcement on May 11th put an end to any speculation that was still going around. Now that we’ve reached June 13th, the ASUS ROG Ally is beginning to be shipped worldwide.

Obviously, the question on the lips of gamers the world over is how it fares against the Steam Deck and Ayaneo, so, let’s take a closer look at this entry to the handheld gaming pc market.

Now that the ASUS ROG Ally is officially confirmed, we can talk about the release date. Pre orders have been available for a while following it’s launch – so you can find out where to buy the ROG ally now! Those of you who are more concerned about performance before you place your order should check out our ASUS ROG Ally specs page.


ASUS ROG Ally handheld release date

Now, as per the typical card-guarding behavior characteristic of big tech companies, there were no confirmed details on first reveal. We got a lovely sizzle reel on the official ASUS ROG YouTube channel, but release date details were missing.

We expected to see much more about the release date on May 11th during the ASUS ROG Ally unveiling event, but it wasn’t exactly revealed. However – pre orders went live. Thanks to that, we can see that the ROG Ally will be arriving on June 13th 2023. This is confirmed on the official ASUS store, as well as other retailers such as Best Buy.

*OLD RUMORS BELOW*

Early on, we got the word of u/remy2fly on Reddit, which claims that they’ve been hands-on with the handheld.

In a post on the r/GamingLeaksAndRumours subreddit, They claimed around October in 2024, though we can’t be sure that what they say has any bearing whatsoever, as someone privy to leaking this sort of news wouldn’t release their sources. So, for now, this release date is simply a rumor, but it’s the only rumor that we’ve got so far, so we’re going to run with it, seasoned of course with at least 3 tbsp. of salt.

Despite the lack of concrete details, the fact that Dave2D had a video where he’s getting hands-on with the ASUS ROG Ally means that the final production version couldn’t be too far away, with probably only minor hardware revisions and tweaks left before the official ASUS ROG Ally release date. Of course, we’ll keep you updated as and when we know anything.


ASUS ROG Ally price announcement & availability

One of the most exciting developments in the ASUS ROG Ally release date saga was the the May 11th announcement. This outlined some of the key details we’ve been wondering about ever since it’s initial reveal. ASUS ROG ran the event on that date which will revealed the exact specifications, availability, and pricing.

The event took place on May 11th 2023 at 10AM ET (New York) / 3PM BST (London) / 10PM GMT+8 (Taipei). We didn’t know for sure whether that meant an exact release date would be revealed, but it was massively promising news. An event which we looked forward to and enjoyed thoroughly.

Among other details, it revealed the price of the ROG Ally, for both variants.

  • ASUS ROG Ally (Ryzen Z1 Processor): $599.99
  • ASUS ROG Ally (Ryzen Z1 Extreme Processor): $699.99
asus rog announce rog ally specs pricing 1

As for the availability, ASUS said that the ROG Ally will be launching globally. We’ve already seen listings in regions such as the US, Canada, and the UK. Retailers such as Amazon, Best Buy, and Currys included. The official ASUS ROG website reveals everywhere it will be available – across America, APAC, Europe, and the Middle East & Africa.

asus rog ally availability

ASUS ROG Ally set to release worldwide

Some breakout news which occurred prior to the May 11th reveal is that ASUS ROG officially announced that the ASUS ROG Ally release date is ‘soon’. This came from ASUS ROG over on their Twitter page but didn’t immediately reveal a date or specific timeframe.

For those of you in North America, you could even sign up for notifications over on Best Buy early, so we see why it may be released “sooner than you expect” as they mentioned in their announcement tweet. Those notifications have now tuned into pre-orders!

asus rog ally set to release worldwide soon

This exciting news left us waiting for a more concrete release date, which we expected to see extremely soon. As promised, we reported on any changes, including the official release date or any unfortunate pushbacks, which thankfully didn’t occur (so far).


Is the ROG Ally real?

Yes. For some reason, the guys over at ASUS ROG decided to drop the initial announcement on April 1st, which in many countries is April Fool’s day. This is a historically painful day for tech news writers as we regularly, mercilessly, and embarrassingly get totally punk’d by fake games, technology, and announcements.

is the rog ally real

However, ASUS ROG has clearly recognized the community’s understandable skepticism, taking to Twitter with @replies and actual official marketing imagery reaffirming the ASUS ROG Ally’s existence.

Annoyingly, what they haven’t affirmed, is the ASUS ROG Ally release date, leaving poor tech journalists like us to speculate, so, let’s do some of that.


ASUS ROG Ally performance and benchmarks

One of the key features of the Asus ROG Ally is a custom-designed AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip, which seems to be a modified version of the Phoenix-based Ryzen 7 7840U. Recently, a Geekbench listing has confirmed this and also provided a glimpse into its performance – Notebookcheck reports.

The specification breakdown for the ROG Ally reads as follows:

  • CPU: AMD Ryzen Z1 / AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme
  • DISPLAY: Full 1080p HD 120Hz Display (500 nits 7ms)
  • RAM: 16 GB LPDDR5 Dual Channel
  • STORAGE: M.2-2230 512 GB PCIe Gen4 (NVMe M.2 SSD)
  • WEIGHT: 608g
geekbench ROG Ally specifications and performance

The Geekbench listing shows that the Asus ROG Ally scores an impressive 35,498 in Geekbench’s OpenCL benchmark. Comparing it with other Radeon 780M GPUs, it appears to perform similarly. According to a prior leak, the handheld is expected to perform at the level of a GTX 1650 Max-Q, which puts it ahead of Valve’s Steam Deck and GPD’s similarly-spec’d competitors.

Furthermore, the listing also reveals that the Asus ROG Ally’s CPU boost clock is set at an impressive 5.0 GHz for a 15 Watt chip. However, running its FHD screen at 120 FPS will require maximum computing power. It will be interesting to see how AMD and Asus optimize the handheld for maximum performance. Lastly, the Geekbench listing confirms that the Asus ROG Ally is capable of running Windows 11 which will be an interesting deviation from the Steam-based Steamdeck, as we feel users are far more familiar with Windows.

Of course, with the ROG Ally running on Windows, it’s very possible that its capabilities will extend beyond pure gaming, you might have handheld access to other Microsoft features, but this is just speculation.

There have been some concerns early on regarding the battery life though, with some early hands-on reviewers reporting around just 4 hours of use. However, as The Verge reports, ASUS has been hard at work rectifying any current battery issues, claiming that there is an estimated 10-20 percent battery life improvement between then and the release model.


ASUS ROG Ally FAQs

We sympathize with those too busy to read the whole article, so here are a few frequently asked questions that you might find useful.

Was ASUS ROG Ally an April Fool’s joke?

No. Despite ASUS ROG’s interesting decision to announce it on April Fool’s day, it’s now been fully confirmed as an actual project, no fooling to be had.

Can I pre order the ASUS ROG Ally?

Yes, the ASUS ROG Ally is already available to pre order ahead of it’s release date. It is releasing worldwide and many big retailers are going to stock this gaming handheld.


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