Asus ROG Ally: launching on June 13 for $699.99, pre-orders now open

Asus announced that its ROG Ally handheld gaming PC will be released on June 13, and you can pre-order one starting today. It’s launching with AMD’s new Z1 Extreme processor, and a 512 GB SSD for $699.99 — only $50 more than Valve’s most kitted-out Steam Deck. A less powerful version is coming for $599.99, but Asus hasn’t shared when that model will be available.

Following the ROG Ally’s slightly misguided debut on April Fool’s Day, of all days, we’ve learned a lot more about how the portable gaming PC will stack up against the Steam Deck, as well as other competing models. Is it worth the price? Check out Chris Plante’s full review to find out.

The pairing of its AMD Z1 Extreme processor and 16 GB of speedy LPDDR5 RAM seem capable of running PC games with fewer visual compromises than what we’ve become accustomed to on the Steam Deck (which itself is no slouch). Not to mention, its 1080p display is a higher resolution, and it doubles the refresh rate — up to 120Hz — for smoother-looking gameplay.

Notably, it has a proprietary slot where you can plug in one of Asus’ capable XG Mobile external GPUs, which is essentially a docking station that’s packed with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 and numerous ports. With that, the graphical bottlenecks will disappear. But in addition to being costly (well over $1,000), using it comes at the expense of portability. You’ll be strapped down by wires. If you want to learn more about how that works (warts and all), check out this video I did in 2022 over at The Verge.

All of that said, there’s a lot to be excited about. If you want to pre-order the ROG Ally, we have some info below that should be useful.

Where can I pre-order the Asus ROG Ally?

Best Buy is the sole retailer in the U.S. that is accepting pre-orders. You’ll be able to pre-order the $699.99 model online starting today. The Best Buy listing is live for the $599.99 model with the AMD Ryzen Z1 processor and 512 GB of storage, but it’s not currently available for pre-order. We’ll be keeping an eye out for links at other retailers.