ROG Ally X: ASUS next-gen handheld gaming console set to launch on June 2

ASUS confirmed that the ROG Ally X hand-held gaming console will feature a new design and get a substantially larger battery pack compared to the on-going model

ASUS has announced that it will launch the ROG Ally X hand-held gaming console on June 2. Like the ROG Ally, the Taiwanese electronics maker confirmed, the X edition will be based on Windows 11 platform, powered by AMD Z1 Extreme chipset. Moreover, ASUS confirmed that the gaming console will sport a 7-inch LCD display of 120Hz refresh rate and will be offered in black colour. Soon after the launch date announcement, ASUS held an interview with US-based consumer technology news platform The Verge where it shared details about the device.

ASUS ROG Ally X: Details

ASUS senior vice president, Shawn Yen, in an interview with The Verge, said that the ROG Ally X will pack a substantially larger battery pack into a newly designed shell. “We’re not looking at 30 to 40 per cent more capacity, we’re looking at way more than that,” Yen said. According to Yen, an improved battery life was the most requested upgrade from the community and even though the first generation ROG Ally had room for a larger battery, the company opted for a lighter construction.

ASUS senior product manager, Gabriel Meng told the media outlet that the company has added more ports for more connectivity options on the ASUS ROG Ally X.

“We think about battery and storage, graphics and memory, ports... our goal is to fit as many of those as possible into a device like this,” Meng said to The Verge.

While they did not confirm any specifications, The Verge reported that the ROG Ally X will likely have more than 16GB RAM where the current generation models caps at. The handheld gaming console will also get a longer M.2 2280 SSD slot, so customers can fit larger SSD upgrades than the M.2 2230 SSD slot on the current generation model allows. The report also stated that the improvements on the ASUS ROG Ally X will increase the cost of the device.

Meng said that the company believes in the Windows platform for a handheld gaming console, however, “We are very open-minded to looking at other solutions.” He also said that the company has had discussions with Valve, makers of the Steam Deck handheld gaming console which runs on the company’s own SteamOS platform.