We still have a couple of weeks to go before the retail launch of the Asus ROG Ally. While reviews for the handheld haven't been the best, it looks like the company is trying to salvage the console's reputation leading up to the launch, stating that things are being worked on behind the scenes that will bring significant improvements before it ends up in the hands of consumers.
Now, just to preface, the rollout of this product has been quite baffling. Before finalizing the product's hardware or software, Asus decided to seed review units to a number of large publications, and while the power was there, the console was panned for its poor battery life and abysmal software optimizations. As you might expect, those that had pre-orders became hesitant with all this news, and Galip Fu, who is the director of consumer and gaming PC brands at Asus has stated that around 10 percent of pre-orders were canceled as a result of the negative press.
The new information comes from an interview conducted by The Verge, and luckily, there's been a silver lining for Asus in getting units out early, as the team has been able to take in the feedback, go back and look into some of the problems and complaints seen in reviews posted online. As far as what kinds of changes are in store, Fu shares that the battery life on retail units of the ROG Ally will have a 10 to 20 percent increase thanks to "various software tweaks."
Another big change with the retail version will be the ability to turn off some of the console's AMD Z1 Extreme processor cores, which could be incredibly beneficial for games that don't require as much processing power. The interview sheds light on how the team initially focused too much on optimizing the handheld's power at 30W and 50W, and didn't really look into the device's performance in lower wattages. Hopefully, the new updates will really bring drastic changes, because there is a lot of competition.
But it looks like Asus is well aware, and in the interview, Fu states that the Steam Deck really excels in offering great performance in most battery scenarios and even declares that:
“We are all big fans of Valve and also Steam Deck because they are the centerpiece of the PC gaming industry. We’re trying to keep up for all the supporters we have of ROG Ally. We will not let them down.”
This is quite a big declaration from a company that's known to pump out new products annually. It's unclear what the roadmap is for the ROG Ally, but we've seen how excellent support from a company can really change a product. The Steam Deck is now a media darling, but when it first launched, the words towards the console were not so kind, with many criticizing the experience. Let's hope that Asus can really learn from Valve and provide a long and memorable experience for the ROG Ally.
Asus ROG Ally
- Dimensions
- 11.02 x 4.37 x 0.83-1.28 inches (280 x 111 x 21.2-32.4mm)
- Brand
- Asus
- Weight
- 1.34 pounds (608 grams)
- Chipset
- Up to AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme (8 cores, 16 threads)
- RAM
- 16GB LPDDR5
- Storage
- Up to 512GB SSD
The Asus ROG Ally is a handheld gaming PC that's seeking to be a major rival to Valve's Steam Deck. It runs on Windows and comes with AMD Ryzen Z1 processors. It also has a sharp Full HD display and a 120Hz refresh rate.