Shortly after Steam announced a temporary price cut for all Steam Deck models, ASUS released the cheaper version of its ROG Ally portable device. Although they presented this model, with a less powerful AMD Phoenix APU processor, last Junethe market launch was already scheduled for the end of the third quarter of 2023, so it is a nice coincidence and nothing more.
At the moment the launch has taken place in the USA, where it is already possible to find the “affordable” ROG Ally shipping, or available for pre-order, depending on the region and retailer. As far as European soil is concerned, the roll-out is already underwaywith some countries such as France presenting this new model already available for pre-order and delivery to customers scheduled for September 22nd.
The ROG Ally RC71L-Z1512 is powered by the processor Ryzen Z1, featuring a 6-core Zen4/Zen4c APU and 4 RDNA3 compute units. This represents a significant reduction in GPU performance compared to the Ryzen Z1 Extreme with 8 Zen4 cores and 12 RDNA3 CUs.
However, this comes at a lower price of $100/€100. It’s important to note that both consoles come with 512GB of storage and, at the moment, there is no news on the availability of 256 GB or 1 TB models.
ROG Ally consoles boast a 7-inch screen with a 120Hz refresh rate and 1080p resolution. Being based on AMD hardware, they offer support for AMD FreeSync Premium, as well as FSR (FidelityFX) and RSR (Radeon) Super Resolution technologies. The platform is equipped with 16 GB of LPDDR5-6400 memory, which cannot be expanded manually. At the moment, ASUS does not offer higher memory options but allows users, without breaking the warranty, to replace the 2030 SSD inside.
Similarly to the Ryzen Z1 Extreme variant, the Z1 model also supports XG Mobile external GPU support. This proprietary connector can be used with external graphics cards provided by ASUS. However, it could be a valid choice for those looking for a hybrid solution that is close to a gaming PC.
