Asus (sorta) announces the ROG Ally X: bigger battery, updated design, same performance as original ROG Ally

Asus has announced its next handheld gaming PC, but it's not quite the ROG Ally 2. The new handheld will be called the ROG Ally X, and it'll be a revised version of the original ROG Ally. We don't know everything about the new device just yet, but we do know this time it comes in black.

Asus employees Jake Kulinski and Whitson Gordon announced a few details during an extremely brief ROG stream.

"It's not a full redesign or a totally new generation," Gordon says. 

"Not everything is changing but there are significant improvements across the board," says Kulinksi. "The battery has been improved, and it's not a small battery improvement. Improvements to storage, RAM, ports and maybe other physical changes to the device itself."

Asus has been light on the details, for now. The company says we'll have to wait until June 2 for more, during a 'Special Announcement'. This, unlike today's teaser, will be a full reveal. 

Though that's not strictly true, as the company has spoken briefly to The Verge about the new device.

Besides a new black colourway, which Asus has reportedly confirmed, one of the headline features of the new ROG Ally X handheld will be a much improved battery life, said Asus employee Shawn Yen to The Verge's Sean Hollister. Though they won't elaborate on what exactly we can expect.

There are other hints at what's to come. Asus has said the ROG Ally X is likely to come with more RAM, a longer M.2 SSD slot (as we've seen on some other Windows-based handhelds) and redesigned joystick modules. It also says it'll be more easily repaired.

Speaking of which, Asus has reportedly moved the SD card slot, which led to a wave of returns with the original ROG Ally. The company doesn't much like to talk about it, and its communication on the matter has left a lot to be desired. Even today after a motherboard redesign, product manager Gabriel Meng said to The Verge: "We don't want people to think that's what we had to do."

On the software side, a new version of Armoury Crate is expected to launch in July 2024. This has some new tabs, navigation tools and will allow for users to share controller mapping profiles for the handheld, in a similar fashion to the Steam Deck.

Though the ROG Ally X will feature the same silicon as the ROG Ally: AMD's Z1 Extreme. It will also reportedly use the same screen, a 1080p 7-inch IPS.