Accessories
Asus

Asus ROG Ally X review

Big gains, small wins

₹ 89,900

The Asus ROG Ally X could be called the final version of the initial product. The Ally X has pretty much fixed everything that was bothersome about the original Asus ROG Ally without bumping up the processor or the display to keep the price down. It’s not entirely a new device altogether but with a bigger battery, better ergonomics and useful I/O ports, the ROG Ally X is what the ROG Ally should’ve been from the start.

Design

There are some major changes to the chassis. Firstly, the bottom ends don’t dig into your palms. It has a softer curve around the edges and the two macro keys at the back are now smaller so you don’t accidentally press them. The bumper and the triggers are bigger as well. And there are more vents for air intake while the overall heatpipes have been reduced to shed some weight. Does it overheat? Absolutely not because there are more fan blades here than an appliance store.

The overall thickness of the device has increased as well. It’s thicker and meatier because the battery size has doubled! There’s an 80 Whr battery in the Ally X unlike the 40Whr on the Asus ROG Ally. This immediately gives you more playtime with the handheld without visiting the charger. Is it heavier? Slightly. The weight has gone up from 608g to 678g which is barely going to twist your wrists while playing.

New updates

The screen and processor remain the same so what else is new about the ROG Ally X? For starters the ROG XG Mobile Interface is gone and instead you get a Thunderbolt 4 Type-C port and another 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port. Internally there’s more RAM and it’s faster too. The Asus ROG Ally X comes with 24GB LPDDR5X running at 7500MHz speed. Storage has also been bumped up to 1TB and you can upgrade it using a full size M.2 2280 SSD. The joysticks are also new and rated for higher usage meanwhile the face buttons are clicky and rise slightly higher than before. Asus has gone with small tweaks here and there for quality of life changes. I especially like the D-Pad button which is fantastic for fighter games like Takken 8, Street Fighter 6 and Dragon Ball Z. The vibration motor has also been improved.

The infamous SDcard slot has also been moved and should not have the issue that plagued the earlier iterations of the ROG Ally. We didn’t get enough time during our review period to debug the new SDcard slot but if you’re a wee bit concerned it’s better to double check for your warranty with the local store before picking it up.

Asus has also added a small optical sensor inside the ROG Ally X which prevents the system booting up and shuts it down if it is still on when you open the rear panel. It’s a thoughtful addition that encourages DIY upgrades and maintenance.

Performance

The Asus ROG Ally X is straight up a battery champ when it comes to handheld gaming. That 80 Whr battery is a serious upgrade that makes the Asus ROG Ally a totally powerbank-free experience when you’re on the go. I am talking about a 4 hour Delhi flight (with delays), fuss-free gaming. In terms of performance, the ROG Ally X marginally beats our Lenovo Legion Go by a few frames. That 24GB RAM isn’t a huge improvement for the shared VRAM on the AMD SoC but it can sustain slightly better gaming performance. We were getting consistent 30FPS in Ghost of Tsushima at 25W and 35FPS on the Lenovo Legion Go at 30W. It’s important to note that the smaller battery on the Lenovo can do 30W performance and the ROG Ally X needs a power source to push 30W performance. It can only do 25W on battery which is fine by us but it’s in these wattage changes where the frame rate changes.

We played Dave the Diver at 13W for two and half hours and the battery only dropped by 30% which is incredible for a handheld gaming PC. Even Hi-Fi Rush runs really, really well at 720p and the Asus ROG Ally X lasted us a full flight from Mumbai to Delhi and some more in the cab as well. It maintains a steady frame rate and looks pretty as well. Obviously, we missed Lenovo's big 2K display but the Ally X feels like a solid and practical handheld PC to daily driver everywhere. It’s not as big when it sits in your bag and the battery life has seriously improved. Frame rates are more or less the same as before in my opinion. A wee bit of 8 to 10% improvement in performance might not drop as a shocker. For emulation and indie games, this is a marathoner.

Verdict

If you want to read about the software and display, we have covered that thoroughly in the Asus ROG Ally review. Since much of the performance remains unchanged, we suggest you read that as well.

Asus has even fixed the audio and increased the charging speed to 100W. This was one of the two things we wanted from the original Ally. While the Ally X improved upon the Ally in meaningful ways, the base performance will not tempt you. What will tempt you is the phenomenal battery life.

Stuff Says

More battery life than before and some quality life of improvements make the Ally X it a serious contender in the PC handheld space
Good stuff
Bad stuff
  1. Big battery

  1. Great performance

  1. Thunderbolt 4

  1. Better sticks and buttons

  1. Expensive

  1. Fingerprint sensor doesn’t work half the time

  1. No carry case in the box