The Asus ROG Ally has taken its first price cut this week, well ahead of Black Friday's offers at the end of the month. The discount comes as part of Best Buy's early bird sale, and drops a full $80 off the price of the Z1 Extreme model. That's incredibly impressive - I was hoping for a saving on the handheld gaming PC in 2023 but thought it unlikely considering the market is still only just getting started.
Still, here we are and for $619.99 (was $699.99) the Asus ROG Ally could be yours. I've been using the Ally solidly for two months now, in between various gaming laptop reviews and it's completely changed how I make the most of my Epic library. Since those early days of my review, Asus has upped the Ally's game with more stable performance and plenty of power enhancement to boot. Now, this truly is a Nintendo Switch for the grown ups, with all the benefits of a Game Pass subscription. The 1080p screen absolutely glows in this smaller machine and in my many hours playing Arcade Paradise, Starfield, and Eastward under the covers until the early morning I've never experienced any discomfort from the form factor.
I would go so far as to say those shopping this year's Black Friday gaming laptop deals with a smaller budget this year should be taking note of this offer instead. What's more, Best Buy Plus or Total members can take this Asus ROG Ally deal even further, scoring an extra $20 off for a final $599.99 sale price.
Should you buy the Asus ROG Ally?
The Asus ROG Ally has become my new best friend, and outside of gaming laptop testing I rarely touch my personal laptop for gameplay these days. If you play light or medium games it's a delight to run, and even heavier games often don't pose a problem for the tech under the hood. I've been zipping through Starfield and even managed to get some Red Dead Redemption 2 gameplay going with settings slightly adjusted to boot. It's in lighter games where the battery, performance, and display of the Ally really shine; my time in Arcade Paradise, Eastward, and Jusant has been the highlight of my experience. The Ally delivers everything it promises - high quality PC gaming on the go - when in this arena.
Of course, there's the age old Asus ROG Ally vs Steam Deck question. The latter option does have better overall OS support for Steam (obviously), as well as those all important thumb pads. If you only play through Valve's library I would take the slight performance hit and opt for Steam's own device, but the Ally's flexibility across Epic, Game Pass and more are enough to sway my own personal recommendation Asus's way overall.
| Specs | Asus ROG Ally | Steam Deck |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme (Zen 4) | AMD Ryzen Zen 2 |
| Graphics | RDNA 3 | RDNA 2 |
| Display | 7-inch 1920 x 1080 (16:9), 120Hz, 500 nits | 7-inch 1280 x 800 (16:10), 60Hz , 400 nits |
| Storage | 512GB + UHS-II MicroSD slot | 64GB / 256GB / 512GB + UHS-I MicroSD slot |
| RAM | 16GB LPDDR5 | 16GB LPDDR5 |
| Controls | Asymmetrical Xbox style | Symmetrical, 2x trackpad |
| Programmability | 2x macro back paddles, thumbstick deadzone and sensitivity, trigger sensitivity | 4x macro back buttons |
| Audio | Dual front-facing speakers, virtual 5.1.2 surround sound, Dolby Atmos | Dual front-facing speakers, stereo |
| Weight | 608g | 669g |
| Extra features | Haptic feedback, Armoury Crate launcher and overlay, fingerprint unlock | Haptic feedback, thumb trackpads |
Of course, we're also getting you clued up on everything you can expect from this year's Black Friday gaming PC deals, as well all the Black Friday Nintendo Switch deals and Black Friday PS5 deals heading our way.
