Skip to main content

If the leaked Asus ROG Ally price is real, the Steam Deck is in trouble

Since Asus announced its ROG Ally handheld, one question has dominated the conversation: how much will it cost? If a new leak is to be believed, the flagship model will come in at $700.

Best Buy, which seems to be exclusively handling distribution in the U.S., had a listing briefly go live for the ROG Ally. It shows a model with AMD’s Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor, 16GB of LPDDR5 memory, and 512GB of storage coming in at $700.

Best Buy product page leaked the price of the Asus ROG Ally. It will be priced at $699 dollars for the 16GB/512GB variant. pic.twitter.com/CbfERTkGT4

— Khumail Thakur (@wickedkhumz) April 27, 2023

The Steam Deck starts at $400, but if you want a reasonable amount of storage, you’ll spend $650 for the 512GB model. Asus claims the ROG Ally doubles the performance of the Steam Deck, so a $50 upcharge doesn’t seem unreasonable. We haven’t had the chance to get raw performance numbers, but our initial hands-on time with the ROG Ally shows performance far ahead of the Steam Deck.

It isn’t just one leaker claiming this price, either. SnoopyTech, a Twitter leaker who commonly leaks about mobile devices, confirmed the flagship model will run $700. In addition, leaker Roland Quandt confirmed the price to The Verge. 

As we commonly see with retailer listings leaking the price of upcoming products, there’s a chance this is just a placeholder. Given how many leakers are claiming the Z1 Extreme model will run $700, though, the price seems all but settled at this point.

Z1 processor for the Asus ROG Ally.
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

We don’t know the price of the base model yet, though. Asus has confirmed that in addition to the Ryzen Z1 Extreme model, the ROG Ally will also be available in a Ryzen Z1 configuration. This is a less powerful version of the Z1 Extreme, but it still comes with the same Zen 4 CPU architecture and RDNA 3 GPU architecture as the flagship chip.

Compared to the Steam Deck, the ROG Ally’s APU has much more powerful hardware. On paper, the Z1 Extreme offers 8.6 TFLOPs of GPU power, while the Steam Deck’s APU tops out at 1.6 TFLOPs. That’s just theoretical performance — the ROG Ally isn’t six times as fast as the Steam Deck — but it’s a good illustration of how much more powerful the ROG Ally’s APU really is.

Asus hasn’t confirmed pricing for the ROG Ally yet. The device is set to launch on May 11, when Asus says it will reveal final specs and pricing.

Editors' Recommendations

Jacob Roach
Senior Staff Writer, Computing
Jacob Roach is a writer covering computing and gaming at Digital Trends. After realizing Crysis wouldn't run on a laptop, he…
Returnal PC: best settings, ray tracing, Steam Deck, and more
returnal pc release date gameplay

After nearly two years of exclusivity to the PS5, Returnal is finally available on PC. After playing for a little less than a week, I'm here to provide the best graphics settings I've found, as well as a few suggestions for how you can get the most out of upscaling and ray tracing in the game.

Overall, it's a solid PC port with a ton of options. I encountered a few stutters and two hard crashes during testing, but that's fairly stable for a game released in 2023. Hopefully, the few lingering issues will be resolved with a patch once the game is fully released.
The best settings for Returnal PC

Read more
Why a gaming keyboard is my most anticipated CES 2023 product
Asus ROG Azoth gaming keyboard.

I won't pretend that gaming keyboards are exciting. We see them year after year with minimal changes, nearly all of which you can see in a product photo. My relationship with gaming keyboards completely changed when I built my own -- suddenly, nothing seemed even close. But Asus is challenging that position.

The ROG Azoth is an unassuming gaming keyboard, but it's a huge deal for the world of custom-built keyboards. Even after seeing AMD's Ryzen 9 7950X3D and Samsung's Odyssey OLED G9, Asus' lowly keyboard is my most anticipated product at CES 2023. Here's why.
Premium build, meet wireless

Read more
Steam Replay 2022: what it is and how to see it
steam replay 2022 how to see featured 2

Value introduced the Steam Replay recaps for the first time in 2022, following in the footsteps of year-end roundups like Spotify Wrapped and Reddit Recap. Steam Replay shows your hours played, your most played games, the achievements you've unlocked, and much more.

We're going to walk you through how to see your first Steam Replay in 2022. The recap is tied with Steam's Winter Sale, so you browse some of the games on sale after taking a look back at the year.
How to see your Steam Replay 2022

Read more