The Asus ROG Ally, powered by the AMD Ryzen Z1 chip, is now available for just $350 at Target this Black Friday, down from its original price of $500. This marks the lowest price yet for this handheld gaming PC.
On the other hand, the beefier ROG Ally Z1 Extreme is being offered at Best Buy for $500, slashed from $650. For members of My Best Buy Plus, this price drops further to $450. If you haven’t yet joined, it’s worth signing up. The membership costs $50 annually, essentially covering its own fee with this discount.
The standard ROG Ally comes equipped with a crisp 1080p display, AMD’s Ryzen Z1 processor, 16GB of LPDDR5 6400 RAM, and a 512GB NVMe SSD. If you need more storage, you can easily expand with a microSD card or replace the internal SSD. Notably, the WD Black SN770M 1TB and 2TB SSDs are also discounted at Best Buy, while the Corsair MP600 Core Mini 1TB SSD is a budget-friendly option available on Amazon for only $70.
Performance-wise, the ROG Ally is impressive for its price. It won’t handle graphically intense games at top settings, but many AAA titles run smoothly at 1080p and around 30fps. It’s amazing for older AAA games and indie titles that complement the handheld experience beautifully.
However, you might find Windows a bit clunky on a gaming handheld unless you hook it up with a traditional mouse and keyboard. Investing in a budget-friendly docking station is a wise choice, allowing you to use it like a desktop when tackling complex Windows tasks. Asus offers a 65W Charger Dock that includes USB-C, USB 2.0, and HDMI 2.0 ports for this purpose.
Asus’s Armoury Crate app provides a more console-like interface, easing the gaming experience once you’ve set things up on Windows.
The ROG Ally with the Z1 Extreme chip boasts an additional two CPU cores and enhanced GPU capabilities, ideal for newer, graphically intense games.
This Z1 Extreme chip is also featured in Asus’s latest ROG Ally X, which offers a noticeable performance boost with 24GB RAM, a 1TB SSD, improved battery life, and enhanced joysticks. However, these upgrades come at a cost, with the ROG Ally X priced at $800.
If the ROG Ally X piques your interest, keep in mind that Asus is launching a $900 version featuring a 2TB SSD on December 9.
