When the Asus ROG Ally’s pricing was confirmed to be under $1,000, it still had a lot of us nervous. After all, there’s a lot of space between the Steam Deck’s highest price of $649 and $1,000, and the ROG Ally falling too far towards $1,000 may well kill off the fledgling portable PC before it had a chance to shine. Well, the price for the Asus ROG Ally has just leaked through U.S. retailer Best Buy, and it’s just $700.
That price isn’t for the base version of the new console either — it’s for the variant with the AMD Z1 Extreme processor, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage, i.e., the top tier option. That’s just $50 more than the top Steam Deck, and with the gulf in specs between the Steam Deck and the Asus console being quite wide, that’s sure to make Valve very nervous indeed.
The Asus ROG Ally already had something of an advantage over the Steam Deck already, after the specs were shown to be considerably above that of Valve’s machine. The Z1 Extreme model pictured in the leak from Best Buy is more or less equivalent to an AMD Radeon RX 6600, which means it should be capable of fully 1080p gaming on a portable machine. That’s way beyond what the Steam Deck is capable of.
Of course, the price isn’t everything, and this won’t be the last hurdle Asus has to clear before it’s able to claim victory in this emerging market. The final reviews will be of paramount importance to the device’s success, with particular emphasis on the performance, how well Windows 11 works, and how long the battery life lasts. After all, it’s no use having better performance than the Steam Deck if the battery only lasts an hour.
How likely is this leak to be true? Well, all leaks should be approached with an element of caution, as details can always be subject to change before the final launch date. However, the launch of the Asus ROG Ally is due on May 11, and the official U.S. retailer is Best Buy, so with time coming up and the retailer fitting, it may be that this leak is fully accurate. It’s also worth keeping in mind that the base AMD Z1-equipped Ally will likely be even cheaper, making it a true competitor for the Steam Deck. Either way, we can’t wait until May 11 to find out.