The most expensive Steam Deck with 512GB of SSD storage is $650. The $700 Ally has the same amount of storage and 16GB RAM, but surpasses Valve’s device on a number of other fronts. They both have 7” inch screens, but where the Steam Deck is 1280 x 800 resolution at 60Hz, the Ally is 1920 x 1080 resolution at 120Hz. The Steam Deck has a Zen 2 processor compared to the Ally’s Zen 4, and an RDNA 2 graphics unit compared to an RDNA 3. Despite all of this, the Ally is somehow 61 grams lighter than the Steam Deck.

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While hands-on impressions among tech journalists have been generally positive so far, the one remaining question is whether all of these advantages will come at the cost of the Ally’s battery life. A PC gaming handheld isn’t much good if it loses juice inside of an hour, and given the specs for the apparent price, something’s gotta give somewhere, right? Even the Steam Deck is a power hog at higher settings with more demanding games.

The Asus ROG Ally Z1 and Z1 Extreme models will be revealed in full on May 11. In the meantime, the new arms race around handheld gaming just got real.

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