Asus is preparing a new model of the ROG Ally PC handheld that promises to feature significantly better battery life than the original product.
In a Thursday live stream, the company offered a few details about the upcoming product, dubbed the ROG Ally X, which will be officially announced during a June 2 event.
"This is going to be more than just a basic refresh with one spec change," said Asus marketing manager Whitson Gordon. "It's not just, 'Oh, we changed the color, we added some more storage.' It’s a little bit more than that. But at the same time, it’s not a full redesign or a totally new generation. It's somewhere in between these two things.”
The forthcoming Ally X is meant for enthusiasts looking for "extra goodies," he added. “Almost everything we put into this is the result of the feedback you, the community, provided us over the last 12 months."
Although Asus kept the specs and look of the Ally X under wraps, the company did reveal that it will pack a substantial battery improvement, along with upgrades to the RAM, storage, ports, and possibly even the hardware design itself.
The battery life improvement could resolve one of our biggest complaints about the Ally. The device, which uses Windows 11, ran for 8 to 12 hours during our video playback tests. But while gaming, the ROG Ally ran out of energy in just one hour.
On the downside, the upcoming ROG Ally X will cost more, Asus told The Verge, even though the AMD CPU and screen will remain the same.
Currently, the ROG Ally with Z1 Extreme processor retails for $699 while the ROG Ally Z1 edition can be discounted to $399. Asus adds that it plans on keeping the original ROG Ally around once the Ally X launches later this year.