Initial verdict: Other than a black color option, ASUS made subtle improvements on the ROG Ally X, with the biggest improvement being the substantially bigger battery to make it last longer for playing games. 

Pros

• Substantially bigger battery
• More practical USB-C 4.0 port over XG Mobile Port

Cons

• Still the same processor and display
• Heavier than its predecessor

We’re kicking off our COMPUTEX 2024 coverage with ASUS officially unveiling the ROG Ally X. The much-awaited successor to last year’s ROG Ally is now in black and now packs a significantly larger battery to address one of the OG Ally’s biggest pain points. We were able to get our hands on the Ally X at ASUS’ headquarters in Taiwan for our first impressions:

ROG Ally X Hands-On Philippines: Design

Aside from being black this time, there’s barely any changes in the overall design language of the Ally X. It is slightly heavier because of the beefier battery that ASUS packed inside, and ASUS made subtle tweaks to the ergonomics to make it easier to handle even for longer gaming sessions. The revamped ergonomics include smaller M-keys at the back of the Ally X for less accidental touches and better reach for both the joysticks and the side triggers.

ASUS also improved the d-pad on the Ally X to be more precise, while the joysticks now have a better overall durability of 5 million cycles.

ASUS made a major tweak with the Ally X’s ports: insead of the XG Mobile port, ASUS decided to replace it with a USB-C 4.0 port, which we think it’s a more practical approach. The shift to a USB-C 4.0 port means that you can connect more peripherals with the Ally X–on top of still being able to hook up an external GPU.

 

ROG Ally X Hands-On Philippines: Display

ASUS went for the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach with the Ally X’s display, where you get the same 7-inch Full HD IPS panel with a 120hz refresh rate and an 16:9 aspect ratio. Just like our experience with the OG Ally, the Ally X has a display that’s great for playing games–though browsing around it with its Windows 11 interface can be a challenge at times.

 

ROG Ally X Hands-On Philippines: Internals and Battery

While the Ally X uses the same Ryzen Z1 Extreme like the OG Ally, you are getting more RAM and storage at 24GB and 1TB respectively. The Ally X now uses the faster 7500Mhz variety, while the storage uses a more familiar M.2 2280 form factor. We’re not expecting any performance improvements on the Ally X, but the faster RAM used can translate to faster load times.

The biggest improvement with the Ally X is the battery, where ASUS managed to double the capacity to 80wH. We still have to do our tests with how big the improvement in battery life is the Ally X compared to the OG Ally, but were expecting at least 2 hours longer battery life with this setup.

 

ROG Ally X Hands-On Philippines: Wrap-up and Conclusions

While the Ally X feels more like an incremental upgrade over last year’s OG Ally, upgrades in the battery and port selection are among the biggest reasons why you should consider getting this instead of its predecessor.

The global pricing of the Ally X is $799 or around Php 47k when converted. That translates to around a Php 3k increase from the OG Ally, which is a fair asking price considering that you’re getting more RAM, double the storage, and a significantly bigger battery.