It seems the rumors around a new ROG Ally handheld are correct, as Asus has something up its sleeve for later today by way of an announcement.
VideoCardz, which previously highlighted rumors of the new gaming portable, reports that the next ROG Ally appears on a leaked Computex 2024 launch schedule (which includes products that will be unleashed before the event in June).
Furthermore, on the Asus ROG YouTube channel, there’s a stream set to go live in eight hours (at the time of writing) entitled: “The next ROG Ally is coming.”
Now, before you start getting excited about the appearance of the ROG Ally 2, it seems unlikely this would be a full-on sequel to the handheld. Rather, it’s expected to be a refreshed version of the current ROG Ally – and given that the current model is called the ROG Ally (2023), we’d expect this will be the ROG Ally (2024).
The updated ROG Ally will run with the same core components, but it is expected to change things up a bit. For starters – and perhaps most importantly – the problems with the SD card reader are fully fixed, and we’re getting some tweaks to the design of the portable too.
You can actually glimpse the refreshed ROG Ally in the image on YouTube for the announcement event (see below), and Asus appears to have tamed the angular lines, and gone for a more rounded chassis. As you can also see, it’ll be offered in a black color.
The other rumor swirling is that it might pack a bigger battery, to boot.
Analysis: A refreshing change
We’re expecting this to be more about fixing problems – including the notable issue of the SD Card reader unfortunately dying (which is much less common these days, going by reports) – than making massive changes.
That said, the tweaks to the design could be a major improvement in terms of ergonomics, and more battery longevity would be more than welcome, too. And the black color is likely to be a winner, as well.
As ever when a new version of a piece of hardware emerges, there may be those who recently committed and bought a ROG Ally (2023) who end up with buyer’s remorse, and wish they had waited for this new model. Particularly if the improvements made are more substantial than expected (we weren’t anticipating this refresh would do all that much, in all honesty – but it looks like it will).
The blurb of the stream tells us that it will involve getting “hyped about new impending ROG Ally hardware,” so while an announcement is certainly coming, it might be more along the lines of a teaser than a full reveal. Time will tell, and we don’t have long at all to wait to find out.
