It's not the first time this handheld has been on sale, nor is it the cheapest it's ever been — but if you're looking for a handheld Windows gaming machine on a budget, this might be an option for you.
Valve's impressive Steam Deck burst onto the scene and brought handheld Windows gaming machines into the spotlight, making these devices more mainstream and improving the ergonomics and power of handhelds. An early competitor to the Steam Deck, the 2023 Asus ROG Ally is now available for $399 at Best Buy. This is the lower-spec version of the Ally, featuring the AMD Ryzen Z1 processor with 6 cores / 12 threads.
Incorporating 512GB of storage for games and a nice, bright (1080p) 7-inch display, this handheld lets you play your favorite PC games on the go with its impressive battery life. This version of the ROG Ally is not as powerful as the Z1 Extreme version, and only features AMD 740M graphics as opposed to the 780M graphics of the Z1 Extreme — which is quite a difference in both gaming performance and also price. The current cost of the Asus ROG Ally Z1 Extreme is $699.
When hooked up to the mains, you can dock the Ally and turn it into a small multiplayer console — or even mini PC, thanks to the Windows OS. The Asus ROG Ally also has the ability to connect multiple controllers, and with a dock you could even connect it up to a monitor and a mouse if you so desired.
