You can’t buy a Steam Deck in the United States right now, and it’s apparently because of the RAM crunch (drink). But if you want an alternative PC gaming handheld, Asus has the ROG Xbox Ally right over there… and today it’s $110 off the regular price. That brings it down to $489.99, $60 cheaper than the cheapest (current) Steam Deck, despite being considerably more powerful.
To be clear, this is the standard (white) ROG Xbox Ally, not the souped-up X variant. That means a quad-core Ryzen Z2 A processor, RDNA 2 graphics, 16GB of shared memory, and 512GB of storage. It also has a 7-inch, 108p IPS screen with 120Hz of refresh, considerably sharper and faster than the Steam Deck. The battery is also considerably chonkier at 60 watt-hours. It’s bigger and wider, with more comfy grips, but doesn’t slip into a bag quite so easily.
I’m not going to tell you that the ROG Xbox Ally is better than the Steam Deck… because it runs Windows 11. That brings advantages, notably wider compatibility, especially with online multiplayer. But it’s also pretty dang clunky, even with the dedicated Xbox Fullscreen Experience that debuted on the ROG Xbox Ally. Good thing you can use a little elbow grease to install SteamOS or something like Bazzite on there if you like, huh?
Amazon is running the current sale, with no indication of when it will end. Competitors like Best Buy and Walmart are also showing the discount (at $500), so look around for a bit if you can’t find it immediately.
Get an ROG Xbox Ally handheld gaming PC for $490