This is a TLDR of the ROG Pulse Q&A. This is only part 1, Part 2 is here if you want to check it out! Please note this is a TLDR and not their full responses, Some things may be paraphrased and some things might not have been translated correctly so please keep this in mind. You’ll find their pulse video at the end of this post.
Jake kulinski
- Which countries will receive the Rog? Ally X and when?
Whitson Gordon
- I don’t have a list at the moment of all the release dates. The Rog Ally X should be available in every country that had the original Ally Plus actually a few more.
- As for the release date in your country, There is a global launch date July 22nd. Some countries sometimes put it a little bit later. Check the Asus site for your region, or the retailers in your region.
Jake kulinski
- Why didn’t Asus put an OLED in the Ally? X
Whitson Gordon
- This is kind of a long answer so bear with me. Our team felt that once we upgrade something as big and important as the display, you’re kind of talking about a next generation. You’re talking about an ally 2 which we also feel should include a chip upgrade which aren’t ready yet. We’ll talk about that in a bit. That’s just how we feel for 2024. A lot of the handheld OLED panels that you’ll find out there right now are, for example less bright. They’re also also less power efficient, consume more power than a typical LED and that means less battery life. The biggest downside which I’ve talked about before is that right now these mobile OLED panels don’t have variable refresh rate or vrr and the freesync premium that’s on the original. Ally VRR is one of its biggest advantages versus other handhelds, we just couldn’t get that up now. Obviously Rog has invested heavily into OLEDs on the desktop side and recently on the laptop side as well. Yeah, we did make vrr work on our OLED laptops where where it had never been before but the cost equation comes in. We talked a lot about this in the previous stream. You’re going to hear me talk about it a lot again today. The OLED panels that we’re seeing at this size they either have too many sacrifices like I mentioned, but if you’re talking about OLED panels like we have on phones, they end up just way too expensive
Jake kulinski
- Why does it still have bezels?
Whitson Gordon
- Removing the bezels and making the screen larger would have been a much more intense change to the device as a whole. “It’s a very expensive solution” It would have made it a whole new generation of device with a significantly higher price tag.
Whitson Gordon
- Is the hard case an upcoming product or is it part of a bundle?
- Right now it’s sold separately
- Is there a pre-order for the hard case?
- The hard case was slightly delayed. It will probably be available a couple of weeks after the Ally X at least in the US.
Whitson Gordon
- Is there a trade-in program?
- So I’ve seen some questions about this. I don’t have a ton of information on this at the moment most of that again falls to the retailers so it’s going to be different in every region. Check your local retailers like I don’t have much control over their offerings. I’ve seen some of the feedback and passed it on. I know Bestbuy is offering a trade-in right now.
- Will it be available on Amazon at release?
- On release I don’t believe so. I believe the Ally X is only at Bestbuy for the US. Amazon may be available in other regions, but for the US I’m pretty sure it’s going to be Bestbuy exclusivity just like the original Ally.
- Do you see the Steam deck as a strong competitor?
- Yes of course
Jake kulinski
- Of course! You know that the Steam deck is the OG when it comes to the space. We were already making the Ally as far as I understand, it’s been prototyped for a long time, but the steam deck I think kind of ushered in the era.
Whitson Gordon
- Will suspend work any differently on the Ally X??
- So this is not anything specific to the Ally X there. A lot of that is a software thing that’s going to require some stuff from Microsoft. We can do some stuff in Armory crate and we have been trying to add some stuff to Armory crate to kind of improve that experience. But yeah, you’ll just kind of have to see you as Armory crate updates come out. It does kind of vary from game to game. That’s not something that I think we have like necessarily complete control over.
Jake kulinski
- Why didn’t Rog upgrade the GPU .
Whiston Gordon
- We don’t want people to feel like they have to upgrade every single year.
Jake kulinski
- Is Asus planning an update to the official charger dock
Whiston Gordon
- Nothing to announce on that at this time. Look to some of the third parties.
Jake kulinski
- Is the hard case more straightforward than the current soft case as in the orientation it goes in?
Whitson Gordon
- The hard case is a little more straightforward.
Jake kulinski
- Will button mapping be the same on the Ally X?
Whiston Gordon
- Yep
Jake kulinski
- Yep
Jake kulinski
- What performance can we expect with the increase in RAM frequency?
Whiston Gordon
- I don’t want to give a specific number yet because I don’t think we have that testing data yet. Probably a few percent right? And I think it’s going to depend from game to game.
Jake kulinski
- Are you working with dbrand for a case for the Ally X?
Whiston Gordon
- Yeah. They just announced that they’re working on an ally x case and you can sign up for notifications.
Are the joysticks Hall effect?
- I want to talk about this more on the next stream. They are not.
Can you use a Gen 5 SSD on the Ally X?
- I believe so, It would run at Gen 4 speeds but I believe Gen 5 is backwards compatible.
Here’s the full stream for those who want a more in-depth insight on everything Ally X