• Battery life is getting a substantial increase in the next iteration of the ASUS ROG Ally, the Ally X.
• Not much else has changed but the internals have been moved around and there will be support for bigger SSDs.
• ASUS will reveal more information about this handheld in June.

While we quite enjoyed the ASUS ROG Ally, we found that it was severely lacking in one aspect – battery life.

This wasn’t so much an ASUS issue it was the fact that the handheld PC runs Windows 11 which is a battery hog, even on laptops. That is seemingly set to get slightly better according to a report from The Verge.

The next iteration of the Ally is not a sequel but more of an upgrade. Dubbed the ASUS ROG Ally X, the handheld will have the same chipset and display as the original model but it will have a larger battery.

Just how much bigger the battery will be is unclear right now but ASUS says it will be a substantial upgrade and won’t disappoint desires for at least three hours of life from intensive games.

There will be a few more niceties in this version of the handheld including support for longer M.2 SSDs, and more memory that can be allocated to the GPU.

Internally the Ally’s motherboard has been moved around and the SD card reader is being moved but apparently the actual unit won’t be changed. There were reports that this SD card reader was faulty, not that ASUS acknowledged this officially. Hopefully they at least re-evaluated this unit which many folks use.

Windows still features as the operating system for the Ally X which ASUS says is a decision being made to maintain the ability to connect to multiple game services not just one. Whether ASUS will be able to eke out more battery life from the handheld while fighting Microsoft’s hungry OS will prove interesting to see.

On that note, The Verge reports that ASUS will reveal the Ally X officially on 2nd June.

The new iteration will sport a new black colour way and there have reportedly been improvements to the buttons and triggers.

ASUS now faces a ton of competition in this space from both MSI and Lenovo. The Lenovo Legion Go has an edge here as it features removable controllers that we feel made playing games just a bit more enjoyable.

More choice is always great though and with ASUS seemingly investing in this product line with an upgrade, we hope to see more devices from more manufacturers in future.