The Asus ROG Ally<\/a> was the first true Steam Deck challenger; while I\u2019d argue it fell a little short<\/a>, it legitimately improved the state of affordable Windows handheld gaming with its plugged-in performance boosts and smooth variable refresh rate screen. Now, Asus is beginning to reveal its successor: the ROG Ally X. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Don\u2019t call it an Ally 2: when it ships in the second half of the year, the Windows-based Ally X will have the same AMD Z1 Extreme chipset and the same 48\u2013120Hz VRR screen. It\u2019s not quite like the Steam Deck OLED<\/a>, where Valve got AMD to revise its chip for better battery life and stability and added a larger, brighter, gorgeous new OLED panel with improved response time and slimmer bezels.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not looking at 30 to 40 percent more capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But the newly black-colored handheld will<\/em> have a substantial battery life improvement, Asus SVP Shawn Yen tells The Verge \u2014 <\/em>because Asus will cram a substantially larger battery pack into the Ally X\u2019s revised shell. \u201cWe\u2019re not looking at 30 to 40 percent more capacity,\u201d he tells me. \u201cWe\u2019re looking at way more than that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Asus won\u2019t talk specific specs today. Instead, Yen asks me how much battery life I\u2019d realistically like from a revised handheld. I say I\u2019d want to double the worst-case battery life to three hours since I\u2019m currently seeing maybe 1.5 hours in games. \u201cIt won\u2019t disappoint your worst-case scenario,\u201d he tells me. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Yen says battery life has been the single biggest request since launch; Asus has seen how the community even sometimes straps giant external batteries to their handhelds, even though the Ally theoretically had room inside<\/a> for a larger battery pack. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWhen we launched [the original Ally], we didn\u2019t have such a clear understanding that the battery might be something people desire more than a lighter-weight device,\u201d he admits. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Battery isn\u2019t the only change Asus is talking about today; the Ally X is about addressing many of the community\u2019s top priorities for how to revise the original. \u201cWe think about battery and storage, graphics and memory, ports… our goal is to fit as many of those as possible into a device like this,\u201d says Asus senior product manager Gabriel Meng. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Again, no specs today, but Asus says the Ally X should now have more than its current 16GB of RAM so that you can allocate lots of it to the GPU without impacting the rest of the system. It should have a longer M.2 2280 SSD slot, so buyers can more easily find and purchase larger SSD upgrades than the current M.2 2230 allows.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Ally X should also be even more repairable, with redesigned joystick modules that are more interchangeable \u2014 and perhaps upgradable, if Gulikit steps up<\/a>? While I didn\u2019t get to see it for myself, Asus says the handheld will be slightly heavier due to the larger battery, with revised grips, and slight tuning to things like the D-Pad, joysticks, and triggers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Above: a video showing the inside of the original ROG Ally.<\/em><\/small><\/p>\n<\/div>\n