Handheld gaming consoles are no longer dominated by Nintendo; PC games are entering the handheld industry with competition from Valve and ASUS. Valve’s Steam Deck was the best budget option available until ASUS released the ASUS ROG Ally Z1 earlier this summer, which is the budget version of the more powerful ASUS ROG Ally Z1 Extreme. And now, the ASUS ROG Ally Z1 has become a bit more budget-friendly after another deal from Best Buy: You can get the Asus ROG Ally Z1 for $399.99 (originally $599.99) again, matching the lowest price I’ve seen yet, which it hit after Cyber Monday.
A great budget option for PC gamers on-the-go
The ASUS ROG Ally Z1 is a great option for PC gamers who are used to the Windows system and want a budget-friendly way to play their games. The ASUS ROG Ally Z1 is cheaper than budget gaming laptops and the Extreme version, although its processing power and graphics are limited. You can see whether the budget version or the Z1 Extreme is better for you here.
Don’t expect to play every AAA smoothly without having some kind of problem. For most big AAA games, you will need a full-sized desktop or gaming laptop to run without hiccups. While you can play some on the ASUS ROG Ally Z1, you will have to accept playing with lower frames per second to make them run (our readers claim to be able to play AAA games at 60FPS without issues). If you’re not familiar with the Windows 11 operating system, this can be tricky to do.
The ASUS ROG Ally Z1 brings you 512GB of memory with a micro SD memory card slot if you want to expand it, an AMD Ryzen Z1 processor, 16GB RAM, and a seven-inch touchscreen LED with a maximum video resolution of 1080p. The rechargeable battery will give you about eight and a half hours of battery time.
You can read the full PCMag review of the ASUS ROG Ally Z1 here. While the ASUS ROG Ally is not objectively better or worse than the Steam Deck, at its current price, the Ally Z1 can be a better option than the Steam Deck for most people.
