The Asus ROG Ally is on sale for its lowest price to date this weekend

It’s no ROG Ally X, but Asus’ last-gen handheld is still a powerful gaming machine. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The VergeNow that the new and improved Asus ROG Ally X has arrived, we’re starting to see some...

Aug 17, 2024 - 21:02

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The Asus ROG Ally is on sale for its lowest price to date this weekend

Now that the new and improved Asus ROG Ally X has arrived, we’re starting to see some solid deals on its predecessor, the Asus ROG Ally. Now until August 19th, for instance, the Windows-based gaming handheld is available at Best Buy with a Z1 Extreme chip for an all-time low of $499.99 ($150 off). That’s almost half the price of its successor, which costs $799.99, rendering it a good alternative if you’re on a tighter budget. The lower-end model with the Z1 chip is also on sale for $379.99 ($120), though, given the performance downgrades, we’d recommend sticking with the Extreme configuration.

At this price, the standard Asus ROG Ally offers good value, even if it didn’t impress us as much as ROG Ally X when it comes to comfort, performance, or battery life. It’s still more powerful than Valve’s Steam Deck, though, thanks to its Z1 Extreme chip and enhanced performance when the handheld is plugged in and engaged in “Turbo” mode. It also features a quieter fan and a larger 1080p display with a 120Hz variable refresh rate, the latter of which is surprisingly smooth for its size.

Unfortunately, its battery only lasts a mediocre four hours at best, which is disappointing given it’s designed to be a portable gaming PC. It’s also held back the Windows 11, which isn’t well-designed for small, handheld-like devices. That said, Valve is working on adding support for SteamOS on rival handhelds like Asus’ ROG Ally, so perhaps we could see it running an alternative operating system down the line.

The ROG Ally is Asus’ first crack at a Steam Deck rival. It’s a Windows-based PC gaming handheld with a seven-inch 1080p, 120Hz touchscreen and integrated gamepad controls.

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A few more weekend discounts

If you’d like to dive even deeper into the Alien universe after watching Alien: Romulus this weekend, a few retailers are currently discounting Alien: Isolation, a video game that takes place 15 years after the original Alien film. The base game is on sale for $8.99 ($21 off) at the PlayStation Store, while Alien: Isolation Collection — which comes with all seven DLCs — is available for PC starting at $8.99 ($41 off) from Fanatical and Steam. Admittedly, the first-person survival game is getting pretty old, but let’s not forget it once terrified our own Andrew Webster into forgetting to breathe.Now until September 1st, Woot is selling Sennheiser’s Momentum True Wireless 3 in select colors for $99.99 ($180 off), which is their best price to date. Before the Momentum True Wireless 4 took their place, the third-gen earbuds were some of the best you could buy, offering top-notch sound quality, solid active noise cancellation, and wireless charging. The newer earbuds offer better sound and improved day-to-day reliability, but at this price, the last-gen pair remain a great value (especially now that they offer multipoint).You can buy a refurbished Roborock Q Revo — one of our favorite robot vacuums — from Roborock’s eBay storefront for $447.99 with offer code HOTSEASON20. That’s about half the price the Robovac typically sells for in new condition. The Q Revo is a highly capable cleaning machine, one that features a pair of oscillating mops that scrub floors remarkably well. It can also fill its own reservoir, clean and dry up its own mopping pads, and even self-empty. It lets you set virtual keep-out zones, too, which almost makes up for the fact it lacks AI obstacle avoidance.