ROG Ally 2 Wishlist

[fahdriyami]

I've been really enjoying the Ally so far, but I can't help but think about what a successor would look like. Below is a list of some of the hardware features I would personally like to see.

Ryzen Z2 Extreme

The Ryzen Z1 Extreme in the Ally is a magical chip and a really good performer. Though if Asus continues to work with AMD on the Ryzen Z-Series chips, I would hope that the Z2 Extreme focuses more on GPU compute rather than CPU compute. I think a Z2 Extreme with a 4 or 6 core CPU + a 16 or 20 CU GPU would make all the difference in gaming performance. 

More & Faster RAM

16GB has become the new minimum for Windows if you want a smooth experience. It's great to have on the Ally, but since that RAM is also shared with the iGPU, it leaves less for Windows. It would be great to have a 32GB RAM option on the Ally 2 so that we can allocate 16GB for Windows and 16GB for the iGPU. The RAM should also be faster (7500 MT/s+) so as not to bottleneck the iGPU.

OLED Display

Having used both the original and the OLED Nintendo Switch, the difference in visual fidelity is night and day. Bringing this display tech to a future Ally would make for a very noticeable upgrade.

Proper 2280 SSD Support

Props to Asus for making the SSD so easily accessible and upgradable in the Ally. I upgraded my SSD to a 2TB drive on day 1 and I'm loving the extra capacity. That said, It would be great if the Ally 2 supported full 2280 NVMe drives, which would allow for even higher storage capacities.

Hall-Effect Joysticks

Joystick drift is one of the most common issues that occur with any controller, and if we can't have both hall-effect triggers and hall-effect joysticks in the same device due to interference, I would happy trade the triggers for the joysticks to be hall-effect ones.

USB 4 Support

I understand that the XG Mobile port enables a larger number of PCIe ports compared to USB 4, so I wouldn't suggest Asus remove it, but it would be very useful to have at least 1 proper USB 4 port. This would enable the use of existing USB 4 docks as well as eGPU enclosures. Maybe keep the XG Mobile port at the top and add a USB 4 port on the bottom of the Ally 2?

Black Color Option

If both white and black versions of the ROG Ally were available, I would have picked the white one so I'm happy that's the color Asus went with, but it would still be nice to give people the option of a black version.

Conclusion

The ROG Ally is one of the best tech purchases I've made in recent years, and I hope it brings Asus the commercial success required to justify releasing a successor. In the meantime, I'm happy to see Asus continue to support the Ally with regular software updates. Keep it up!

[westwarren]

agreed with a lot of these points however I would like to point out a few things

1.) OLED
- while OLED screens are incredible for TV , I don't think that they are suited for gaming because of the issue of possible burn ins, which is why I'm a firm believer that mini-LED displays are the future for gaming, the performance of mini-LED to OLED is very close but without the risk of burn ins for static imagery

2.) Z2 Extreme
- while I would like to see a much more powerful APU in the future I am very much concerned with the battery life, I would like for them to focus on battery longevity , we have a 40Wh battery which is also in the steam deck but since the ROG ALLY has a more powerful APU and a better screen, as a result the battery drains way quicker than the Steam Deck

[fahdriyami]

Modern OLEDs have pretty much eliminated the threat of burn-in. On the Switch OLED, a YouTube reviewer left it on continuously for over a year and the burn in is barely noticeable. So with regular usage, there won't be any burn in at all.

As for the Z2, considering it will probably be on a more efficient manufacturing process, we should see improved performance/watt and better battery life. But yes, it would be great if the processor was more performant at lower wattages, similar to the Steam Deck.