Two models of the Asus ROG Ally 2 handheld gaming PC leaked by regulatory sites

The next-gen Asus ROG Ally handheld gaming PC may come in at least two different versions, based on leaked pictures and specs spotted at wireless regulatory agency websites.

One model is the Asus ROG Ally 2 (RC73X1) with a black body and a dedicated Xbox button, suggesting that this could be the first Xbox-branded (or co-branded) handheld. The other is the ROG Ally (RC73YA) with a white body and an unlabeled button instead of an Xbox button. This model may also have a lower-power processor, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s designed to run SteamOS instead of Windows, although that hasn’t been confirmed yet.

The folks at 91mobile spotted details about the upcoming handheld on an Indonesian regulatory website, and ITHome found some information on a Korean site. And Huang514613 rounded things out by finding some pictures.

Both of the upcoming handhelds are expected to have 7 inch, 120 Hz displays, two USB-C ports, an HDMI port, and a 3.5mm audio jack.

But the black model is a premium device with higher-performance hardware. It has a 36 watt AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme 8-core processor (3 x Zen 5 + 5 x Zen 5c) with 16 RDNA 3.5 GPU compute cores and up to 64GB of LPDDR5x memory and support for 100W charging.

The white version, on the other hand, has a 20-watt AMD Aerith Plus quad-core processor that sounds like it’ll be a modest update to the chip used in the Steam Deck. This model is expected to support 65W charging.

It sure sounds like Asus is going to position the white model as a lower-cost device. And you know how else the company could save money? By installing Valve’s Linux-based SteamOS rather than Windows – Valve has been taking steps to add support for third-party handhelds and it’s interesting that the same day details about the upcoming Asus ROG Ally 2 were uncovered, Valve released SteamOS 3.7.5 Beta with improved support for input on Asus and Lenovo handhelds, as well as support for the power button on those devices.

Lenovo, by the way, has already introduced a SteamOS-powered handheld, although it has yet to actually hit the market.