If 2023 is the year of the PC gaming handheld, could November 24 be the day to pull the trigger yourself? It might not be a bad idea, what with the full-spec AMD Z1 Extreme version of the Asus ROG Ally going on sale for $620 at Best Buy for Black Friday.
The Z1 Extreme is, of course, the fully enabled variant of AMD’s awesome Phoenix APU, the chip that is making all these new-gen handhelds possible. It packs 12 AMD RDNA 3-spec graphics compute units. That compares with eight RDNA 2-spec CUs in the Steam Deck’s older Van Gogh APU from AMD.
In short, it’s the most powerful integrated GPU available for any PC and it makes for the best possible handheld PC gaming experience right now. The Ally also sports plenty of other juicy features.
For starters, the 7-inch screen is full 1080p and runs at 120Hz refresh. You also get a healthy 16GB of RAM, plus a 512GB SSD. The latter is arguably a little in the tight size, what with the bloated size of many modern games.
But you can hop on over to our Black Friday SSD deals to browse for a bigger drive if you prefer more storage.
- We’re curating all the best Black Friday PC gaming deals right here.
That shouldn’t be too costly given the low price of NAND flash memory right now, just remember that the Ally, just like most handhelds, takes the compact M.2 2230 SSD form factor, not the larger 2280 used by most desktop and laptop PCs.
You can also check out our full review of the Asus ROG Ally to find out why it’s such a great gaming handheld. But the Cliff Notes go something like this: Great performance, impressive screen, excellent docked experience, really quiet and lightweight. God speed and good luck!