ASUS has claimed that ‘upgradeability and repairability’ have been key to the ROG Ally’s success. Speaking to PCGuide.com, a spokesperson for the Taiwanese giant revealed that the Ally was designed from the ground up to be as modular as possible – allowing users to swap out everything from battery and joysticks to buttons or the SSD.

“Despite its small and compact form factor, upgradability and repairability are key success factors of the ROG Ally,” the spokesperson said. We’ve seen a growing number of people utilizing a hardware mod to nearly double the battery life of their handheld, so it goes to show that users are making the most of ASUS’ design.

ASUS designed the ROG Ally with modularity in mind

“We've designed it to be as modular as possible; however, certain key components like the main processor and RAM have limited potential for modularity, as they are tied to specific processing generations and require dedicated cooling, connectivity, and space on the mainboard. Users are able to swap out the battery, joysticks, buttons, add more memory via the microSD card slot, or upgrade the SSD” says ASUS.

As expected from later iterations of the Ally, there have been significant improvements over time. One such boost was the introduction of a full-size 2280 M.2 slot for easier storage upgrades, and dual USB-C port with USB-4 and thunderbolt support that enables device charging and external monitor connectivity without the need for a dongle or port replicator. “These ports also allow for users to add external graphics cards for more performance, or an external SSD, or a USB hub. Connectivity options are available on the device for users to tweak their experience to their requirements and needs,” they said.

“Despite its small and compact form factor, upgradability and repairability are key success factors of the ROG Ally”

ASUS ROG

While there’s no news yet about what the new iteration of ROG Ally would look like, we do know that they are ‘currently assessing‘ a processor to use. It’s widely expected they will follow the Lenovo Legion Go S‘ lead and implement the new AMD Z2 chip, and its RNDA 3.5 architecture.

On top of that, ASUS says the device likely sticking to Windows thanks to its wide compatibility while offering users the chance to install alternative operating systems if they so wish – another level of customization (or upgradability depending on how you look at it).

Elsewhere, recent research by the Verge has revealed that the Ally’s rival, Valve’s Steam Deck, still commands almost half the handheld market share, so there’s plenty of space for ASUS to grow.

About the Author

Talal Musa

Talal is the Head of Digital at By Gamers for Gamers, incorporating PC Guide and sister titles WePC and Videogamer. He was previously head of digital media at Gfinity PLC.