Steam Deck’s biggest competitor just got a lot cheaper with this Christmas deal

On December 25, 2024By Littum

Christmas is a special time of the year because retailers across the globe slash prices on expensive, highly sought-after products to make them the perfect Christmas gifts for your precious loved ones. Case in point – Best Buy is hosting a special discount on the lucrative ASUS ROG Ally, one of the best handheld gaming consoles capable of running Xbox and PC with graphical fidelity.

Normally, the ASUS ROG Ally costs a whopping $499.99. But with this deal, you’ll be able to buy it for a more affordable $349.99 at Best Buy.

Why does ASUS ROG Ally make a good Christmas gift?

ASUS ROG Allies — Whether it’s a AAA blockbuster or a humble indie title, ASUS ROG Ally can play them all. (Image credit: Windows Central | Jez Corden)

In this golden age of portable gaming consoles, consumers are spoiled for choice as there are so many great handhelds to choose from, from Valve’s Steam Deck to Lenovo’s Legion Go. Still, of all the best handheld gaming devices, the ASUS ROG Ally stands tall as the overall cream of the crop for many reasons.

For starters, the ASUS ROG Ally boasts powerful hardware capable of running video games at high resolutions of 1080p and framerates of 60fps via its 120Hz display. In addition, it has a pleasant ergonomic design and extremely responsive controls that can be reconfigured as you like.

To top it off, the ASUS ROG Ally has Windows 11 built in to make it work as a gaming PC. This means ASUS ROG Ally will be able to download game launcher apps like Steam, Epic Games, Microsoft Store and the Xbox app and play the best Xbox games and best PC games through them as if you were playing on a PC or an Xbox.

You can even download emulators to play ROMs with games from previous consoles and stream games through cloud gaming services like Xbox Cloud Gaming, which not many handheld consoles can do.

ASUS ROG Ally Armory Crate

Download games from various sources on ASUS ROG Ally from the Steam launcher to the Microsoft Store. (Image credit: Windows Central)

That said, the ASUS ROG Ally isn’t completely flawless. It suffers from a short battery life of 3-4 hours unplugged, and navigating the Windows interface with handheld controls can be difficult compared to using a regular controller or a keyboard+mouse set-up.

But given the ASUS ROG Ally’s exceptional graphics hardware (especially) for a handheld console and its ability to play games from multiple platforms, these drawbacks are more than worth the price of admission, especially now that it’s on a mega Christmas sale.

For a limited time, you can get your hands on the ASUS ROG Ally (512GB) for 30% off, bringing its MSRP down from $499.99 to $349.99 at Best Buy. (which is $199.01 cheaper than the Steam Deck’s full MSRP of $549.99) In addition, the Z1 Extreme Processor edition of the ASUS ROG Ally (which boasts higher processing power than the regular version) is also having a Christmas sale that has reduced its MSRP of $649.99 down to $499.99 at Best Buy.