Days ahead of the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 reveal, Asus has teased its next-generation ROG Ally handheld gaming console with several hardware upgrades. The Taiwanese company announced the ASUS ROG Ally on this day in 2023, having announced a mid-cycle refresh last year. According to a recent report, the company is developing an Xbox-branded handheld device that will combine Windows and Xbox experiences with a user interface (UI) inspired by Microsoft’s consoles and will launch later this year.
ASUS teases hardware upgrades for next-generation ROG Ally console
In a video posted on X (formerly Twitter), Asus’ “robot friend” Omni can be seen sitting in front of a machine and showing it off multiple performance upgrades. These include “marathon endurance”, “increased capacity”, “faster speed” and “fresh look”. The mascot then spun from his chair into a pod, where he was quickly joined by an Asus Raikiri Pro PC controller and an Asus ROG Ally.
The video ends with the outline of the new handheld device obscured, except for the display, which shows the Omni’s face. There was no mention of a release date or any hardware specs for the next-gen console. Hours after the trailer was released, the official Xbox account on X responded with the “awkward-looking monkey puppet” meme.
An earlier report suggested that Asus was developing an Xbox-branded gaming handheld, codenamed “Project Kennan,” that would combine the Windows and Xbox experiences. The partner device is also said to run on Windows and feature an improved user interface similar to that used on Microsoft’s Xbox gaming console.
If the performance upgrades in the teaser video are any indication, the next ROG Ally model could be powered by the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme APU launched earlier this year. This octa-core processor is based on AMD Zen 5 architecture and comes with 16 GPU cores.
Likewise, the “fresh look” mentioned in the trailer may refer to the redesigned Xbox app on Windows, which can be used to showcase games on the upcoming Asus handheld console and even act as a launcher.
While some may be wary that the next-generation Asus ROG Ally teaser was released on April 1, it’s worth noting that Asus launched the first-generation ROG Ally on the same day in 2023. The company has yet to announce a release date for its next-generation handheld console, but previous reports suggested it would arrive later this year.
