Your Asus ROG Ally could become a Steam Deck soon – here's how
Valve has confirmed its plan to bring SteamOS to rival handhelds like the Asus ROG Ally
🙌 Valve is bringing SteamOS to other portable PC handhelds
👍 It means the Asus ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go could benefit in the future
👏 Valve said it’s also still working on dual boot support for the Steam Deck
💪 Valve’s Linux-based operating system has many advantages over Windows
The Asus ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go, and Zotac Zone could all benefit from Valve’s excellent SteamOS soon, essentially turning them into Steam Decks in all but name.
Valve has reconfirmed its plans to bring its Linux-based operating system to other portable PC handhelds after Asus ROG Ally support was spotted in the latest SteamOS release notes.
Valve designer Lawrence Yang told The Verge: “The note about ROG Ally keys is related to third-party device support for SteamOS. The team is continuing to work on adding support for additional handhelds on SteamOS.”
Valve has also previously promised to turn its Steam Deck into a dual-booting Windows machine, letting you swap between the two OS at will, and ultimately giving you the best of both worlds.
“As for Windows, we’re preparing to make the remaining Windows drivers for Steam Deck OLED available (you might have seen that we are prepping firmware for the Bluetooth driver),” said Yang. “There’s no update on the timing for dual boot support –it’s still a priority, but we haven’t been able to get to it just yet.”
Running SteamOS on an Asus ROG Ally or Asus ROG Ally X would be appealing. The ROG Ally has a few advantages over Valve’s handheld, like a higher resolution, and variable refresh rate screen. The console is also more powerful, though one of its biggest strengths is being able to play any games thanks to running Windows.
Up next: Zotac Zone hands-on review: What if the Steam Deck OLED ran Windows?
Adam Vjestica is The Shortcut’s Senior Editor. Formerly TechRadar’s Gaming Hardware Editor, Adam has also worked at Nintendo of Europe as a Content Marketing Editor where he helped launch the Nintendo Switch. Follow him on X @ItsMrProducts.