There have been lots of would-be opponents to the Steam Deck which have popped up since its arrival, even a number of from main PC distributors like Asus and Lenovo. But none of them, indie or large time, have managed to beat Valve on worth. The Deck’s $400 beginning value stays unbeaten for an x86-based gaming handheld. Until right now. The entry-level model of the Asus ROG Ally, a extra highly effective handheld operating an optimized model of Windows, is on sale for just $399.99 at Best Buy.

There’s only one potential fly within the soup. This model of the ROG Ally is operating the AMD Ryzen Z1 processor, not the quicker, flagship Ryzen Z1 Extreme APU that made the Ally such a splash when it launched earlier this year. So, whereas the {hardware} remains to be newer and quicker than the Steam Deck, it’s to a lesser diploma than you may suppose and operating Windows as an alternative of the Linux-based Steam OS creates lots of working overhead. If you need the full-fat Extreme model of the Ally, it’s additionally on sale for $599.99 ($100 off the unique value as an alternative of $200).

That being stated, even the bottom mannequin of the ROG Ally is spectacular. The 1080p IPS display screen is an enormous step up over the bottom mannequin Steam Deck and with 120Hz functionality, it’s arguably better than the new OLED version, too. Both variations of the Ally get 512GB of speedy PCIe 4th-gen storage out of the field, plus no matter you possibly can match within the microSD card reader. And the Ally will be docked to Asus’s proprietary ROG XG Mobile sequence of exterior GPUs, if you wish to flip it right into a full-fledged gaming desktop or leisure middle.

At the time of writing, Best Buy appears to be the one retailer operating such a dramatic low cost on the Ally — opponents like Amazon and Newegg have declined to match the value drop. That being the case, you may need to get an order in shortly in the event you’re prepared to purchase.

Get the ROG Ally handheld gaming PC for $399.99