ASUS ROG Ally is Reportedly Experiencing Heating Issues, Affecting microSD Card Slots

The ASUS ROG Ally handheld has only been shipping for a couple of weeks. As players begin to get their hands on the Windows 11-powered device, some are reportedly experiencing issues with its heat production.

According to reports (via Windows Central), some users are experiencing an issue where the ASUS ROG Ally is heating up quite a bit while playing. The handheld runs a custom AMD Z1 Extreme chip, meaning it’s a fairly powerful piece of kit, capable of supporting AAA games. However, as the higher-performance handheld does its magic, the microSD card slot at the top of the unit proves to be a worry for some.

Users are reporting that due to the card slot’s positioning next to the ASUS ROG Ally’s external heating vent, the unit’s temperature may fry the microSD card. If it does, access to games and data contained on the card risk being lost.

A Reddit user on the official ROG Ally Discord claims that ASUS is aware of the issue. However, the company has yet to provide a reasonable solution to the problem. The unfortunate reality is that this issue may be a hardware problem more than it is related to software. If so, it’s likely that the ROG Ally may be recalled. Though, if it is software related, a patch may be on the way.

If ASUS does mitigate the problem via a software solution, it may come at a cost of performance. Additionally, increasing the fan’s performance may cool the unit down. Though, that’ll result in more noise pollution.

Until a solution is provided, users are urged to not run the ROG Ally using turbo mode to help reduce any chances of a heating issue taking place.

The news is unfortunate as the handheld is positioned to be a great piece of hardware. Sporting a 7-inch FHD display, the ROG Ally supports 120Hz and is able to run many of the leading PC games at 1080p. It has 16GB LPDDR5 memory and 512GB of NVME SDD storage. In Canada, the ASUS ROG Ally handheld is available for $899.99.