Asus ROG Ally Review: Almost There, But Not Quite

[17thDimension]

Valve has managed to captivate the broader gaming public with the Steam Deck, so can Asus pick up the torch with the ROG Ally and persuade the masses that handheld PCs represent the future of PC gaming?

Read the full article here.

https://www.techspot.com/review/2715-asus-rog-ally/

 

[dangh]

Good review. Great performance and screen, average+ ergnomic and battery life, bad choice of OS. Steam Deck is for me a better option, before even comparing the price.
Both are still better than switch, really.
Need to check how rog ally works with steam os, maybe its make it more usable.

 

[Kam7r]

Good review. Great performance and screen, average+ ergnomic and battery life, bad choice of OS. Steam Deck is for me a better option, before even comparing the price.
Both are still better than switch, really.
Need to check how rog ally works with steam os, maybe its make it more usable.

not hard, high chances that even your smarthphone is better than the Switch

 

[dangh]

not hard, high chances that even your smarthphone is better than the Switch

The scary thing is, the ROG is most probably faster than next year Switch 2...

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Funny this review would come out the same morning I’m off to buy the Ally to use on an upcoming trip.
(I’m still buying it)

 

[Watzupken]

In my opinion, there is no fix to the SD card issue over longer term usage. It is a design oversight to have the SD card slot at the hottest point of the console. Even if the SD card can withstand extreme temps, I am not too sure about the reader.
The other thing that is stopping me from getting the Ally is Windows. The OS is increasingly very processing intensive with all the fluff and bloat. On paper, Zen 4 should have no problems handling the extra load, until you realized that the CPU is very lower limited and may be burdened down with all these extra OS burden. Asus' Armory Crate is another one of those software that is a resource hog.

 

[yRaz]

In my opinion, there is no fix to the SD card issue over longer term usage. It is a design oversight to have the SD card slot at the hottest point of the console. Even if the SD card can withstand extreme temps, I am not too sure about the reader.
The other thing that is stopping me from getting the Ally is Windows. The OS is increasingly very processing intensive with all the fluff and bloat. On paper, Zen 4 should have no problems handling the extra load, until you realized that the CPU is very lower limited and may be burdened down with all these extra OS burden. Asus' Armory Crate is another one of those software that is a resource hog.

Nothing is stopping you from putting steamOS on it. And there is a solution to the SD card reader problem, put a larger SSD in it. That'd be the first thing I do, 512gb is barely enough by today's standards. I have a 2TB SSD for games and I'm frequently deleting it and clearing space.

 

[dangh]

Nothing is stopping you from putting steamOS on it.

There is many things stopping everyone from putting a SteamOS on it - this OS is not good for non-steam deck machines right now. Much better to install something like nobara, chimera or my personal fav - Tumbleweed.

 

[yRaz]

There is many things stopping everyone from putting a SteamOS on it - this OS is not good for non-steam deck machines right now. Much better to install something like nobara, chimera or my personal fav - Tumbleweed.

Considering AMD's opensource driver philosophy, I'd just throw linux Mint on it. Only reason I recommended SteamOS is that it addresses a lot of the GUI concerns that come with windows. God fordbid we get another version of Windows 8 as a "fix".

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I really like the idea of the ROG docks with dGPUs built into them, I just really wish ASUS would stop using the proprietary port. Just make then normal thunderbolt! I already have a laptop with thunderbolt, I'd be interested in their expensive 4090 dock as a desktop replacement, if it would work with non ASUS machines!

 

[passwordistaco]

I really like the idea of the ROG docks with dGPUs built into them, I just really wish ASUS would stop using the proprietary port. Just make then normal thunderbolt! I already have a laptop with thunderbolt, I'd be interested in their expensive 4090 dock as a desktop replacement, if it would work with non ASUS machines!

Thunderbolt is still only 40 Gbps. The proprietary port is PCIe 4 x8, for 128 Gbps. There was no speed increase from Thunderbolt 3 to 4; it has some serious catching up to do.

 

[xpusostomos]

Need to check how rog ally works with steam os, maybe its make it more usable.

I haven't used a steam deck, so I don't know if this comment is on point, but.... Wouldn't launching the steam app in console mode on windows startup give you a steam deck like experience?

Also I'm a bit baffled by the review saying the steamdeck has better software support given that steam on windows runs more stuff than steam on Linux, aka steamos.

 

[toooooot]

I like white gadgets. I know they get dirty quick. But they are still so much nicer than black ones.
Mouse, keyboard, phone, monitor and laptop next maybe.

 

[dangh]

I haven't used a steam deck, so I don't know if this comment is on point, but.... Wouldn't launching the steam app in console mode on windows startup give you a steam deck like experience?

Also I'm a bit baffled by the review saying the steamdeck has better software support given that steam on windows runs more stuff than steam on Linux, aka steamos.

There is a nice summary here to read and mostly answering this question: https://www.tomshardware.com/news/windows-steam-deck-performance-testing
Except the point on Windows being better for other launchers, like epic. I used heroic launcher for epic-gog-amazon games and it is so good I'm using it actually on my gaming pc on Windows partition.
Simply, Windows is not handling this resolution well, and steam os is nicely tailored to the hardware.

 

[Lionvibez]

In my opinion, there is no fix to the SD card issue over longer term usage. It is a design oversight to have the SD card slot at the hottest point of the console. Even if the SD card can withstand extreme temps, I am not too sure about the reader.
The other thing that is stopping me from getting the Ally is Windows. The OS is increasingly very processing intensive with all the fluff and bloat. On paper, Zen 4 should have no problems handling the extra load, until you realized that the CPU is very lower limited and may be burdened down with all these extra OS burden. Asus' Armory Crate is another one of those software that is a resource hog.

There maybe hope for this if MS is going through with a rumors of Windows Gaming OS version for these handhelds.

 

[loki1944]

If anything like their "high end" motherboards and laptops this will die about an hour after the warranty expires.

 

[rmcrys]

If anything like their "high end" motherboards and laptops this will die about an hour after the warranty expires.

Since a decade ago, most Asus products are "failureware" even under the warranty. I have a 1200€ Asus zenbook flip and had a 1400€ Asus ROG desktop with nothing but issues, defect motherboards and RAM, horrible assistance (at least in Europe) etc., a too long story to tell... my father also bought an Asus laptop (at same time I bought my zenbook, so before we had issues with the brand) and had nothing but damaged batteries (the second one lasted over an year, which Asus said that the computer had the mandatory two-year warranty but the battery only 6 to 12 months at the given moment). After 3 years, a damaged power button and some keyboard keys; after not too long, the power connector was failing... (and my father didn't use the laptop much, around 3 to 4 times a week for a couple of hours).

Since 2012 or so, Asus is of much lower quality than before, probably due to much higher production and product release. Acer, Asus and Lenovo are brands that I try to avoid. Apple is also on my list, not due to hardware issues (because the hardware is top notch) but due to software limitations and "price/what you get" ratio.

 

[maroon1]

Asus Rog Ally is not that impressive. I checked some review and youtube comparison (like digital foundary)

at 9-10w, Asus Rog perform worse than Steam Deck at same power...... At 15w is not much faster that steam deck ... At 25-30w, the battery life sucks (you get around 1 hour )

The scary thing is, the ROG is most probably faster than next year Switch 2...

At much worse battery life and lack console optimization

 

[dangh]

At much worse battery life and lack console optimization

Yeah, I simply love Zelda with drops to 20 fps and native 480p up-scaled to 720p (portable) with flawed amd fsr 1.0 with current switch 'optimization'. If that would be a reference point to upcoming Switch then all is already settled.
Zelda or Mario games actually looks and plays better on Deck, even with the emulation overhead.
We don't know yet what Nintendo will come up with, and I really hope they did their homework. And now, they do have a competition. Before, they simply dropped the stationary consoles to not compete directly with MS and Sony, and took a nice & empty market niche - it is not as empty as before, anymore. And hopefully this mean they will eventually focus on customers as well.

 

[WhiteLeaff]

The steam deck is more balanced overall. Ally has overkill on the CPU side for the limited TDP scenario, sucking up iGPU potential and battery life.

1080p on a screen this size is the same as QHD at 27 inches, I find the deck screen also more suitable. Valve did a good job together with AMD.

 

[Mallok]

I think this is a very fair review. The SD card issue is indefensible. I bought one and it is a very niche product. I fall into the PC game pass / triple A title use case with streaming and never use it not plugged in, but if I did I would play 2d games or expect an hour to play before charging. I would say if you think you hit that target demographic, this is a very cool handheld.

In terms of the SD card issue, there's a lot of compelling evidence it's not heat related. Everyone assumes it's heat related, but it may not play a part at all, or just be a part of the issue. The replaceable 2230 SSD is a good workaround, but it should work and I hope they get that figured out soon. I have 3 games loaded and that works for me, but 512GB is pretty tiny for today's games.