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ASUS ROG ALLY | OT + Review Thread | Steam Deck but ROGher
jimjonjimmy
Member
Ah I see. I guess it is strange but it's only 1 month. This is it with the code wiped off.
Goalus
Member
OK, but the Ally comes with three months of Game Pass Ultimate. What you got here seems to be an additional gift by Best Buy.Ah I see. I guess it is strange but it's only 1 month. This is it with the code wiped off.
jimjonjimmy
Member
Oh, Nevermind then. I'm most likely not even gonna use the code anyway. So, I wasn't paying attention to what the promotion was. But if you really want to know where the code is I'll let you know when my Ally arrives.
Goalus
Member
I know the answer to my question as I bought an Ally myself. I just brought it up to expose a potential Steam Deck shill.
jimjonjimmy
Member
Ah, then my apologies I totally misread the situation here. Have a nice day.
StereoVsn
Member
Wait, this is a thing now? I am kind of tempted despite iffy support from these smaller vendors. To be fair, Asus support sucks as well.Not having trackpads was definitely something I took into consideration.
However, during the Ally's preorder window I tried to recall how many times I used the Deck's trackpads, and those were:
1 - For text input (steam login, name / alias input)
2 - To play Civ6 once with my friends, where I was so slow compared to KB+M I'd never get to do everything I needed within a turn's time.
So for my intents and purposes, the trackpads aren't very usable. I guess they're good enough for turn-based strategy games in single player mode (forget trying to play RTSes on those IMO), but I haven't been playing those types of games.
Regardless, fans of the trackpads can look up the AYA Neo Next II releasing later this year:
Word is it'll bundle a Radeon 7600M dGPU in there, and there's also a Meteor Lake version in the pipeline.
It'll also be more expensive and heavier than their current lineup (800g?), but in the end it's a true handheld all-in-one. Also, >8" is probably the best part of it.
Perhaps I'll trade my Ally for this in the upcoming Christmas.
Separately I own both Deck and Ally. I like Steam Deck better for comfort and in games where things work, the Deck is generally better.
Plus it's good for strategy games...except that as I found out the screen is way too small for these
. Unless I use Nreal glasses, then it's pretty good overall.Ally is alright, but really performance advantage at 15w or less is very small vs Deck and once go above it, battery life tanks super fast. Still, it's an interesting device.
Edit: There is a code in the packaging for Game pass? Pretty sure it's just built into the Asus software as it prompted me to use it.
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Tunned
Member
I was literally about to pull the trigger and buy a barely used Ally in my area, with a swapped 1TB SSD, and a 256GB sd card, for 750 Euros... But then I saw your post with the Ayaneo Next II, and hot damn, I'll wait to see how that turns out. The Steam Deck will hold me over nicely (I don't know why I wanted to replace it in the first place). Thanks for saving me 750 Euros!Not having trackpads was definitely something I took into consideration.
However, during the Ally's preorder window I tried to recall how many times I used the Deck's trackpads, and those were:
1 - For text input (steam login, name / alias input)
2 - To play Civ6 once with my friends, where I was so slow compared to KB+M I'd never get to do everything I needed within a turn's time.
So for my intents and purposes, the trackpads aren't very usable. I guess they're good enough for turn-based strategy games in single player mode (forget trying to play RTSes on those IMO), but I haven't been playing those types of games.
Regardless, fans of the trackpads can look up the AYA Neo Next II releasing later this year:
Word is it'll bundle a Radeon 7600M dGPU in there, and there's also a Meteor Lake version in the pipeline.
It'll also be more expensive and heavier than their current lineup (800g?), but in the end it's a true handheld all-in-one. Also, >8" is probably the best part of it.
Perhaps I'll trade my Ally for this in the upcoming Christmas.
Tams
Member
Bruh, how's the pay at Valve?
For your position, do they provide you with one of those desks with wheels on? Seems like you certainly need one.
Just a friendly warning, but I had a Ayaneo Air before the Ally and the Windows/software jankiness was much worse on that device than what I've experienced with the Ally. I had to return it because almost everything when it came to using it just didn't feel good.
Maybe the Next 2 will be better, but I think Ayaneo has a lot of work to do on the software front.
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Goalus
Member
Tell us more about your experience with the Ally that you claim to have bought.
And while you're at it, consider answering my question - should be an easy one for anyone who bought it.
ToTTenTranz
Banned
To be honest I would be wary of AYA, especially over Asus ROG... AYA is a tiny company that keeps launching 3 or 4 new models every year so I find it difficult to believe they'll have the scale to provide decent support, especially on the software side.
Just this week they made two surprise announcements: their first Android handheld and the AYA NEO KUN with a 8.4" screen, dual touchpads, and larger battery:
At least for all the experience they're getting from launching so many hardware iterations, it looks like down the road they might get the hardware right. But I wouldn't count on them being big on software support for so many models.
On the other hand, if Microsoft releases a special version of Windows 11 for handhelds and provides their own support to them, this would be a much smaller issue.
I'm also thinking on getting XReal glasses down the road. They seem to be the best solution to these devices' tiny 7" screens. I wish I could try them out before spending those ~400€.
StereoVsn
Member
One issue is that since it doesn't have head tracking in normal viewing mode you have to keep your head still and move the handheld instead. Not a huge deal but takes getting used to it.To be honest I would be wary of AYA, especially over Asus ROG... AYA is a tiny company that keeps launching 3 or 4 new models every year so I find it difficult to believe they'll have the scale to provide decent support, especially on the software side.
Just this week they made two surprise announcements: their first Android handheld and the AYA NEO KUN with a 8.4" screen, dual touchpads, and larger battery:
At least for all the experience they're getting from launching so many hardware iterations, it looks like down the road they might get the hardware right. But I wouldn't count on them being big on software support for so many models.
On the other hand, if Microsoft releases a special version of Windows 11 for handhelds and provides their own support to them, this would be a much smaller issue.
I'm also thinking on getting XReal glasses down the road. They seem to be the best solution to these devices' tiny 7" screens. I wish I could try them out before spending those ~400€.
And even then I can't take more then an hour or so without a break anyways, eyes get a bit tired. After 10 min or so g2g.
DenchDeckard
Moderated wildly
So, he basically couldn't deal with it being a device he had to tinker with to get longer battery life. Exactly what I said.
ToTTenTranz
Banned
That's what XReal Beam is for, right?
XREAL Beam
Available now in the US Ships within 72 hours Maximum two XREAL Beams per customer XREAL C-C Cable included
www.xreal.com
My bet is they'll eventually be launching the XReal 2 with the Beam features embedded.
StereoVsn
Member
Haven't seen this thing. Imported it back when they started selling in just Japan, lol.That's what XReal Beam is for, right?
XREAL Beam
Available now in the US Ships within 72 hours Maximum two XREAL Beams per customer XREAL C-C Cable included
My bet is they'll eventually be launching the XReal 2 with the Beam features embedded.
Mr Hyde
Member
Redecorated a bit and put my Ally where the Switch was before. I also purchased a new controller, the 8bit do pro 2 as you can see being carried by Crash Bandicoot. I strictly use it for PC, while 8bit do Ultimate is only for Switch.
It's been three weeks now with the Ally. It's been quite the ride, lots of ups and downs, but for the most part, I gotta say I love this little device. It's basically everything I ever wanted from a video game console. It's powerful, small, fast and versatile enough to play games from a lot of different generations.
These weeks I've been setting up emulators, installing games from Steam and GoG, and setting up Launchbox as my main go to frontend. It's been so much fun seeing my video game collection gather all in one place. Coming from consoles, I always hated having multiple systems up and running, I'm a guy who wants things streamlined and tidy. Not having a bunch of machines and controllers, chords and cables lying around everywhere. Now with Ally and the Switch, I'm having access to almost every game I want with only two systems. I love their small form factor and the pick up and play style that these devices have.
With XG Mobile as a dock, I have also increased the storage quite considerably. I have a 1TB HDD installed for movies and music and 1tb SSD installed for next gen gaming. I also have a 256gb SD card dedicated only to Game Pass. And that's on top of the 1.5 TB of storage I have in the Ally itself.
In only a few weeks, PC gaming have really opened up my eyes to the vast possibilities of the platform, and how closed and confined the consoles were. PC offers so much more. Different storefronts, competitive prices, free online, mods, emulation. It's like I finally opened up my eyes and saw the real world for the first time. Absolutely love it.
My different launchers are also great. They make it feel like a console experience. I mostly use Launchbox, but Armory Crate and Steam big picture mode are great as well. Very intuitive and nice looking UIs.
It hasn't been all rainbow and sunshine however. The Ally combined with the XG Mobile is quite buggy sometimes and that's something Asus needs to adress. The Ally on itself is fine but when connecting to the dock, sometimes it doesn't recognize the proprietary connector, sometimes it glitches out, sleep mode doesn't always function so you have to reboot, etc. It's kinda annoying. But overall I'm very happy with this purchase. There are drawbacks compared to console gaming, but the positives far outweigh any of the negatives. I don't think I'll ever go back to console gaming again.
It's been three weeks now with the Ally. It's been quite the ride, lots of ups and downs, but for the most part, I gotta say I love this little device. It's basically everything I ever wanted from a video game console. It's powerful, small, fast and versatile enough to play games from a lot of different generations.
These weeks I've been setting up emulators, installing games from Steam and GoG, and setting up Launchbox as my main go to frontend. It's been so much fun seeing my video game collection gather all in one place. Coming from consoles, I always hated having multiple systems up and running, I'm a guy who wants things streamlined and tidy. Not having a bunch of machines and controllers, chords and cables lying around everywhere. Now with Ally and the Switch, I'm having access to almost every game I want with only two systems. I love their small form factor and the pick up and play style that these devices have.
With XG Mobile as a dock, I have also increased the storage quite considerably. I have a 1TB HDD installed for movies and music and 1tb SSD installed for next gen gaming. I also have a 256gb SD card dedicated only to Game Pass. And that's on top of the 1.5 TB of storage I have in the Ally itself.
In only a few weeks, PC gaming have really opened up my eyes to the vast possibilities of the platform, and how closed and confined the consoles were. PC offers so much more. Different storefronts, competitive prices, free online, mods, emulation. It's like I finally opened up my eyes and saw the real world for the first time. Absolutely love it.
My different launchers are also great. They make it feel like a console experience. I mostly use Launchbox, but Armory Crate and Steam big picture mode are great as well. Very intuitive and nice looking UIs.
It hasn't been all rainbow and sunshine however. The Ally combined with the XG Mobile is quite buggy sometimes and that's something Asus needs to adress. The Ally on itself is fine but when connecting to the dock, sometimes it doesn't recognize the proprietary connector, sometimes it glitches out, sleep mode doesn't always function so you have to reboot, etc. It's kinda annoying. But overall I'm very happy with this purchase. There are drawbacks compared to console gaming, but the positives far outweigh any of the negatives. I don't think I'll ever go back to console gaming again.
64bitmodels
Reverse groomer.
lmao
idk why people keep spreading this shit around as if it's true
literally the easiest shit....
Mr Hyde
Member
So far I've set up Duckstation and RPCS3. Very impressed with Duckstation. Very intuitive with lots of cool features. Upscaling, rewind features, hotkey mapping. Very easy to understand everything, even for a noob like me. The work these emulators do is pretty fantastic. It's almost like you get a remaster of the game. Original PS3 hardware is not that great, many games run like ass but RPSC3 takes care of the performance issues with ease. Very cool stuff.
Minsc
Gold Member
Neither the Switch nor the Deck is capable of running games as fast as this (the Switch by a long shot). That is the point of it. Along with not having a shitty ass screen like you get with the Deck.
If you want to play older or less demanding indie games on a bad screen without a battery pack for 5 hours use the Deck. If you want to play newer games at 60-120fps with a much higher quality screen and have no issues plugging the device in to a battery pack, use this.
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Gamezone
Gold Member
Having a fast CPU doesn't mean that it have to perform poorly at less demanding games.
Minsc
Gold Member
It doesn't perform poorly at all, it just consumes more power haha. But these devices are so damn big, and not exactly able to be stuffed in to one's pocket, that I don't really see how throwing a 10-26k power bank in the bag is much trouble. But yeah. I guess it would be nice if it matched the deck, but remember this thing has a better VRR screen too. And obviously it uses way less power than the consoles.
And from what I read in reviews, the CPU is so damn fast (maybe even faster than the current gen consoles) if you can connect it to an XG Mobile device (external GPU) and let it throw the full 40W into the CPU, it has enough power to actually run games at 4k resolution Ultra settings and get ~90fps with DLSS frame generation on.
Dream-Knife
Banned
Why not just use your desktop then?
Minsc
Gold Member
I suppose you'd potentially use it instead of a desktop, not really sure. It's kinda cool, portable in theory - so is a laptop though. I guess it mainly appeals if you're trying to cut down to just 1 device that could do all your windows gaming, hell it'd even be able to do PC VR. And it's upgradeable I guess, you can just swap to the next Ally or next external 5090 device for $2500 lol.
supernova8
Banned
Was able to try out the ROG ally at a store this weekend. I can definitely echo what people said (in some reviews) about it feeling "wrong" to be able to have that level of fidelity in the palm of my hands.
The device doesn't feel heavy (I have a Switch OLEd and I know the Ally is almost twice the weight on paper but maybe the difference (in absolute terms) is not enough to matter), the controls feel nice, the screen is gorgeous.
I only got to play Forza Horizon 4 (not sure what settings it was on) and honestly it gave me the same "fuuuucking hell" feeling that I had the very first time I played Ridge Racer on the PSP.
Impossible to say which is objectively better, but compared to when I tried the Deck back at TGS 2022 (admittedly a while back) the ROG (at least in terms of the feel in my hands) is what I hoped the Deck would be.
Only downside is that the interface seemed very clunky and the touch screen didn't feel very responsive.
The device doesn't feel heavy (I have a Switch OLEd and I know the Ally is almost twice the weight on paper but maybe the difference (in absolute terms) is not enough to matter), the controls feel nice, the screen is gorgeous.
I only got to play Forza Horizon 4 (not sure what settings it was on) and honestly it gave me the same "fuuuucking hell" feeling that I had the very first time I played Ridge Racer on the PSP.
Impossible to say which is objectively better, but compared to when I tried the Deck back at TGS 2022 (admittedly a while back) the ROG (at least in terms of the feel in my hands) is what I hoped the Deck would be.
Only downside is that the interface seemed very clunky and the touch screen didn't feel very responsive.
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yet_another_alt
Member
Don't have an Ally but my friend let me use his for a while. For Forza Horizon 5, the difference between Deck and Ally is crazy. To get a stable experience on the Deck, you run it at mostly medium settings, a 40 FPS cap with a bit more than 2 hours of battery life. And to be fair that's comparable to previous gen settings except those run at a lower frame rate of 30 FPS. The Ally can run it at mostly high and at 60 fps but the battery won't even last an hour. Dropping the settings to Deck's level gives a battery like of about 1.5 hours. I actually use my portables as portables so I prefer the Deck's slightly longer battery life but if you're plugged in then it's no contest.
supernova8
Banned
Yeah personally I would probably just is as a kind of at-home hybrid console, the same as I do with my Switch OLED.
Good thing with the Switch is that I bought an extra dock used to connect to my monitor on our other room so when my fiance is watching TV I'm not necessarily limited to playing handheld mode.
I'm really torn on getting an ROG Ally because it seems to be essentially one of those relatively powerful APU-based Minisforum PCs but it happens to be a portable with controls and a nice screen. For that price it's actually a bargain. I could definitely use it for work (I work from home and connect to a remote server so I don't need any major grunt).
Miyazaki’s Slave
Gold Member
I can easily recommend the ROG over the Deck to folks that are power pc users simply for the range of software customization and performance.
Battery life isn’t an issue since the Professor got our group off of Gilligan’s island years ago and we no longer have to pedal our coconut bikes to generate power….JFC use a power bank or plug into a wall and charge it.
Will pick up the new AYA models to try them out and a few may end up being hard to get/collectible but those folks push out new hardware every 60 days it feels like.
Still have two Steam decks as well…not poopooing it…just not what i would grab first anymore.
Battery life isn’t an issue since the Professor got our group off of Gilligan’s island years ago and we no longer have to pedal our coconut bikes to generate power….JFC use a power bank or plug into a wall and charge it.
Will pick up the new AYA models to try them out and a few may end up being hard to get/collectible but those folks push out new hardware every 60 days it feels like.
Still have two Steam decks as well…not poopooing it…just not what i would grab first anymore.
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STARSBarry
Gold Member
Asus Confirms Thermal Stress Is Killing the ROG Ally SD Card Reader
A fix is in the works, but your Ally may need to be shipped back to Asus for repair.
Just for owners to keep an eye out.
DenchDeckard
Moderated wildly
Hmm I just got a 512gb sd card for emulation....not sure what to do.
Minsc
Gold Member
Trade it in for a 1 or 2TB drive for the Ally instead, no risk of damage.
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OverHeat
« generous god »
This
grfunkulus
Banned
Define piss poor. Define 'lower tdp'. It's a higher power chip with more cores that wasn't advertised as super efficient. It has the word 'extreme' in it for pete's sake. If you're using it at the SD's stock max TDP of 15 (which is NOT high for these portable PCs) it has comparable battery life. If you want an indies only device, there are better models on the market. This has a 120hz screen though, so for lighter games that you want to utilize that for, I'm a'ok with a slight battery life tradeoff. It's wwaaaay better suited to lengthy play sessions than similarly powered devices due to the low weight and top end cooling system.
DenchDeckard
Moderated wildly
FingerBang
Member
As someone who loves his Ally, this point makes no sense. It's a portable device, and poor battery life is not ok because you can use a power bank or plug it in. Although it's not a problem for me because I rarely have long sessions on the go, I wouldn't recommend it to people who game on the go a lot.
Minsc
Gold Member
You can control the battery life by lowering the TDP / wattage used or whatever though. So there's your answer. The device can totally get 3-4 hours I believe if you do so, or simply choose games that don't tax it if that's what you want. I definitely think it's no big deal to use a power bank, as the device is completely removed from being portable in the sense it absolutely does not fit in a pocket. So whatever bag it goes it can extend it's life with a power bank when needed.
Hell you can probably pack in 10 power banks in the same space this device occupies in a bag, so there you go. It's really not asking much at all.
But even with a laptop 30x the size, batteries still only last under an hour powering new tech running max settings. So there's really no good answer IMO for running new AAA games at high settings/framerates.
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Miyazaki’s Slave
Gold Member
If someone is going to be "gaming on the go a lot" then this is not their first experience with portable entertainment. If you have a long commute for example, that person is going to be familiar with power needs. Their phones, their laptops (student/work), and other forms of portable entertainment.
Bringing a power bank or using the provided power outlets on Planes, trains, classrooms, is a very normal occurrence. Topping up your electronics (based on your use) is going to be the norm here.
I could have outlined my comment that way and it would have been far more constructive, but I am old and I wanted people to google Gilligan's Island.
StereoVsn
Member
Yeah, I installed 2tb as a replacement and it was super easy. BIOS even has utility to download Windows image built right into it.
And prices for the drives dropped. 1TB is under $100 and 2TB is around $200.
Davevil
Member
My god that sense of wonder the first time i played.
Please Sony scratch that shit of Q and make a real portable console
Minsc
Gold Member
So clearly there's a demand for it, they just didn't build quite what people wanted. Wonder what everyone's main reason was - I think it might just be it can never compare to a Switch in the sense there's no integrated store and central user experience, people probably were expecting something much less Windows / work like and hoping for something more like the Deck's UI.
STARSBarry
Gold Member
This is why I often like waiting for the version 2 of products like this. Have others take the risk and test out the first version for you before you jump onboard with the improved version. It's why I'm waiting on a steam deck 2. All of the annoying issues of the deck will be fixed by then.
Mr Hyde
Member
Now that the honeymoon is over with the Ally, I must say I'm still very happy with it, but it's mostly because I have it hooked up with the XG Mobile. As a stationary "console", or device, it's very good. I use for it emulation and Xbox/PC stuff that doesn't come to the other platforms, so in that sense I get a lot of mileage out of it.
As a handheld though, I don't think I would've been as happy. Don't get me wrong, it's still great for what it do, playing high end AAA games on the go, but I think the portable aspect of the Ally is far inferior to the Switch, which I play almost solely in handheld mode. The Switch just runs around the Ally in circles when it comes to form factor, battery life and concept design, and for me, Ally just feels uncomfortable and lacking.
I'm also disappointed in how bad the Ally works when switching on and off with the XG Mobile, which is the main reason why I have it connected to the tv nearly all the time. I figured it wasn't gonna be a seamless experience like with the Switch, but it's far too glitchy and cumbersome for me to deal with on a daily basis, it's annoying and ruins my mood. It feels like a tacked on solution that Asus threw into the mix in the late stages of Ally without giving it much thought. In theory, it's a great concept and everything I would want from a hybrid gaming setup, but in reality I just have to accept it just doesn't work that great.
But when the Ally and XG Mobile works in tandem it is a great experience and it plays almost all games with little to no effort, making for a smooth ride. I very much love the open PC landscape, emulation and storefronts such as GoG and Steam. They really elevate gaming for me in a way consoles never could. But I might been a little too quick to dismiss consoles, because it feels good to have them around due to their reliance and ease of use.
With PC added to the PS and Switch combination, I now cover all bases going forward, embracing both the future and the past, and for me that is the greatest feeling I could possibly have.
As a handheld though, I don't think I would've been as happy. Don't get me wrong, it's still great for what it do, playing high end AAA games on the go, but I think the portable aspect of the Ally is far inferior to the Switch, which I play almost solely in handheld mode. The Switch just runs around the Ally in circles when it comes to form factor, battery life and concept design, and for me, Ally just feels uncomfortable and lacking.
I'm also disappointed in how bad the Ally works when switching on and off with the XG Mobile, which is the main reason why I have it connected to the tv nearly all the time. I figured it wasn't gonna be a seamless experience like with the Switch, but it's far too glitchy and cumbersome for me to deal with on a daily basis, it's annoying and ruins my mood. It feels like a tacked on solution that Asus threw into the mix in the late stages of Ally without giving it much thought. In theory, it's a great concept and everything I would want from a hybrid gaming setup, but in reality I just have to accept it just doesn't work that great.
But when the Ally and XG Mobile works in tandem it is a great experience and it plays almost all games with little to no effort, making for a smooth ride. I very much love the open PC landscape, emulation and storefronts such as GoG and Steam. They really elevate gaming for me in a way consoles never could. But I might been a little too quick to dismiss consoles, because it feels good to have them around due to their reliance and ease of use.
With PC added to the PS and Switch combination, I now cover all bases going forward, embracing both the future and the past, and for me that is the greatest feeling I could possibly have.
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CuteFaceJay
Member
Shit hardware & software, All well n good putting powerful hardware into a compact space but if done just to try and one up another product for the sake of saying you got the more powerful device and then not putting the money into dev time to make sure the user experience isn't total dog shit then you asking for trouble.