opinion: First voices show themselves taken with the gaming handheld. In my eyes, the gadget already scores against the Steam Deck in an important discipline
Asus recently introduced its own gaming handheld, namely the ROG Ally. The company wants to ride on the Steam Deck”s hype about mobile PC gaming and get a piece of the delicious cake before Gabe Newell has eaten it completely.
The first international testers were allowed to lay their hands on the device and get an idea of performance, display, battery life, looks and more. I”ll knead these press reviews into a compact dough for you, spice it up with my very own opinion of the ROG Ally, and we”ll have our own cake that we won”t share with anyone else. Deal? Deal!
The hardware is top…
Let”s first look at the hardware of the ROG Ally. It is extremely powerful, even more so than the Steam Deck, and should have enough performance even for current and more demanding titles thanks to the brand-new AMD Ryzen Z1 APU – only Full HD resolution and an RDNA3 graphics unit. The Steam Deck even only has a resolution of 1280×800 pixels and allows images to flicker across the screen at 60 Hz, while the ROG Ally has an eye-friendly 120 Hz.
Depending on the configuration, up to 16 GB LPDDR5 RAM and a 512 GB PCIe-4 SSD are added. The whole thing is packed into a case weighing only 608 grams. For comparison: The Steam Deck weighs a bit more with 669 grams.
What do the testers say? Very taken with the performance of the ROG Ally is Allisa James from (Techradar) who reports:
When trying out Ghostrunner, I had the option of playing with either DirectX 11 or the more experimental DirectX 12. I opted for DX 12 and the gameplay was extremely smooth, with no noticeable slowdowns, and the graphics were stunning.
Monica Chin of (The Verge) gets even more specific when she announces:
I can”t stress enough how different the gaming experience is compared to the Steam deck, which is lower resolution, darker, and maxes out at 60 FPS.
Less concerned with performance and more concerned with feel was CNet”s Dan Ackerman, who is impressed with how the device handles:
On paper the difference isn”t huge, 608 grams on the Ally vs. 669 grams on the Steam Deck, but the size and shape distribute the weight well and it felt easier to hold for long periods of time.
Are there still question marks? Yes, there are. It is still unclear what the capacity of the battery is and how long it will last on the road. You also have to consider that the ROG Ally will probably never reach the potential maximum performance of the Ryzen Z1 chip in everyday use, since the APU will probably consume up to 30 watts – much too much for a mobile device, not to mention the heat development.
..but the software is the match ball
Now we come to my own announced opinion. Because for me, the ROG Ally is not exciting because of the hardware (again: battery and waste heat limit the power anyway), but because of its software.
Instead of Linux, Windows 11 is used here. This is probably the most important difference for us gamers, because it removes all compatibility limits in one fell swoop. I don”t feel like fiddling around with my Steam OS and messing with that darn Linux desktop anymore. And now before the experts just let their fingers fly over the keyboard in the comments section: Yes, you can install Windows 11 and related software on the Steam deck.
However, we must not only look at such devices from our enthusiast perspective, but also put ourselves in the skin of a less crazy end user who simply wants to gamble. And what will he want? Exactly: Steam, GOG, the Epic Launcher, Uplay and Co., just like on the PC. We are creatures of habit, and the hardware manufacturers know that as well.
In my opinion, Asus should focus the marketing of the ROG Ally less on the performance, which is only important on paper, and more on the software. Other competitors, such as the Ayaneo Air Pro that I tested, also rely on Windows, but I do not have a large company in the background that can support me outside of China – point for Asus.
Asus already seems to have realized that the software has the most potential for market success. When you buy the ROG Ally, not only are common programs like the ones listed above pre-installed, you even get a 90-day trial for the Microsoft Game Pass on top.
Will I be buying the ROG Ally? The Steam Deck is my retro machine. I only pull out the PSP for classics that haven”t been ported to any other platform. And the Game Boy Color with the pika-pika design…oh, let”s not go there.
There”s a good chance I”ll go for this one, too. Of course, that also depends on the price, which is not yet known. Only with the optics I still struggle a little. It looks like the 90s, and as I was born in 1990, I”m allowed to say that. On the other hand, I already had the flashy dinosaur Tamagotchi back then, so I can definitely get over a bit of RGB gimmickry on the go.
Much more important than my opinion – because I already know it – are your thoughts on this topic! Are you interested in the Asus ROG Ally? If yes: What features are you most interested in, the performance, the feel, or something else entirely? If no: What do you dislike about the gadget? Either way, feel free to let me know in the comments!
