Asus ROG Ally

[degen]

For anyone wondering what support for the Ally using the purple store is like, just discovered my unit no longer reads SD cards.

Webchat said I had to call their phone line.
Called their phone line, they just gave me another phone number and fobbed me to deal with ASUS directly.
Asus phone was not available, so had to send a webnote.

Fun times!

My SD card stopped working within their 28 day return policy fortunately. The guy just swapped it for a new one didn't even check it. However not looking forward to when it breaks again out of their return period.

I very rarely ran my Ally in turbo mode. Spent most of it's time at 15w or 20w.

 

[will13]

How does the ally feel in hand? I loved the steam deck but couldn't hold a switch for more then about 10min

 

[Si.]

Just picked one of these up 2nd hand.. Surprised that I still got the 3 months Game Pass ultimate.

I already have a Steam Deck but wanted to make a comparison then sell one or the other.. So far, Windows is a PITA, but the screen is soo much better than the Deck LCD.

 

[willhub]

I noticed a "new update", I only recently updated mine, wondered why it kept booting into EZ Flash, then I seen 333 update, seems like a mixed bag for people some saying it lowers performance.

On another note, anyone gone to route of 2280 NVME drives? You can get a 90 degree adaptor and stick one in, the adaptors are like, £11-£14 next day or about £1 - £4 from Ch-I-Na.

2TB P3 Plus for £72

 

[PishY]

Just picked one of these up 2nd hand.. Surprised that I still got the 3 months Game Pass ultimate.

I already have a Steam Deck but wanted to make a comparison then sell one or the other.. So far, Windows is a PITA, but the screen is soo much better than the Deck LCD.

Which do you prefer? Been looking at both of these for a while

 

[Si.]

It's difficult, neither are perfect.

I think the Ally screen is great, and you really do notice the VRR on games, makes them play smoother. There is nothing wrong with the LCD on the Steamdeck, especially since 3.5.5 came out with the better colour settings, and the OLED should be great.. but I think I'd rather have VRR over OLED.

Using it handheld, the Steam Deck is obviously larger, but to me it's more comfortable to use, the larger size works for me. Saying that, I prefer the sticks on the Ally (A lot of people don't like them).

Can't really comment on battery as I've not used the Ally enough, at the moment for what I've been doing on battery have been no issue, but I know it's not great.

OS wise.. SteamOS all day long, every day, with 1 exception.. I wish Xbox Game Pass worked on the Steamdeck. I know there are ways to fudge it, and I could install windows on the Deck (I have done that before and it was such a pain I removed it after a few days). Having windows on the Ally means I can just use PC game pass and just install all the games I want. However, and it's a big however.. Windows is such a pain, updates for windows, updates for ROG, updates for ArmouryCrate.. seems like it's alway updating. Also you get all the windows annoyances, sometimes it doesn't wake up from sleep when you want to, sometimes it does it when you don't, sometimes things jsut crash, or the screen goes off, so many annoyances. Even if SteamOS becomes available for the Ally, then that would take away the selling point of game pass working.. I have a gaming PC so I can deal with the windows things there, I like the "console" experience of the Deck.

The performance of the Ally is better, but not that much better.. For example, I've been emulating PS3 on the Ally, and it works well, but it does also on the Deck.. games that don't play full speed on the Deck, don't play full speed on the Ally either, so minimal gain there.. AAA games for sure play better on the Ally than the Deck, but you have to tweak settings manually, with the Deck, valve do that for you (Not all ways).

In conclusion.... I will likely keep the deck and sell the Ally.. I might even sell the Deck and get an OLED deck instead.

 

[UTmaniac]

According to a post on hotukdeals, Asus are selling these directly for £599.

 

[opethdisciple]

I have a friend who is thinking of picking up one of these.

What are peoples thoughts.

This vs the steam deck?

 

[willhub]

Don't have a steam deck but the deck OLED's screen is better slightly, has HDR. The Ally is much more powerful though and will run games mostly at higher frames.

 

[Si.]

if you want game pass, then it has to be windows.

 

[LadFromWales]

I considered getting an Ally to replace my faulty Legion Go, but the battery life I achieved on the Go puts me off from trying another Z1 Extreme handheld with similar battery capacity for now. I have heard the Ally is more efficient with a TBP lower than the Go for any given TDP, but it's still not night and day different.

I play games on Game Pass quite regularly, but I've still gone for a Steam Deck OLED due to its battery life.
I have seen that due to the improved WiFi capabilities of the new revision that Game Pass streaming is much improved over the original. Of course, I'll test that myself to get my own opinion on improved. Video compression artifacts are very distracting in some games.

I guess I could always buy games on Steam, will likely still be cheaper than buying an Ally or trying a other LeGo!

 

[Si.]

Had to get my Ally replaced die to faulty SD card slot. I bought it 2nd hand so was very happy when the local store replaced it with a brand new one. I also got an additional 3 months of Game Pass which was cool..

I've see some reports that the newer build dates on the Ally have fixed the SD issue, but I've also see other reports that it hasn't.. I with ROG would just come out and tell people if it's fixed or not..

I still have my Steamdeck (Original LCD version), but ability to use Game Pass on the Ally is a total winner for me.. and the screen on the Ally is fantastic..

 

[ahenners]

Further price drop to 549 means I'm joining the Ally club this evening when I collect it. Are there recommended tweaks to do with Windows to cut down background processes etc. that affect performance or battery life?

 

[willhub]

Further price drop to 549 means I'm joining the Ally club this evening when I collect it. Are there recommended tweaks to do with Windows to cut down background processes etc. that affect performance or battery life?

I haven't bothered teaking windows as such, just making sure the startup list is very minimal. Generally all performance saving features turned off.

 

[ahenners]

I haven't bothered teaking windows as such, just making sure the startup list is very minimal. Generally all performance saving features turned off.

Thanks. Had a quick play last night after ALL the windows updates were done (yay windows!) and seemed really good. May be upgrading the SSD sooner than planned though, forgot just how big new games are. FH5 alone was circa 150gb!

 

[willhub]

Thanks. Had a quick play last night after ALL the windows updates were done (yay windows!) and seemed really good. May be upgrading the SSD sooner than planned though, forgot just how big new games are. FH5 alone was circa 150gb!

Consider the SSD 90 degree adaptor card and a 2280 NVME if you upgrade.

 

[d3moliti0n]

Can I use a Sabrent Rocket 2230 NVME SSD in the ROG Ally? As I'm not sure if it uses a 2230, or 2280 SSD.

 

[willhub]

Can I use a Sabrent Rocket 2230 NVME SSD in the ROG Ally? As I'm not sure if it uses a 2230, or 2280 SSD.

It uses 2230 but you can get adaptor to use 2280 however higher powered nvme of 2280 would need a heatsink.

 

[d3moliti0n]

It uses 2230 but you can get adaptor to use 2280 however higher powered nvme of 2280 would need a heatsink.

Ah, that's great, as I've already got a spare 2230 SSD, the Sabrent one mentioned above. So it just saves me having to buy another.

 

[Si.]

Just upgraded to 2tb.. that a PITA the cloud recovery process is, took me 3 hours to get the thing back up and running.. SO much easier when I did it on my steam deck..