Asus ROG Ally

So I did a thing and sold my Steam Deck OLED and bought myself an Ally.

I LOVE the Steam Deck; the OLED screen is brilliant, so is the ergonomics and the battery.

But I wasn’t able to play all the games I wanted due to Linux (Destiny 2 being a prime example) and I wanted to make use of my Xbox Game Pass.

I did try cloud gaming too cover both of these but it wasn’t great and I didn’t want to have to pay for GeForce Now / Game Pass Ultimate. I also tried Sunshine/Moonlight but due to poor latency with my home network and the host PC having a ultrawide monitor, it didn’t work well.

So that led me to get the Ally and just run everything natively. I have no issue with Windows 11 and find it easy enough to navigate. Destiny runs at 100 fps in 25w mode using AFMF with no noticeable input lag.

I miss the screen size of the OLED but 1080p is noticeably sharper so I can read text much better.

Battery isn’t a huge concern of mine as 99% of the time I’m at home.

Overall I’m happy with it.

Was tempted by the X but at £800, I’d rather get laptop!
 
Asus are saying there is now a 2-3 day delay on Ally X Pre orders being sent due to a warehouse issue. They actually use Laptopsdirect which have been awful in the past for me.

Edit cancelled with Asus and ordered through Currys. Should be arriving today.
 
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I'm seriously thinking about an upgrade to the X.
Asus seem to have ticked all the right boxes that were missing from the original, and my current Ally is with Curry's for a repair on stick drift.

I paid for the 7 day repair or replace service, which is up tomorrow....And they haven't even collected it from my local store yet :rolleyes:

So, a quick refund and I think I'll upgrade to the X :D
 
FlyingFish said:
I'm seriously thinking about an upgrade to the X.
Asus seem to have ticked all the right boxes that were missing from the original, and my current Ally is with Curry's for a repair on stick drift.

I paid for the 7 day repair or replace service, which is up tomorrow....And they haven't even collected it from my local store yet :rolleyes:

So, a quick refund and I think I'll upgrade to the X :D
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I did not have the regular Ally so cannot compare but the X has impressed me far more than I expected.
 
I've really enjoyed owning the Ally, it's a great handheld, and I'm more than happy navigating around the Windows OS. But the X, even though not an Ally 2, seems to have addressed all the originals 'quirks' so looks like a solid purchase.
 
Tbh once setup having windows is not that bad. The Armoury software works pretty good. I like having all the stores available as most of my games are now through Gamepass or Epic games. I don’t really buy games these days.

Is Bazzite Steam only ?
 
MOOGLEYS said:
Looks good but I’m happy with Windows it works perfect once setup. I like being able to use it as a PC as well when needed.
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Would be interested in whether it makes a good emulation machine. Are you going to try Ryujinx on it?
Also, what's it like for PC gaming at 720p resolution? I've watched all the reviews and it seems to struggle with more modern titles at 1080p, even on low settings (i.e. can't sustain 60 fps.) Does it look OK at 720p? ..because from what I can see 720p seems to solve the performance issues. Cheers.
 
nomadd said:
Would be interested in whether it makes a good emulation machine. Are you going to try Ryujinx on it?
Also, what's it like for PC gaming at 720p resolution? I've watched all the reviews and it seems to struggle with more modern titles at 1080p, even on low settings (i.e. can't sustain 60 fps.) Does it look OK at 720p? ..because from what I can see 720p seems to solve the performance issues. Cheers.
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No idea about emulation sorry I have never tried.

It seems to manage everything I have tried fairly well tbh. I run most AAA games at 720p and generally high settings but I’m happy with FPS over 40. Tbh I cannot tell the difference between 1080 and 720 on the 7” screen. It does have VRR so dips are not as noticeable. I have been playing the latest COD campaign and it manages that ok. Halo infinite also runs really well. Forza Horizon 4 runs really well even with High/Ultra settings always well over 60fps.

I have found it much better than I was expecting especially on newer AAA games. It’s never going to compete with a decent gaming laptop with a dedicated GPU but it does exactly what it intends.

I’m really happy with it and find it much easier to game on than a laptop or console etc. I can game sat in the garden….. :D
 
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MOOGLEYS said:
No idea about emulation sorry I have never tried.

It seems to manage everything I have tried fairly well tbh. I run most AAA games at 720p and generally high settings but I’m happy with FPS over 40. Tbh I cannot tell the difference between 1080 and 720 on the 7” screen. It does have VRR so dips are not as noticeable. I have been playing the latest COD campaign and it manages that ok. Halo infinite also runs really well. Forza Horizon 4 runs really well even with High/Ultra settings always well over 60fps.

I have found it much better than I was expecting especially on newer AAA games. It’s never going to compete with a decent gaming laptop with a dedicated GPU but it does exactly what it intends.

I’m really happy with it and find it much easier to game on than a laptop or console etc. I can game sat in the garden….. :D
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Performance of the Z1 Extreme is kind of varied - plugged in on my Go I can run Quake 2 RTX with high quality settings at 1280x800 with FSR @ 75% resolution scale and get playable framerates in the 40s which is pretty decent given the path tracing demands of that, or drop settings a little and get around 60. By comparison my old GTX1070 gets about 10-15FPS.

Some stuff though it is barely faster than a GTX1030 maybe GTX1050 kind of performance.
 
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Rroff said:
Performance of the Z1 Extreme is kind of varied - plugged in on my Go I can run Quake 2 RTX with high quality settings at 1280x800 with FSR @ 75% resolution scale and get playable framerates in the 40s which is pretty decent given the path tracing demands of that, or drop settings a little and get around 60. By comparison my old GTX1070 gets about 10-15FPS.

Some stuff though it is barely faster than a GTX1030 maybe GTX1050 kind of performance.
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GTX 1070 is going to be faster for much, it's only the ray tracing stuff the Z1 would excel at.
 
I've owned the X for a couple of weeks, and just like all the reviews say (shocking I know) all the small improvements have made a massive difference to how great it is to own and play games on the X.

Even with the same chipset, the X runs games faster, smoother and cooler, therefore quieter than the original.

Probably not mentioned much is the sound of the fans when they are running faster, they now have a pitch that is no where near as intrusive when your gaming at higher Watts. It's hard to describe but if you're sat on the sofa running a demanding game, you don't bother other people in the same room due to the fans spinning faster. Something I was conscious of with the original.

The thumbsticks now feel a lot more precise with a weighty feel to them, which are great to use. And after having issues with the originals stick drift/accuracy, these are now very accurate to play with.

The left and right shoulder buttons took a while to get used to, as they feel like they have changed size somehow, but they both click with a positive feel. And the rear buttons are just fine, though I didn't have issue with the originals back buttons.

I don't feel any noticeable difference to the XYAB buttons, they just feel like the old ones. Which is perfectly fine.

The D pad, is a different story. That feels great now, with a quality 'heavy' feel to it that when you press, it clicks nice and solid without feeling or sounding 'clicky' and rotating it round with your thumb feels very positive and nice to use. A big improvement, the best I've come across in a controller.

And of course there's the 80Wh battery... What a massive game changing quality of life upgrade this is.. Playing high Watt AAA games for a couple of hours is amazing, this is proper portable handheld gaming as it should be, my Anker 140W power bank barely gets a look in now, and I don't miss being tethered to it by usb :D
The Ally X will do 100W fast charging, although my tests showed 78W but that's fast enough for me, to be topped back up without waiting ages.

Overall build quality feels excellent to me, it's a very sturdy solid device although as mentioned above it's not perfect. It's not quite Apple level yet :D The RH trigger on mine did start to quietly squeak when I was playing some trigger bashing game, so after a quick Google, I opened her up, and dabbed a small amount of silicone grease on both trigger springs..easy fix :)

Upgrading to a larger SSD, was super easy apart from trying to pry the two halves of the X away from each other, the pesky clips are really quite secure, and it took a bit of patience to not risk breaking anything.

This is a fantastic handheld, not cheap, but Black Friday/Monday. ..Tuesday or whatever it is nowadays isn't far away, so there might be some offers on, because it does need to come down in price, then it will sell like hot cakes. Although I have checked a few times and it has been out of stock several times at the purple place, so it must be selling well.

Mick
 
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