Asus ROG Ally vs Steam Deck: Which handheld wins?

The Asus ROG Ally is here to take on the Steam Deck. This new handheld gaming console features better specs than Valve’s machine, including a 1080p 120Hz display and the new AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip. It can also play Windows-compatible games right out of the box.

We've tested both systems and found them to be great for playing PC games on the go. But how do they compare against one another? In this video, we’ll go over what each handheld gaming console has to offer to help you decide which one to get.

Videos • Reviews • Tech Insight

#asusrogally #steamdeck #gamingconsole

[Doady]

While I much prefer the Steam Deck, I appreciate the Rog Ally and what it's trying to do.
I hope more brands try the handheld market, competition is healthy and each incarnation will improve the other one.

[Tegui]

I just want a psp 4000, is it too much to ask for?

[ChicagoTechGuy]

The steam deck started it all and ASUS just opened the beginning to a serious competitive market! We are going to see every company coming out with their own versions of these things now, you watch! PC gaming just got boosted big time!

[dacbiet]

The Variable Refresh Rate is what sold me over when I sold my Deck and picked up the Ally. The smooth butter frames is a significant difference that I can’t go back to the Deck even if I tried

[memelordz]

I’m glad the steam deck finally has some competition here. Because while the efforts of Aya, onexplayer and gpd have been valiant, the low volume of those devices makes the price far too high, so asus finally stepping in should make the whole industry better

[kitgary]

Performance is the key factor! No matter how good the user experience is, it will be useless if the FPS is low, so I go for ROG Ally.

[mythicdrakefox]

Steam deck being on sale made this decision a little easier but i am super excited to see where this market goes in the future

[mrmangbro]

I really like the extra performance on the ally but overall i can't really justify the price difference. most games i plan on playing works perfectly fine for the deck

[NeonPixels]

The Ally is an amazing device, but for ease of use, the Steam Deck wins hands down. The Steam Deck perfectly balances the ease of use of the Switch for the general customer with the ability to tinker that power users want. Sometimes I don't want to have to jump into desktop mode and fiddle with a bunch of stuff to get a game going - I just want to power up, hit a button, and start playing. The Steam Deck does that MUCH better than the Ally, currently. I'm glad the Ally exists though, it definitely shows this space is going to be heating up in the next couple of years and Valve has to keep on top of their game if they want the Deck to be a going concern in the long term.

The other thing people rarely talk about that this reviewer actually did mention - look if I want 60+ FPS with all settings maxed, I'll grab my laptop and set up somewhere. Cranking all of the settings to max on the Ally gets you about 1 - 1.5 hours of battery life. At most you're getting about 2h. I've comfortably played games like Divinity 2 and Nier on my Deck for four hour stretches. Emulation, almost six. Even No Man's Sky capped at 40 fps got me around 3.5 hours. People are kindof glossing over the fact that this is supposed to be a PORTABLE device.

[rickyasbury]

Here we go again with the “Steam Deck can’t run everything” again. My argument is this Valve did make drivers for windows so with that being said just run windows and it will have the same library as ROG Ally and amp up your power plan to 95% and vram to 10000MB for the best experience

[aolvs]

Valves ultimate move would be releasing a new z1 board with cooked up magic as a replacement for steam deck sustainability

[glight]

The only downside of Rog Ally is that is running Windows which is much more source hungry than the SteamOS

[drummer]

I've been building computers for 20 years, tinkering with them since I was 10 or so back in 1985, Tandy, Commodore etc. Windows 11 isn't bad but for a handheld system I feel that it needs to be closer to plug and play. Just like with the Switch, I love the SD because even though you don't just put in a game and play, you download and launch it. Using just STEAM itself, this is extremely easy and sufficient. I'm tired of windows (personally), and I wouldn't want to deal with all of the patches, updates, log ins on different games and their platforms etc etc. So for me a Nintendo Switch and a SD are the way to go, and together make a good team for PC gaming, and Nintendo Exclusives with a few 3rd party titles here and there. I also like the old title selection from Steam, old 360 style games, also many that were on Xbox One and PS4. These reason to me as a 47 year old gamer are the big reasons the SD wins. And all of the cool adjustments you can make in game. Way cool.

[harissonbond]

Steam deck owner here and admit only had a few play sessions with the Ally in Best Buy.
Deal breaker for me with the Ally is how the sharp edges digs through my palm
The other thing I'd be concern with the Ally is it doesn't get as good battery life in lower tdp than the steam deck where I like to play because I don't like playing plugged in
both great systems though if you can afford it
food for thought for the cost of one Ally you can purchase 1 base model Steam Deck and a Nintendo Oled Switch

[hqizyyy]

I'm leaning towards the ROG because it can play my games outside of Steam, and I can watch my movies on it as well with it being a W11 device. The battery life is my biggest sticking point though, and price.

[dawriter]

Pretty good video, small notes and I'm not trying to start anything.

1) Shown by most performance metrics of the ROG Ally, everyone seems to be bumping the resolutions down to 720p to get better performance and battery to beat the Steamdeck performance. You go to max 1080p on the ROG Ally and it's similar in performance to the Steamdeck. This is at the 15w measurements of course for both, bumping the ROG Ally to the 25w/30w may yield slightly better fps but again more so at the 720p Res. I feel the screens bigger draw is the higher gamut color range which the Steamdeck lacks and has to be compensated with a pluggin somewhat. Valve knows this is what owners want, so realistically they should stick to the 720p/800p for the best performance in games but go to an OLED like Valve said they are thinking of going to in the near future. I believe the 1080p resolution in the ROG Ally is a waste imo as it's been shown time and time again that no one games at that in handheld mode, it's bumped down to 720p for various understandable reasons. While 120hz is nice, very few games are able to get to that number without heavy compromises including visuals or battery life.

2) Keep in mine that Steamdeck can drop to 3w and even drop the GPU hz via the QAM, and depending on the game can run almost 7 - 8 hours for battery life. The ROG Ally buckles as you enter the 9w range and doesn't compete with the Steamdeck whatsoever in regards to power. You can try undervolting/underclocking the ROG Ally but that's for those that like to heavily tinker. Without doing that, the max the ROG Ally will get is 3hrs battery life otherwise, no matter the game. Just because you have better specs and higher numbers, doesn't result in a better experience always, there's other factors in play.

Just additional thoughts not mentioned in the review...

[OmahaGTP]

The second a new Deck gets a better display or a new Windows handheld with the same quality display as the Ally with a bigger battery gets released the Ally will be moot. I have both, they’re fine. Neither are amazing.

[bmanzella]

There is no winner. Both devices have different strengths for different situations. I wish reviews had more nuance instead of just declaring one a winner.

[mikezmac]

Wow the battle lines are drawn and the fanatics are out in force!
"Zealot Deck Devotees" and the "New Tech Addicts" battle!!!!
Steam Vs. Ally is almost as vicious as Apply Vs Samsung..

[gaminginstilllife]

So many mistakes in this review, way more games are verified than 2000 on Steam deck. Was the biggest one