We are not friends. - ROG Ally Z1

The ROG Ally Z1 Extreme has a ton of hype around it and is the handheld PC that Linus has been daily driving, but ASUS recently released a cheaper non-extreme model that's... a much harder sell. Will the performance drop be worth $100 or is this an easy pass?

Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.

FOLLOW US ELSEWHERE
---------------------------------------------------

CHAPTERS
---------------------------------------------------
0:00 Reviews have been harsh
0:20 Unboxing and buttons/ports
1:29 Difference between the Z1 and Z1 Extreme
3:05 Sponsor - Antlion Audio
3:34 LABS gaming and battery tests
5:14 LABS display and thermal test results
6:21 Command center and external GPU
6:53 Pricing woes and overall thoughts
7:43 Outro

[jfolz]

Sadly no Steam Deck numbers. Would've been interesting to see if it still humiliates the Ally at low TDP. ASUS promised to fix it, but it's ASUS we're talking about.

[astrahcat]

I want more people to not like this thing because then it'll drop in price on ebay even more. Please keep saying bad things about it.

[SinisterSlay]

It's hard to trust Asus to support anything past release. I guess they have done an OK job, but let's see how it is 5 years later.

[TheYosiFTW]

This thing just exists to upsell you to the Extreme. That's it and that's why it's priced like this too.

[michaelhorton]

I hate cords permanently connected to the charger. Every time I thought my charger quit working, the problem was the cord.

[LawrenceJohnYoung]

Would have been a smart move to ship with a 720p 90hz display. That could have helped lowered the price further, increased the battery life and made the lower performing chip a bit easier to stomach

[jimrustler]

"Under powered and overpriced"
Apple: "Finally! A Worthy Opponent! Our Battle Will Be Legendary!"

[bokie]

My wife recently bought the regular Z1 at BestBuy for $399 and to be honest the price for it is fine, and she's happy with it. I've used it to play Halo MCC and life of p. It honestly plays pretty good for the price. Saved like $200 from the extreme lol

[tyfec]

I have the extreme model but my brother got the Z1 for $399 at Best Buy brand new so that seemed like a pretty good deal

[procrastinatingnerd]

This is why the steam deck is still a great choice, not even referring to the oled. I can easily get over 6 hours on mine with lower demand games.
The ROG Ally has more performance
The Steam Deck is drastically more efficient
if I want performance, I use my desktop...

[jeffreyali]

I’ve used both the Ally and the deck and I gotta be honest, while the deck feels more comfortable and the track pads work great, the screen on the Ally and the ability to play absolutely any game I want without any problems from Linux made me play the Ally way more than the deck. Battery life is a bit worse but you can fix it up by lowering the TDP, Cores, and using a battery bank.

[legendsneverdye]

I got a z1 extreme around a month ago and lasted around 4 days, i was absolutely loving it, until i updated the bios and then it didnt recognize the stock nvme, sadly i returned it

[Knex]

The ROG Ally is on a black Friday sale at BesBuy:

The Z1 Extreme is $619.99
The Z1 NON-Extreme $449.99

For now, this makes it a more compelling overall value, at least hardware-wise. Steam Deck is still a better comprehensive package, as it has decent hardware and just superior software, but that's just my opinion.

[thebizzle]

I saw an open box one for under $350. Great for a mini PC with those specs and you get a screen and controller for free.

[cyanyah]

hi there! gonna sound insane i’m sure haha, but — hear me out.

originally as my first “handheld pc”, I had the ROG Ally. it’s more powerful than the steam deck, sure — but GOD, the little annoyances with windows being janky, the desktop mode being abhorrent, armory crate only working half the time, emulation BARELY working— after about a month, i decided to buy a steam deck.

long story short, i sold my Ally. the deck, in my opinion, is just… infinitely better for me. emulation, the plugins, how vast the customization is — i don’t regret switching at all. i also just ordered the OLED deck — super excited :D

[Hatecrewdethrol]

Honestly when I first got my steam deck the touchpads were the feature I was least excited about, I figured they would just be there and never get used.

Now I honestly don't think I would want a handheld without the touchpads, they're so much more useful than I ever expected them to be

[TremorWatt]

It's really good for someone like me who doesn't have a ton of money and wants to try a handheld PC... when it's on sale. I just got one from Target for just $350. You can't even get a decent Windows laptop for that much these days.

[arghpee]

this is a much less appealing option than just getting the 512gb OLED steam deck for cheaper, with trackpads, OLED HDR, and superior battery life. ROG ally only lasts 40 minutes to 1:30 MAX on battery. Being tethered to the wall and having windows bloat (armory crate is crap), plus no trackpads for a Windows operating system is such a bad deal. Just get a laptop with more power and battery life at that point. You can play all your competitive FPS better on that. Not even mentioning that the z1 extreme SOC is weaker than the Deck on battery power. The only use case I can see for you buying this is if your country does not have Steam Deck easily available to be sold to you.

[Dalmatinac]

love my z1 extreme version. Been playing everything on it, and loving the switch emulation on it. Amazing device.

[silentiumgradas]

for people not trying to run crazy detailed games, the fact that the z1 is $399 now is a steal