Beware the ASUS ROG Ally Reviews

My ASUS ROG Ally review. Looking at Benchmarks and performance of the retail units

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[michaels]

Dave2D is really nailing that "mad scientist isolated in his lab" look.

[Mr.Quinlan]

The fact that Asus included Office and McAfee in this product tells everything you need to know right there. Good job calling them out Dave.

[alistairblaire]

It still amazes me that Windows games mostly run very well on Steam Deck despite running on Linux with compatibility layers. Software really is so important.

[RaedVS]

Really appreciate the extra mile you go through to deliver us the experience the manufacturer intended, instead of just using it as it and calling it a day. 🙏🏻

[jblev]

The thing about the steam deck is that the software just works and valve has constantly kept updating things. That support is unmatched

[savanthsunnyt]

The detail. He waited. Done each game battery drain test. That's alot of dedication. I love his videos because, his reviews always be on side of user perspective. Sweet, simple, short. Great review as usual. Thanks, I was waiting for yours to come.

[xenocide]

THIS is why I dig Dave's reviews. He WILL point out the flaws. He's my top one and Jarrod's. They think about the consumer first and if it's worth our money or if we'll even like it. I did not know that the steam deck was made to last a few years. It's a good point on it and would love to hear from Asus or if they'll make the new Ally 2 more long lasting. Either way, now I got doubts. I might still buy it, especially cuz my vacation time is coming up and need one or a laptop. Either way, thanks Dave. You rock!

[iau]

The Ally is almost a Steam Deck ad. It has really allowed me to notice all of the small but brilliant decisions Valve made with the Deck beyond just raw horsepower.

[Evie]

That performance gap with the new update really makes your review THE DEFINITIVE one to watch, it really is a surprising gap :o

[mikew]

One of the things I had forgotten about coming back to PC gaming was the amount of troubleshooting you need to do before you can play a game. It's not terrible, but having to do that on a hand held would be a deal breaker for me.

[rescuerammer]

Your honest approach is the sole reason why I've been a long time subscriber. Well done. I have the Steam Deck and I enjoy the hell out of it... The Ally seems to be a great machine, but I'm hooked on this Steam community... They're so damn helpful and knowledgeable. My deck is literally getting repaired as we speak, no questions asked. Left trigger was sticking on occasion... They're all over it. So easy.

[landofsyn]

Update**** currently this thing is amazing and blows the steam deck out in my subjective opinion... obv objectively, it's faster for newer games. But tbh can't go wrong with any of these things now a days

[TakiUdon]

The situation is a bit more complex. TDP vs. TDP comparisons assume that every manufacturer used the standard voltage curve profiles that are made for the chip from AMD. Board manufacturers have the ability to increase the performance of a given TDP or range of TDPs by scaling the curve up.

You would not be able to see this if you only looked at the listed TDP, and a lot of the available sensors would still appear to operate under the normal limits. However, you can effectively have a 2-3W boost hidden into your "TDP" at any given level. This kind of boost can inflate your scores by up to 100% at lower TDP levels. Finding out if a device did this is a lot more work than anyone would want to do, and if you do not have a lot of devices with the same chip from different manufacturers, you'd never be able to pick out the the ones that juiced their numbers. Ally represents real performance for this processor.

[GregLopes]

The work that Valve has done behind the scenes to support the Steam Deck is really unparalleled compared to any gaming device I’ve seen. They have made it drastically better compared to a year ago. They even do stuff like release support for controllers and other external hardware that they don’t even manufacture. They’ve been killing it. I hope that ASUS does the same with the Ally, but it’s a lot to live up to. We will see!

[Code_String]

It's nice that they're looking into allowing more control to the device. Impatient to see what disabling cores on this thing will do, plus the potential for undervolting if UXTU allows so in the future.

[alejmc]

Mac user over here… was between getting a Steam Deck or a ROG Ally, went for the Ally in the end. Using it as a standalone handheld and windows old and recent enough games, got tired of all the Parallels and CrossOver tinkering, it works don’t get me wrong, but just want the plug-n-play’est experience.
To my surprise, just swapping an Apple Studio display to the ROG Ally works 100%, even the camera, mic, speakers and connected keyboard/mouse peripherals to the screen.

That said, man, since I bought it, it was like 3hrs of just tinkering around to get all the apps updates, windows updates, BIOS updates, good god… makes one appreciate the 15mins open and use experience of getting a MacBook or similar (minus Apple being Apple tends to slash legacy software too unhinged).

That said, it’s an amazing handheld still today, crazy prices too during these holidays, got a -$200 for “Boxing Day Sales” and an extra -$100 open box, at a Best Buy.

[MrEstarion]

They must have silenced you for speaking the truth

Actually, the silence was as deafening as the 9W performance:(

[Nick-pctf]

You make a good point, Dave. When life has so much going on, you just want things simple and quick. That’s the appeal of consoles, quick resume and so on. Turn on and a couple of clicks and you’re set. Like a Nintendo Switch. No to bloat, pop ups, multiple programs to get things done, etc.

[theonetruemorty]

Spot on. Most of the reviewer complaints I saw could be resolved by software/firmware updates. The big selling point for me is the multi-platform capability and the ability to install other apps. For simplicity/average user, Steam Deck might be preferable. I, for one, plan to strip the Ally of any bloatware as soon as I get it and tweak it to my liking, install emulators, etc. For that purpose, along with being able to step outside of the Steam ecosphere, I think the Ally is preferable.

[BigTandJC]

Steam deck only plays games from steam.

Asus can play any windows game or app