I HATE being lied to… but I love the ROG Ally

Asus was a bit misleading with their marketing during the preview cycle, but we've now had time to properly test the ROG Ally Z1 Extreme and it's still a very impressive handheld. We were already excited, but when they FINALLY confirmed the final price we almost couldn't believe it. Time to sell your Steam Deck? Maybe...

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

FOLLOW US
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MUSIC CREDIT
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Intro: Laszlo - Supernova

Outro: Approaching Nirvana - Sugar High

CHAPTERS
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0:00 Intro
2:00 15W Performance
2:55 25W Performance
3:55 Battery
4:30 Display
7:30 Cooling
8:25 Noise
9:25 Software
11:58 Ally Advantages
13:20 Physical Aspects
14:50 Conclusion
17:43 Outro

[LinusTechTips]

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

[themoderndilettante]

Whoever came up with the idea to have the pulsing white circle appear on your graphs so people can more quickly and easily reference the metrics you are referring to deserves a raise. It made viewing your graphs and data pages SO MUCH BETTER!

[castillorj]

A Steam Deck feature offer overlooked is its console-like sleep function. As a parent with small children, being able to put my game down at a moment’s notice is a must.

[ahmedelsayed]

You overlooked a lot of important points:
1- The sleep mode that Valve offers.
2- The Gyroscope.
3- Some games are optimized specifically from the developers of these games to run better on the Steam Deck.
4- The automatic controller layouts for the Steam Deck.
5- The big community behind Steam Deck that offers software optimizations for it.
6- Driver and software optimizations made from Valve developers to overcome some games' issues that are not fixed on Windows.
7- Asus bad reputation when it comes to faulty hardware products and customer support.
8- You can buy Steam Deck for $400 and buy SD card, and it is much cheaper than ROG Ally.

[brostugen]

you know, for a person that used to bus tables just to be able to afford a Gameboy Advance back then, I am genuinely awestruck at how much advance these handhelds are, I was already very impressed with the PSP back then, now to witness this it's mindblowing😮, I don't even mind the nitty gritty ASUS Ally vs Valve Steam Deck, they are both out of this world😅

[VSaturn-X]

The biggest advantage the ROG Ally has over the Steam Deck for me is that the Ally will be available in my country unlike the Deck.

[IOUaUsername]

Every time they talk about these things I start wanting one, but then I remember that whenever go anywhere but home, I'm busy doing things that aren't gaming.

[xadek]

Glad to see competition in the PC handheld scene. Can't wait to see what Valve is cooking for Steam Deck 2.

[lifelesme]

I know they don't often bring up 3rd party stuff when it comes to hardware (unless its the only way to get stuuff working) but i think it deserves a mention that steam deck can install plugins to get aaround some issuues, such as the "searching protonDB to see if your game is compatible" a plugin fixes that by adding the ratiing for the game selected game menu. Also you can improve performance on the steamdeck with tweaks from "CryoUtiliities". Although I know this wiill get lost in the void of comments I think its worth mentioning anyway.

[wizpig]

No regrets with my steam deck but i'm glad there's competition pushing things along.

[pitdoctor]

Based on how ASUS has been acting recently I would be terrified to buy one of these. If you do buy one, you better hope it doesn't break, cause their shady asses are going to be a huge pain to work with.

[mcslothalot]

The Steam Deck currently costs "only" ~370€ (cheapest option during summer sale)) and the ROG Ally costs 800€
That is a huge price difference especially since you dont need the most expensive Steam Deck version.
In addition, the Steam Deck comes with a case which is a nice bonus.

But the most important feature that is missing for the ROG Ally is the quick resume.

[BoJangles]

I’m rooting for this and every other handheld to be successful, as competition is great for us consumers, but I’m good with the Steam Deck for now

[TheNiteNinja]

I'm torn because I like this device, but ever since Asus is being scumbags about their AM5 boards, I don't know if I can back them.

[youtubeviewer]

I love the fact that these handheld devices are becoming a thing. Very convenient form factor.

[composeroflight]

I love how you just tell it how it is even when sponsored

[DanVille]

Literally went to Best Buy and just bought one a couple hours ago. Just got home to charge it. I am extremely excited.

[Ivwin]

The button sticking issue is an actual gamebreaker for me. The fact that they knew about the issue and didnt fix it makes me feel like they wont support this very well... Stuff like that is a huge red flag for me...

[riveraluciano]

The Ally LOOKS promising, but with their current track record (see Asus' last debacle with AMD CPUs), the lack of support for repairability, Armoury Crate and overall software (and what that entails), I am not so sure I want to give this one a go.

It sure is tempting to go for this instead of a Steam Deck, but given it's an ASUS product, I'm holding my breath to be honest, even if it means having less performance, "worse" audio and a worse screen.

At the most, I'll take another look at this one in about 4 months, to see if there have been any actual positive changes.

[byjacobc]

I have had no problems whit rog ally. Its been a blessing and it plays everything i put at it smoothly i love it havent used main pc for a while. Recommend it 10/10 im using z1 extreme