We are not friends. - ROG Ally Z1
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- Опубліковано 24 тра 2024
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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?
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CHAPTERS
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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 - Наука та технологія
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.
yeah no. i have 2 asus amd gaming laptops and its been over 2 years and we never got an official usb4 bios. which they marketed the product with.
@hidingmyrealname kinda different for these things dude it's constantly gettinf updates to the bios ..... there is only 1 of them that asus makes so I don't see them stopping support any time soon lol
I'm not in the loop to really know but I'd be a bit surprised if they can really 'fix it' at least not when you are talking to real parity with the Steamdeck level - though I do expect there is quite some room for improvement left with how badly the Ally got trashed last time I saw a comparison. But as the hardware is fundamentally different... Having those extra cores in CPU and GPU parts will always have some power demand even while they are are idle as they can get, and when trying to schedule the game threads for best performance per watt they are unlikely to actually really be that shut off - task scheduling is a black art, but it is definitely easier to find an optimal with less cores to play with, and with less cores there is less parasitic drain for no performance from the 'off' unused cores (not that i am suggesting the Deck is at that real optimum either).
The Z1 Extreme version didn't beat the Steam Deck at 10w, so I doubt a processor that is far less powerful in both core count and GPU horsepower is going to be any better really other than a margin of error.
It wouldn't age well unless they included OLED deck numbers which I dont think they had when they produced this video.
This thing just exists to upsell you to the Extreme. That's it and that's why it's priced like this too.
Big facts honestly
well the z1 model is going for 400$ rn on sale and the extreme is 200$ more at 600$ and both are on sale. So do you think I should save some money and get the z1 model?
@@mhmadmatar9835 in my opinion you should buy the Z1 version its cheaper and there aren't any significant differences when you compare it to the Z1 extreme
@mhmadmatar9835 No. Because the Steam Deck beats the normal Z1. The Steam Deck OLED can be found for just a bit more money. It is better in nearly every way.
No, the Steamdeck has issues too. First, good luck trying to get Forza working with many wheels…. Second, you have to do some pretty janky things to get other games running. Unless you’re willing to switch SteamOS for Windows.
I hate cords permanently connected to the charger. Every time I thought my charger quit working, the problem was the cord.
Well, Steam Deck does that too, unfortunately
How do yall not have your own usb c cables
@@PhenomRommy concern is:
1. Will my individual direct usb c charger gave enough power to charge it well
2. Will using a third party adapter affect my battery life in the long term
Its better that way. If you buy a laptop charger with a USB C slot you'll find that it will break in your bag within a few months if you keep it plugged in.
@@dorian6021 The cable and charger connectors, if you keep them connected or not. Because when the cable is not removable they build large amount of strain relief which is not possible with a removable plug.
And if you choose to unplug it stuff builds up inside the connector
I have bought a xiaomi charger that had a removable plug. The cable deteriorated very fast and the inside of the usb port of the charger got chipped in just half a year. The charger is on its last legs now, I can't carry it with me
Whereas my lenovo nonremovable usb C chargers have been pulled, abused, stepped on, chugged on the bottom of my backpack for years, etc and are still like new.
Phone chargers are smaller and have less of an issue with this.
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.
If u want 5 year support play on a console. PC gaming is a different beast and new tech comes out every week.
The ally is in a state where there is no need for an update. You can always refine things but I actually don't need more from Asus. The system is quiet while having good performance and the shipped software is not buggyal at all. I haven't had a single crash on that machine. All functions of AMDs graphics driver and Asus armory crate overlay are working without problems. It's a finished and polished product. (just don't ask about the sd card slot xD)
The only thing that kinda annoys me is that it uses 12h clock instead of 24h clock in the Asus software and that the LEDs are still too bright on the lowest setting, but you can change that in the software too.
@@sNajlicious and if windows releases an update that breaks the overlay, what's your plan?
@@Harvey2Tall New tech coming out doesn't make the older ones obsolete and is even a plus for PC as you can upgrade if you want more specs or performance whereas for consoles, you're stuck with whatever comes with it for the devices lifetime.
@@fidelisitor8953 you completely missed my point.
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
I just got the same deal. I hope it was a good decision
Asus changed their pricing of the z1 based ally to 399 and I think it is not going to change anytime soon (neither increase back to 599 nor lower than 399)for its price it’s good but z1x sometimes gets a 100 dollar discount but have to look out for the sale again to get at that price
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
I was thinking this exactly, could've saved the money going 720p 90hz and making the screen smaller. If the screen was smaller, 720p wouldn't even look bad.
@@mrscopes2852720p just looks like garbage now though. No matter what screen size lol. We've been very used to better display devices now.
720p at this screen size wouldnt even look bad.@@mrscopes2852
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...
If you set wattage the same, battery life is within the margin most of the time. I think the SteamDeck Oled provides the jump in battery to separate it from the rest
Here is my issue though i dont want my games too look like Junk i want it to look good so that means i need more Performance out of it if i get something that is more Efficient i still look at the Texture Quailty and if i see it worse then what something else is i will call the company out then if they say but the Battery lasts longer i tell them that is a weak point bye
You can play less demanding games in the 7 watt mode of the ally which gives you over 4 hours of gameplay. I never needed it to be unplugged that long. I mostly play on the couch or in bed where a cable is nearby. I prefer having the option to play every game in good quality. You can always use a power bank most of us already have to prolong it on the go. The OG steam deck has a bad screen and an OS I don't like to work with. My stuff is often pirated and from launchers which are not steam
Skill issue @@sNajlicious
@@sNajlicious just buy the games, stop pirating them lmao
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
For that price, it’s a steal. I’m a casual gamer and don’t need all the extra power. People were too harsh on z1 because of its price but for $200 less, it’s a no brainer
@@Joker-yu5kpI'd think I'd rather get a steam deck still at that price
I just bought mine yesterday on best buy the exact price and model you got, watching all these reviewers and reading comments really made me somewhat regret my decision and started contemplating, because no one seems positive talking about the cheaper model.
just reading your comment really helped me put my mind at ease knowing there is someone who finds the lower spec model good especially since its a 200 dollar savings, its literally the price of the apple iphone se 3rd gen depending on your fees and taxes.
im mainly gonna play genshin, my suika watermelon game, maybe try fortnite on it, and then a bunch of random indie titles i found on steam on the go. so i definitely know for sure that this purchase was meant for me.
i just hate that there is no one on youtube who is willing to showcase real time performance with a base z1 chip in the ally with every resolution and graphic settings possible.
@@Joker-yu5kp totally agree... and thats why the steam deck is the most popular handheld... mainly the price, even though its not the most powerful handheld. its just simple and affordable
I got Z1 for Christmas it's still in the delivery box I have to wait until Christmas, but I'm hoping it can run Real Time Strategy Games fairly smoothly like Age of Empires.
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
also, as someone who has used windows ALL their life (started playing on computers at like age 7; im 23 now) i fucking LOVE linux. like, LIGHTYEARS over Windows.
yea man i agree with you linux can be more customized due to it's light weight
way better than windows in that sense
Valve have a massive advantage with SteamOS in that they can change and fully integrated it to the hardware, whereas with the ROG and Legion Go, they are at the mercy of Windows and all the flaws that come with it, Windows could never be as integrated unless Microsoft give them further access in altering it, which is highly unlikely.
Because of the quality of life improvement that SteamOS offers in so many areas with the Deck, many of us are not interested in these rivals.
The irony is, I would be more interested in them if they offer a SteamOS option that's optimised and fully integrated to use the hardware, like SteamOS is with the Steam Deck.
Also, the Steam Deck is starting to pull gamers in from consoles that wanted to get into PC gaming but don't want to deal with the mess that PC gaming has, especially with Windows.
The funny thing is, if anyone would say to me 2 or 3 years ago that I would prefer to use Linux over Windows to play PC games, I would think they were crazy, and yet here we are where SteamOS is a better option for many that want a simpler gaming device without the mess of setting the OS up, driver updates, bios settings and all that, the Steam Deck is the close's thing to a console in PC form, whiles offering all the benefits of PC openness, that will appeal to a lot of users, PC and console alike.
Same. I still have my Ally, but I rarely use it. It's more powerful than SD at almost twice the TDP, at which point it's not that portable anymore, and at 15W it has wildly inconsistent frame times. SD is more... polished experience, despite really bad screen (but that issue is fixed in OLED model).
How’s the battery life on idle? Like when you put it to sleep how long would it last compared to the extreme?
love my z1 extreme version. Been playing everything on it, and loving the switch emulation on it. Amazing device.
Mine either ♥️ the best handheld
That’s it I’m gonna get it, have you tried ps3 or Xbox 360 emulation? If so how is it?
@@ethanhayward2424 everyone says they are good at all emulation
I’m very curious to see how you feel about the Legion Go.
I’ve never been so conflicted by a device before.
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.
At that point might as well use a laptop tbh
This is a good point as I also have a 14inch laptop but it's also nice to have a little ROG Ally Screen when you don't need/want that bigger screen but want that handheld functionality@@alex1212456
I’ve been using my Ally more for the same reason. The screen was way better than the Steam Deck LCD, and alot of games that gave me trouble just worked on the Ally. I did trade my Steam Deck for the OLED, and although the screen looks better, my primary is still the Ally.
I have both a Steam Deck and Z1 Extreme Ally as well. The Ally made me nearly forget about my Deck. Being able to just download Game Pass and then play Lies of P is awesome. Even more so because the VRR screen makes it so that I never feel any dips below 60.
@alex1212456 can you play a laptop in your hand like a handheld? With your point might as well get a desktop and monitor then.
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.
steam deck software is holding it back... windows is much better i can play any game i want
@@itsquiwi8780 in terms of optimization the steam deck is doing a hell of a lot more with a hell of a lot less. valve did say that they wanted to release the operating system and there is a fan-made steam os out there that performs fairly well. also now that the steam OLED is out the battery life on it is actually pretty amazing. only being able to play for about an hour before my ROG dies fucking sucks.
😂😂😂😂 are you from the future
@@itsquiwi8780oh yes I'd like to meet steam proton It makes it so you can play any windows-based game on the steam deck if they didn't have something like that in place to steam deck would never be as popular as it is And you could also just dual boot
@@itsquiwi8780You can still almost play anything from its desktop mode
Having both a steamdeck and Ally I have to say, Armor Crate, atleast on the Ally runs very poorly. Several times I’ve had to it crash/unresponsive. Making it almost usless in handheld mode. I once had it so bad it corrupted the entire windows operating system and I had to call Asus for support. They told me to return it but I managed getting it back up and going after finding the bitlocker key. Steamdeck on the other hand. No issues lol
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
good pads aren't awful to work with.
And they are already placed in a practical manner.
Laptop touchpads are often ass, specs wise, but also can only be put in an awkward place :S
@@randomguydoes2901 yea the Deck's touchpads are quality ones and its not awkward to use them at all. You can even play RTS games with them, although you wont perform as well as M/KB
Fr, I already hate windows on handhelds, but the idea of dealing with it without having trackpads? Having to rely on touch controls and analogue sticks? That’s my personal hell.
Honestly, this. If you spend any time in desktop mode those pads are indispensable.
@@CaptainEffortI've been using the Ally for a week now and you'd be surprised how 'okay' it is to navigate windows using the touchscreen. Tiny little icons are no problem to touch and select and the screen is very responsive.
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.
Until you realize that you could get open-box for $450, and that's double the performance.
You could probably find a better LAN/Mini PC for less than $350 or at the same price. Biggest flaw with all of these handheld PCs is that they kinda suck to use on a TV.
@@formerlycringewhy they suck at tv?
@@ShinigamiDa Performance suffers with the increased pixel count
@@lupo1237why do you have to play at high resolutions? Some people still have 720p screens.
Coming from a Steam Deck (which i love) and also purchasing this for $399, i love this device also, the performance is good and the option for higher wattage is great, and now this is my daily driver when im not using my gaming laptop. also, they have taken care of the micro sd card issue on the previous devices
"Under powered and overpriced"
Apple: "Finally! A Worthy Opponent! Our Battle Will Be Legendary!"
Overpriced? Definitely. Underpowered? Their devices have some strong processors.
If it wasnt for the sdcard issue..ive had two..then the z1 extreme would be the perfect choice that being said i had a steam deck first and had battery issues. Maybe ill try the Lenovo Go.
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
And then.....
Why did you update the bios?
Cause the bios update was gonna allow 900p support, perfect middle gound for the ally, 720p was pretty good but bit blurry, and 1080p on some titles like outer wilds was too much, it ran in the 20s in 30w turbo mode everything on low 1080p and 40 to 45fps in 720p, 900p was gonna give me stable 30fps if i locked the frame rate at 30
@@legendsneverdyeget a console
@chriswright8074 doesnt mean i dont have an updated pc with a 4080, got the ps5 and a switch, just wanted the ally cause i could catch up with a couple games in the steam library and also finally realize my dream of playing kingdom hearts 2 on a handheld, sadly that was also riddled with stability issues, ran at perfect 120fps at 15w though, but the changes in framerate locks of the port made it super unstable
Really like the new performance graphs, keep it up.
they did a great job
Z1 is not a worse binned Z1 Extreme, it’s a different Silicon with 2 Zen4 and 4 Zen4c cores.
Really? That seems like a big oversight by LMG
did you watch the video lol
@swimmerboy172 they make them all the time.
Thanks for catching! We've cut that part out of the video and it should update soon. - Bell
@@ShortCircuit cut the hate out the videos.
At $399 I thought it would be worth a shot. Love it.
Just ordered the same deal seams like a good price
I just got the same deal. I hope it was a good decision
@@SevenPilot got mine in today runs great
@@stevengilley5107how are you liking it?
I have the same problem with this as i did with the gpd win 4 i just simply do not trust them but i do trust valve a lot more
As of this writing best buy has discounted both rog ally versions to $400 for the z1 and $600 for the extreme..., yes this is AFTER black Friday and Cyber Monday...and they are also selling the Z1 open box Ally's for $319...(where available)...
I would have jumped on that $400 deal if I already didn't have a Ryzen 7 mini PC I got last summer...and I ended up grabbing the rg353v for $100 2 months ago and rarely use it...but that's just me...
Battery life isn't a big factor for me when it comes to handhelds if I tend to play in the house only...just plug it in wherever I intend to sit for more than an hour and there's nothing to worry about...
In the end, the thing that kills the rog ally for me though is their proprietary egpu...they could have easily implemented a thunderbolt 4 and given people options but they took a page from Apple and sony with that move.😒
I waited till the very end of the video for you to say that you're going to do a Lenovo Legion Go video - I'm super excited for it!
I’m happy with my device yes you have to tinker with it a bit to have it running way better than out the box. The sweet spot is 900p at 15w I legit get approximately 2 hours of play time.
As opposed to steam deck gerting 4 hours+ even on demanding PS4 quality titles.
@gamechannel1271 give me an example lol
I own a z1 extreme version and deck, both atrocious batteries lol
just picked up one for 399 at BB, going to use it for all my old games ive been collecting for years during sales and whatnot that I never got around to playing. Ori and the blind forrest will be my first download, from what I see it runs great on the regular Z1.
How are you liking it since this post?
@@Dirt_heart I returned it, had some fun with it but it’s so big and cumbersome that it’s just as easy to bring my gaming laptop on trips.
@@louisfox553 This info helped a lot. Thanks for letting me know!
STEAM DECK ALL THE WAY
Ye
Lenovo >>>>>>
Ordered my oled yesterday
Steam deck if you don't want to play triple A game. The rog ally z1 Extreme is the king for triple A games...because it has free sync and VVR ..if you don't mind being very limited I agree.
Steam deck is great but it has no vrr which is tough coming from a PC
6:50, I think the fact you can get oculink adapters for $40 and I think they're compatible(?) makes the egpu proposition quite good.
for people not trying to run crazy detailed games, the fact that the z1 is $399 now is a steal
love my ally z1 extreme and happy with my purchases but I'm also planning to get the new OLED steam deck for my sister so we can play co-op games together
I bought a Z1 ally for 399.99 at best buy. The Z1 Extreme is still 599.99 even on sale. I am happy with my purchase so far, time will tell.
how does it perform? what games are you playing on it???
@@jerryg4534 So far the biggest game I have played on it is DOOM Eternal. I am hitting a solid 60 fps on low settings with RT off. I can get around 80 fps on DOOM (2016) medium to high settings. It massively outperforms the Nintendo Switch of which I bought the TOTK Limited edition OLED for $360.00. I knew I was buying the lower spec Ally but for 399.99 I think is a deal. I am running Steam with no issues. It seems a lot of the software hang ups are fixed and my Ally boots right into Windows 11 no problem. Armoury Crate works better agter updating it. At 599.99, I can not recommend the Ally Z1. For 399.99 it is certainly the right value. I have not yet played HALO Master chief collection on it yet. Bluetooth works great. WiFi is very fast if you are within 20 feet of the router. I can hit 750 mbps if I am next to the WiFi router. I don't know how it compares to the OLED Steam deck but the Ally 1080p 120hz screen is a big deal. It surpassed my expectations by a wide margin. FYI, DOOM (2016) runs kind of crappy in open GL. I switched over to Vulkan for much better performance. It has 16 gb of ddr5 ram 6400 memory that is subdivided to the GPU. 11.7 usable dram and 4 gb of vram. You can adjust the vram up to 8 gb with a CPU performance loss down to 7.7 gb of dram. Yes, the ram is shared with the integrated graphics. If you want superior gaming performance you will need a tower or gaming laptop. If you want mid range performance for Steam on the go with NS like portability, this is the ticket. For what I payed, I am very happy. It is a matter of personal preferences.
thats what I saw and Im thinking of selling my hp victus 16 with a 3050 for it because honestly, I like the mobile experience more. If i ever need to do any desktop work, Ill just hook it up to a monitor and I should be fine
@@mhmadmatar9835 I would not trade a gaming pc for the Ally. The Ally is a great device but will never match the performance of your Victus RTX 3050 desktop. If that is something you want to do I obviously am not going to be able to stop you. I would recommend keeping your desktop and saving your dollars to add the Ally to your collection. I bought the Ally and did not sacrifice my gaming pc to do so.
I did the same. Access to my Game Pass library is a game changer. Running most games at 900p with a steady 60 frames. 100% worth it.
Picked one up open box excellent from best buy for 300, effectively cut in half price wise. Gonna use it for light stuff and game streaming.
The ROG ally I bought was a lemon. Wouldn’t boot past logo and random lag spikes with performance. Returned it and never looked back.
They really should have called the Z1 Extreme version the Ally Extreme or something to differentiate the 2 models. I almost bought a Z1E Ally after playing with my buddy's but his SD reader just died yesterday. Less than 2 weeks old. I took that as a sign to just get an OLED Steam Deck.
Just don't use the SD card, or if you need to, just carry around a little USB-C microsd reader to plug in when in use.
I haven't gotten my OLED Deck yet of course, but compared to the original, I use the Ally WAY more. Being able to run it as a normal-ass Windows computer is amazing, and being able to play all my GOG, Epic, itch, battlenet, etc games on it with no hassle is fantastic.
@@Brogboolius_Maximus I get what you mean, the Steam Deck isn't better and definitely not as powerful as the Ally. I just personally feel like if I spend that kind of money it should work flawlessly regardless of how fast it is. I'm glad you're enjoying your Ally though.
@@RonnieDeuce87 No, I'm with you there. It's definitely a bit fiddlier than the Deck, which annoys me, and I have a feeling that once I see the OLED Deck's screen, I won't be using my Ally much. It does have some major upsides though, that's all.
@@RonnieDeuce87 take a look at the Lenovo Legion Go, awesome machine, and the bigger screen is so worth it :)
@@Brogboolius_Maximusreminds me of "you are holding it wrong". Not a real solution. It's clear hardware design flaw. Shows the lvl of Asus QC.
The steam deck isn’t available in most countries while the ROG Ally is. So while i would get the better model, this is the only choice at a cheaper price for most.
This doesn’t hold ground, there is a little something called Amazon, and a little word called “Import” that’s what I will do to buy my SteamDeck from the comfort of my home country where Valve doesn’t sell the Deck Directly.
@@TheJakeblake import taxes. here in brazil is around 90%
The reason the video playback is the same is that it likely uses dedicated hardware decoding, which is probaply the same as both use the same gen processor. This is also the reason basicaly every potato can playback 4k video, as long as it is H265 encoded.
2:19 there are companies that actually solve a bit of the battery live problem. The OneXPlayer 2 pro for example had a big 65.5 Wh battery. The ally has only 40. But the onexplayer does cost here around 1100-1200 ish euros. Compared to the ally z1 extreem’s 799 ( now discounted for 669.-) but the onexplayer had also everything x2. 2x-4x the extra storage options. 2-4x the extra ram options. Tou can buy a dedicated keyboard for it etc etc
Just bought one with black Friday deal for 450 not a bad deal. Brand new. Now that's the price it should be at. Good thing I already had a 2tb ssd from my steam deck
Where is it £450 too?!cheapest I can find is 600.....
Nice price, where did you buy that from?
@@Larseus bestbuy
@@jordanthom8963 best buy
It's 450 right now on Best Buy
Not underpowered but overpriced, the hardware is still good. The price that's the issue with the Z1 Asus ROG Ally at the moment.
This one is the same price as the 512GB stream deck. The original is only $70 more. And have better specs.
@@jimmymcgill6778 the 512gb OLED steam deck is $550....
Very overpriced, excluding those outside of available reasons why would you ever get this over the 512 sd oled?? Windows?? It isn't any faster, it's built (seemingly) way worse, has half the controls, and it's still £20 more. Unless they were to like, cut the screen, storage, and os i don't see it ever being cheap enough, and after all that i doubt it'd even have any ups against the lcd sd, it's just dead in the water
So, what exactly makes it overpriced if in your mind it is not underpowered?
It's literally less powerful than the Steam Deck and costs more. Extremely overpriced for the hardware
Got mine for $300 and it rocks for emulator titles! I haven't had any issues and it still runs even new AAA titles, like Baldur's gate 3, at ~30fps on battery. I'm pleased with how it performs for the price, and looking forward to the future of handheld PCs.
I bought a rog ally z1 extreme about 5 days ago and it doesn't get hot and the SD card is fine. even after playing hours of starfield at 900p ultra (with a mod to keep it above 30 fps in cities} or Elden ring 1080p high and even medium RT on. Which is amazing tbh. I haven't played my steamdeck since.
It's a lot better of a deal now that it's $399 for the holidays
I just ordered one, we'll see how it goes
How have you been liking it so far? I'm thinking about getting it for that price too.
It’s on sale at Best Buy Buy for $400!
I’m really torn on this. I’ve been a console gamer all my life but I want to use these devices as a gateway to ease into PC gaming. the steam deck seems to be more accessible and game oriented for ease of use, which is a pro coming from console, but the limited library of games is the only thing holding me back. for the ally, i love that it mimics an xbox controller and allows for full compatibility for just about any game. However, my main concern with the ally is all the technical issues/troubleshooting one might expect with PC gaming (as I’ve heard plenty of in many reviews). While I’m not entirely technologically challenged, I’m not the most tech savvy either. Is this really as much of an issue as I’ve been hearing and enough to go with the deck over the asus? I don’t intend on trying to mod or change anything hardware-wise out of the box, just need a platform to play PC games on. any thoughts would be appreciated.
Actually this isn’t bad, I got it for $350 open box and I get like 40 to 60 FPS in pretty much every game I’ve played on it. BF 2042, Forza Horizon 5, Hogwarts, Overwatch, Shadow of the Tombraider, Diablo IV, SF6, Grid Legends… It is hard to justify $250 more because this thing runs so good.
It runs windows?
Can't wait for forced updates while the battery is at 5% and corrupts the files because battery died during update.
It just became 150$ cheaper for Black Friday on Best Buy so it convinced to place the order for z1 instead of extreme
Bought an open box unit from best buy for $340. Works great. I’m very happy with it
I wonder if you could install the AMD fluid Motion Frame driver and boost everything even more.
I wish a 3rd party would come out with a eGPU dock that we could put whatever GPU in. I’ve been impressed with my Z1 extreme so far, but the docked performance on a 1440p monitor is quite bad (I know I know, it’s a handheld). Or possibly Asus could drop some lower end GPU options around the $600 mark to help bump this performance.
I bought a used Lenovo Booststation for around 100€ last year, and it uses Thunderbolt 3. It's pretty good for what it is, and even if I'm stuck at TB3 specs, the price was amazing. You should look into things like that on the used market.
Even though the Asus ROG Ally is locked down by a proprietary interface (so don't expect any 3rd parties), the Lenovo Legion Go and many other PC handhelds (deck not included) seem to work perfectly fine with TB3 egpus.
There are companies like GPD that have USB 4.0 and Oculink connections for EGPUs.
Setting the ram allocation to auto causes problems
Pretty sure they do.
that exists. as ,mentioned below the lenovo boost station exists. but there is also the razer core x (there are 2 versdions. 1 with usb typa a connectors for keyboards and such + an ethernet jack and 1 that is just a gpu dock)
i recently bought a an egpu dock called the "TH3P4G3". i plan on putting my 4090 in it arrives.
They could totally make it cheaper, by using a lower refreshrate / resolution screen for example. It seems like the downgraded onboard APU isn't capable of running most games at 1080p 120hz anyway so why bother with the extra cost and powerconsumption. It could totally be a competetive product IF the price was right. But it isn't. I don't understand how they thought this was a good idea.
Just got an open box Z1X ally from a best buy canada for about 600 before tax, and 670 tax in. It is 800 new and so far everything works great.
Can you review the Lenovo Legion Go on your main channel, Linus? I just want to see your opinions about it while comparing to this and the Steam Deck.
Going for $400 on Best buy! A great deal at that price point
Personally when I tried out the ROG Ally in store on the first day it felt so bad I could never get one. The thumbsticks were loose and the buttons are smooshy. I’ve only bought the g15 2022 model laptop from Asus and will say I would never buy anything Asus again. It just felt bad. The actual materials were good, but something about how it was put together made it feel cheap.
They are kinda loose, but it’s not really a problem when you get used to them. Spent a lot of time with the ally and then when I booted up my ps5 again my controller felt like it was stuck or something.
IMHO the screen in the first Steam deck is absolutely fine. Super resolution and sharpness isn't why I have this device. I stream on it in desktop mode the most and occasionally play games like Factorio and Satisfactory on it. I turn the settings way down for SF and it runs great. It's a small screen. I'm just happy to enjoy content when away from my 27" 144 htz monitors. Having real world expectations makes life SO much better for mobile devices.
Oh, it is fine. But, just fine. If you already have deck, I wouldn't blame you at all for not upgrading to the new version. But, if you're still on the fence and thinking about getting one, the OLED version is the way to go. Not just because of the screen, they did entire redesign of the pretty much the whole machine. It's more power efficient, has a larger battery, better cooling, and doublet the hard drive space per price tier.
Can you review the lenovo legion go it’s another handheld that I personally think over comes the rog ally
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.
The ROG Ally SD Card issue was address in a Hardware revision. Units with a Serial Number starting with R8 have not had the SD Card issue, and people that have sent their Ally's in Service have gotten full mainboard replacements. They just never really announced anything and it has all been info gathered by the community. There was obviously some hardware flaw with the reader, as there were people that had their readers fail with little or no heat above idle.
You'd think they would mention fixing a system-breaking flaw, but ASUS gonna ASUS
My serial number starts with R5, I can send it into ASU and they’ll fix the issue? Mine never overheated with the SD card slot but I’d rather just have it fixed then wait for it to happen
@@Mark-es5tx You could try, but if nothing is wrong they'd have no reason to approve the RMA, so they might not do it. Not all units failed, mine is a launch unit and the SD Reader never failed, not that I use it much as I much prefer the NVMe because SD Cards are slow. If you want to force it, get a Cheap MicroSD card and hammer (install > uninstall > repeat) games on it, or just play a Disk IO intense game off of it (so most open world games typically). It'll either fail or not, in which case you'd be RMA'ing for no reason anyways.
Thanks for this info. I just ran to my new Ally to check the serial number and was relieved to see R8.
A big selling point for Ally is it has VRR. Making games feel like they are running a lot smoother than the FPS would suggest. Steam Deck OLED doesn’t have VRR. I don’t know why most reviewers are not mentioning this. This is a huge win for ASUS over all other handhelds.
Because steam deck is still superior in every whay that counts.
@@gamechannel1271
I agree steam deck is still better than the Z1 non extreme. The extreme version though still holds it own. The only thing steam deck has over it is the track pads. I own both a launch steam deck and a rog ally. I spend 80% of my time on the ally because games just run better with higher settings.
I'm honestly interested in the ear bud sponsor. Still trying to find a replacement for my buds pro which sucked.
I love my ally rog my deck unfortunately hasn't been played in a while
I kept asking "why are they making that?" when they announced it...
I can't wait for MY perfect handheld gaming console. 7" bright OLED with 120hz, SD Elite chip, Xbox theme buttons, 10 hours of battery and lastly, fast charging, water cooling
The screen size is bigger, It's OLED, it's already at 90Hz, more power? understandable, everyone always wants more battery life, fast charging? sure, water cooling? why? makes more noise, is more expensive, and doesn't actually cool more.
Hey Linus 👋 I'm happy to report youtube started recommending ur videos again ❤. Love to see you guys back frankly 🎉 keep it going
It’s great to see the Steam Deck flexing its utility against this thing - but man, can reviewers like LTT please put some pressure on Valve to release the bloody thing in Australia? IT STILL ISN’T AVAILABLE IN AUSTRALIA. So while it is a “better choice” than the ROG Ally, the Ally is the ONLY choice here unless you pay exorbitant international shipping fees, huge markups, and practically kissing the practicality of our warranty away? (The warranty still technically exists but you’re shit out of luck sending it back and forth from the US with the sheer amount of hassle it is)
Im getting 8h of my ally in Office Tasks. Ive set it in quiet mode and manually limited the max cpu usage to 50 percent (1.6 ghz) which results in 3-6watts without larger spikes.
does that not defeat purpose of the better hardware?
@@Eskoxo Well when you need better performance you can go back to full performance settings. You set the limit - you don't get limited.
@@Eskoxo no, because i just switch it to manual (35 w) when i want to play games.
Wondering what's that TV in the background? The thin bezel looks so neat and awesome!!
I love my Z1X I have my emulators, I can play all my games on steam via stream from my pc so any game I play has no problems at all, I was playing Cyber Punk with medium ray tracing on my rog although I was streaming it. I've had no complaints with the Z1X other than it took me a few days to remember what buttons do what.
I'll be honest, I'd be more than happy with an Atom-strength handheld that has great battery life and great build quality. I love my Steam Deck, but I'd happily give up 50% of it's power for 50% more battery life. A long lasting, well built x86 handheld is my personal endgame for a portable gaming console, because like Linus mentioned, alot of the best PC games aren't really that demanding.
Wouldn't recommend doing that with the SD, it's already not that powerful, and it would end up at the same performance level as the Switch.
Just lower the TDP/FPS/Brightness of the display or a combination of all three and you can already double the battery life you're usually getting.
The new OLED version of the steamdeck addresses that to a degree. Larger battery and more efficient screen adds a fair bit more battery life.
@@zoopa9988 Honestly, same power level as the Switch is fine by me if I could could get x86 compatability and less standby battery drain than I currently get on my Steam Deck. For my Switch, I can leave it unplugged for a weekend and barely lose any battery. I've not seen the same results with Sleep and my Steam Deck
@@jamiedyas9080 definitely looks promising. I currently have the $400 Steam Deck model, so it'd be a bit before I could splurge on the new one and see if it fixes my battery gripes. One thing I'm curious about is standby drain, which I mentioned on another comment. I find my Steam Deck dies at idle quicker than a normal handheld console, so I'd love if the OLED fixed that up.
@@NigelMelanisticSmith Do you mean when its asleep? if so, yes that issue is annoying at how fast it drains while its "off". I did some googling on that previously and found you can make a setting change which shuts it down instead of putting it to sleep. Takes a little longer to turn on, but it lasts so much longer when unused.
Can Labs please test the new Steam Deck LCD screen in 3.5 with srgb mode on? Thank you.
Seconded. Sure looks a lot better.
I'm curious what your thoughts are about the Steam deck being Linux and the Ally being Windows. I know that there are ways to load Windows onto the Steam Deck but there is something to be said for the ability to load other programs with less hassle in my opinion.
Not really a direct answer to your question, but what about when valve release SteamOs 3 to install on a device like an Ally? Dual boot to windows or steam..
It goes on sale for $399 now. For that price it's great. Think of it as an Ayn Loki when those rocked intel chips for $300 and sole out in days
Best Buy US now has this model down to $400. Does $300 less than the Extreme version change things?
I just grabbed one for my 9-year-old for Xmas for 399.99. I mean, he plays Roblox, Minecraft, and browser games, mainly, so I'm not worried about him doing anything too extreme for a while lol.
You damn right
I have 3 issues with the Ally in general. 1) Asus isnt exaclty known for good QC. 2) Steam Deck stick layout > Xbox layout. 3) Ally runs Windows, which incurs all the logical drawbacks
And the 3 issues with the steam deck are the atrociously underpowered GPU, no VRR even on the new OLED model and needing to use and purchase all your games on steam no gamepass or any other platform 🤷 no device is perfect you gotta pick your poison
@@charlierose1708 yeah fair.VRR is being worked on btw
@@charlierose1708 lol the one thing not underpowered in the STEAMDECK is the GPU.... you could've said the CPU or the power limit
@@charlierose1708People often forget about the discover store. It's really easy to download exes and add them to steam it's just a couple of extra steps. By the way lutris is a great tool for installing non steam games
@@charlierose1708 If Gamepass or Epic or anybody else isn't on Linux it's because they don't want to. Microsoft has obvious incentive to keep it Windows only, and the others apparently can't be bothered.
Steam Deck OS is based on Arch though, it's a full desktop OS even though it doesn't run in that mode most of the time. You're perfectly free to install and run anything you can run on Linux, and then launch that through the Steam Big Picture UI instead of constantly switching to desktop. Dolphin, PCSX2, and multiple Switch emulators (for example) run on Linux, therefore they run on Deck as well. There's whole modpacks for Minecraft to optimize for Deck, since Java Edition is, k'know, Java, and that's made to be cross-platform.
And a ton of stuff that doesn't have a native Linux build can be run with varying degrees of success through Proton/Wine.
i love that linus plays sea of stars. Such a great modern jrpg
At 4:03 the labels for which color represents what should be placed in a better spot imo, maybe on the right under the box, took me longer that it shouldve to find it.
I like my ROG Ally but it lacks the polish the Steam Deck has but i feel like thats a Windows problem.
You're kind of right, but it's also a product problem. valve controls every aspect of it's product. They have a rigorous R&D process that allows them to tailor build the deck at all levels (hardware and software, going from the hardware all the way up to steam+proton) to fit the needs of the customers. The Ally itself is literally just a weird form factor laptop. Asus has made some device specific drivers for it and added a layer to windows for navigation, but they don't have the same level of control over what it does that valve does over the SD.
Here in Australia you can only really get the ROG Ally Z1, not the Z1 Extreme and you can't get a Steam Deck either unless you go through a grey market. Sad times.
Bruh they’re scamming you. While we may not have the steam deck, we’ve got the Z1 Extreme here in South Africa
Steam Deck is Available from Kogan online store in Australia
Are you a threat to the US and are in the sanctioned countries list?
Are you sure? The one on jbhifi says it's the Z1E?
What are you talking about, JB Hi-Fi have sold the Z1E for months.
6:05 Sorry, fact check: The Z1 isn't a "crappier binned" Z1 Extreme at all. The SoCs are in fact completely different.
Z1E - based on the 8c/12CU "Phoenix" die - just without the Xilinx AI engine.
Z1 - based on the 2x Zen4 / 4x Zen4c / 4CU "Phoenix 2" die.
Completely different chips.
I'm debating between getting this or the the steam deck OLED or Lenovo Legion go. I know the steam deck is a more popular option but the legion go is a more powerful console overall. Which one do you guys think is better?
I'd choose the legion go over the ally however I'd heavily consider the support the deck has over the others. I've got the deck and the community is insane.
Still the only handheld with VRR wtf
Only matters on Windows though
They could have simply used the 7640xx with the Radeon 760m and gotten steam deck performance with lower power usage than the Z1 extreme
My guess is that swapping from Z1 extreme to Z1 requires zero engineering. They can just use the exact same BIOS/MB/drivers. That's probably why they ever bother to release the non-extreme version.
@@erebuxy Seems like a massive waste since the 760m is a more substantial leap from the 660m than the 680m to 780m. Welp this thing is almost certainly dead on arrival
Well said in regards to performance to price ratio.
I mean, windows never known with battery performance. I know Asus have control center to optimise the Ally Z1 but unlike Steam Deck, they couldn’t really optimise OS background task/usage
I bought a steamdeck because of the repairability and the lack of Windows jank
Support steam os all the way.
Ally has better repairability. Even though they don't partner with iFixit, it's much easier to work on and parts are obtainable from the manufacturer. I also wouldn't call it Windows Jank, it's more like window management isn't great. If you can set some hot keys for Alt+ f4, Alt +enter, vice versa you can have a decent experience. With the better performance, more game support, and smoother visuals with VRR it's currently my driver over my SD.
@@Madblaster6 its not that windows isn't jank, its that steamOS is designed for a proper console experience. Most people buying a deck are buying it because they want a similar experience to an xbox or a playstation but they would like to carry it in their hands. Which could be anything from simply lounging in random places in their house, to using it on the train or out in the park in broad daylight. In that regard it is pretty much the best (especially the new oled with its much higher brightness and better battery life)
@@heroninja1125 I don’t disagree. I also want to replace my current Steam Deck with the OLED because it’s what the SD should have been but personally because of the performance, compatibility, and VRR of the Ally I don’t touch my SD anymore so I cant justify the OLED. I would argue windows isn’t horrible to learn and might be worth it but I understand people want that Switch experience.
Always wait for a second version thats meant to fix the problems in the first one.
Or maybe a third version. Or fourth. Or fifth. Sixth?
The Z1 is currently 399.99 on Best Buy 300 difference now from the extreme
Do they sell them in the UK🇬🇧 cos I been looking on the internet at the Steam Deck and ROG ALLY and they are all coming up with USA buying sites
And now the Z1 Extreme version is $80-100 less for Black Friday
Outside the control scheme that look superior on the Deck, for me it's the OS that I like the most on the deck. SteamOs is a great experience on an handheld.
This shits all over the steam deck, lets be honest. Its probably the best handheld pc at this price. Ayaneo is great but too expensive for what it is.
Thinking about snagging one from best buy for $330 (open box excellent), worth it?
Ally made sense before the oled steam deck, now it doesn't.
Uh, the hell are you talking about? The Ally still wins at everything it won before... A new screen doesn't change anything else lol
@@saulodetarsosobral2199 And what is the non extreme winning at, exactly??
@@rinchanmeow Ah thought you were talking about the extreme. Yeah, the non extreme is bad deal though it is at 450 USD at best buy right now so THAT is a lot better lol
@@saulodetarsosobral2199 Better screen, better battery life, easy of use, better touchpad. In my region the extreme costs roughly 23% more compare to the 512GB steam deck. Even after they just discounted by 15% two days ago. Yes there are games that runs better on the Extreme version compare to the deck, but then you lose portability. 1-2 hour playtime on a handheld is not good enough for me.
Linus on Steam Deck OLED: This sparks joy!
Linus on ROG Ally Z1: This does NOT spark joy...
Good to see Labs actually be used for its intended purpose
Kudos
Ah, I already preordered an oled steamdeck. I forgot an asus device would probably come with that xg mobile thing. That whole ecosystem is pretty nice.
But it's WAY too pricey for an xg mobile gpu...
True. But I've had my eye on a flow z13 for awhile now. If I'd gone through with that I'd have one of the 3080 docks as well. So it would be more tempting at least.
Then again, if I had a flow I would probably not be looking at these.