Note that in the price section, I said there was a $500 difference between the $650 Steam Deck and the $700 ROG Ally. Just in case you needed me to clarify, I meant to say $50 and not $500. This channel is really going downhill!
On paper, the ROG Ally is so much more powerful (and I use Win10 on my Steam Deck anyways), but the performance gains are not enough to make me want to upgrade. Maybe I'll wait 1 more generation.
The Ally is perfect for emulating newer games, I’m still using both devices, but I pick up the Ally more frequently now. Mainly, because the awesome PS3 and Switch emulator performance. I do hope that Valve is going to release a newer, more powerful Steam Deck later.
If the Ally has any lasting power then I'd like to get one to install SteamOS on. I doubt it will though. I don't see RoG taking this as serious as Valve long term.
Asus want to everyone who bought ally to go fuck themselves, valve will just optimize SD more and more in the long run, just wait and see who will be laughing at last, I know for sure we will see some asus fanboys crying bc they device just stopped working and it is all soldered on the motherboard without any help of asus
I bought a steam deck for my birthday a week ago. And I am still AMAZED by the steam deck. After the rog ally came out, all of the reviews made the steam deck look like a weak device that runs games at very low quality or frame rate. I didn't have any way to check the steam deck before I bought it so I was a bit scared that i will be disapointed and felt like I won't be able to run AAA games on it. AND BOY WAS I WRONG. all of the ally comparison reviews just do not make any justice for the steam deck. I tried miles morales, tales of arise and SF6 on it, and all of them run so well on the deck it is crazy. And without one second spent on opening the setting menu. Oh and the screen is so much better than it seems in the reviews. Could not recommend it more.
Thank you Russ for giving us the first balanced review of the ROG Ally. All other outlets are gushing about performance while often paying very little respect to battery and the general experience, but this video actually give people an idea of what they can expect in order to make a informed purchasing decision 🙂 Really looking forward to The Phawx video as well. Equally confident in his review process as well.
Because ALL monitors now come with an interlaced option. It’s a toggle-able feature in most high end monitors, i can switch to interlaced for my rog 360hz moniot and my rog 144hz monitor
1: Linux may take a bit of time to learn complex things but if all you need is to download stuff Discover has everything (and you don't need to worry about shady exes) 2: The Steam Deck wasn't ment to be a desktop replacement. It has features like cloud sync to help work alongside a desktop PC. 3: You failed to mention that some older Windows games won't work on modern Windows but do work through Proton on Linux
Yeah, He did his best to explain as much as he can, I don't blame him for not adding another 3 points. But YOU ARE RIGHT, these points are good. I hope this comment getted pinned, so most people can see.
I will say there are some older games that won't work on steam deck though as well, due to the portrait screen and rotating it via software. Also some of those same workarounds can be worked into Windows, but you have to do it manually.
I think, point 3 should be like this: You failed to mention that some older Windows games won't work on modern Windows but but do work through myriad of free apps for any Windows...
@@kittenzrulz2314 I totally disagree. I would literally say: Nonsense! It's a normal operating system. And as an ordinary operating system, it supports everything that is compatible with it. Just as Valve installs Proton in Steam Deck as the default emulation of games for Windows, so I can install absolutely anything I want or need in Windows. The argument "if it's not there from the factory = it doesn't exist" is the argument of a console owner from the nineties. I'm looking for a replacement for a laptop and this seems absolutely ideal - so far!
One thing I see alot of people get wrong is that you're stuck with Steam. Which is not the case, you can install other game launchers on it via the desktop mode and then set it up to be launched from the Steam game library.
There is a point you didn't go over for people like me 😅 You talked about it still charging while being docked but what about if it's handheld and charging ? 🤔 Interested in the ROG one
One BIG advantage of the ROG Ally that no reviewer seems to mention is that it has a landscape display, where almost all other handhelds have a portrait display that is rotated in software. Portrait screens tend to have a lot more scaling issues in some games.
@@Moskeeto That is not entirely true there are some games that don't work because of this specific issue. They're all older games mind you tho (like I'm talking dx8)
867$ hier in Germany, and you still need a ca 40$ case because it doesn't come included... That means that in Germany it costs 900$ instead of 650$. That's around 250$ difference... Quite a though sell... Specially due to the extremely unpolished experience with the ROG ally.
As a long time Steam Controller and Steam Deck user, the lack of touchpads is really a deal breaker for me. I really think they should just be standard on modern controllers.
for me the Ally is a good buy..if you dont have steam deck..if you have steam deck its a decent improvement in performance that comes witha ton of setbacks..software ease..battery life...
Software? Dude if your primary device is the deck you are limited to what games you can play that sucks. Yea you can install windows but most people won't
@@MorrisseyMuseWorse than the Deck’s battery life, yes. Not sure what you mean by criminal compatibility tho - unless you strictly play AAA multiplayer games you’ll be able to play virtually whatever you want.
@@MrMagicAmmoteam Deck can play virtually anything but new, AAA multiplayer games due to anti-cheat. Regardless yes, the ease of use of SteamOS isn’t even comparable to Windows on a handheld. Any review you watch will confirm that. Windows is rough on handhelds right now.
I love your videos, Russ. This was another banger. As anything, your videos, which are already very very good, can also be improved. I really wish you'd talked more about the touch pads. I know you're not much of a touch pad gamer, but I feel like you're almost doing a disservice to some of your viewers by not talking about the touchpads more. I want to challenge you to get a lot, lot better at touchpad gaming. Here's a couple things you can do: 1. play Everspace with using the touchpad for your aiming. It's an amazing game that uses the touchpad in the best way I've seen so far. 2. play Noita with the right touchpad used for gaming. Set the touchpad to "as mouse region". Scale the vertical sensitivity if you need to. Play around with the various settings. 3. play some shooters with the touchpad. I like Outer Worlds for that one because it's not a super hardcore shooter. Try out touchpads. Not having them on the Ally really is a huge step back imo.
Armory Crate is not new software, nor is it a full-fledged operating system. Asus does not have a good track record with software. Last two motherboards on my PC have been Asus, first thing I make sure to do is disable "install armory crate" in the BIOS.
Regarding the steam deck pricing - $399 + $50 512gb SSD from amazon makes it $449 vs $699 Ally, w/o loosing warranty on SD! This is real situation for anyone who cares about buck spent. And replacing SSD is way to simple on SD. On Ally there is no way you can reduce it's price below $699. SD comes with good hard case, ally soft case cost $40 - which makes it: SD - $449 vs Ally $739. This is honest real pricing, and no way Ally looks good like that.
The game library category may need revisiting. There's actually a substantial amount of older windows games that don't work out of box (or at all) on windows, but will on steam deck. The Verge's review covered this pretty well.
As a steam deck owner I just find that those big AAA games were not meant to be played on a handheld. I mostly use it for emulation and easier to handle games. Making the ally not a upgrade for me.
How long does it last at 10w? I like PS3/ Xbox 360 gen games (Fallout 3/NV, Deus Ex HR, Bayonetta, Dragon's Dogma, RE 5/6,etc) and if those games run great at 10w I will get Steam Deck.
Thank you for mentioning the points at the end of your video... Not many people in the handheld market are aware of the major slip ups Asus has had recently...
In Europe: Steam Deck 512GB Comparison: Price difference US: +50$ ✅ Price difference EU: +120€🤯 (130$) Of course the price-performance ratio is still good but €799 is €799. SD 512GB 679€ vs ROG Ally 799€
Tbh I don't think the 512 gb sd is worth it if you ever upgraded a PC. You can just buy the base model and upgrade the ssd for like 50 bucks, so in that price performance figure the steam deck gets a lot better in value. Also soon is summer sale and if it drops another 50 bucks I probably will buy one. The ally is nice, but performance on low tdp isn't a game changer, the higher resolution and frame rate are nice to haves, but not essential for me.
Summary: Size - Negligible difference Screen - ROG wins Audio - Neglibible difference Controls - Steam Deck wins I/O and Ports - ROG wins Software - Stability - Steam Deck wins (for now) Battery - Steam Deck wins Performance - ROG wins Dockability - ROG wins Cooling - Both are cool Catalog - ROG wins Price - It depends Availability - Repairability - Steam Deck wins Trustworthiness - Steam Deck wins Summary - Steam Deck for Retro games, comfort, battery, reliability, trustworthiness. ROG for better display, performance, catalog, versatility ROG has some advantages for being windows based and better specs at a marginally higher price. Steam Deck is more usable though bc of battery life being less of a hassle.
If steamdeck wins for battery then I'll definitely hold off on ROG and wait for the next better device. Some AAA titles don't even get 2hrs on steam deck lmao
@@SimplyTooFresh im mostly using moonlight with my chromecast, because I feel like emulation wise the steam deck can handle games but it isnt exactly stutter free. but i feel like the steam deck runs everything else fine.
Thanks. These thorough reviews are very helpful. The Ally is 🔥 I’ll probably hold off until a SteamDeck 2 or Ally 2. I’ve never got any first gen products. I’m happy with my Switch currently… but always wished to have a Windows handheld.
@@Teilzeit02 lol they all represented one console - Switch, got same chip, same power... It's like to make new revision, but sell it as a new console :\ (well N-company like to do something like that) Or we can say that Ally is just a new gen of portable PCs, there Asus collected everything from all to their pPC. Main problem not "first gen" but that it's still a PC, not a console... Asus dont give a s if a game wont be playable on device, of we'll be optimizing games for Ally, they just jumped on hypetrain, while Valve is doing all work as a locomotive... Store, optimization, contacts with devs.
Docking the steam deck is not bad at all if youre using FSR scaling in the deck settings. You can upscale 720p render to 1080p or even 1440p with no perceivable performance impact and play with the sharpness slider a bit and it looks amazing.
90 mins battery life, and that is only on mid level games settings........they could have doubled that with ease by going with 60fps and a 720p screen as 1080p and 120 rps is wasted on such a screen that small.....and no touch pads means all your mouse required pc games are dead at the starting gate....this needed more optimisations and trimming.
I've been given a deck for Father's day/ Birthday and was happy but had kinda changed what i wanted to the Ally when i found out about it. Thank you this was a very helpful to the point video and I'm now very happy with what i have. Now I just have to figure out how to make my deck do what i want! 😅
Where i live in Norway Valve refuse to sell their hardware. So if I'm going to buy a steamdeck on a used marked here (even if it's new) we're talking early ps5 scalping price! About 1000$ without any warrenty. So 900$ wich the Asus rog ally cost in Norway i'm "happy" to buy. Sucks its so expensive compared to usa, but thats life. I at least gets a 5 year waranty wich is standard in Norway.I wanted a handheld pc for years now, and the rog ally seems like a good place to start😊
Honestly, I tried both in store and the steam deck felt much better quality wise. It ended up making me get the deck. Waiting to see how the legion go feels
Meh, Steam Deck owner here. Preordered the Ally minutes after they opened preorders. I want full speed Switch, PS3 emulation and more games running at 60fps with higher graphical settings with a much lower fan DB level. Plus, I won’t have to deal with a million versions of proton anymore, wine tricks, installing dependencies etc. I love my deck, but they’re not updating the hardware for years so, yea for me worth it.
@@RetroGameCorpsI will probably sell it, providing the ally once in my hands is everything I expect it to be. At least I’ll be able to return it to my local Best Buy if it sucks which is like 15 minutes from my house. If that’s the case I’ll keep my SD.
@@michaeliovani4487 I am kinda in the same boat, I just want to play AAA without issues or compatibility. I only had the SD for a couple of days but I’m already tire of different protons and videos of how to do shit, specifically for Ubisoft games. Question, did you like the Ally Rog? Did you end up keeping it?
As a Norwegian I'm so happy that the Asus ROG Ally actually releases here! I've wanted a Steam Deck for so long, but they don't sell then here... I've already pre-ordered a Ally!
Oh shit, did they comment on why not? I assumed EEA would be the same as us in the EU. They even included the UK. Is there an option to do mail forwarding from DK or SE? In Ireland we have a cheap option like that for the UK
Getting one from Sweden was a really long and cumbersome process, but I finally got my Deck in the end 😇 I got the cheapest model (64GB) for $415 + shipping costs, which came up at about 4500kr ($420). I also bought a 512GB microSD card for 500kr ($50), making the total come at *5000kr,* or ~ *$470*. This just exceeded the upper limit of my affordability budget. As a comparison, the Z1 Extreme ROG Ally costs *9000kr* here in Norway *($840),* yielding a difference of 4000kr ($375 -- the price of another Deck), and there's no way I can afford that! So, to me, the Steam Deck is still the the more realistically obtainable and affordable product. But it's great that you have the budget to pre-order the Ally, and I agree, having it avaialble for purchase _domestically_ was such great news 😇👍
I feel like Valve put a lot more thought into their product than Asus did... Valve went above and beyond to design something that was user repairable, and had extensive control options, and came in at an incredible price. Asus just kind of saw what other companies were doing, like AyaNeo, and just threw something out at a slightly more aggressive price point which is not necessarily a bad thing. But as anyone who has used asus motherboards in the past can probably agree with, they seem to fall on their face when it comes to software. Not to mention their current reputation with their motherboards has me questioning the years of loyalty i've shown the company when it comes time for PC upgrades.
typical salty steam deck owner.. just because u regret ur steam deck, doesnt mean you have to try hard to praise steam deck and disprove rog ally just to justify ur steam deck purchase lmao
Excellent video, thanks. For me, I am staying with the steam deck since I mostly use it only for emulation. I really don't think I need a rog ally for that purpose. Enudeck works fine for me. I will probably purchase a rog ally eventually, but only when it goes down in price or on sale.
Dude once u dive deep and u unlock the full potential of the deck, it's freakin amazing.. u can emulate off of anything, this is a pc in ur hands.. dual boot windows.. thank me later 👍💯
This was a great and informative video; thank you for taking the time to make it. I was one of the first to get a Steam Deck during the first wave of shipments. Love the device and have invested in many accessories like Valve's SD Dock and DBrand's Killswitch skin/case. Was wondering if I should sell it and get an Ally; your video has helped me decide to stick with the Deck at least for now.
Honestly, I'm probably in the minority here, but the $400 steam deck was already pushing my budget. If a similar handheld doesn't starr at 400 or less I'm not gonna be hype for it 🤷
I don't think you are, no. I have a fairly good income, but still it's about risk/reward for me, I can afford to have a 400$ device stolen, or fail after 2/3 years, it will be painful but not the end of the world. A 800$ device would be really, really bitter for me.
Agreed. For a handheld gaming device, $400 is pushing my limits. I did buy the low end Steam Deck and spend $60 to upgrade the SSD. However when you are talking $600-700 thats out of my range. I am still waiting for that $150 device with a nice 4"+ screen that can play Gen6 without any issues. for the RP4+
nope. in my country the ally cost twice as much as the deck. complete deal breaker. even if it was better in every aspect, there's no way i'm paying that much for a handheld video game.
I have an ally on pre order but I think I'm going to cancel it. It's actually quite a lot of money which can easily go into a gaming PC upgrade. And I can't image current generation of Windows will be that good in a handheld. I have both the steam deck and switch OLED. And honestly with playing Tears of the Kingdom lately, it's fine. I don't need another handheld which doesn't provide that much more in terms of experience.
@@Tha_Lyons I thought it through, even if it was not as bad as an experience, I just don't have room for another handheld at the moment. Not to mention having to explain it to the wife. Hard to hide things like another $1000 handheld
@@xBonafidexProdigyfair enough. It all depends on what you intend to play. Personally, I could never give up StarCraft 2 in handheld. Those trackpads are a must for that game.
One note on the great on deck, is that those are certified by valve as meeting their internal metrics. I have played quite a few games that are technically unsupported and they worked excellently on deck. Super happy with my deck, based on reviews I’m happy I bought the low end steam deck and upgraded storage. Suits all my needs so far from AAA to emulation.
The bad part is games that are on the verified list but don't work perfectly out the box, like missing cutscenes in samurai shodown story mode and others.
@@buhshmuh Look up Proton-GE to fix your missing cutscene videos. Usually caused by video codecs that Valve is legally prevented from supplying in base Proton but Proton-GE is community maintained.
If I were to get one myself, it would be the steam deck. Yeah, the rog ally is faster, but its worse in almost every other way, especially the software experience. And the nicer screen on the ally is borderline pointless since most of the time you are going to be running the screen at 720p and at =
Thanks for this detailled comparison. What about installing steam OS or a linux distrib like batocera on the ROG Ally ? Is it possible and does it make the battery last longer on less demanding games ?
Right now the bootloader is locked on Windows so I'm still working on it. This likely won't be an issue with the retail units, but the review devices are locked down. ETA Prime is also working on it, and he's way smarter than me with this stuff, so hopefully we'll have more info soon.
Screen steamdeck sound steamdeck controls steam deck I/o draw Suspend mode steamdeck Battery steamdeck Prodmance rog Dockability rog Fans rog Handhold Heat steamdeck Games catalogue rog Price steam deck Trustability Valve So basicly if you want a good hand hold experience with good proformance get a steam deck If you dont mind having a slightly worse handheld experience in exstange for slightly better proformance go for rog
I bought a steam deck to play games like dead cells, terraria, do some basic emulation, and replay older titles like fallout 3, metro or Wolfenstein which look and play great on the deck, and can run for hours on end without having to constantly plug in which defeats the purpose of portable gaming to me. So the ergonomics, support, reliability and power of the SD keeps me content for now. Would a better screen or more power be nice? Sure but everything comes at a cost especially in battery life. However, a slightly smaller bodied, Oled screen, larger battery Steam deck 2 would have me absolutely throwing my money at valve!
Ok, I am going to dislike the video because you said you EXPECTED the Ally to hold 3hrs compared to Steam Deck playing low spec games at 60hz. Why not actually test it out? The numbers seem way too different to not inspect.
also no one is playing 120hz and 1080p on a handheld lmao. It's just too small of a screen and the battery save + fps boosts is just so significant which is where Steam Deck did there research. You don't need these big ass specs that ROG Ally is trying to sell you lmao. What you do need is a better battery and a new updated CPU .
I think the steam deck is better. Better ergonomics, better controls, better user interface. And you can install windows and have the best of both worlds. Its also cheaper so when the new model comes out you don’t feel like you wasted money. If they sell the steam deck 2 at the same price its going to be a big win.
I agree with this. It's why I went with the deck. The ROG is just not ready yet, windows 11 is not ready for portable gaming and it shows hard. The deck has constant support and shows no signs of slowing down, and just offers a great experience overall. Plus asus may just drop another device next year. It's better to stick with the deck as it does what I want it to do for now, and just hold out for the deck 2 for my next handheld upgrade
To my knowledge, you've been the only reviewer that brought up repairs and trustworthiness. That's why I hold your channel above the others. For the average consumer who isn't able to purchase every handheld unit, it's important for those with a platform to be as honest with us as possible. Most of the other reviewers aren't taking any of those things into account before hyping up the Ally over the Deck, which is very misleading to the viewer. To many of us, reliability and support is more important than the absolute highest FPS. ASUS's incredibly shady practices has completely turned me off to the Ally. Can't imagine gambling on a $700 dollar device from a company who treats the consumer with such low regards. At least with the Deck I have the peace of mind of consistent updates, support and the option of replacing/repairing parts. Thanks for the review.
How do you think community support will help an average gamer enjoy the game more on deck than on ally which runs on windows for which the games are primarily made on PCs . Rog ally is a pocket PC . No amount of community support for deck will help them run games better than that on windows OS Deck is primarily for tinkering because of linux . I personally support open source over windows but the fact is ally running on windows will be a hassle free pick and play experience for majority gamers. I am saying all this by experience because i have owned deck since launch
A couple of things I think some fail to realize. First the steam deck launched a year ago and only within the last few months did it become freely available to the public. Second optimization is almost as important as the hardware itself. A device with great specs and poor support will never reach it's full potential. The ease of use the steam deck has created within PC gaming makes it really approachable to a lot of people for the very first time. The steam deck has really given people that switch like experience except with PC games. So where as the Asus ROG is a PC with controlles attached to it the steam deck is a game system that happens to be a PC. The steam deck doesn't really need to be the most powerful device out there so long as steam keeps optimizing it and updating it, I think we will be using the current steam deck for years to come, maybe we will see a pro version at some point. But the fact is the steam deck is still new and valve hasn't even come close to making enough to move on from the current version. The steam deck has steam and so long as steam keeps optimizing games to run well on the deck and so long as they keep improving the software the steam deck is really the winner here. With the steam deck you can tinker if you want or you can very easily jump right into a game without knowing basically anything about Linux. The Asus ROG is a PC, it's going to take tinkering and some knowledge to get things going. Unfortunately this is going to make that device not as approachable for many people who aren't looking for a PC but a game system.
been looking at specs and reviews allday , with the summer sale split between the 2 but your right about the steam deck being easier to work on so many options for cases, switches , and has steam behind so support will be there, and if next version is better im sure some will come up with a way to upgrade the screen to a 120hz, so far theyve been able to upgrade the storage to 3 tb
what competition ? literally every handheld released in the last 6 months blow the steamdeck out of the water , the only reason why it's compared it's because it is the first handheld this gen released :)
@@ofensatulthere's something called price and battery life. On low tdp the rog ally still cant beat It. But you look like the type of person that doesn't even buy the product, just becomes a cheerleader online lol
Hey 😊 Will the recent addition of vulkan support in Citra allow older/weaker handhelds like the retroid pocket 3 to play 3ds games at a reasonable level? Thanks
Today I wanted to play Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II on the Steam Deck and had sound problems. Then Onimush Warlords and that didn't work at all. Steam OS sucks.
"Great on deck" is not the best measurement for how many games will play on Steam Deck vs. the ROG Ally. That's because a huge portion of the game that are listed as "playable" rather than "great on deck" only have that distinction because of small text size - which would also be an issue on the ROG Ally. Sure there are some games that will have other problems, but it certainly isn't half like this video implies.
I have 150 games in my library and I have yet to run into a game that I can’t play on my Deck. Granted, I only play singleplayer games so anti-cheat isn’t an issue for me
and i would imagine that any game with anti cheat like valorant or cod mw2 could be bypassed by just installing windows as a secondary OS right? so that would mean that compatibility isn’t really an issue, just takes more work. looking into both of these as a substitute for a gaming pc so pls lmk lol :)
@@logangagnier8937 Recently, running windows on the Steam Deck has gotten a heck of a lot more convenient due to new versions of Steam Deck Tools. I am 100% windows on it now and haven't looked back.
By having a bottom port you save two seconds of your life whenever you want to play docked, but get a life long frustration of awkward gaming while charging 😅
i dont know, the fact that you can get the cheapest steamdeck and but a big sd card and still is cheaper than the ally, beats it any day, still the best bang for your buck
With ASUS’s terrible customer service, I’ll stick to my SteamDeck for now. As soon as Valve releases a new revision with better screen and battery life, I’ll upgrade then
You, like other reviews have missed 1 docked point. Windows supports HDR and the steam deck does not. For those who invested in OLED tvs this is a huge visual upgrade.
I got my steam deck in like 3 days from the site.. Im loyal to valve they have a community with endless customer service and tips even beta tests. Its well worth it. Plus the steam UI and track pads are the deal breaker for me..
Dont understand your rounding comment with the refresh rate? You can set any monitor that supports over 60, to 60/40/30 etc. Max refresh rate doesn't change that or make it sny different
Windows on SD is really good and its really not that hard to dual boot the SD with steam os and W11. This is why the SD wins for me because of the trackpads that are not on the ROG Ally, they make using windows (and linux for that matter) much more user friendly. I bought the SD base model for £315 when it was on sale and immediately swapped out the 64gb emmc ssd for a 512gb ssd for £50 totalling £365. In the UK, the 512gb model costs £569 so I saved £204 doing it this way.
Yup, I picked up a 512gb sd card for a windows boot so that I can play my gamepass/gog games on the go, while the internal nvme is used for my steam games and emulation. I feel like it's the best of both worlds.
you can plug in a external monitor on the usb c of the ally just like this, without an external graphics card. This will be better than the steam deck. All in all ithink you're a little bit too negative to the rog ally.
I found two separate ifixit pages for Rog ally. They aren't parts. It's a request page for help on how to fix it and another page for getting help with the ally. These aren't guaranteed but it does seem to point the direction of the Ally being the parable on ifixit
I’m wait for Valve reaction. Steam Deck was no doubt a major success for valve, they always updating everyday constantly supporting with developers with it OS. The problem i have with Asus is they relying on third party OS. Which to me is a red flag, if anything wrong with games then it down to Microsoft to fix that issue on their OS from it crashing on it. Steam has it own software, any problems they can investigate and instantly address it with the developer. Makes me think Asus is just doing this for a cash grab and they won’t support it as much as Valve do with theirs.
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Note that in the price section, I said there was a $500 difference between the $650 Steam Deck and the $700 ROG Ally. Just in case you needed me to clarify, I meant to say $50 and not $500. This channel is really going downhill!
if only it was 500 difference.
Just 50 dollars and you get so much more
can't wait thanks for the comparison
On paper, the ROG Ally is so much more powerful (and I use Win10 on my Steam Deck anyways), but the performance gains are not enough to make me want to upgrade. Maybe I'll wait 1 more generation.
And if u take 400$ steamdeck and 50$ 512gb SSD that u install yourself there is even more pros towards point made in this vid(playstyle)
Cheapest SD in EU is 419€ but Ally 699€. Too expensive, not worth the upgrade.
What I love about my Deck is, I feel like I’m back in the early Android days again and just tinkering with customization!
My deck is bigger than yours!
@@Jdubkilla😂😂😂
The Ally is perfect for emulating newer games, I’m still using both devices, but I pick up the Ally more frequently now. Mainly, because the awesome PS3 and Switch emulator performance. I do hope that Valve is going to release a newer, more powerful Steam Deck later.
Thank you for everything you do in the handheld/retro community!
I'm from Australia cannot get steam deck so going for Asus Ally comes out in July over here in Australia thanks for great video 😅
If the Ally has any lasting power then I'd like to get one to install SteamOS on. I doubt it will though. I don't see RoG taking this as serious as Valve long term.
Asus want to everyone who bought ally to go fuck themselves, valve will just optimize SD more and more in the long run, just wait and see who will be laughing at last, I know for sure we will see some asus fanboys crying bc they device just stopped working and it is all soldered on the motherboard without any help of asus
I'm surprised by how many people bring up Destiny 2 in their ROG Ally review, the game is much more popular than I realized.
I bought a steam deck for my birthday a week ago. And I am still AMAZED by the steam deck.
After the rog ally came out, all of the reviews made the steam deck look like a weak device that runs games at very low quality or frame rate. I didn't have any way to check the steam deck before I bought it so I was a bit scared that i will be disapointed and felt like I won't be able to run AAA games on it.
AND BOY WAS I WRONG. all of the ally comparison reviews just do not make any justice for the steam deck. I tried miles morales, tales of arise and SF6 on it, and all of them run so well on the deck it is crazy. And without one second spent on opening the setting menu. Oh and the screen is so much better than it seems in the reviews.
Could not recommend it more.
One thing that that can't easily be matched on windows currently (IMO) is Emudeck and the ease of operating everything through the Linux frontend.
I felt like Steam deck is like a beefed up console or liked an officially Jailbroken console.
Thank you Russ for giving us the first balanced review of the ROG Ally. All other outlets are gushing about performance while often paying very little respect to battery and the general experience, but this video actually give people an idea of what they can expect in order to make a informed purchasing decision 🙂 Really looking forward to The Phawx video as well. Equally confident in his review process as well.
This is really minor, bet I love every time you post a long video and say "grab a drink and your favorite snack." It just feels so cozy!
For a final comparison you have to wait at least a year for software updates and optimizations.
Always very detailed quality videos. Thanks.
We can all probably drop saying "P" after what the resolution is 'cause nothing, as far as I'm aware of, is interlaced anymore. :)
Because ALL monitors now come with an interlaced option. It’s a toggle-able feature in most high end monitors, i can switch to interlaced for my rog 360hz moniot and my rog 144hz monitor
@@urwashedlul so wait, you're backing up what I'm saying. Is that correct?
Just get both wtf
1: Linux may take a bit of time to learn complex things but if all you need is to download stuff Discover has everything (and you don't need to worry about shady exes)
2: The Steam Deck wasn't ment to be a desktop replacement. It has features like cloud sync to help work alongside a desktop PC.
3: You failed to mention that some older Windows games won't work on modern Windows but do work through Proton on Linux
Yeah, He did his best to explain as much as he can, I don't blame him for not adding another 3 points. But YOU ARE RIGHT, these points are good. I hope this comment getted pinned, so most people can see.
I will say there are some older games that won't work on steam deck though as well, due to the portrait screen and rotating it via software. Also some of those same workarounds can be worked into Windows, but you have to do it manually.
I think, point 3 should be like this:
You failed to mention that some older Windows games won't work on modern Windows but but do work through myriad of free apps for any Windows...
@@WortexCZ If software doesn't work through the built in utilities then it's not supported.
@@kittenzrulz2314 I totally disagree. I would literally say: Nonsense! It's a normal operating system. And as an ordinary operating system, it supports everything that is compatible with it. Just as Valve installs Proton in Steam Deck as the default emulation of games for Windows, so I can install absolutely anything I want or need in Windows.
The argument "if it's not there from the factory = it doesn't exist" is the argument of a console owner from the nineties. I'm looking for a replacement for a laptop and this seems absolutely ideal - so far!
One thing I see alot of people get wrong is that you're stuck with Steam. Which is not the case, you can install other game launchers on it via the desktop mode and then set it up to be launched from the Steam game library.
Yup, even if you don't want to set up a windows boot you can set up gamepass via cloud gaming that way.
Reminder that Asus was putting their graphics cards on ebay for well above msrp during the crypto craze not to long ago.
There is a point you didn't go over for people like me 😅 You talked about it still charging while being docked but what about if it's handheld and charging ? 🤔
Interested in the ROG one
One BIG advantage of the ROG Ally that no reviewer seems to mention is that it has a landscape display, where almost all other handhelds have a portrait display that is rotated in software. Portrait screens tend to have a lot more scaling issues in some games.
That's an issue on Windows but not on SteamOS because Valve properly accounted for that with SteamOS.
I never knew that. Very interesting.
that's not a thing on SteamOS, but if you're running Windows on the Steam Deck I think that can be an issue, yeah
@@Moskeeto That is not entirely true there are some games that don't work because of this specific issue. They're all older games mind you tho (like I'm talking dx8)
@@Dracossaint Again, that's an issue on Windows. But on SteamOS that has not been an issue.
867$ hier in Germany, and you still need a ca 40$ case because it doesn't come included... That means that in Germany it costs 900$ instead of 650$. That's around 250$ difference... Quite a though sell... Specially due to the extremely unpolished experience with the ROG ally.
As a long time Steam Controller and Steam Deck user, the lack of touchpads is really a deal breaker for me. I really think they should just be standard on modern controllers.
for me the Ally is a good buy..if you dont have steam deck..if you have steam deck its a decent improvement in performance that comes witha ton of setbacks..software ease..battery life...
Even worse than the Deck's criminal compatibility issues and battery life?!
Software? Dude if your primary device is the deck you are limited to what games you can play that sucks. Yea you can install windows but most people won't
@@MorrisseyMuseWorse than the Deck’s battery life, yes. Not sure what you mean by criminal compatibility tho - unless you strictly play AAA multiplayer games you’ll be able to play virtually whatever you want.
@@MrMagicAmmoteam Deck can play virtually anything but new, AAA multiplayer games due to anti-cheat.
Regardless yes, the ease of use of SteamOS isn’t even comparable to Windows on a handheld. Any review you watch will confirm that. Windows is rough on handhelds right now.
@@MrMagicAmmo I have yet to find a game i cant play due to compatibillity issues
I kind of like when machines sounds like machines
really great video! Go Ally!
I love your videos, Russ. This was another banger. As anything, your videos, which are already very very good, can also be improved. I really wish you'd talked more about the touch pads. I know you're not much of a touch pad gamer, but I feel like you're almost doing a disservice to some of your viewers by not talking about the touchpads more. I want to challenge you to get a lot, lot better at touchpad gaming. Here's a couple things you can do:
1. play Everspace with using the touchpad for your aiming. It's an amazing game that uses the touchpad in the best way I've seen so far.
2. play Noita with the right touchpad used for gaming. Set the touchpad to "as mouse region". Scale the vertical sensitivity if you need to. Play around with the various settings.
3. play some shooters with the touchpad. I like Outer Worlds for that one because it's not a super hardcore shooter.
Try out touchpads. Not having them on the Ally really is a huge step back imo.
Is this a Z1 extremely version?
Armory Crate is not new software, nor is it a full-fledged operating system. Asus does not have a good track record with software. Last two motherboards on my PC have been Asus, first thing I make sure to do is disable "install armory crate" in the BIOS.
Even in bed I play at decently high brightness as the colours get dulled at lower brightness I just like the screen to look it's best at all times
I don't know if I missed it but is there a bypass charging feature on both devices?
I've watched so many review videos now.. I seriously can't wait to get mine! This thing is a handheld beast.
Regarding the steam deck pricing - $399 + $50 512gb SSD from amazon makes it $449 vs $699 Ally, w/o loosing warranty on SD! This is real situation for anyone who cares about buck spent. And replacing SSD is way to simple on SD. On Ally there is no way you can reduce it's price below $699.
SD comes with good hard case, ally soft case cost $40 - which makes it: SD - $449 vs Ally $739. This is honest real pricing, and no way Ally looks good like that.
The game library category may need revisiting. There's actually a substantial amount of older windows games that don't work out of box (or at all) on windows, but will on steam deck. The Verge's review covered this pretty well.
Excellent and extremely thorough video! Deciding to stick with my Steam Deck after your valid points. Gained a sub!
As a steam deck owner I just find that those big AAA games were not meant to be played on a handheld. I mostly use it for emulation and easier to handle games. Making the ally not a upgrade for me.
How long does it last at 10w? I like PS3/ Xbox 360 gen games (Fallout 3/NV, Deus Ex HR, Bayonetta, Dragon's Dogma, RE 5/6,etc) and if those games run great at 10w I will get Steam Deck.
Thank you for mentioning the points at the end of your video... Not many people in the handheld market are aware of the major slip ups Asus has had recently...
In Europe: Steam Deck 512GB Comparison:
Price difference US: +50$ ✅
Price difference EU: +120€🤯 (130$)
Of course the price-performance ratio is still good but €799 is €799.
SD 512GB 679€ vs ROG Ally 799€
EU price hike is what makes many products not value friendly, somewhat related to Vat and USD/EUR ratio, keeps me away from many products.
@@karandras2854 Oh Yes :/
@@karandras2854 us Europeans have it bad for all of the merch 😢
Tbh I don't think the 512 gb sd is worth it if you ever upgraded a PC. You can just buy the base model and upgrade the ssd for like 50 bucks, so in that price performance figure the steam deck gets a lot better in value. Also soon is summer sale and if it drops another 50 bucks I probably will buy one. The ally is nice, but performance on low tdp isn't a game changer, the higher resolution and frame rate are nice to haves, but not essential for me.
@@biglevian exactly!
Summary:
Size - Negligible difference
Screen - ROG wins
Audio - Neglibible difference
Controls - Steam Deck wins
I/O and Ports - ROG wins
Software -
Stability - Steam Deck wins (for now)
Battery - Steam Deck wins
Performance - ROG wins
Dockability - ROG wins
Cooling - Both are cool
Catalog - ROG wins
Price - It depends
Availability -
Repairability - Steam Deck wins
Trustworthiness - Steam Deck wins
Summary - Steam Deck for Retro games, comfort, battery, reliability, trustworthiness. ROG for better display, performance, catalog, versatility
ROG has some advantages for being windows based and better specs at a marginally higher price. Steam Deck is more usable though bc of battery life being less of a hassle.
Fire for the summary
gonna stick with the steam deck for now, but in the future i might look into getting a second device that is more powerful.
If steamdeck wins for battery then I'll definitely hold off on ROG and wait for the next better device. Some AAA titles don't even get 2hrs on steam deck lmao
@@SimplyTooFresh im mostly using moonlight with my chromecast, because I feel like emulation wise the steam deck can handle games but it isnt exactly stutter free. but i feel like the steam deck runs everything else fine.
Thanks. These thorough reviews are very helpful. The Ally is 🔥 I’ll probably hold off until a SteamDeck 2 or Ally 2. I’ve never got any first gen products. I’m happy with my Switch currently… but always wished to have a Windows handheld.
I would actually buy it now (unless u wanna wait 2-3 yrs), the ROG Allt at least, combining it with game pass is a match made in heaven
"I’ve never got any first gen products."
"happy with my Switch currently"
Ok...
@@zeronim1965 Switch has many gens like the 2019 or the OLED version but yeah sure mate
@@Teilzeit02 lol they all represented one console - Switch, got same chip, same power... It's like to make new revision, but sell it as a new console :\ (well N-company like to do something like that)
Or we can say that Ally is just a new gen of portable PCs, there Asus collected everything from all to their pPC.
Main problem not "first gen" but that it's still a PC, not a console... Asus dont give a s if a game wont be playable on device, of we'll be optimizing games for Ally, they just jumped on hypetrain, while Valve is doing all work as a locomotive... Store, optimization, contacts with devs.
Steam Deck will probably go on sale during steam summer sale. It would be a great price point
13:50 i might need to 3d print a cap for the USB/GPU connector on the Rog Ally. I dont like it all open like that ._. bread crumbs and sh!t
Docking the steam deck is not bad at all if youre using FSR scaling in the deck settings. You can upscale 720p render to 1080p or even 1440p with no perceivable performance impact and play with the sharpness slider a bit and it looks amazing.
90 mins battery life, and that is only on mid level games settings........they could have doubled that with ease by going with 60fps and a 720p screen as 1080p and 120 rps is wasted on such a screen that small.....and no touch pads means all your mouse required pc games are dead at the starting gate....this needed more optimisations and trimming.
I've been given a deck for Father's day/ Birthday and was happy but had kinda changed what i wanted to the Ally when i found out about it. Thank you this was a very helpful to the point video and I'm now very happy with what i have. Now I just have to figure out how to make my deck do what i want! 😅
Where i live in Norway Valve refuse to sell their hardware. So if I'm going to buy a steamdeck on a used marked here (even if it's new) we're talking early ps5 scalping price! About 1000$ without any warrenty.
So 900$ wich the Asus rog ally cost in Norway i'm "happy" to buy. Sucks its so expensive compared to usa, but thats life. I at least gets a 5 year waranty wich is standard in Norway.I wanted a handheld pc for years now, and the rog ally seems like a good place to start😊
Dominican starting on Gaming here.
I am crazy to start playing Elder Ring.
- Recently purchased my Steam Deck. 🙌🏾
If money isn't a issue i would get the Ally. The docking features is supreme
Honestly, I tried both in store and the steam deck felt much better quality wise. It ended up making me get the deck. Waiting to see how the legion go feels
Meh, Steam Deck owner here. Preordered the Ally minutes after they opened preorders.
I want full speed Switch, PS3 emulation and more games running at 60fps with higher graphical settings with a much lower fan DB level. Plus, I won’t have to deal with a million versions of proton anymore, wine tricks, installing dependencies etc.
I love my deck, but they’re not updating the hardware for years so, yea for me worth it.
Curious if you plan to keep the Steam Deck once the Ally arrives, and if so, are you going to play different games on each device?
@@RetroGameCorpsI will probably sell it, providing the ally once in my hands is everything I expect it to be. At least I’ll be able to return it to my local Best Buy if it sucks which is like 15 minutes from my house. If that’s the case I’ll keep my SD.
@@michaeliovani4487 I am kinda in the same boat, I just want to play AAA without issues or compatibility. I only had the SD for a couple of days but I’m already tire of different protons and videos of how to do shit, specifically for Ubisoft games. Question, did you like the Ally Rog? Did you end up keeping it?
As a Norwegian I'm so happy that the Asus ROG Ally actually releases here! I've wanted a Steam Deck for so long, but they don't sell then here... I've already pre-ordered a Ally!
Oh shit, did they comment on why not? I assumed EEA would be the same as us in the EU. They even included the UK. Is there an option to do mail forwarding from DK or SE? In Ireland we have a cheap option like that for the UK
You need some friends in the states man
Same
Asus is scumy
Getting one from Sweden was a really long and cumbersome process, but I finally got my Deck in the end 😇 I got the cheapest model (64GB) for $415 + shipping costs, which came up at about 4500kr ($420). I also bought a 512GB microSD card for 500kr ($50), making the total come at *5000kr,* or ~ *$470*. This just exceeded the upper limit of my affordability budget. As a comparison, the Z1 Extreme ROG Ally costs *9000kr* here in Norway *($840),* yielding a difference of 4000kr ($375 -- the price of another Deck), and there's no way I can afford that! So, to me, the Steam Deck is still the the more realistically obtainable and affordable product.
But it's great that you have the budget to pre-order the Ally, and I agree, having it avaialble for purchase _domestically_ was such great news 😇👍
I feel like Valve put a lot more thought into their product than Asus did... Valve went above and beyond to design something that was user repairable, and had extensive control options, and came in at an incredible price. Asus just kind of saw what other companies were doing, like AyaNeo, and just threw something out at a slightly more aggressive price point which is not necessarily a bad thing. But as anyone who has used asus motherboards in the past can probably agree with, they seem to fall on their face when it comes to software. Not to mention their current reputation with their motherboards has me questioning the years of loyalty i've shown the company when it comes time for PC upgrades.
typical salty steam deck owner.. just because u regret ur steam deck, doesnt mean you have to try hard to praise steam deck and disprove rog ally just to justify ur steam deck purchase lmao
He regret buying steam deck🤣
Cry about it
@@Bodonism what is he crying about, kids you like you need to grow up
@@ericwilliams8647he is crying about his steam deck being ass now wym can u not read?
When the intro hits, my one year old starts dancing.
Steam Deck W as always
Excellent video, thanks. For me, I am staying with the steam deck since I mostly use it only for emulation. I really don't think I need a rog ally for that purpose. Enudeck works fine for me. I will probably purchase a rog ally eventually, but only when it goes down in price or on sale.
Dude once u dive deep and u unlock the full potential of the deck, it's freakin amazing.. u can emulate off of anything, this is a pc in ur hands.. dual boot windows.. thank me later 👍💯
Horrible statement, many emulators arent compartible with steam deck while ally is, and steamfeck cant play many games like gow3 while ally can
I wouldn't buy anything from Asus due to how theyve been acting lately.
This was a great and informative video; thank you for taking the time to make it. I was one of the first to get a Steam Deck during the first wave of shipments. Love the device and have invested in many accessories like Valve's SD Dock and DBrand's Killswitch skin/case. Was wondering if I should sell it and get an Ally; your video has helped me decide to stick with the Deck at least for now.
trackpads are a MUST HAVE.
This was a great comparison!! You covered everything I would consider. Thanks!! Hope others find it insightful as well.
Honestly, I'm probably in the minority here, but the $400 steam deck was already pushing my budget. If a similar handheld doesn't starr at 400 or less I'm not gonna be hype for it 🤷
I don't think you are, no. I have a fairly good income, but still it's about risk/reward for me, I can afford to have a 400$ device stolen, or fail after 2/3 years, it will be painful but not the end of the world. A 800$ device would be really, really bitter for me.
Agreed. For a handheld gaming device, $400 is pushing my limits. I did buy the low end Steam Deck and spend $60 to upgrade the SSD. However when you are talking $600-700 thats out of my range. I am still waiting for that $150 device with a nice 4"+ screen that can play Gen6 without any issues. for the RP4+
Peasant
U gonna die waiting dude
nope. in my country the ally cost twice as much as the deck. complete deal breaker. even if it was better in every aspect, there's no way i'm paying that much for a handheld video game.
“I prefer to play lower end PC Games on the Steam Deck” - like… retro games? 😂 *name checks out*
I have an ally on pre order but I think I'm going to cancel it. It's actually quite a lot of money which can easily go into a gaming PC upgrade. And I can't image current generation of Windows will be that good in a handheld. I have both the steam deck and switch OLED. And honestly with playing Tears of the Kingdom lately, it's fine. I don't need another handheld which doesn't provide that much more in terms of experience.
Why cancel it ? best buy has a return policy play it for yourself and make your own decision . Because you really don't like it you can return it 😂
@@Tha_Lyons I thought it through, even if it was not as bad as an experience, I just don't have room for another handheld at the moment. Not to mention having to explain it to the wife. Hard to hide things like another $1000 handheld
@@teebles fair enough, my friend is trying to clear it with his wife right now 🤣 so I understand
@@Tha_Lyons hahaha exactly... It's cool, but it also made me think of steam deck 2, can't keep buying every shiny new thing lol
Get a deck and just buy a GPU for your pc with the rest of the money, ally just sucks with this price point
Thanks for reminding that Windows still have shit controller support
having no trackpacks on the Ally is a deal breaker for me. Im sorry, but the trackpads are SUPER useful on older games that only use mouse support.
And the trackpad does help with aiming too! Pair with gyro *chef kiss*
That’s cool personally I would rather all my games play that %25-%50 better, instead of just one type of input but I hear ya
@@xBonafidexProdigyfair enough. It all depends on what you intend to play. Personally, I could never give up StarCraft 2 in handheld. Those trackpads are a must for that game.
One note on the great on deck, is that those are certified by valve as meeting their internal metrics. I have played quite a few games that are technically unsupported and they worked excellently on deck.
Super happy with my deck, based on reviews I’m happy I bought the low end steam deck and upgraded storage. Suits all my needs so far from AAA to emulation.
The bad part is games that are on the verified list but don't work perfectly out the box, like missing cutscenes in samurai shodown story mode and others.
@@buhshmuh it’s definitely an imperfect process for their validation. They can only review a few minutes, and check whatever boxes are on their list….
@@buhshmuh Have you tried proton experimental?
@@buhshmuh Look up Proton-GE to fix your missing cutscene videos. Usually caused by video codecs that Valve is legally prevented from supplying in base Proton but Proton-GE is community maintained.
If I were to get one myself, it would be the steam deck. Yeah, the rog ally is faster, but its worse in almost every other way, especially the software experience. And the nicer screen on the ally is borderline pointless since most of the time you are going to be running the screen at 720p and at =
Thanks for this detailled comparison. What about installing steam OS or a linux distrib like batocera on the ROG Ally ? Is it possible and does it make the battery last longer on less demanding games ?
Right now the bootloader is locked on Windows so I'm still working on it. This likely won't be an issue with the retail units, but the review devices are locked down. ETA Prime is also working on it, and he's way smarter than me with this stuff, so hopefully we'll have more info soon.
Screen steamdeck
sound steamdeck
controls steam deck
I/o draw
Suspend mode steamdeck
Battery steamdeck
Prodmance rog
Dockability rog
Fans rog
Handhold Heat steamdeck
Games catalogue rog
Price steam deck
Trustability Valve
So basicly if you want a good hand hold experience with good proformance get a steam deck
If you dont mind having a slightly worse handheld experience in exstange for slightly better proformance go for rog
I bought a steam deck to play games like dead cells, terraria, do some basic emulation, and replay older titles like fallout 3, metro or Wolfenstein which look and play great on the deck, and can run for hours on end without having to constantly plug in which defeats the purpose of portable gaming to me. So the ergonomics, support, reliability and power of the SD keeps me content for now. Would a better screen or more power be nice? Sure but everything comes at a cost especially in battery life. However, a slightly smaller bodied, Oled screen, larger battery Steam deck 2 would have me absolutely throwing my money at valve!
Ok, I am going to dislike the video because you said you EXPECTED the Ally to hold 3hrs compared to Steam Deck playing low spec games at 60hz. Why not actually test it out? The numbers seem way too different to not inspect.
WOW, I did not expect you to stick with the Steam Deck! Awesome video as always
RGC as you may know stands for "subscribe to Mr.Sujano!"
also no one is playing 120hz and 1080p on a handheld lmao. It's just too small of a screen and the battery save + fps boosts is just so significant which is where Steam Deck did there research. You don't need these big ass specs that ROG Ally is trying to sell you lmao. What you do need is a better battery and a new updated CPU .
I think the steam deck is better. Better ergonomics, better controls, better user interface. And you can install windows and have the best of both worlds. Its also cheaper so when the new model comes out you don’t feel like you wasted money. If they sell the steam deck 2 at the same price its going to be a big win.
I agree with this. It's why I went with the deck. The ROG is just not ready yet, windows 11 is not ready for portable gaming and it shows hard. The deck has constant support and shows no signs of slowing down, and just offers a great experience overall. Plus asus may just drop another device next year. It's better to stick with the deck as it does what I want it to do for now, and just hold out for the deck 2 for my next handheld upgrade
And you can manually upgrade the deck in every way
To my knowledge, you've been the only reviewer that brought up repairs and trustworthiness. That's why I hold your channel above the others. For the average consumer who isn't able to purchase every handheld unit, it's important for those with a platform to be as honest with us as possible. Most of the other reviewers aren't taking any of those things into account before hyping up the Ally over the Deck, which is very misleading to the viewer. To many of us, reliability and support is more important than the absolute highest FPS. ASUS's incredibly shady practices has completely turned me off to the Ally. Can't imagine gambling on a $700 dollar device from a company who treats the consumer with such low regards. At least with the Deck I have the peace of mind of consistent updates, support and the option of replacing/repairing parts. Thanks for the review.
UA-cam like "Seems like you are searching Asus problems... Look at this Lenovo
Steam deck still wins honestly. Community, support, track pads, customizability and price point. still makes steam deck better.
How do you think community support will help an average gamer enjoy the game more on deck than on ally which runs on windows for which the games are primarily made on PCs . Rog ally is a pocket PC . No amount of community support for deck will help them run games better than that on windows OS
Deck is primarily for tinkering because of linux . I personally support open source over windows but the fact is ally running on windows will be a hassle free pick and play experience for majority gamers. I am saying all this by experience because i have owned deck since launch
@@avash2009 steam deck can run windows too.
@@MattyVicious1 it can but it's rubbish on deck . I love my Deck but windows is a no no on Deck .
A couple of things I think some fail to realize. First the steam deck launched a year ago and only within the last few months did it become freely available to the public. Second optimization is almost as important as the hardware itself. A device with great specs and poor support will never reach it's full potential. The ease of use the steam deck has created within PC gaming makes it really approachable to a lot of people for the very first time. The steam deck has really given people that switch like experience except with PC games. So where as the Asus ROG is a PC with controlles attached to it the steam deck is a game system that happens to be a PC. The steam deck doesn't really need to be the most powerful device out there so long as steam keeps optimizing it and updating it, I think we will be using the current steam deck for years to come, maybe we will see a pro version at some point. But the fact is the steam deck is still new and valve hasn't even come close to making enough to move on from the current version. The steam deck has steam and so long as steam keeps optimizing games to run well on the deck and so long as they keep improving the software the steam deck is really the winner here. With the steam deck you can tinker if you want or you can very easily jump right into a game without knowing basically anything about Linux. The Asus ROG is a PC, it's going to take tinkering and some knowledge to get things going. Unfortunately this is going to make that device not as approachable for many people who aren't looking for a PC but a game system.
That's what happened for me.. I wanted to game on pc but felt it was a whole new lane I have to learn.. steam deck made it easy for me
been looking at specs and reviews allday , with the summer sale split between the 2 but your right about the steam deck being easier to work on so many options for cases, switches , and has steam behind so support will be there, and if next version is better im sure some will come up with a way to upgrade the screen to a 120hz, so far theyve been able to upgrade the storage to 3 tb
Crazy how Steam Deck is well over a year into its launch and is still making tough competition for its competitors.
what competition ? literally every handheld released in the last 6 months blow the steamdeck out of the water , the only reason why it's compared it's because it is the first handheld this gen released :)
@@ofensatulthere's something called price and battery life. On low tdp the rog ally still cant beat It. But you look like the type of person that doesn't even buy the product, just becomes a cheerleader online lol
The software of everything released pales in comparison. Steam deck's software, stability and community support is really something
@@ofensatul i don’t think so. They all have good things but the overall package is not as compelling as is the steam deck.
Bro you can do sleep/wake function on Windows too. But you need to turn off 'hibernate' feature first (I'm on dualboot WinDeck/SteamOS).
Hey 😊
Will the recent addition of vulkan support in Citra allow older/weaker handhelds like the retroid pocket 3 to play 3ds games at a reasonable level?
Thanks
Today I wanted to play Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II on the Steam Deck and had sound problems. Then Onimush Warlords and that didn't work at all. Steam OS sucks.
Fantastic Comparison ! Congratulations. You did a perfect job!
windows as something portable never work perfectly
"Great on deck" is not the best measurement for how many games will play on Steam Deck vs. the ROG Ally. That's because a huge portion of the game that are listed as "playable" rather than "great on deck" only have that distinction because of small text size - which would also be an issue on the ROG Ally. Sure there are some games that will have other problems, but it certainly isn't half like this video implies.
Even games that are tagged as non playable (or something, can’t remember) play well on Steam Deck like WWE 2k23.
I have 150 games in my library and I have yet to run into a game that I can’t play on my Deck. Granted, I only play singleplayer games so anti-cheat isn’t an issue for me
and i would imagine that any game with anti cheat like valorant or cod mw2 could be bypassed by just installing windows as a secondary OS right? so that would mean that compatibility isn’t really an issue, just takes more work. looking into both of these as a substitute for a gaming pc so pls lmk lol :)
@@logangagnier8937 Recently, running windows on the Steam Deck has gotten a heck of a lot more convenient due to new versions of Steam Deck Tools. I am 100% windows on it now and haven't looked back.
@@azku can confirm. arkham asylum says unplayable but with a small tweak it works flawlessly so "great on deck" vastly undersells how many games work
Russ, I love the skin for your Steam Deck. Do you have the link for it, I’d like to purchase it myself.
I truly hate having a charging port at the bottom of the handheld, Steam did a great job having it at the top.
By having a bottom port you save two seconds of your life whenever you want to play docked, but get a life long frustration of awkward gaming while charging 😅
To be clear, the video also shows ROG ally charging port is on top.
@@Voxavs But it's much more comfortable to play it while you are laying on your bed, that top charging port is great for that.
Asus being in hot water really made me gravitate towards the steam deck more. Nevertheless it’s still super impressive & neat
i dont know, the fact that you can get the cheapest steamdeck and but a big sd card and still is cheaper than the ally, beats it any day, still the best bang for your buck
With ASUS’s terrible customer service, I’ll stick to my SteamDeck for now. As soon as Valve releases a new revision with better screen and battery life, I’ll upgrade then
Valve has terrible customer service as well.
You, like other reviews have missed 1 docked point. Windows supports HDR and the steam deck does not. For those who invested in OLED tvs this is a huge visual upgrade.
it's not out yet but steam os 3.5 is going to add hdr support for docked displays
It will have HDR in the future, it's currently in work
I got my steam deck in like 3 days from the site.. Im loyal to valve they have a community with endless customer service and tips even beta tests. Its well worth it. Plus the steam UI and track pads are the deal breaker for me..
I just ordered mine yesterday😛😛😛 waiting like shit
U mean *lack of I think 😂
@jessica49arrow haha noooo..
Being "loyal" to massive corporations is insane.
ASUS is a shady company. I wouldn't touch the ALLY with a 10ft pole
SD is from 419euro and Ally in Germany is 799euro, so.....
Cheers
For me Steam Deck is always the kind because of software and community support for all the games
Dont understand your rounding comment with the refresh rate? You can set any monitor that supports over 60, to 60/40/30 etc. Max refresh rate doesn't change that or make it sny different
Windows on SD is really good and its really not that hard to dual boot the SD with steam os and W11. This is why the SD wins for me because of the trackpads that are not on the ROG Ally, they make using windows (and linux for that matter) much more user friendly. I bought the SD base model for £315 when it was on sale and immediately swapped out the 64gb emmc ssd for a 512gb ssd for £50 totalling £365. In the UK, the 512gb model costs £569 so I saved £204 doing it this way.
Yup, I picked up a 512gb sd card for a windows boot so that I can play my gamepass/gog games on the go, while the internal nvme is used for my steam games and emulation. I feel like it's the best of both worlds.
bro is the rizzler 11:29
you can plug in a external monitor on the usb c of the ally just like this, without an external graphics card. This will be better than the steam deck. All in all ithink you're a little bit too negative to the rog ally.
and you have epic, gog, ea, gamepass, amazon games aso
SD still the king 👑 rog ally is 2nd 👑 switch 3rd king 👑 😊
He sure loves his steam deck lol
Shows just how good of a product it is.
@@TonberryKing_ it’s incredible
I found two separate ifixit pages for Rog ally. They aren't parts. It's a request page for help on how to fix it and another page for getting help with the ally. These aren't guaranteed but it does seem to point the direction of the Ally being the parable on ifixit
I’m wait for Valve reaction. Steam Deck was no doubt a major success for valve, they always updating everyday constantly supporting with developers with it OS. The problem i have with Asus is they relying on third party OS. Which to me is a red flag, if anything wrong with games then it down to Microsoft to fix that issue on their OS from it crashing on it. Steam has it own software, any problems they can investigate and instantly address it with the developer. Makes me think Asus is just doing this for a cash grab and they won’t support it as much as Valve do with theirs.
Comments are 95% steam deck owners 😂. They aren’t happy