You can turn the Ally into a 4K gaming beast with an RTX 4090 mobile GPU! Check that out next: ua-cam.com/video/gNlgrxNlt7E/v-deo.html Check ROG Ally Prices: geni.us/rog-ally
You forgot the optional "kidney fee" to afford it haha :) It's exciting thought that the handheld space is getting a lot more recognition and hopefully the Ally's introduction will be the impetus for other bigger brands to try their hand at something similar. Thank you for another great video Jarrod!
@@JarrodsTech please also do testing with the new RTX 3050 6GB Laptop GPU - it is an RTX 3050 Ti but with 2 GB more VRAM and with a smaller memory bus (96 bit). The comparison with the 3050 Ti also be interesting, since the 4 GB VRAM in the original 3050 Ti was often criticized for bottlenecking its performance.
@@smidlee7747nah. My device is NOT hot at all when the fans are quiet in performance mode. When im in turbo mode you can hear them and the device is definitely warm. I personally think the SD cards frying are from people either blocking the fan intake, using off brand SD cards, going stupid in Manuel Mode, or a combination of those things. Ive had no issues what so ever with either of my Allys. Very happy :) ❤
@@smidlee7747 lol i hope linustechtips or some big tech youtuber mentions so asus will take care of it sooner or later. gamers nexus and ltt have pretty good connections with asus and have called them out to make changes before. but for me, i've been keeping mines on silent mode playing mostly cloud games on xcloud lately with fantastic results. i'm one of the lucky few where in my area xcloud works great. it allows me to stay on silent mode with temps betwen high 40's and low 60's on aaa titles on the cloud. i've been playing mostly forza horizon 5, need for speed underground, halo infinite campaign at 60 FPS. I guess this is the reason why i've been enjoying the speakers so much.
The rog ally is amazing. I have one. Upgraded my ssd to 2tb and added a 1tb micro sd. The rog ally is super easy to open and work on.Only 6 screws and you have access to everything.
I have several 1tb sd card. My 2tb Sabrent Rocket is out for delivery. Was how do you recommend I image or clone the ssd? Curious, I'll probably get it done tonight or tomorrow.
Legitimately, I first saw those for their Flow series laptops and thought "that's so cool, I wonder how expensive they ar- holy Jesus nope-never-nooope" because they're the same price, if not double, their most expensive Flow series laptops at the time... It's such a shame since it's such an amazing idea, I really hope other companies start doing the same for either their own similar EGPU docks, or for upgradable EGPU docks instead of relying on the bottlenecking thunderbolt.
@@UntrainableWizardWell in my opinion its more for wanting to upgrade in the *future* vs now. Getting a spec youre happy with now then upgrading two to three gens down vs upgrading the entire laptop.
@@reservoir_flow Honestly, if the prices normalise, now that AMD is bringing down the prices of their GPUs, then I might invest in them because that idea is perfect in my eyes. On the road you wouldn't really need best of the best, just a portable system that can last until the CPU becomes the main bottleneck. That idea of GPU future proofing (with more affordable pricing) is one I could get behind. (Honestly, I think I've been so stuck on the price that I didn't consider the idea of future proofing with it, hahahahaha)
A 700 usd handheld console is a well and truely a luxury device while a 700 usd gaming laptop is a utility device. If I had some disposable income, I'd love to own the Ally! Just a personal fascination towards ultra portable powerful devices!!
the best comprimise would be a gpd win max 2, the one with the oculink port It has amazing specs, ie screen/ io / expandability, and its a laptop I wish it had an old thinkpad keuyboard and touchpoint though, thats my only gripe, and probably touchpad buttons at the bottom
@@user-lp5wb2rb3v If only the Ryzen 7 model was the price of the Ryzen 5.... But the GPD Win Max 2 uses premium components all the way. The RAM in those devices are the fastest you can get, it has a really good screen, two M.2 ports, Wi-fi 6e, HDMI 2.1 that can do 4k12hz, USB 4, etc. ROG Ally have just one USB-C port and it is only 10GBs.
I mean, I (and I'm lucky I got this for my 2021 ROG Flow x13) have an RTX 3080 XG Mobile already. The only I'd miss is pretty much just DLSS 3 and a bit of extra performance. But yeah, $2000 for the RTX 4090 XG Mobile seems like a pure luxury accessory, especially given it's out of stock right now.
@@cameronbosch1213 dude I am also waiting for a deal on the XG 3080 but it's not just "a bit" it's basically running a 4080 desktop... that's why it's so expensive
correct but unike a laptop you dont have to get rid of it to get a bigger performance upgrade.......... i mean its a 4090 so its basically a high powered desktop while keeeping your orginal product
I feel like that laptop might have single channel Ram which is common in cheaper gaming laptops so upgrading it dual channel will definitely boost performance
Keep in mind you can get a 15” OLED panel to play with the Ally for under $200 and then it’s not locked to the device and will be usable when you replace it.
the ally is more suitable to be used for a short time while being very portable. if you want to use something for like 10 hours a day, go for a pc or a laptop if you still sometimes like to play games on a bigger screen outside of your home or do work.
They are getting waaay easier to find, as of like two months ago tbh. I struggled to get a 2tb 2230 for ages for my steam deck, then I bit the bullet on one on Ali express. (Edit: found the ssd)The wd sn740 2tb for £200, since then that one has been dropping a fair bit in price and better ones have released :)
@@buddybleeyes 1TB is easier to find but still twice the price of a similar 2280 1TB M.2. Also at least in my country I can't find any single 2TB 2230, and I'm not gonna buy an SSD off Aliexpress.
@@MrJonas7Amazon has them now, I’m sure more will appear as the market of handheld devices is slowly expanding so manufacturers will need to make the bigger capacity NVMe 2230s
I love my ROG Ally, what an amazing device and the Legion Go seems like an amazing device too! Loving this new era of handheld PCs, what a lovely time to be into gaming!
The ally is pretty amazing, I’m gonna keep modding mine till I can’t . So far I only have a 4tb 2280 in it but I have the new joysticks ordered and once one netbook releases the screens for the onexfly I’m gonna work on swapping the stock Ally screen for that one. So far the ally runs everything I put to it with no issues and is a emulation powerhouse especially for original Xbox , ps3 and the switch .
Man I’ve been playing starfield in this machine rog ally and is amazing bro I have series x but I like more in the ally because I can play everywhere! 😂
I do love the Ally a lot, but the lack of Thunderbolt port is a deal breaker for me. I never been a fan of using proprietary eGPU as you can't upgrade the GPU card at any time you want.
I still stand by my decision of getting a 2021 Acer Nitro 5 last year, sporting a 3060 for just 600 bucks brand new. And though I'd love to buy and enjoy playing on a portable gaming device such as the one featured on your video, I much prefer to carry the laptop, charger and an Xbox controller around in my backpack, and have a proper mobile gaming session with more eye candy (much higher in game settings), DLSS 2 capabilities, without compromising frame rates, higher resolution, etc. Of course you can turn these portable devices into a somewhat capable PC with a dock, an external keyboard and a monitor. But then you'd actually need more stuff in your backpack. It's just easier to have a gaming laptop instead.
He's comparing at the worst value range of laptops with the best value range of gaming handhelds. If the budget is even any little higher, you can easily get a 3060 laptop which more than doubles the gaming performance of an aging 2050.
I was debating a handheld vs gaming laptop. Then I found a Lenovo IdeaPad gaming 3 with a 5600h and 3050ti for $400. Used gaming laptops can have enormous value depending on the deal.
Even here is not even close. This 700 laptop wipes the floor with the handheld. The man chose better scenarios for the handheld. There are ultra thins coming with dedicated gpus these days. More expensive but bigger diference in functionality. Imaging hyping a 1 hour device for gaming. Talking about a ginmick.
@@Refreshment01 If Razer builds one of these it's game over. Although I kind of doubt they will. I'd also buy it if MSi made one. ASUS has been playing around with small form factor for years.
I love handhelds and have a small collection at home. If I didn`t have a Steam Deck, I would definitely get an Ally. I don`t need extra power anymore because I upgraded my laptop recently.
Yea I got a series x for power and my steam deck for triple a games, indie games and ps games, also emulation is amazing, I can't imagine upgrading my steam deck until steam deck 2 comes out 😅
I have a similar laptop just with a 3060 graphics card, the thing about the laptop is that meant for multiple purposes besides just gaming. The Ally wins in portability obviously. They are too different to even bother comparing them aside from gaming.
I had an ally and my trigger stop working two weeks after I bought luckily I still could exchanged at Bestbuy so i did for an Asus gaming laptop with a 3060 for $800 and 16gbs ram but not that I have the laptop I miss the ally lol
Speaking of portability, i think the laptop can be even more portable! I have a steam deck, i know it's not as powerful as rog ally, imagine a tactical fps game which you need to see enemies from far, on a 7 inches screen well i can say good luck having fun while being confused how you got killed and advantage of a keyboard and mouse! On the other hand you didn't even see the enemy coming... Of course there will be some people who says you can connect it to a monitor + mouse and keyboard! Of course!!!!!!! But here's the deal!!! ; CAN YOU STILL TALK ABOUT PORTABILITY WHILE WITH A EXTRA MONITOR AND MOUSE AND KEYBOARD!? Obviously not, by the way that a gpu chip inside of the laptop! Which is more capable of 3d rendering.
@@behnamp9174people had no problem gaming on the psp, or the switch.. both with smaller screens. Having the option to dock it is what made the switch so popular why is that a bad thing here?
The fact there is handheld gaming which can play AAA games at HD resolution already mind blowing. We move from 3DS and Vita to 1080p gaming on mobile. PSP was touted as PS2 on go which it isn't, but handheld gaming devices is truly a portable gaming PC. ROG Ally can't beat gaming laptop or PC for sure, but you get portable gaming PC instead.
Heck, I'd argue Nintendo should definitely be nervous. Especially given some former fans (like myself) absolutely hate them now. And the fact that they STILL are running a crusty old 2016 SoC in 2023 isn't making things better for them or third-party developers, some of whom have dropped the Switch compatability or at least exclusivity and put their games on other platforms, like Steam.
@@cameronbosch1213 Yeah but that switch 2 though, when that finally comes out it will be fire! Plus games like zelda breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom, i don't know any games that come close to that on pc. plus the rog ally is a chunker, the switch is much slimmer and lighter too v.v I don't know man, nintendo shouldn't be too concerned, their consoles are special and their game dev team kills it sometimes.... as for xbox and playstation roflmao their consoles will be done in a year or two with amd's 8000 or 9000 series APUs
@MrJustek Sometimes. Other times they torture their fans and indirectly insult them. Some of the recent first-party were like that. TLoZ games were rare exceptions and the graphics were quite mediocre because the Switch is struggling to be playable in 2023. And need I say all of the third-party games that don't run well on the Switch but do on even the Steam Deck, had their Switch port canceled (like Midnight Suns, the ancient Switch hardware along with poor sales of the current gen and PC ports caused the Switch port to be canceled), or had to severely cut their features to run on the Switch and either still failed, or were eventually wound down because the Switch is like a freaking toy. I was a Nintendo fan, heck, since the GameCube days, but not anymore. Nintendo can take their sadistic ideas and shove them down a cliff for all I care.
@@MrJustek Switch 2 will have exclusives which can't be emulated for couple years so there's reason for buying. Nintendo games many are game changer like Tear of Kingdom or Mario Odyssey, game wise Nintendo is a powerhouse. Also considering it is Nintendo, there is probability their next device will come with something unique like hologram or something.
To be honest, I don't really understand the purpose of handhelds for AAA games. Such games usually have a lot of objects, artifects etc. meant for a bigger screen which gets too much crammed in 7-8 inch screens.
Whats stopping me from getting handheld is, most games now require internet while portability is great, say like maybe going somewhere with no internet access then it seems pretty useless right? I do go out of town where theres not much or none at all wifi so it kinda defeats the purpose of having a device needing internet.
Don’t know if you ever got one but I can speak on this from plenty of experience working on cruise ships, it’s a pain in the arse. I constantly need wifi to do anything thanks to launchers, DRMs etc. makes me only ever want to take my Switch with me as that just works.
Sadly in europe the ROG ally is almost $900, so its not worth it at all compared to the steam deck (at the summer sale steam decks are 377 euros for the 64 gb version), so its less then half the price of a ROG ally at $414.
In this case, what does portable mean? Size ? The ally cannot be portable for more than an hour without a power bank or a charger, the usability kills the portability aspect here.
Honestly, given the 1060/1650-esque performance of the iGPU in the Z1 Extreme and the closely related 7840U/HS, I'd love to see some entry level gaming laptops forgoing the dGPU entirely and using the money saved to add a better display and keyboard.
Subscribed! One of the smartest comparison videos out there. Not seen anyway comparing laptops to the ROG Ally. Don't know why as it makes so much sense. Great work Jarrod.
The screen size isn't a 1:1 comparison. When using my laptop it's on either my lap or a desk/table, 2-3ft from my face. When using a handheld I'm lounging on the couch or in bed with the screen literally inches from my face. So it's not necessarily an objective win for the bigger screen
I returned my ally bc the battery life it’s horrible for a portable device. I got a lenovo 3050 laptop with 1tb ssd and ddr5 for the same price instead and it’s totally worth it
@@Enes1967 was playing diablo and sekiro on turbo mode and it lasted less than an hour. You can still fast charge the ally and it charges very fast but i still find myself playing plugged all the time
Hey jarrod when are you gonna review this year's lenovo legion 7 and 7i slim? I'm very excited to see how the 4060 is gonna run their native resolution of 2560×1600.
I’m stuck currently between this same exact comparison. I have a ROG Zephyrus s that had something on the board fry. So I wanted something a little cheaper and portable.
Hi ! Jarrod, Im watching form Thailand. and just to tell you. Your voice and language is very easy to hear and practice english skills !! So already be your fan !!!!
What is you experience using it as a PC - with keyboard, mouse and screen? Use Office etc? Cause i'm using Samsung Note 20 in DeX mode - sorts okay but lacks windows features and typing is a bit janky
it cost litteraly $870 here in europe not 700 at all and it does even come with case lol . you can get laptop with much better gaming performance for that price. While steam deck 64gb with 512 gb ssd cost just $515 When you consider paying $355 more for lower battery life,jankier system,without track pads ,barely 20% more performance,without case, lacking back buttons,no suspending functions , no gyro control ,worse community support, only just for better screen? It is littarely only overpriced cutting-edge prototype product with some potential for future window handhelds.
Yah that’s what I meant 😂, a laptop with h series cpu no dedicated gpu bundle with an xg mobile And instead of choosing the gpu in the laptop,customers can choose the xg mobile, and it’s easier to mix and match
I think that this laptop is a bad choice to compare with the rog ally, but jarrod did mention that there are better value laptops and they’ll likely beat the rog ally. I think the big selling point compared to a gaming laptop should be the external Asus XG mobile GPU device that can boost the ally to laptops more than double the price. The good thing is that you can decide later if you want the external GPU, whereas for the laptop, you have to choose between a cheap laptop or an expensive one, not being able to choose later, unless you’re willing to buy another laptop
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The last part is not totally true, you can use an external GPU for laptop with Thunderbolt connection...so you can improve a little bit the headroom of that laptop. Nowadays the 80% of laptops use Thunderbolt Type C connector.
@but thunderbolt is shocking for egpus and gets no were near the performance it should due to not enough lanes. Its not worth using thunderbolt for an egpu 👍
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@@chrisc2252 yes you are right but you Can upgrade a little bit a machine and get better performance on external monitors. And the comment is saying that for laptop you can’t do nothing.
@ oh I completely forgot about that. However, it’s not as efficient as the PCIe port for the XG mobile so a GPU connected to the laptop via thunderbolt doesn’t perform as well as it should when connected to a proper PCIe slot as previously tested by jarrod’s tech. Also, I just looked up the price of the XG mobile and damn it’s expensive, so it is cheaper to get a decent gaming laptop than a bundled rog ally and XG mobile
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Yes, using a better laptop all round can be over the Ally right now.
It all boils down to your lifestyle, really. Back in my broke college days, a gaming laptop was my go-to. It was handy for lugging around campus and still packed a punch for gaming sessions. But now that I'm more financially stable, I've rethought my setup. Why settle for a gaming laptop that's not as powerful as a desktop and not as portable as a handheld PC? I've got a gaming rig for serious gaming, a cheap laptop for work, and a handheld PC for kicking back with some emulated classics and casual gaming.
If you haven't had a taste of Asus's post purchase service standards before , ROG ally looks attractive. The moment you had to go to their service center just to repair an insensitive / faulty buttons or triggers... You will wish you hadn't buy their product And better off buying a laptop with an easily replaceable gamepad .. there's a reason why Nintendo switch had made their gamepad easily DIY replaceable....wait till you get a repair quote of $100 to 150 usd for a button replacement in the service center and they claiming its user wear and tear, not covered under warranty.. then you can comment how good such portable consoles are for the average consumers
I bought a Lenovo with a 4050 for $700 back in December. Im a cloud gamer. Thats why i bought a cheap laptop. I decided to try The Finals since it was free. I started playing and noticed my fans going crazy. I didn't notice it was running locally on steam. Amyway it was playing at 60fps @ 4K with maxed settings. I was shocked at the performance.
Wait, seriously? 2050? I thought those graphics card only existed in High End premium Thin and Light. Their TDP is super low and it will be a waste instead of buying an older 3050. I also want to add that, at the same TDP 2050 is losing against 3050. What a waste. 2050 is a joke, especially on a Gaming Laptop. This is also a good comparison between 2050 to 3050
At 50W, the 2050 ties with the 1650. The only things you get from the 2050 are DLSS and RT support + higher TDP, great bonus but not worth any extra over a 1650 which is 4 years old now or a 3050 which is 2 years old (vs 1.5 years old for the 2050).
Thunderbolt isn’t as stable, because it’s just 4 PCIE 4.0 lanes compared to Asus’ proprietary connector which is technically PCIE 4.0 x8. Also their external GPU is thousands of dollars compared to getting a full 4090 and eGPU dock which is the same cost, and the don’t even have cheaper options like a 4080M, 4060M, or 4050M.
INSOMNIUM! I've been a hardcore metal fan for many decades. Above The Weeping World is my all-time favorite album. That album is simply extraordinary. It's so good it's kinda magical imo. I will never tire of it.
This is a great comparison, The XG mobile isn't really an option to me, you can get a way better experience at $2700 than pairing the Ally with the XG mobile. I get it if you want to have the portable game experience and come home and play with the big screen at high fps, but the price just isn't there.
It is a great concept just the pricing can be better. Portable on go and powerful at home, and you only need them instead of having to buy PC and/or laptop too for work/intense gaming.
@TRX25EX The problem is that the AMD model of the XG Mobile doesn't have DLSS support. And FSR has worse quality imo. And there are games which unfortunately only have DLSS support (like Control, Fortnite, and Watch Dogs Legion), or just added it (like RDR2). Personally, I would just save up for the RTX 3080 XG Mobile.
was thinking about this before. If I go travel or something I'll bring my gaming laptop. to edit photos, work, gaming or anything when I'm back at the hotel resting my feet, As much as I want something like this. It is kind of redundant to have 2 portable windows gaming unit. And the price is also is almost a gaming laptop price. It make more sense if your setup is Tower + Ally. or if you use your Ally as your tower at home too. than people with laptops
Im waiting for Rog Ally 2 and hopefully it comes with the same price aswell as Radeon 880M that's rumored to beat rx580 while be a bit slower than rtx3050 Crazy efficiency even if zen5 in that APU can only do ryzen 7600 performance
If someone ask me how do we spend 100 USD? Some people just buy Iphone or Flagship phone, to me buying Ally and a midrange phone from Samsung (due to their 5 year of software support).
Ngl, this came off kinda scummy. When comparing the laptop you'd say things like "you could add a controller, but that comes at an extra cost" but then you only glaze over the fact that a keyboard would be an extra cost for the ally. You mention the need for a mouse on a laptop... but not for the ally... then you bring up that the laptop can fit 8 tbs of additional storagr, "but that costs more than the laptop itself ", while very enthusiastically talking about the external gpu dock that costs over double the price of an ally! Every point towards laptops had an addendum, that could be applied towards the ally but just wasnt. I have no problem with ads, but transparency would be nice.
Omg thank you for the review!! Was trying to decide what to do which to go with! #1 issue that happens with the Nintendo switch is the controllers get damaged and have to be changed which is a simple swap. This is internally installed! Def not gonna find out what happens when a thumb-stick drift happens! Thank you
But For AI Workflow, still NVIDIA (CUDA) is the Elephent. AMD's RocM Support is still not matured and for iGpu's, it is uncertain. It would be nice to see some AI workflow comparison along with gaming. You're doing a lot in your reviews, that's why I always wait for Jarrod's Tech's Opinion on latest powerful laptops. Just saying, if you can include little bit of AI workflow in your comparison reviews. Nobody wants to see NVIDIA's monopoly, we need to push AMD for better RocM Support.
you are not gonna do any AI workflow on a $700 3 year old laptop... If you are truly a professional, you just get a laptop with a 4090, or even better, a desktop 4090, and thats it.
@@gersongaete1574 I have a 3050ti laptop ($850/2021), I can do 4it/s in Stable Diffusion where a 4080 laptop can do 18it/s max for same 512x512 images right now. From a programmer's perspective, .with 3050ti, at least I can explore most of the AI workflows and dive into code locally. Ryzen iGpu's has no official RocM Support and Apple silicone right now takes at least 10 times more time to do the same in the M1/M2 macs (1it/3s) than the 3050ti. I really hope things will change quickly, but right now, NVIDIA is the only *Freedom (Sadly) for AI. We need fair competition. I hope you got my point.
How can an update fix the location of the sd card slot on the motherboard.A UA-cam video showed the huge mistake made by the engineers.Thst is a deal breaker for sure.
@@Sanchase Yep I have seen the Legion Go from Dave2D. It definitely looks more enticing than the Ally. I might wait for the 2nd gen version of the Z1 processor. Looks like I don't need to buy flagship phones in the future 😅 Just buy midrange phone and get these portable windows gaming devices.
I think 2 year old i5 with a weak and old gpu at 700 usd is just not a fair comparison,you can get a brand new legion 3i gaming with 12700h and rtx 3050ti( 80 watts) for this price
I just returned my ally, it’s not worth it at this point just because it’s a product that is not well optimized yet. Maybe in a couple of months I’ll give it another try. Meanwhile steam deck.
The biggest difference, is that the laptop has the same or better performance, but with a bigger battery, and dedicated keyboard which means it does t have to fight windows since Windows isn’t built for handhelds. Also you can replace the ram and other parts, which isn’t an option for the Ally…. Also more ports.
Honestly, I'll take the Ally. I'd rather save up and spend better $1000 - $1200 for a gaming laptop. Just grabbed a Lenovo Legion Pro 5 with a i7-12th gen and a 3070 for $1199 off Amazon.
The one issue I have with this review is the Wattage used for Testing. Are most people really going to run the Ally at 30-40watts most of the time? I mean its a handheld so I would think the majority of people would lower the TDP to save on Battery life.
For gaming only I really think there's no comparison now, Ally just kills it all or let's say the current gen of Handhelds.... My 3080 Laptop is collecting dust right now.... In addition when I'm at home I can simply stream from my PC so I get full power through Ally while decent battery life, I actually connected Ally and using Steam Link and my phone 5G connection I was able to play with minimal latency 1080P Ultra 120fps locked.... And when you don't have access to your PC Ally can do majority of games 1080P 60fps at medium to high basically.... This is the future of gaming
@@TabalugaDragon Because of things I said, a laptop won't perform as well when not plugged in to wall, battery life even worse than Ally in gaming..... So at home I will rather play my PC or stream my Ally to my PC, outside of home Ally already capable of doing AAA games at 1080P 60 + some competitive gaming at 120fps which is enough for me since screen is 7 inch only... Why I need gaming laptop then? Ally beats in portability and my PC beats it on performance, a laptop now will be more of productivity than actually for gaming, I see no reason to buy a gaming laptop nowadays specially with AR glasses that came out like Xreal Air...... I played with Aya Neo 2 for a full nearly full year without my gaming laptop, I carried a small bag that had foldable Bluetooth keyboard and gaming mouse, attached to my Air glasses that can do now 120hz, I find gaming experience superior to that of my gaming laptop yet lighter to carry around... This is to me the future of gaming really, and I believe Xbox working on this as well
@@TabalugaDragon Because I travel alot I can't carry my PC but I can carry a laptop however since I bought Aya Neo 2 and now have Ally it's basically sitting there doing absolutely nothing.... If you connect it to wall then that's not portable, you can carry mini PC and connect to wall, it will cost less and perform better.... As for 32 inch portable screen, bro do you understand difference in size between an AR glasses and this? You can fit AR glasses in your pocket, that's how small it's
For this test i would use the HP Victus. The 2023 model with the 3050 6gb (that has almost the same specs of the 3050ti but with more VRAM) and a Ryzen 7 7840HS, that would outperform the Ally in iGPU performance, can be bought for 750US$ in the Micro Center
I own a Gaming Laptop for about 1.000$ and since 3 months also the ally. And I have to say I found my love with gaming again. This thing is so much fun! For the price tag it has it is amazing. I only got problems with SD Cards as I can save games on it but I am not able to run them. (Via Steam) Everything else is a dream Come true. Since I got this masterpiece I didn‘t touch my laptop or my Xbox Series X once and I think I never will.
What makes Ally superior is when you combine it with a Xreal Air glasses at 350$ that does 130 inch screen instead of laptops 15 inch lol..... The experience is just mind blowing with those micro OLED glasses, colors clarity screen size just amazing!
Why nobody speaks about AR gaming glasses, I don't know. Gaming glasses is more portable than handheld, and it also gives more privacy as well. No more heads checking out what are you doing. You get cinema level experience with barely carrying anything. You can lay back and game without having to hold handheld up to your face for hours. Not just regular gaming, AR gaming glasses have potential for AR gaming. Like real life pokemon battle or COD battle.
@@nff_1950 You do realise how much more portable Ally is? Or the fact that you don't need a controller since it's built in? Hence Xreal Air more suitable for Ally since it's aimed at portability that Ally is king at
@@sadiqraga3451 Because current ones that's used to media and gaming are Chinese, people don't care about things coming out from china even though I have 2 of them and never ever had issues with any, one is Nreal Air other is Rokid Max.... And both do 120hz now Also these glasses are not LCD or something, these are proper Micro OLED displays that you carry around, it's sad how much people missing not having it for portable devices
I have an ROG G14 and just got the Ally. I have to say this, the Ryzen Z1 Extreme is no joke. This thing has some serious compute capacity. No comparison to a dedicated GPU but an APU this good on x86 ? I am not sure there's another even close. My G14 is a 3050 Ti with Ryzen 5900HS... My Desktop is my workstation with 3060 Ti & 1050 Ti with Ryzen 5800X (Another GPU helps with my CUDA code). Looking at everything, I am sold; a handheld which runs proper windows 11 and does silent mode !! That's the Apple Silicon territory.. Whatever Apple Silicon is upto is not a joke; but it's extremely limited in expansion options and it's a RISC hardware. This AMD Z1 is a beast in 4nm territory, I don't understand how they made this APU this good... It's closer to system on a chip but definitely not at all just a SOC.. it's very capable in hardware options. This Ally has finally replaced my ASUS Rog 3.. iPhone couldn't nothing even came close. Better display, awesome sound and twin view dock. The Ally has beaten it; and it's not even a phone.
Ally is way too expensive for what it gives. In the Netherlands Ally costs €800 and an Acer 3050TI laptop costs €700. Steam deck cost €400 and there was no other pc that delivered that much performance for that price range. Thats why Steamdeck was so successful.
The cost for a similar steam deck would be around 650 to have a fare comparison. If you looking just for a semi mobile gaming rig then yeah a laptop stomps all over the ally. Where the ally shines is with the true hand held scene.
Just bought my ROG Ally z1 extreme for 540$ out the door on Cyber Monday deal. Super excited about it. I have a 3750h 1660ti asus tuf laptop that I bought for $1200 back a few years ago that I’m hopefully going to replace with this and sell to make this thing mostly free.
You can turn the Ally into a 4K gaming beast with an RTX 4090 mobile GPU! Check that out next: ua-cam.com/video/gNlgrxNlt7E/v-deo.html
Check ROG Ally Prices: geni.us/rog-ally
And with that price, just get a gaming PC with RTX 4090 😅
You forgot the optional "kidney fee" to afford it haha :) It's exciting thought that the handheld space is getting a lot more recognition and hopefully the Ally's introduction will be the impetus for other bigger brands to try their hand at something similar. Thank you for another great video Jarrod!
@@cocobos Good luck taking your PC with you to school or work every day :')
Hey Jarrod, please try multiplayer of Max Payne 3 on PC, its so fun and still played
Which is better acer Nitro 5 i7 12650H , 3070ti 8g vram 16gb + 1tb ssd vs acer helios Neo 16 i5 13gen 4050 6gb vram 16gb+ 512 GB SSD vs Asus tuf f15 i7 12gen 4060 8gb vram 16gb+512 ssd
I totally forgot the RTX 2050 existed
I didn't forget. I didn't know one existed 💀
It's a 3050 with 64 bit memory bus and max 70W TGP.
It seems to be getting popular in budget laptops recently, I'll do more testing with it soon!
gtx 1630 moment
@@JarrodsTech please also do testing with the new RTX 3050 6GB Laptop GPU - it is an RTX 3050 Ti but with 2 GB more VRAM and with a smaller memory bus (96 bit). The comparison with the 3050 Ti also be interesting, since the 4 GB VRAM in the original 3050 Ti was often criticized for bottlenecking its performance.
one thing that i find super underrated about the ally are its speakers...holy crap they're so good
Agreed! Combined with the quiet fans, you can totally play at home with the speakers on!
Those quiet fans could be the reason the Ally is frying some people's SD cards.
@@smidlee7747nah. My device is NOT hot at all when the fans are quiet in performance mode. When im in turbo mode you can hear them and the device is definitely warm. I personally think the SD cards frying are from people either blocking the fan intake, using off brand SD cards, going stupid in Manuel Mode, or a combination of those things. Ive had no issues what so ever with either of my Allys. Very happy :) ❤
@@smidlee7747 Only in turbo mode and plugged in temps hit 95 degrees. I just manually limited to 28 watts and it doesn't go past 80 degrees.
@@smidlee7747 lol i hope linustechtips or some big tech youtuber mentions so asus will take care of it sooner or later. gamers nexus and ltt have pretty good connections with asus and have called them out to make changes before. but for me, i've been keeping mines on silent mode playing mostly cloud games on xcloud lately with fantastic results. i'm one of the lucky few where in my area xcloud works great. it allows me to stay on silent mode with temps betwen high 40's and low 60's on aaa titles on the cloud. i've been playing mostly forza horizon 5, need for speed underground, halo infinite campaign at 60 FPS. I guess this is the reason why i've been enjoying the speakers so much.
The rog ally is amazing. I have one. Upgraded my ssd to 2tb and added a 1tb micro sd. The rog ally is super easy to open and work on.Only 6 screws and you have access to everything.
Wow, now you can buy more games and not play them at all. Lmao
@@temtech9730 which ssd 2t you bought? is still fast enough? thanks
I have several 1tb sd card. My 2tb Sabrent Rocket is out for delivery. Was how do you recommend I image or clone the ssd? Curious, I'll probably get it done tonight or tomorrow.
@jcurry3school I definitely recommend cloning. You can do a cloud restore too. Either way is fine .
Going to suck when it melts away your sd card from its horrid placement.
T. An actual Rog Ally owner.
Jarrod: Adding a mouse is an extra cost
Also Jarrod: The Ally is better when you add a $1000-1500 XG Mobile dock!
Yes, the $2000 "4090" (4080 16Gb) proprietary XG
Legitimately, I first saw those for their Flow series laptops and thought "that's so cool, I wonder how expensive they ar- holy Jesus nope-never-nooope" because they're the same price, if not double, their most expensive Flow series laptops at the time... It's such a shame since it's such an amazing idea, I really hope other companies start doing the same for either their own similar EGPU docks, or for upgradable EGPU docks instead of relying on the bottlenecking thunderbolt.
@@UntrainableWizardWell in my opinion its more for wanting to upgrade in the *future* vs now. Getting a spec youre happy with now then upgrading two to three gens down vs upgrading the entire laptop.
@@reservoir_flow
Honestly, if the prices normalise, now that AMD is bringing down the prices of their GPUs, then I might invest in them because that idea is perfect in my eyes.
On the road you wouldn't really need best of the best, just a portable system that can last until the CPU becomes the main bottleneck. That idea of GPU future proofing (with more affordable pricing) is one I could get behind.
(Honestly, I think I've been so stuck on the price that I didn't consider the idea of future proofing with it, hahahahaha)
@@reservoir_flowAfter 2 to 3 years you can just buy a kuch better laptop for the price of of one of those shitty eGPUs lmao
I'm just amazed how fast those AMD apus are in such a small device.
Yeah it's crazy! Especially on battery power
@@JarrodsTech can you please recommend a good portable battery pack for the ally
Anker 737 140W power bank.
I know. I’m strongly considering one as a main docked and a portable because it’s faster than my Ryzen 3700 desktop rig. That’s insane
And remember that these handhelds are using just 30 watts of power.
A 700 usd handheld console is a well and truely a luxury device while a 700 usd gaming laptop is a utility device. If I had some disposable income, I'd love to own the Ally! Just a personal fascination towards ultra portable powerful devices!!
If you are on a budget, a laptop is the obvious choice
But if you are able to afford more, Asus Ally is perfect
the best comprimise would be a gpd win max 2, the one with the oculink port
It has amazing specs, ie screen/ io / expandability, and its a laptop
I wish it had an old thinkpad keuyboard and touchpoint though, thats my only gripe, and probably touchpad buttons at the bottom
I mean........ get a portable monitor, keyboard, mouse -- another $150 bucks - and you got yourself a "desktop"
@@user-lp5wb2rb3v If only the Ryzen 7 model was the price of the Ryzen 5.... But the GPD Win Max 2 uses premium components all the way. The RAM in those devices are the fastest you can get, it has a really good screen, two M.2 ports, Wi-fi 6e, HDMI 2.1 that can do 4k12hz, USB 4, etc. ROG Ally have just one USB-C port and it is only 10GBs.
Huh? You rather choose a more crapier device?😂
The Ally + 4090 is SUPER expensive tho, so it’s not like you’ll get that great performance for cheap.
I mean, I (and I'm lucky I got this for my 2021 ROG Flow x13) have an RTX 3080 XG Mobile already. The only I'd miss is pretty much just DLSS 3 and a bit of extra performance. But yeah, $2000 for the RTX 4090 XG Mobile seems like a pure luxury accessory, especially given it's out of stock right now.
@@cameronbosch1213 dude I am also waiting for a deal on the XG 3080 but it's not just "a bit" it's basically running a 4080 desktop... that's why it's so expensive
but it's still cheaper than a 4090 laptop
correct but unike a laptop you dont have to get rid of it to get a bigger performance upgrade.......... i mean its a 4090 so its basically a high powered desktop while keeeping your orginal product
@@coryvallad7578 I heard that Framework is making a modular laptop with swappable components.
I feel like that laptop might have single channel Ram which is common in cheaper gaming laptops so upgrading it dual channel will definitely boost performance
Keep in mind you can get a 15” OLED panel to play with the Ally for under $200 and then it’s not locked to the device and will be usable when you replace it.
15inch display doesn't help much
@@dustojnikhummer why not. That makes it a gaming laptop.
@@garrusvakarian8709 In his head
@@garrusvakarian8709 when?
Why not get a "mini pc" at that point?
the ally is more suitable to be used for a short time while being very portable. if you want to use something for like 10 hours a day, go for a pc or a laptop if you still sometimes like to play games on a bigger screen outside of your home or do work.
Pre ordered mine today! Can't wait. My legion 5 pro feels to heavy and hassle to bring during trips. This will be perfect for that !
When talking about the screen, you should of mentioned the ROG Ally has a 120hz screen.
2230 form factor is not just limited to 2TB, it's also harder to find compare to standard 2240/2280.
Framework sells them.
And way more expensive than 2280
They are getting waaay easier to find, as of like two months ago tbh. I struggled to get a 2tb 2230 for ages for my steam deck, then I bit the bullet on one on Ali express. (Edit: found the ssd)The wd sn740 2tb for £200, since then that one has been dropping a fair bit in price and better ones have released :)
@@buddybleeyes 1TB is easier to find but still twice the price of a similar 2280 1TB M.2. Also at least in my country I can't find any single 2TB 2230, and I'm not gonna buy an SSD off Aliexpress.
@@MrJonas7Amazon has them now, I’m sure more will appear as the market of handheld devices is slowly expanding so manufacturers will need to make the bigger capacity NVMe 2230s
I love my ROG Ally, what an amazing device and the Legion Go seems like an amazing device too!
Loving this new era of handheld PCs, what a lovely time to be into gaming!
The ally is pretty amazing, I’m gonna keep modding mine till I can’t . So far I only have a 4tb 2280 in it but I have the new joysticks ordered and once one netbook releases the screens for the onexfly I’m gonna work on swapping the stock Ally screen for that one. So far the ally runs everything I put to it with no issues and is a emulation powerhouse especially for original Xbox , ps3 and the switch .
Where did you buy the 4TB 2280? Can you provide the link?
wow you can even add 4TB!
2TB SSD + 2TB SD card
@@IntoTheHighEnd yea and potentially 8tb but that would have to be external but I’m working on a m.2 to type c adapter.
Man I’ve been playing starfield in this machine rog ally and is amazing bro I have series x but I like more in the ally because I can play everywhere! 😂
@0:27 much easier to take on the GOOUH
I heard it and went straight to the comments😭
Yeah , wtf ?!? 😅
same 💀😭
I do love the Ally a lot, but the lack of Thunderbolt port is a deal breaker for me. I never been a fan of using proprietary eGPU as you can't upgrade the GPU card at any time you want.
It’d be nice if they unlock that for us lol
@@NevaFold-y5z It needs a different port. It's not the same as USB3.
the lack of thunderbolt is because it is not using an intel cpu
Thunderbolt is not limited to Intel machines. @@cyberpsychosis5367
Guess what
Ally is so good as you can do Windows stuff on it so somewhat you can 'replace' your desktop when it's docked in
I still stand by my decision of getting a 2021 Acer Nitro 5 last year, sporting a 3060 for just 600 bucks brand new. And though I'd love to buy and enjoy playing on a portable gaming device such as the one featured on your video, I much prefer to carry the laptop, charger and an Xbox controller around in my backpack, and have a proper mobile gaming session with more eye candy (much higher in game settings), DLSS 2 capabilities, without compromising frame rates, higher resolution, etc. Of course you can turn these portable devices into a somewhat capable PC with a dock, an external keyboard and a monitor. But then you'd actually need more stuff in your backpack. It's just easier to have a gaming laptop instead.
He's comparing at the worst value range of laptops with the best value range of gaming handhelds. If the budget is even any little higher, you can easily get a 3060 laptop which more than doubles the gaming performance of an aging 2050.
I returned my ally and got a lenovo 3050 laptop with 1tb with ddr5 for the same price. Totally worth it
Nice!
2022 Nitro 5 was a massive leap in performance
It always is. Just gotta get a deal when there's a dead to be had.
I've done the upgrade on my ally with a 2tb drive and a 3080 for when I want to game on the TV ally for me is a game changer and I love it.
Nice!
Great video Jarrod! BTW, could you do an RTX 4070 laptop vs 4080 laptop GPU comparison; I want to see how much Nvidia is limiting the RTX 4070!
4070 laptop is joke, it’s not worth comparing
@aoimichiru2927 I do want to see it though, so more people can be aware to Nvidia's BS.
It's been on the to-do list since January when the XMG Neo 16s arrived, probably a couple weeks away at this point, just so much going on!
I love how Jarrod's voice gets louder but his monotone never changes.
I was debating a handheld vs gaming laptop. Then I found a Lenovo IdeaPad gaming 3 with a 5600h and 3050ti for $400. Used gaming laptops can have enormous value depending on the deal.
Nice deal!
Even here is not even close. This 700 laptop wipes the floor with the handheld. The man chose better scenarios for the handheld.
There are ultra thins coming with dedicated gpus these days. More expensive but bigger diference in functionality.
Imaging hyping a 1 hour device for gaming. Talking about a ginmick.
@@Refreshment01
If Razer builds one of these it's game over. Although I kind of doubt they will.
I'd also buy it if MSi made one. ASUS has been playing around with small form factor for years.
I always tell people the used market is where it's at
I always tell people the used market is where it's at
I love handhelds and have a small collection at home. If I didn`t have a Steam Deck, I would definitely get an Ally. I don`t need extra power anymore because I upgraded my laptop recently.
Yea I got a series x for power and my steam deck for triple a games, indie games and ps games, also emulation is amazing, I can't imagine upgrading my steam deck until steam deck 2 comes out 😅
My conclusion is, if you wanna buy the ROG Ally, make sure you have a monitor to enjoy it fully, and a full operating PC or Laptop to do your work.
I have a similar laptop just with a 3060 graphics card, the thing about the laptop is that meant for multiple purposes besides just gaming. The Ally wins in portability obviously. They are too different to even bother comparing them aside from gaming.
I had an ally and my trigger stop working two weeks after I bought luckily I still could exchanged at Bestbuy so i did for an Asus gaming laptop with a 3060 for $800 and 16gbs ram but not that I have the laptop I miss the ally lol
Speaking of portability, i think the laptop can be even more portable! I have a steam deck, i know it's not as powerful as rog ally, imagine a tactical fps game which you need to see enemies from far, on a 7 inches screen well i can say good luck having fun while being confused how you got killed and advantage of a keyboard and mouse! On the other hand you didn't even see the enemy coming...
Of course there will be some people who says you can connect it to a monitor + mouse and keyboard!
Of course!!!!!!! But here's the deal!!! ;
CAN YOU STILL TALK ABOUT PORTABILITY WHILE WITH A EXTRA MONITOR AND MOUSE AND KEYBOARD!?
Obviously not, by the way that a gpu chip inside of the laptop! Which is more capable of 3d rendering.
@@behnamp9174except you can play other games on the ally with nothing else. You also don’t really need the extra monitor either.
@@behnamp9174people had no problem gaming on the psp, or the switch.. both with smaller screens.
Having the option to dock it is what made the switch so popular why is that a bad thing here?
@@NevaFold-y5z I play a mobile shooting game on an iPad. I guess, that my relatively high success rate has a lot to do with my 10 inch display.
The fact there is handheld gaming which can play AAA games at HD resolution already mind blowing.
We move from 3DS and Vita to 1080p gaming on mobile. PSP was touted as PS2 on go which it isn't, but handheld gaming devices is truly a portable gaming PC.
ROG Ally can't beat gaming laptop or PC for sure, but you get portable gaming PC instead.
Heck, I'd argue Nintendo should definitely be nervous. Especially given some former fans (like myself) absolutely hate them now. And the fact that they STILL are running a crusty old 2016 SoC in 2023 isn't making things better for them or third-party developers, some of whom have dropped the Switch compatability or at least exclusivity and put their games on other platforms, like Steam.
@@cameronbosch1213 Yeah but that switch 2 though, when that finally comes out it will be fire! Plus games like zelda breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom, i don't know any games that come close to that on pc. plus the rog ally is a chunker, the switch is much slimmer and lighter too v.v
I don't know man, nintendo shouldn't be too concerned, their consoles are special and their game dev team kills it sometimes....
as for xbox and playstation roflmao their consoles will be done in a year or two with amd's 8000 or 9000 series APUs
@MrJustek Sometimes. Other times they torture their fans and indirectly insult them. Some of the recent first-party were like that. TLoZ games were rare exceptions and the graphics were quite mediocre because the Switch is struggling to be playable in 2023.
And need I say all of the third-party games that don't run well on the Switch but do on even the Steam Deck, had their Switch port canceled (like Midnight Suns, the ancient Switch hardware along with poor sales of the current gen and PC ports caused the Switch port to be canceled), or had to severely cut their features to run on the Switch and either still failed, or were eventually wound down because the Switch is like a freaking toy.
I was a Nintendo fan, heck, since the GameCube days, but not anymore. Nintendo can take their sadistic ideas and shove them down a cliff for all I care.
@@MrJustek And that's assuming it doesn't use already outdated hardware again.
@@MrJustek Switch 2 will have exclusives which can't be emulated for couple years so there's reason for buying.
Nintendo games many are game changer like Tear of Kingdom or Mario Odyssey, game wise Nintendo is a powerhouse.
Also considering it is Nintendo, there is probability their next device will come with something unique like hologram or something.
Thanks! I was waiting for a comparison video for Rog Ally. You earned my subscribe.
Now do this with ROG Ally X !
1:28 "Here, listen"
*Puts ear to speaker*
_Temu ad plays_
I took back my Rog ally and got a gaming laptop the broken SD reader was a no deal for me I'm enjoying the laptop much more no regrets
To be honest, I don't really understand the purpose of handhelds for AAA games. Such games usually have a lot of objects, artifects etc. meant for a bigger screen which gets too much crammed in 7-8 inch screens.
go play handheld lying on bed or sofa and then come again
@@sanchopanza9440or maybe on the train, bus .
This is the objective video I needed to get me off the idea of getting an Ally when I already have a decent laptop and I only play indie games lol
Whats stopping me from getting handheld is, most games now require internet while portability is great, say like maybe going somewhere with no internet access then it seems pretty useless right? I do go out of town where theres not much or none at all wifi so it kinda defeats the purpose of having a device needing internet.
Don’t know if you ever got one but I can speak on this from plenty of experience working on cruise ships, it’s a pain in the arse. I constantly need wifi to do anything thanks to launchers, DRMs etc. makes me only ever want to take my Switch with me as that just works.
Sadly in europe the ROG ally is almost $900, so its not worth it at all compared to the steam deck (at the summer sale steam decks are 377 euros for the 64 gb version), so its less then half the price of a ROG ally at $414.
In this case, what does portable mean? Size ? The ally cannot be portable for more than an hour without a power bank or a charger, the usability kills the portability aspect here.
Honestly, given the 1060/1650-esque performance of the iGPU in the Z1 Extreme and the closely related 7840U/HS, I'd love to see some entry level gaming laptops forgoing the dGPU entirely and using the money saved to add a better display and keyboard.
Exactly, dont understand why 7840u hasn't taken off already .
@@-_--le3zkBecause it’s more expensive, and that CPU is mostly in thinkbooks lately, which are horrible.
Subscribed! One of the smartest comparison videos out there. Not seen anyway comparing laptops to the ROG Ally. Don't know why as it makes so much sense. Great work Jarrod.
Welcome aboard!
1:09 if you are a young man who wants to have children in the future, DO NOT DO THIS EVER¡¡¡
My stepfather always told me this when I was young. Sounds like BS to me still
The screen size isn't a 1:1 comparison. When using my laptop it's on either my lap or a desk/table, 2-3ft from my face. When using a handheld I'm lounging on the couch or in bed with the screen literally inches from my face. So it's not necessarily an objective win for the bigger screen
Wow, I had no idea the Ally was such a good value, and the CPU was so powerful!
Till it fries your sd card
I returned my ally bc the battery life it’s horrible for a portable device. I got a lenovo 3050 laptop with 1tb ssd and ddr5 for the same price instead and it’s totally worth it
How long does it last when you play a triple A game?
@@Enes1967 was playing diablo and sekiro on turbo mode and it lasted less than an hour. You can still fast charge the ally and it charges very fast but i still find myself playing plugged all the time
@@Mr16emmanuel Hows the lenovo laptop? Does it play AAA games fairly well with a 3050?
Is this before the Asus updates or after?
@@lilcuban56 yeah been playing diablo 4 at high on 100fps+ no problem and the display is 144h
Hey jarrod when are you gonna review this year's lenovo legion 7 and 7i slim? I'm very excited to see how the 4060 is gonna run their native resolution of 2560×1600.
Sir I'm deciding between
1. Acer nitro 5 i5 12500h rtx3060 no mux switch
2. Asus tuf a15 Ryzen 7 6800h rtx3050 mux and Optimus
Really love when the handheld is used in Dock mode... Every thing are much bigger. At the same time, it is a handheld
First time viewer. I really appreciate how you jumped right to the comparison. 💯
I’m stuck currently between this same exact comparison. I have a ROG Zephyrus s that had something on the board fry. So I wanted something a little cheaper and portable.
Hi ! Jarrod, Im watching form Thailand. and just to tell you. Your voice and language is very easy to hear and practice english skills !! So already be your fan !!!!
What is you experience using it as a PC - with keyboard, mouse and screen? Use Office etc? Cause i'm using Samsung Note 20 in DeX mode - sorts okay but lacks windows features and typing is a bit janky
Should be the same, there is zero reason for it unable to do it, since rog ally use full fat windows 11 not compromised version
it cost litteraly $870 here in europe not 700 at all and it does even come with case lol . you can get laptop with much better gaming performance for that price. While steam deck 64gb with 512 gb ssd cost just $515 When you consider paying $355 more for lower battery life,jankier system,without track pads ,barely 20% more performance,without case, lacking back buttons,no suspending functions , no gyro control ,worse community support, only just for better screen? It is littarely only overpriced cutting-edge prototype product with some potential for future window handhelds.
I think Asus can makes another line of gaming laptops without soldered GPU , and just sale Laptops with a XG mobile as a bundle
Wouldn’t it be easier to cool an XG External GPU instead of it inside the Laptop?
Or look at how framework is handling gpus
Yah that’s what I meant 😂, a laptop with h series cpu no dedicated gpu bundle with an xg mobile
And instead of choosing the gpu in the laptop,customers can choose the xg mobile, and it’s easier to mix and match
Wish you could compare the Ally with a laptop equipped with a 7940hs.
Now that's it's been 8 months, how much do you use the ally instead of a normal laptop? How you can make a update 😊
I think that this laptop is a bad choice to compare with the rog ally, but jarrod did mention that there are better value laptops and they’ll likely beat the rog ally. I think the big selling point compared to a gaming laptop should be the external Asus XG mobile GPU device that can boost the ally to laptops more than double the price. The good thing is that you can decide later if you want the external GPU, whereas for the laptop, you have to choose between a cheap laptop or an expensive one, not being able to choose later, unless you’re willing to buy another laptop
The last part is not totally true, you can use an external GPU for laptop with Thunderbolt connection...so you can improve a little bit the headroom of that laptop. Nowadays the 80% of laptops use Thunderbolt Type C connector.
@but thunderbolt is shocking for egpus and gets no were near the performance it should due to not enough lanes. Its not worth using thunderbolt for an egpu 👍
@@chrisc2252 yes you are right but you Can upgrade a little bit a machine and get better performance on external monitors. And the comment is saying that for laptop you can’t do nothing.
@ oh I completely forgot about that. However, it’s not as efficient as the PCIe port for the XG mobile so a GPU connected to the laptop via thunderbolt doesn’t perform as well as it should when connected to a proper PCIe slot as previously tested by jarrod’s tech. Also, I just looked up the price of the XG mobile and damn it’s expensive, so it is cheaper to get a decent gaming laptop than a bundled rog ally and XG mobile
Yes, using a better laptop all round can be over the Ally right now.
It all boils down to your lifestyle, really. Back in my broke college days, a gaming laptop was my go-to. It was handy for lugging around campus and still packed a punch for gaming sessions. But now that I'm more financially stable, I've rethought my setup. Why settle for a gaming laptop that's not as powerful as a desktop and not as portable as a handheld PC? I've got a gaming rig for serious gaming, a cheap laptop for work, and a handheld PC for kicking back with some emulated classics and casual gaming.
If you haven't had a taste of Asus's post purchase service standards before , ROG ally looks attractive. The moment you had to go to their service center just to repair an insensitive / faulty buttons or triggers... You will wish you hadn't buy their product And better off buying a laptop with an easily replaceable gamepad .. there's a reason why Nintendo switch had made their gamepad easily DIY replaceable....wait till you get a repair quote of $100 to 150 usd for a button replacement in the service center and they claiming its user wear and tear, not covered under warranty.. then you can comment how good such portable consoles are for the average consumers
I bought a Lenovo with a 4050 for $700 back in December.
Im a cloud gamer. Thats why i bought a cheap laptop. I decided to try The Finals since it was free.
I started playing and noticed my fans going crazy. I didn't notice it was running locally on steam. Amyway it was playing at 60fps @ 4K with maxed settings.
I was shocked at the performance.
Wait, seriously? 2050?
I thought those graphics card only existed in High End premium Thin and Light. Their TDP is super low and it will be a waste instead of buying an older 3050.
I also want to add that, at the same TDP 2050 is losing against 3050. What a waste. 2050 is a joke, especially on a Gaming Laptop.
This is also a good comparison between 2050 to 3050
for 700 i can get the same specs of the laptop but with an 3050 but usually the price changes
At 50W, the 2050 ties with the 1650. The only things you get from the 2050 are DLSS and RT support + higher TDP, great bonus but not worth any extra over a 1650 which is 4 years old now or a 3050 which is 2 years old (vs 1.5 years old for the 2050).
What happens when you get stick drift on the Ally? Are you just stuck with no replacement stick options?
Why nobody is covering up the new Lenovo Legion slim 7i, I think it has great improvements from the last year. :(
I have it coming up in a few weeks.
@@JarrodsTech Oh, I am glad to hear that! :D
Thunderbolt isn’t as stable, because it’s just 4 PCIE 4.0 lanes compared to Asus’ proprietary connector which is technically PCIE 4.0 x8. Also their external GPU is thousands of dollars compared to getting a full 4090 and eGPU dock which is the same cost, and the don’t even have cheaper options like a 4080M, 4060M, or 4050M.
Nice video, love the smooth transitions between each section !
Thanks a lot!
INSOMNIUM!
I've been a hardcore metal fan for many decades.
Above The Weeping World is my all-time favorite album.
That album is simply extraordinary.
It's so good it's kinda magical imo.
I will never tire of it.
This is a great comparison, The XG mobile isn't really an option to me, you can get a way better experience at $2700 than pairing the Ally with the XG mobile. I get it if you want to have the portable game experience and come home and play with the big screen at high fps, but the price just isn't there.
It is a great concept just the pricing can be better. Portable on go and powerful at home, and you only need them instead of having to buy PC and/or laptop too for work/intense gaming.
6800XT version is like 750$ so not bad
@@TRX25EX That is true, if you can find it for that price, and you want a handheld, probably the best option out there.
@TRX25EX The problem is that the AMD model of the XG Mobile doesn't have DLSS support. And FSR has worse quality imo. And there are games which unfortunately only have DLSS support (like Control, Fortnite, and Watch Dogs Legion), or just added it (like RDR2).
Personally, I would just save up for the RTX 3080 XG Mobile.
was thinking about this before.
If I go travel or something I'll bring my gaming laptop. to edit photos, work, gaming or anything when I'm back at the hotel resting my feet,
As much as I want something like this. It is kind of redundant to have 2 portable windows gaming unit. And the price is also is almost a gaming laptop price.
It make more sense if your setup is Tower + Ally. or if you use your Ally as your tower at home too. than people with laptops
And then there you have the Steam Deck for "half" the price ( 412€ ) but very close in performance to the Ally which is a whopping 799€ in Europe...
if somebody doesnt care about speakers+display then steam deck is a much better deal for him….and the standby mode is MUCH better on steam deck
Excellent Analysis. Great Content. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Im waiting for Rog Ally 2 and hopefully it comes with the same price aswell as Radeon 880M that's rumored to beat rx580 while be a bit slower than rtx3050
Crazy efficiency even if zen5 in that APU can only do ryzen 7600 performance
saw your tshirt where is written insomnium and then like put automatically
Nice comparison!
With laptops you could limit performance to have less noise
Also here in EU the ally costs 799€ :/
If someone ask me how do we spend 100 USD? Some people just buy Iphone or Flagship phone, to me buying Ally and a midrange phone from Samsung (due to their 5 year of software support).
Thank you Jarrod. I have been waiting for this kind of video since the handheld gaming pc like ayaneo, steamdeck enter the market.
That Z1 cpu is a beast, thanks JT.
I think the closest laptop to the Ally is probably ROG Flow x13 or z13, but these tow cost way more than the Ally
Get the g14 zypherus. 3060 version on sale for $799.
@@eplugplay8409That doesn't have a MUX switch.
@@cameronbosch1213 Does the asus rog ally have mux?
Great video, Jarrod
Can’t all laptops use FSR? Does he mean RSR or something else?
Sorry, I’m kind of a n00b with AND stuff.
Nice vid as always.
Yes. But some games like Watch Dogs Legion or Control require mods to support FSR. And FSR is generally not as good visually as DLSS.
Ngl, this came off kinda scummy. When comparing the laptop you'd say things like "you could add a controller, but that comes at an extra cost" but then you only glaze over the fact that a keyboard would be an extra cost for the ally. You mention the need for a mouse on a laptop... but not for the ally... then you bring up that the laptop can fit 8 tbs of additional storagr, "but that costs more than the laptop itself ", while very enthusiastically talking about the external gpu dock that costs over double the price of an ally! Every point towards laptops had an addendum, that could be applied towards the ally but just wasnt. I have no problem with ads, but transparency would be nice.
I wasn't paid to make this video. I was just pointing out the advantages of the Ally if you wanted something for gaming only.
Omg thank you for the review!! Was trying to decide what to do which to go with! #1 issue that happens with the Nintendo switch is the controllers get damaged and have to be changed which is a simple swap. This is internally installed! Def not gonna find out what happens when a thumb-stick drift happens! Thank you
But For AI Workflow, still NVIDIA (CUDA) is the Elephent. AMD's RocM Support is still not matured and for iGpu's, it is uncertain. It would be nice to see some AI workflow comparison along with gaming. You're doing a lot in your reviews, that's why I always wait for Jarrod's Tech's Opinion on latest powerful laptops. Just saying, if you can include little bit of AI workflow in your comparison reviews. Nobody wants to see NVIDIA's monopoly, we need to push AMD for better RocM Support.
you are not gonna do any AI workflow on a $700 3 year old laptop...
If you are truly a professional, you just get a laptop with a 4090, or even better, a desktop 4090, and thats it.
@@gersongaete1574 I have a 3050ti laptop ($850/2021), I can do 4it/s in Stable Diffusion where a 4080 laptop can do 18it/s max for same 512x512 images right now. From a programmer's perspective, .with 3050ti, at least I can explore most of the AI workflows and dive into code locally. Ryzen iGpu's has no official RocM Support and Apple silicone right now takes at least 10 times more time to do the same in the M1/M2 macs (1it/3s) than the 3050ti. I really hope things will change quickly, but right now, NVIDIA is the only *Freedom (Sadly) for AI. We need fair competition. I hope you got my point.
@@mainuldip9715 what about intel oneapi and its support for a770 the same buffer 16gb as 4080
@@gersongaete1574or a 700$ handheld
How can an update fix the location of the sd card slot on the motherboard.A UA-cam video showed the huge mistake made by the engineers.Thst is a deal breaker for sure.
Surprising to see it performs better than a 1650. The future of portable gaming is exciting! Might get the 2nd gen version of the Ally!
What about the Lenovo Legion Go?
@@Sanchase Yep I have seen the Legion Go from Dave2D. It definitely looks more enticing than the Ally. I might wait for the 2nd gen version of the Z1 processor. Looks like I don't need to buy flagship phones in the future 😅 Just buy midrange phone and get these portable windows gaming devices.
Are the prices in AUD? Surely you could get an RTX 2060 and some i7 for that price.
Yeah aud
The Ally does cost $700, not AUD
At least a 1660ti
Prices are in USD
If only the Ally came with a slightly larger battery and 32gb ram
+$100 and then you would complain about the price
@quanghuyvu2649 It could be a higher end option though for around $999.
I think 2 year old i5 with a weak and old gpu at 700 usd is just not a fair comparison,you can get a brand new legion 3i gaming with 12700h and rtx 3050ti( 80 watts) for this price
I just returned my ally, it’s not worth it at this point just because it’s a product that is not well optimized yet. Maybe in a couple of months I’ll give it another try. Meanwhile steam deck.
The biggest difference, is that the laptop has the same or better performance, but with a bigger battery, and dedicated keyboard which means it does t have to fight windows since Windows isn’t built for handhelds.
Also you can replace the ram and other parts, which isn’t an option for the Ally…. Also more ports.
1. You can connect the ally to a monitor keyboard and mouse
2. You can upgrade the ally
Honestly, I'll take the Ally. I'd rather save up and spend better $1000 - $1200 for a gaming laptop. Just grabbed a Lenovo Legion Pro 5 with a i7-12th gen and a 3070 for $1199 off Amazon.
The one issue I have with this review is the Wattage used for Testing. Are most people really going to run the Ally at 30-40watts most of the time? I mean its a handheld so I would think the majority of people would lower the TDP to save on Battery life.
For gaming only I really think there's no comparison now, Ally just kills it all or let's say the current gen of Handhelds....
My 3080 Laptop is collecting dust right now....
In addition when I'm at home I can simply stream from my PC so I get full power through Ally while decent battery life, I actually connected Ally and using Steam Link and my phone 5G connection I was able to play with minimal latency 1080P Ultra 120fps locked....
And when you don't have access to your PC Ally can do majority of games 1080P 60fps at medium to high basically....
This is the future of gaming
@@TabalugaDragon Because of things I said, a laptop won't perform as well when not plugged in to wall, battery life even worse than Ally in gaming.....
So at home I will rather play my PC or stream my Ally to my PC, outside of home Ally already capable of doing AAA games at 1080P 60 + some competitive gaming at 120fps which is enough for me since screen is 7 inch only...
Why I need gaming laptop then? Ally beats in portability and my PC beats it on performance, a laptop now will be more of productivity than actually for gaming, I see no reason to buy a gaming laptop nowadays specially with AR glasses that came out like Xreal Air......
I played with Aya Neo 2 for a full nearly full year without my gaming laptop, I carried a small bag that had foldable Bluetooth keyboard and gaming mouse, attached to my Air glasses that can do now 120hz, I find gaming experience superior to that of my gaming laptop yet lighter to carry around...
This is to me the future of gaming really, and I believe Xbox working on this as well
@@TabalugaDragon Because I travel alot I can't carry my PC but I can carry a laptop however since I bought Aya Neo 2 and now have Ally it's basically sitting there doing absolutely nothing....
If you connect it to wall then that's not portable, you can carry mini PC and connect to wall, it will cost less and perform better.... As for 32 inch portable screen, bro do you understand difference in size between an AR glasses and this? You can fit AR glasses in your pocket, that's how small it's
did you really need a 3080 laptop when you were already just at home with a capable PC?
Excellent video idea
Glad you liked it
For this test i would use the HP Victus. The 2023 model with the 3050 6gb (that has almost the same specs of the 3050ti but with more VRAM) and a Ryzen 7 7840HS, that would outperform the Ally in iGPU performance, can be bought for 750US$ in the Micro Center
The 3050 6gb has less memory BUS but it shouldn't be a problem in the configuration that you would be playing in a 3050ti 99,9% of the time.
That’s what i did but instead of the rizen i got intel and let me tell you , best decision i made
Literally looking at the rog ally vs a Zypherus 14” g14 for about same price or $100 more. The g14 has a 3060.
Great comparison! Sadly i got rid of my Ally due to lower performance than expected.
Okey? In general or a specific game? Have run everything i have tried over 60fps with some tweeking
I own a Gaming Laptop for about 1.000$ and since 3 months also the ally. And I have to say I found my love with gaming again. This thing is so much fun! For the price tag it has it is amazing. I only got problems with SD Cards as I can save games on it but I am not able to run them. (Via Steam)
Everything else is a dream
Come true. Since I got this masterpiece I didn‘t touch my laptop or my Xbox Series X once and I think I never will.
What makes Ally superior is when you combine it with a Xreal Air glasses at 350$ that does 130 inch screen instead of laptops 15 inch lol.....
The experience is just mind blowing with those micro OLED glasses, colors clarity screen size just amazing!
you do relaise you can use xreal air glassess with laptop also lol
Why nobody speaks about AR gaming glasses, I don't know.
Gaming glasses is more portable than handheld, and it also gives more privacy as well. No more heads checking out what are you doing. You get cinema level experience with barely carrying anything.
You can lay back and game without having to hold handheld up to your face for hours.
Not just regular gaming, AR gaming glasses have potential for AR gaming. Like real life pokemon battle or COD battle.
@@nff_1950 You do realise how much more portable Ally is? Or the fact that you don't need a controller since it's built in?
Hence Xreal Air more suitable for Ally since it's aimed at portability that Ally is king at
So instead of building or buying a pc or better laptop, you choose an inferior device and add more money to help it be better? 😂 wise man indeed😂😂😂
@@sadiqraga3451 Because current ones that's used to media and gaming are Chinese, people don't care about things coming out from china even though I have 2 of them and never ever had issues with any, one is Nreal Air other is Rokid Max.... And both do 120hz now
Also these glasses are not LCD or something, these are proper Micro OLED displays that you carry around, it's sad how much people missing not having it for portable devices
I have an ROG G14 and just got the Ally. I have to say this, the Ryzen Z1 Extreme is no joke. This thing has some serious compute capacity.
No comparison to a dedicated GPU but an APU this good on x86 ? I am not sure there's another even close.
My G14 is a 3050 Ti with Ryzen 5900HS... My Desktop is my workstation with 3060 Ti & 1050 Ti with Ryzen 5800X (Another GPU helps with my CUDA code).
Looking at everything, I am sold; a handheld which runs proper windows 11 and does silent mode !! That's the Apple Silicon territory..
Whatever Apple Silicon is upto is not a joke; but it's extremely limited in expansion options and it's a RISC hardware. This AMD Z1 is a beast in 4nm territory, I don't understand how they made this APU this good... It's closer to system on a chip but definitely not at all just a SOC.. it's very capable in hardware options.
This Ally has finally replaced my ASUS Rog 3.. iPhone couldn't nothing even came close. Better display, awesome sound and twin view dock. The Ally has beaten it; and it's not even a phone.
Ally is way too expensive for what it gives. In the Netherlands Ally costs €800 and an Acer 3050TI laptop costs €700.
Steam deck cost €400 and there was no other pc that delivered that much performance for that price range. Thats why Steamdeck was so successful.
The cost for a similar steam deck would be around 650 to have a fare comparison. If you looking just for a semi mobile gaming rig then yeah a laptop stomps all over the ally. Where the ally shines is with the true hand held scene.
Just bought my ROG Ally z1 extreme for 540$ out the door on Cyber Monday deal. Super excited about it. I have a 3750h 1660ti asus tuf laptop that I bought for $1200 back a few years ago that I’m hopefully going to replace with this and sell to make this thing mostly free.
400$ now 😂❤
Which one is $400?