I remember watching your Smach Z | GPD Win uploads like 6-7 years ago, came back across the channel recently as I was looking more into the Xbox handheld theories and the ROG Ally content. Great to see its still going, thanks for the informative videos!
The funny thing is that if they (Smach Z) had made the console when promised, and made it well (which wasn't as hard as it turned out to be), they could have taken over the market
Might be same for me. Also, if the Ally X secondhand market/openbox brings the price down to $500 I might also consider. I bought my Ally full price so I can’t pay even more than what I paid the first time just for an upgrade
Yea I love my Ally too but I’m w u, I’ll prob just wait for the 2 also, (even tho I’m like dying for the X now lol). Just don’t love that it only comes in black.. Usually don’t like white for consoles either but it just looks so great on the Ally and contrasts the black parts so well! Plus I don’t want ppl thinking I got an MSI Claw 😂
That thumbnail!! What a clever way to transform your thumbnail into a different purpose. Loved it! Great video of course! Edit: Good on you to address the current situation too.
It's the perfect Windows gaming handheld for anyone who was on the fence about buying. I dig it because the VRR screen is flicker free with no PWM dimming. Much easier on my eyes.
I'm personally going to wait for the Ally 2. Not enough of a jump for me just yet. I've had the OG since November and love it! Plays everything I throw at it. I love the way things are headed with this series of handhelds. Great video BTW!
On the ethics points: I do largely agree. But a lot of the time the issue isn't anything as blatant as direct payment, or that a reviewer technically benefits from keeping a unit. It's not that most people think a reviewer is paid to say positive things. It's that if Asus provide a unit and Lenovo doesn't, the Lenovo is less likely to be reviewed Even if reviews are mixed, a company that can afford to send out 50 review copies gets far far more press than one that can't, and mind share really is that important. You can't even consider buying a device if you've never heard of it. IMO reviewers tend to be careful not to appear too positive when they're given a review copy, so it's not that their opinions have been corrupted. It's purely a question of access
From my math you should be able to game in Turbo mode for about 2.5h. Thats just amazing. With the bigger and faster Ram, allowing for 8gb of VRAM and 16gb system ram, this thing is going to have amazing performance
Or even 10-12gb for the ram? I used 8 when playing COD alrdy so if that’s all you running that’d be sick! I’m lookin forward to basically everything they improved on it. 24gb ram, 80w battery, 2280 m.2 ssd, TWO usbs!!! Even tighter sticks (I honestly thought mine were like very used or on the verge of breaking when I first got it lol). I’m so hyped for this!!! I just don’t love that it only comes in black. Don’t want ppl thinking I got an MSI Claw 😂. But nah white just looks amazing on it how it contrasts the black parts.
Thankfully in AU it's up to the seller to sort out the warranty/repairs/refunds and the main electrical store (JB Hifi) has been pretty great to me so far, so I've pre-ordered from them. e.g. They gave me a full refund for a 8 month old Ayaneo 2 when they couldn't find someone to fix a loose trigger.
I love the Phawx's channel. And I appreciate that he leans into the technical deep dives far more than most channels. However, that can turn people way who just want to be entertained and/or informed with short overviews of a product.
I loved my Ally for a few weeks until I started dealing with the SD Card failure. Ended up selling it and getting an Aya Neo Slide. Now I'm spoiled by having a hardware keyboard for Windows, don't know if I could go back
One of the most exciting things about this device to me is how the community (and potentially even some third party manufacturers) are going to experiment with how X parts could potentially be integrated with a standard Ally e.g case mod using the new battery, fans, sticks etc.
A lot of people don't mention the 2280 SSD form factor change in the showcase for the Ally X, which would support up to 8TB drives and drives tend to come cheaper in that more standard form factor and in a wide variety of speed tiers. To me besides the bigger RAM and battery, the 2280 SSD form factor change is a huge plus as well. No need for 3D printed mods to fit a 2280 like you can on the Legion Go. As for a mid-life upgrade or sequel to the Legion Go. It has to keep all the uniqueness & options of the original Legion Go, but change the SSD size from 2242 to 2280 (support Gen 4 as well), bigger RAM either 24GBs like the Ally X or go one step further and just do 32GBs of RAM, and 80+ battery like the Ally X.... I'll pretty sold with those upgrades while keeping everything else the same. For extras: Change Z1 Extreme chip for a more standard 7840U or 8840U equivalent so we don't have to deal with this extreme wait times on OEM drivers... let us get the regular AMD drivers from a regular AMD adrenaline app or from Legion Space if people don't want to interact with AMD adrenaline... but makes them available as soon as any other 7840U/8840U chip gets it in other platforms/form factors of any other PC. If they want to go the extra mile, change the screen to a 16:9 Native Landscape panel to avoid the finickiness of Portrait panels with some apps/games... if not... well... it's a PC, it can be mitigated with Software and some tweaking... but at least that's fixable through software. What's under the hood is priority, and improve the speakers & maybe add an extra USB4 next to the other top one like the Ally X, while keeping the bottom one = making it 3 USB4 ports. They would come out later with it... so it gives me hope that they have the timing advantage to 1-up the Ally X (basically copy their last homework and use the Ally X as a blueprint to further improve on the original Legion Go) further and even undercut in cost with more hardware features. I for one on the change to USB4 eGPUs, is that it's your more versatile can use the ports for other stuff... universal compatibility if most of other devices use the same and forward compatibility for an eventual leap in USB bandwidth and speeds later on with some of a USB5 tech... where it would a very inexpensive upgrade to just change the GPU docking station/enclosure... or the cable & USB output module of the enclosure/dock already supports higher bandwidth then it is just plug and play on a future device that can take higher bandwidth inputs.
I am so used to 4 back buttons that I don't want to go back to two. Other than that I appreciate the changes they made. It's not a device for me though.
I am a Legion Go and Razer Core v.2 vs Asus 6600XT user. I've been trying to connect the card in different ways for months. But with no results. Had to go back to GPD win max 2021. Yesterday new official drivers were released. And I am happy to say that everything works! Just plugged it in and that's it. Now on the official drivers from Lenovo - everything works.
Linus say's the SD card issue on the rog ally was down to a PTC fuse prone to failure. Not the SD card slot overheating. Have you heard anything about this?
@@0LoneTech but the fuses were apparently a bad batch. The rog Ally's with the better quality PTC fuses haven't had the same issue. Therefore still functional SD card slots
As a an Ally owner all things considered about the warranty. I’ll just pay a little bit extra and have Best Buy deal with it because they’re fast. Yes it’ll be an extra 200 bucks but come on. There’s a way around this if you don’t want to wait a month for your rog to get repaired if something happens with it ( note mines been great no issues with it since day one)
Exactly! I saw the video of Gamers Nexus and was with everyone on Asus and still am. However, since they are partnered with Best Buy, I’ll just deal with them and avoid Asus RMA and issues solved. With the “aura” of Asus, you can’t say anything nice about their products or you will be questioned about being an Asus fanboy even though we have rampant Steam Deck Enthusiasts and apparently that’s ok even though Valve had shady moments in their past.
@@jesusbarrera6916 never said specifically hardware issues and mentioned overall shady history. Everyone wants glamorize Valve while ignoring the absolute dumpster fire that’s CSGO 2 and its issues. Edit: Also Valve was the one that coined and pioneered the term loot boxes that people want to ignore so hard.
I love my GPD Win Mini, i got the new model with VRR and it's been incredible, but I do worry about the warranty situation. I'd love for them to have a more established presence Stateside.
So about the egpu situation. Will there be an adaptor from usb 4 to xg mobile for those who already bought an external GPU? Also will there be an adaptor from xg mobile to usb for those who have the original model?
Got some trigger spring replacements from china and it took over 2 months, one month seems reasonable with realistic expectations. springs were 2 dollars unlike potentially a 800-1000 plus handheld would give me anxiety
Biggest killer for me was the battery on OG ally. I like my handhelds free of the cables and fuss for a while. Getting rid of xbm port is fine too. Ill use my GPD win mini with the egpu, my asus acrnm with my xg mobile egpu and this can be a great travel handheld right up there with the steam deck oled now thanks to that battery boost.
Ngl already hit pre order lol already have the og Ally z1x but really just wanted to upgrade that battery glad I held off for so long on getting a battery bank tho sucks since I upgraded the ssd to a 2tb one
I definitely not choosing asus for gaming device either, after my ROG Claymore II battery bulging and make keyboard stop working, I have to fix it my self, luckily enough there's plenty of how to in the internet and they using their common battery parts of their cell phone.
Since they are eliminating their propietary egpu port on the new ally ASUS should release an adapter for thunderbolt 4 to plug into it for those of us that have the OG. Plus release a detailed repair guide for the SD card issue. I've never lost a card but my slot flat out refuses to work anymore.
Regarding review units, you do have a point that the effort you put into reviewing them may outweigh the value of the device, particularly when it's a loaner. But that doesn't mean there's no value to getting that access. For the simple extreme case, imagine you get a continuous stream of review units of the same category, always having the most recent (next in the case of previews). That's the equivalent of a subscription service. There's value there, and it would absolutely tempt someone with worse ethics, economy, or just education. For them, it could be all the motivation they need to praise every unit unconditionally, fearing whoever provided them would stop supporting them if they described issues. For a more honest reviewer, time would be the main advantage. Review units could be procured before public availability, affording time to perform the review properly and still publish before the media is flooded with those who claim to review things they barely tried (or surprisingly often just heard of). Disclosure affects trust. Full disclosure more so; there's a difference between "they sent me this because they know I am qualified" tells a different story from "I recommend this because it was my payment to get one".
I love my steam deck but the games that I mainly play, aren’t available on the deck. COD and Destiny 2. So I was thinking of getting a windows based handheld, I think the ally x is going to be the one I end up getting.
I expect better performance in 25 watt mode. Current Ally is limited by memory size and bandwidth. I tested my handheld using manual power and GPU doesn't scale up above 1.8 GHz. You can use 20 watt, 25 watt or 30 watt but you won't see any meaningful performance bump. GPU can't fetch enough data to feed all registers and compute units just noop. New device have 20% faster memory which should mitigate this problem
2 year Warranty for the USA Only! Unacceptable for anyone living outside of the USA like myself who lives here in the UK and owns the original ROG ALLY 😭
In my country Indonesia we get a 2 year guarantee. and no one has complained about the problems with warranty claims like what is currently being discussed
Man if they only had offered an OLED as well on this model I'd totally have purchased one to supplement my Steam Deck OLED. I hate using windows vs SteamOS, as it's garbage from a user experience on a handheld gaming PC, but it would be cool to have a dedicated windows device to play things like Game Pass games, and install frame gen mods which currenlty aren't supported on the Steam Deck, as well as Windows apps like Special K for HDR which today just don't really work that well on the deck running through Proton. But I'll be sticking to the Deck for now as you simply can't beat the completely stable and lightweight OS, user experience, beautiful OLED display with proper HDR support, and stellar battery life.
A larger OLED screen that would have filled the space more would have made it the perfect. With that said, I would still hold off on one as I expect an AMD Strix based device to be released within the next year or so.
Being sent a piece of tech for review is part of your job. Sure, its cool if you get to keep it and I'm sure they do that to butter you up (you are more likely to talk positively about an item if you think you're gonna use it yourself) Honestly I love when the reviewer gets to keep the device because it means they get to compare it to other devices. I don't care if they didn't pay for it. I just care about honest reviews. The fact that all the people at the event have acknowledged the RMA debacle before their video just shows that trust is important to these reviewers.
Things that kept me away from the RoG Ally: - Proprietary eGPU solution. fixed - White Color. fixed - Abysmal battery. fixed - Card reader failing. fixed - LCD Display, still there. All other improvements are nice to haves on the X including the faster RAM and 2280 but not Game changers like the above for me. Sadly they are a little too late as i already got the Deck OLED and enjoying everything it has to offer, but glad Asus listened and improved where needs improvement
It’s crazy to me that a single man with 1 million followers can create sell him a fix and yet now everyone is running with that narrative. I know Asus’ warranty has not been perfect but we have seen them truly put an effort to be pro consumer. And now they’ve even doubled the warranty free of charge for Ally users. Again, no other person has reported having had the exact same issue as gamer Nexus. It may have been a rogue repair person acting fresh. But now, all UA-camrs are reporting that as the standard for Asus warranty repairs.
How is the cooling, is the Ally still burning up SD cards? One of the reasons I didn't go with the Ally over the Steam Deck was the SD card issue. Has that been fixed with the Ally, or the Ally X? I may switch over if it has.
This is a huge upgrade, not modest. Some games are hardly playable (Alan wake 2, Avatar, PS5 ports etc) due to the lack of ram of the OG Ally. 24gb of ram is a game changer. Making those games playable and future proofing the purchase. Not to mention the battery upgrade.
Trust is indeed a currency and I for one, trust you. Your reviews are always detailed and trustworthy. You don't always go "this is the best device I've ever tested". Point out the flaws and tell your audience, you wouldn't recommend this because of such and such issues. Thank you for that.
You’re saying a device being sent to you isn’t payment because it takes you two weeks to do the video and it isn’t worth your time. That isn’t entirely honest. Your channel depends on reviewing these devices. Acting as if receiving early access to a device to review isn’t beneficial is dishonest. The alternative would be for you to wait for release, purchase the device yourself and then review it which would put you behind other channels. Don’t downplay it.
Really interested in the device, I am currently within the 60 day period for best buy on my rog ally z1 extreme. I have to return it by July 6th to be able to return it. I think it's worth returning and getting the new one but would love your thoughts. Also would love to hear your thoughts on how much of a difference I can expect in performance, I play games like fortnite, Baldur's Gate 3, Horizon Forbidden West, Rocket League, Elden Ring, Assassin's Creed Black Flag and more. Also where would the balance be between the allocation of ram vs vram, wish it was 32 gb but still solid improvement. Love the bigger battery life as well.
Of course get the X the BATTERY and especially ram upgrade is essential for future proofing. Triple A titles eat a lot of ram. This faster ram will give it a slight fps performance over OG ally.
Asus should be offering these to all the customers who had to RMA their ROG ally/sd card manufacturing fault !!! Trade in plus small fee,had to RMA mine due to the fault & in my eyes these should have been removed from shelves and refunded
The ally X definitely looks like a more refined ally, but as an ally 1 owner, which works just fine including the sd card, I don't think I see that big of a reason to upgrade, I'll be ready to upgrade when the ally 2 comes out hopefully it will include all the improvements from this iteration of the ally.
It will and no doubt they will have to go with an Oled screen to improve the battery even further with whatever gains they get from a new chip will mean there will be a profile in the Ally 2 with 300% the battery life when compared to the RTM version of the Ally. That will be crazy.
Rog Ally 1 owner here...look the battery life and the extra USB is a pretty big reason to upgrade. I love my Ally but those issues were holding it back and i am pissed that these weren't part of the original design.
@@losteden6390 lets be real though ...you are going to put a case on it that will change the ergnomics which basically funnels the ally 1 and ally x into the same ergonomics i.e. cases on the device lead to standardization of ergonomics.
ASUS needs to learn percentage they stated 200% more battery and 200% more storage and 150% mor RAM it is 100% more storage and battery and 50% more RAM 😃
A free device IS PAYMENT..... feel free to stop getting devices for free and having to buy every single thing you review Then come back and see if your standards arent higher because your profit is now lower.
There is another rather large buuuuttt that follows the explanations of being open and up front. We heard that there were no paid or sponsored promotions anymore but this was already undercut by the fact that ASUS were paying for the Computex visit, which is a promotion in itself and a direct connection with ASUS, who's product is under discussion. Whilst I appreciate the openness, it should also come with reasoning that cannot so easily be questioned. I also think that a far more open and clear policy change from ASUS is required to give more confidence in the company, which as far as I am concerned, is a million miles away right now, adding to caution and suspicion of their behaviour. I can fully understand buying from the likes of Best Buy in order to avoid having to deal with ASUS directly during the warranty period but I do wonder what the Best Buy management will be thinking if it means their staff having to put up with the same nightmares that may result in equally bad customer service, only adding another party into the mix. They have to be somewhat cautious because their own brand name becomes a potential risk factor.
Improving products in a fast moving market likely has nothing to do with the customer service side of things (except to address the feedback going forward). Sadly, in this day and age, once you buy a product you just have to hope for the best (in the USA, anyways). Shipping for repairs, companies being stingy with repairs, weak warranties, and other factors basically make getting issues resolved a nightmare. If you want exceptional warranties, you’re usually paying for something with an insane markup.
All the UA-camrs saying they might not upgrade and that they are happy with the original. One week after release, there will be 100 videos with the title "5 reasons im uprading to the Ally X"
Just putting in my 2 cents here. Receiving a product to create a video on siad product without any sort of monetary exchange is not a sponsorship or form of payment in my eyes. The video could not be created without the product. Its a chicken and ghe egg scenario. Now, if the company that sends you the profuct DOES pay you on top of sending the product, then I'd consoder that a conflict of interest. I'd rather go the VPN route that you mentioned.
They killed the XG Mobile port, I knew that would happen with that super stiff, short, and fragile cable. I returned the XG Mobile 4090 just in time. That being said I will not be buying another Asus product dealing with the SD card RMA process nightmare I went through.
I don’t care about Asus ROG Ally just came here to watch the transition from thumbnail 😂❤
It’s so clean
Lmfao same
It's good that you don't care about devices no one asked for
Same thing brav 🤝😂
maybe taking over 5 min to talk about the product might have something to do with it
Legion go warranty is top class. One of my controllers stopped working. They sent me 2 new ones. They came with overnight shipping.
I remember watching your Smach Z | GPD Win uploads like 6-7 years ago, came back across the channel recently as I was looking more into the Xbox handheld theories and the ROG Ally content. Great to see its still going, thanks for the informative videos!
And that smach z still not come out yet 😂
@@NamelessPassenger Yup haha, glad I got my refund just in time to dodge that mess
🤔 how's phawx smachZ is doing
The funny thing is that if they (Smach Z) had made the console when promised, and made it well (which wasn't as hard as it turned out to be),
they could have taken over the market
bruh Phawx COINED the xbox handheld theories. came out of his dome and straight into the rumor mill.
Great switch from the thumbnail to the actual video! :D
I really LOVE your thumbnails and how they blend into the video, they stand out so much from all the other videos in the main page. 👏👏
I love my ROG Ally it’s become a daily use machine for me, I won’t get the X but the Ally 2 I’m 100% buying on day 1
Might be same for me. Also, if the Ally X secondhand market/openbox brings the price down to $500 I might also consider. I bought my Ally full price so I can’t pay even more than what I paid the first time just for an upgrade
Yea I love my Ally too but I’m w u, I’ll prob just wait for the 2 also, (even tho I’m like dying for the X now lol). Just don’t love that it only comes in black.. Usually don’t like white for consoles either but it just looks so great on the Ally and contrasts the black parts so well! Plus I don’t want ppl thinking I got an MSI Claw 😂
Thumps up for that transition, made me smile a lot!
That Intro!!!! lol I had to replay it a few times!!! Great work
That thumbnail!! What a clever way to transform your thumbnail into a different purpose. Loved it! Great video of course! Edit: Good on you to address the current situation too.
It's the perfect Windows gaming handheld for anyone who was on the fence about buying. I dig it because the VRR screen is flicker free with no PWM dimming. Much easier on my eyes.
I was actually going to buy the rog Ally until the customer service thing , so ended up with a legion go, which I'm glad I did.
I'm personally going to wait for the Ally 2. Not enough of a jump for me just yet. I've had the OG since November and love it! Plays everything I throw at it. I love the way things are headed with this series of handhelds. Great video BTW!
On the ethics points: I do largely agree. But a lot of the time the issue isn't anything as blatant as direct payment, or that a reviewer technically benefits from keeping a unit. It's not that most people think a reviewer is paid to say positive things. It's that if Asus provide a unit and Lenovo doesn't, the Lenovo is less likely to be reviewed
Even if reviews are mixed, a company that can afford to send out 50 review copies gets far far more press than one that can't, and mind share really is that important. You can't even consider buying a device if you've never heard of it. IMO reviewers tend to be careful not to appear too positive when they're given a review copy, so it's not that their opinions have been corrupted. It's purely a question of access
From my math you should be able to game in Turbo mode for about 2.5h. Thats just amazing. With the bigger and faster Ram, allowing for 8gb of VRAM and 16gb system ram, this thing is going to have amazing performance
I pray so brother
Man, if so COPPED
Or even 10-12gb for the ram? I used 8 when playing COD alrdy so if that’s all you running that’d be sick! I’m lookin forward to basically everything they improved on it. 24gb ram, 80w battery, 2280 m.2 ssd, TWO usbs!!! Even tighter sticks (I honestly thought mine were like very used or on the verge of breaking when I first got it lol). I’m so hyped for this!!! I just don’t love that it only comes in black. Don’t want ppl thinking I got an MSI Claw 😂. But nah white just looks amazing on it how it contrasts the black parts.
Glad for all the improvements esp more ram and the fact that it’s faster ram too. Mw3 fans rejoice
Thankfully in AU it's up to the seller to sort out the warranty/repairs/refunds and the main electrical store (JB Hifi) has been pretty great to me so far, so I've pre-ordered from them. e.g. They gave me a full refund for a 8 month old Ayaneo 2 when they couldn't find someone to fix a loose trigger.
Oooo adding the tb4 egpu option would have made me buy this if I hadn't already got a legion go. The next gen handhelds are going to be dope
Why you dont have more subscribers is beyond me.
I love the Phawx's channel. And I appreciate that he leans into the technical deep dives far more than most channels. However, that can turn people way who just want to be entertained and/or informed with short overviews of a product.
Because NINTENDO sues everyone who uses the "E-word" ..... I will not buy anything they make.
I'm sure a lot of things are beyond you.
@@KeithZimwhat? Lol
@@PayneWewton What do you mean lol? I just want his channel to grow.
1:01 The Phawx. More ethical than a Supreme Court justice.
I loved my Ally for a few weeks until I started dealing with the SD Card failure. Ended up selling it and getting an Aya Neo Slide. Now I'm spoiled by having a hardware keyboard for Windows, don't know if I could go back
Great video. Looking forward to picking up the ROG Ally X day 1.
One of the most exciting things about this device to me is how the community (and potentially even some third party manufacturers) are going to experiment with how X parts could potentially be integrated with a standard Ally e.g case mod using the new battery, fans, sticks etc.
those winks when talking about the "companies that create Hall Sensor sticks" is priceless.
A lot of people don't mention the 2280 SSD form factor change in the showcase for the Ally X, which would support up to 8TB drives and drives tend to come cheaper in that more standard form factor and in a wide variety of speed tiers.
To me besides the bigger RAM and battery, the 2280 SSD form factor change is a huge plus as well. No need for 3D printed mods to fit a 2280 like you can on the Legion Go.
As for a mid-life upgrade or sequel to the Legion Go. It has to keep all the uniqueness & options of the original Legion Go, but change the SSD size from 2242 to 2280 (support Gen 4 as well), bigger RAM either 24GBs like the Ally X or go one step further and just do 32GBs of RAM, and 80+ battery like the Ally X.... I'll pretty sold with those upgrades while keeping everything else the same.
For extras: Change Z1 Extreme chip for a more standard 7840U or 8840U equivalent so we don't have to deal with this extreme wait times on OEM drivers... let us get the regular AMD drivers from a regular AMD adrenaline app or from Legion Space if people don't want to interact with AMD adrenaline... but makes them available as soon as any other 7840U/8840U chip gets it in other platforms/form factors of any other PC.
If they want to go the extra mile, change the screen to a 16:9 Native Landscape panel to avoid the finickiness of Portrait panels with some apps/games... if not... well... it's a PC, it can be mitigated with Software and some tweaking... but at least that's fixable through software. What's under the hood is priority, and improve the speakers & maybe add an extra USB4 next to the other top one like the Ally X, while keeping the bottom one = making it 3 USB4 ports.
They would come out later with it... so it gives me hope that they have the timing advantage to 1-up the Ally X (basically copy their last homework and use the Ally X as a blueprint to further improve on the original Legion Go) further and even undercut in cost with more hardware features.
I for one on the change to USB4 eGPUs, is that it's your more versatile can use the ports for other stuff... universal compatibility if most of other devices use the same and forward compatibility for an eventual leap in USB bandwidth and speeds later on with some of a USB5 tech... where it would a very inexpensive upgrade to just change the GPU docking station/enclosure... or the cable & USB output module of the enclosure/dock already supports higher bandwidth then it is just plug and play on a future device that can take higher bandwidth inputs.
I am so used to 4 back buttons that I don't want to go back to two. Other than that I appreciate the changes they made. It's not a device for me though.
I am a Legion Go and Razer Core v.2 vs Asus 6600XT user. I've been trying to connect the card in different ways for months. But with no results. Had to go back to GPD win max 2021.
Yesterday new official drivers were released. And I am happy to say that everything works! Just plugged it in and that's it. Now on the official drivers from Lenovo - everything works.
Finally someone mentioning the warranty situation when talking about an ASUS product. Finally
Linus say's the SD card issue on the rog ally was down to a PTC fuse prone to failure. Not the SD card slot overheating.
Have you heard anything about this?
PTC = positive temperature coefficient. That's a component whose failure mode *is* oveheating.
@@0LoneTech but the fuses were apparently a bad batch.
The rog Ally's with the better quality PTC fuses haven't had the same issue.
Therefore still functional SD card slots
It's great to see an 80Wh battery in a handheld because when the new 40CU Strix Point APU comes out this fall we're going to need it.
As a an Ally owner all things considered about the warranty. I’ll just pay a little bit extra and have Best Buy deal with it because they’re fast. Yes it’ll be an extra 200 bucks but come on. There’s a way around this if you don’t want to wait a month for your rog to get repaired if something happens with it ( note mines been great no issues with it since day one)
Exactly! I saw the video of Gamers Nexus and was with everyone on Asus and still am. However, since they are partnered with Best Buy, I’ll just deal with them and avoid Asus RMA and issues solved. With the “aura” of Asus, you can’t say anything nice about their products or you will be questioned about being an Asus fanboy even though we have rampant Steam Deck Enthusiasts and apparently that’s ok even though Valve had shady moments in their past.
@@DoubleDragon5180what shady hardware moments has VALVE had?
@@jesusbarrera6916 never said specifically hardware issues and mentioned overall shady history. Everyone wants glamorize Valve while ignoring the absolute dumpster fire that’s CSGO 2 and its issues.
Edit: Also Valve was the one that coined and pioneered the term loot boxes that people want to ignore so hard.
@@jesusbarrera6916 oh and it’s you again…
@@DoubleDragon5180 as far as I know the term "loot box" was coined by OVERWATCH... if you have any other info I would be happy to read it
I love my GPD Win Mini, i got the new model with VRR and it's been incredible, but I do worry about the warranty situation. I'd love for them to have a more established presence Stateside.
100% agree with your sentiments on the battery improvement.
So about the egpu situation. Will there be an adaptor from usb 4 to xg mobile for those who already bought an external GPU? Also will there be an adaptor from xg mobile to usb for those who have the original model?
Got some trigger spring replacements from china and it took over 2 months, one month seems reasonable with realistic expectations. springs were 2 dollars unlike potentially a 800-1000 plus handheld would give me anxiety
the thumbnail always cute
Came here for the intro, stayed for the content!
I really want to get one of these modern Windows portables some day when they put out a decent one with a landscape screen.
That intro shot ruled lol
Bro them specs is craaaaaaazzzyyyy
It's upsetting to hear you have been burnt by sponsors. I love your content. Very informative and cohesive. Keep up the good work.
I'd be interested to see if that 90Wh battery can be modded into a ROG Ally. I bet it's thicker but couldn't tell from the video alone.
Biggest killer for me was the battery on OG ally. I like my handhelds free of the cables and fuss for a while. Getting rid of xbm port is fine too. Ill use my GPD win mini with the egpu, my asus acrnm with my xg mobile egpu and this can be a great travel handheld right up there with the steam deck oled now thanks to that battery boost.
Ngl already hit pre order lol already have the og Ally z1x but really just wanted to upgrade that battery glad I held off for so long on getting a battery bank tho sucks since I upgraded the ssd to a 2tb one
I definitely not choosing asus for gaming device either, after my ROG Claymore II battery bulging and make keyboard stop working, I have to fix it my self, luckily enough there's plenty of how to in the internet and they using their common battery parts of their cell phone.
Since they are eliminating their propietary egpu port on the new ally ASUS should release an adapter for thunderbolt 4 to plug into it for those of us that have the OG. Plus release a detailed repair guide for the SD card issue. I've never lost a card but my slot flat out refuses to work anymore.
Regarding review units, you do have a point that the effort you put into reviewing them may outweigh the value of the device, particularly when it's a loaner. But that doesn't mean there's no value to getting that access.
For the simple extreme case, imagine you get a continuous stream of review units of the same category, always having the most recent (next in the case of previews). That's the equivalent of a subscription service. There's value there, and it would absolutely tempt someone with worse ethics, economy, or just education. For them, it could be all the motivation they need to praise every unit unconditionally, fearing whoever provided them would stop supporting them if they described issues.
For a more honest reviewer, time would be the main advantage. Review units could be procured before public availability, affording time to perform the review properly and still publish before the media is flooded with those who claim to review things they barely tried (or surprisingly often just heard of).
Disclosure affects trust. Full disclosure more so; there's a difference between "they sent me this because they know I am qualified" tells a different story from "I recommend this because it was my payment to get one".
Nice I am hyped for the bigger battery. I am rdy to ditch the battery bank.
I love my steam deck but the games that I mainly play, aren’t available on the deck. COD and Destiny 2. So I was thinking of getting a windows based handheld, I think the ally x is going to be the one I end up getting.
I expect better performance in 25 watt mode. Current Ally is limited by memory size and bandwidth. I tested my handheld using manual power and GPU doesn't scale up above 1.8 GHz. You can use 20 watt, 25 watt or 30 watt but you won't see any meaningful performance bump. GPU can't fetch enough data to feed all registers and compute units just noop. New device have 20% faster memory which should mitigate this problem
As someone that hasn’t bought a handheld yet, this might be the one.
2 year Warranty for the USA Only!
Unacceptable for anyone living outside of the USA like myself who lives here in the UK and owns the original ROG ALLY 😭
A warranty is only good if they honor it.
In my country Indonesia we get a 2 year guarantee. and no one has complained about the problems with warranty claims like what is currently being discussed
In Malaysia we get 2 years too for the Ally. Should be same for Ally X
Whole eu also has 2 year warranty regardless to what manufacturers give you.
@zamroni22 Indonesia has over 200 million people and you know every single owner that never complained about ASUS warranty....
Sure thing fanboy
Man if they only had offered an OLED as well on this model I'd totally have purchased one to supplement my Steam Deck OLED. I hate using windows vs SteamOS, as it's garbage from a user experience on a handheld gaming PC, but it would be cool to have a dedicated windows device to play things like Game Pass games, and install frame gen mods which currenlty aren't supported on the Steam Deck, as well as Windows apps like Special K for HDR which today just don't really work that well on the deck running through Proton.
But I'll be sticking to the Deck for now as you simply can't beat the completely stable and lightweight OS, user experience, beautiful OLED display with proper HDR support, and stellar battery life.
OLED is not worth it without VRR which is more important in these devices
A larger OLED screen that would have filled the space more would have made it the perfect. With that said, I would still hold off on one as I expect an AMD Strix based device to be released within the next year or so.
Being sent a piece of tech for review is part of your job. Sure, its cool if you get to keep it and I'm sure they do that to butter you up (you are more likely to talk positively about an item if you think you're gonna use it yourself)
Honestly I love when the reviewer gets to keep the device because it means they get to compare it to other devices. I don't care if they didn't pay for it. I just care about honest reviews.
The fact that all the people at the event have acknowledged the RMA debacle before their video just shows that trust is important to these reviewers.
I used to respect Asus a lot and that's absolutely gone for now
should have 5x the subs right now, i've been watching seen 2018 and bought a GPD based on your review back then
Not sure why they went with the same screen size. I’d rather play games on a bigger screen, like the Legion Go or Steam Deck OLED
Things that kept me away from the RoG Ally:
- Proprietary eGPU solution. fixed
- White Color. fixed
- Abysmal battery. fixed
- Card reader failing. fixed
- LCD Display, still there.
All other improvements are nice to haves on the X including the faster RAM and 2280 but not Game changers like the above for me.
Sadly they are a little too late as i already got the Deck OLED and enjoying everything it has to offer, but glad Asus listened and improved where needs improvement
I preordered the battery life and ram upgrade is beyond worth doing so imo
Great video. As someone who sat out the OG Ally there is enough here to seriously endanger my wallet.
Phawx can you test the GPD G1 egpu performance on the 2023 min wini vs the 2024 version? It'll help me decide which one to get I'd appreciate it
It’s crazy to me that a single man with 1 million followers can create sell him a fix and yet now everyone is running with that narrative. I know Asus’ warranty has not been perfect but we have seen them truly put an effort to be pro consumer. And now they’ve even doubled the warranty free of charge for Ally users. Again, no other person has reported having had the exact same issue as gamer Nexus. It may have been a rogue repair person acting fresh. But now, all UA-camrs are reporting that as the standard for Asus warranty repairs.
I wonder if we could buy that battery and put it in the original ally
How is the cooling, is the Ally still burning up SD cards? One of the reasons I didn't go with the Ally over the Steam Deck was the SD card issue. Has that been fixed with the Ally, or the Ally X? I may switch over if it has.
They changed the position of the SD card but any problems, no one will exactly know yet as the device will be released on July 22
This is a huge upgrade, not modest. Some games are hardly playable (Alan wake 2, Avatar, PS5 ports etc) due to the lack of ram of the OG Ally. 24gb of ram is a game changer. Making those games playable and future proofing the purchase. Not to mention the battery upgrade.
Trust is indeed a currency and I for one, trust you. Your reviews are always detailed and trustworthy. You don't always go "this is the best device I've ever tested". Point out the flaws and tell your audience, you wouldn't recommend this because of such and such issues. Thank you for that.
Sorry if I missed it, but is the microSD card slot in a better area?
the apple ipad look borders still have? omg i pass again , its like waste 20 percent from the full case nope 😢😢😢
You’re saying a device being sent to you isn’t payment because it takes you two weeks to do the video and it isn’t worth your time. That isn’t entirely honest. Your channel depends on reviewing these devices. Acting as if receiving early access to a device to review isn’t beneficial is dishonest. The alternative would be for you to wait for release, purchase the device yourself and then review it which would put you behind other channels.
Don’t downplay it.
A thumbnail that's actually present in the video? There's still a chance for humanity
Really interested in the device, I am currently within the 60 day period for best buy on my rog ally z1 extreme. I have to return it by July 6th to be able to return it. I think it's worth returning and getting the new one but would love your thoughts. Also would love to hear your thoughts on how much of a difference I can expect in performance, I play games like fortnite, Baldur's Gate 3, Horizon Forbidden West, Rocket League, Elden Ring, Assassin's Creed Black Flag and more. Also where would the balance be between the allocation of ram vs vram, wish it was 32 gb but still solid improvement. Love the bigger battery life as well.
Of course get the X the BATTERY and especially ram upgrade is essential for future proofing. Triple A titles eat a lot of ram. This faster ram will give it a slight fps performance over OG ally.
Nice Asus great Innovation
I’m actually impressed by the Ally X overall
Asus should be offering these to all the customers who had to RMA their ROG ally/sd card manufacturing fault !!! Trade in plus small fee,had to RMA mine due to the fault & in my eyes these should have been removed from shelves and refunded
Overreaction
What about the sd card reader?
It's been repositioned
But the problem with the sd card reader on the OG rog ally was a dodgy fuse (apparently)
The ally X definitely looks like a more refined ally, but as an ally 1 owner, which works just fine including the sd card, I don't think I see that big of a reason to upgrade, I'll be ready to upgrade when the ally 2 comes out hopefully it will include all the improvements from this iteration of the ally.
It will and no doubt they will have to go with an Oled screen to improve the battery even further with whatever gains they get from a new chip will mean there will be a profile in the Ally 2 with 300% the battery life when compared to the RTM version of the Ally. That will be crazy.
Rog Ally 1 owner here...look the battery life and the extra USB is a pretty big reason to upgrade. I love my Ally but those issues were holding it back and i am pissed that these weren't part of the original design.
I actually prefer the look and weight of the original ...
@@losteden6390 lets be real though ...you are going to put a case on it that will change the ergnomics which basically funnels the ally 1 and ally x into the same ergonomics i.e. cases on the device lead to standardization of ergonomics.
@@johnmurphy5106what does the extra USB do?
Windows nah - but maybe Bazzite OS would be good with this?
When is the ally 2 getting announced?
Can you try it with an egpu?
Someone needs to make a drop in 80wh battery mod I can swap to my current ROG Ally then it’ll almost be an X
I wish ASUS would do some type of special exchange program to make up for the bs they did.
ASUS needs to learn percentage they stated 200% more battery and 200% more storage and 150% mor RAM it is 100% more storage and battery and 50% more RAM 😃
Where did they state that? I don't see any sources saying that.
Marketing- maybe not increase like you say, but a spin- eg 150% of the ram of original so the original ram plus 50% would be 150%
The Percentiles are accurate, They just need to get rid of the + so it doesn't sound additive to the original values.
A free device IS PAYMENT..... feel free to stop getting devices for free and having to buy every single thing you review
Then come back and see if your standards arent higher because your profit is now lower.
I agree. Crazy that he says, "It takes a lot of time so it's not payment." You're still getting a device for free.
There is another rather large buuuuttt that follows the explanations of being open and up front. We heard that there were no paid or sponsored promotions anymore but this was already undercut by the fact that ASUS were paying for the Computex visit, which is a promotion in itself and a direct connection with ASUS, who's product is under discussion.
Whilst I appreciate the openness, it should also come with reasoning that cannot so easily be questioned.
I also think that a far more open and clear policy change from ASUS is required to give more confidence in the company, which as far as I am concerned, is a million miles away right now, adding to caution and suspicion of their behaviour.
I can fully understand buying from the likes of Best Buy in order to avoid having to deal with ASUS directly during the warranty period but I do wonder what the Best Buy management will be thinking if it means their staff having to put up with the same nightmares that may result in equally bad customer service, only adding another party into the mix. They have to be somewhat cautious because their own brand name becomes a potential risk factor.
What about the SD card issue? Have they fully resolved it?
Looks like SD card slot is moved further towards edge of screen and relocated from photos seen.
I just wish more of these devices came with Linux (KDE) or SteamOS.
@The Phawx can the steam decks capacative touch sticks be put on the ally og?
lol
Does the Micro SD card slot actually work on this unit?
Nobody knows because it was never talked about
I will wait fall 2024 and if we don't have a Strix point or Halo LP... I buy it
I can't help but feel like Asus is just hoping people who had unresolved problems will just buy the new model.
Improving products in a fast moving market likely has nothing to do with the customer service side of things (except to address the feedback going forward).
Sadly, in this day and age, once you buy a product you just have to hope for the best (in the USA, anyways). Shipping for repairs, companies being stingy with repairs, weak warranties, and other factors basically make getting issues resolved a nightmare. If you want exceptional warranties, you’re usually paying for something with an insane markup.
No they already paid for the new version that new customers will have less issues with.
Can you make them to skip 3.2usbc for oculink lol
Skip to 5:16 to actually hear the "review"
Influencing has no limits
Hmm don’t scratch it or your warranty will be denied.
Damn didnt gerald undone made a video about this ethics things haha
Every reviewer is talking about everything except the actual device god damn
All the UA-camrs saying they might not upgrade and that they are happy with the original. One week after release, there will be 100 videos with the title "5 reasons im uprading to the Ally X"
Yep right after they receive two free units! 😂😅
No way the product is no form of payment!
Just putting in my 2 cents here. Receiving a product to create a video on siad product without any sort of monetary exchange is not a sponsorship or form of payment in my eyes. The video could not be created without the product. Its a chicken and ghe egg scenario. Now, if the company that sends you the profuct DOES pay you on top of sending the product, then I'd consoder that a conflict of interest. I'd rather go the VPN route that you mentioned.
They killed the XG Mobile port, I knew that would happen with that super stiff, short, and fragile cable. I returned the XG Mobile 4090 just in time. That being said I will not be buying another Asus product dealing with the SD card RMA process nightmare I went through.