I think the Rog Ally Z1 Extreme is still the best price-to-performance in the handheld PC market, especially if you can get an open-box/refurbished one for around $400-$500. The new Rog Ally X is simply too expensive for what is essentially just a refresh of the previous model. Most people don't need 24GB of RAM for gaming, it would be more for multi-tasking, which you can't really do in handheld mode that well anyways. The extra battery life is the only solid improvement, but it's simply not worth spending almost twice the cost of an open-box Z1 Extreme for a new X. I would rather wait for the 3rd gen model in the future, which I think will have a better iGPU than even the 780m, and offer more processing power. The X is simply not a big enough step up, although it is a nice refinement of what already exists.
@@mont-doggBeatsI found one off FB she wants 300 for it but I’m pretty sure it’s the base model I asked her for what it is still waiting on an answer. But I found one at Best Buy open box z1 extreme I can get it for 349 what you think
According to reddit the problem is with poor placing of fuses that are also too sensitive and burn out too quickly. It is not difficult to change but requires SMD soldering skills and some magnification. It would be interesting to know if asus changed the model of fuses they use, it must be costing them a fortune on RMAs
Also you can improve the legion go speakers MASSIVELY by downloading fx sound and enable volume boost. The stock tuning sucks . Once i did that the speakers almost sound as good as the ally but not quite because they are upward firing which still sucks
I am trying to figure out if I should get the Legion GO or Ally Z1 Extreme. I am a casual gamer and enjoy my FPS games such as COD, Halo, and so forth. I want something simple but also get the most out of the price. Legion Go has a lot of versatility to it with a bigger screen and kick stand and making it more of a laptop handheld than a gaming PC handheld. However, the Ally seems to have better performance and I figured, if I want to use it to watch movies, a simple case with a kickstand goes a long way. I have been out of the gaming scene for quite some time, and these handhelds have sparked much interest in me casually getting back into it. I just am really unsure between these two (steam deck is out for me) on which one to buy. They both seem to be neck and neck. I do have my own laptop that I use for work and other things. Would love to hear some feed back so I can make a rational decision. Thanks!
One thing most reviewers miss is that rog ally is not only VRR down to native 48fps but also has low frame compensation LFC down to 30fps which does make it pretty smooth experience wise all the way down
Just got mine. Initial impression is the battery really sucks. I went through almost 50% just configuring settings and trying to get cyberpunk to run lol
my ally is playing silly buggers with me one day i play forza horizon 4 at 1080 medium settings and it runs great the next day i start the game and get a message saying youre computer does not meet minimum requirements you can try the game but will have problems.i play and everything is minimum settings and looks and runs horrible i restart the ally everything goes back to normal wtf is happening
its been good for ages now it was the first few plays it did it but i think it might be caused by playing on tv it seems to try playing everything at 4k when i go on tv i have to alter all settings back to 1080
Asus are scumbags, they never fixed the micro sd issue. They simply chose to ignore it. I never played heavy pc games but i think it stopped working on mines because it would never update unless i removed it
I actually heard that if you have a system that hasn't had the SD card fried yet, adding a few layers of thermal paste to the top of it can prevent it from being destroyed.
@@KillerCam1020 no not even on my computer it doesnt work , even with cardreader doesnt work , only one of my 3 cards only recorded screen shots on my ally ! i think its a windows problem .
one good thing about the ally x is that people are now selling the regular z1 extreme for much cheaper than usual XD think i can get my hands on a used ally z1 extreme for around 25-35 % of less than its usual retail price here in my country and a used one at that price is around half the price of an ally x
@@KillerCam1020 yeah and for me ? I rarely need to go anywhere for long enough for the small battery to really matter The lack of 2280 smaller grips and the stupid port on the top is annoying But since the regular ally is like half the Price of the x i could probably deal with it
@@gmoddude12 wanted the X but made the same decision as you. The Z1E model's battery lasts for 1h if you play on 25w an AAA game. I thought about it and my bus rides are less than 1h, and trains have the options to charge your device so that wouldn't be a problem either. And a portable power bank is waaay cheaper than getting the x, so why pay double the price for just 10% performance increase. The only place that would benefit the x is a plane flight, as you're limited with your power banks (max 99wh) and they can take a long time.
You will need to get a keyboard and mouse and a monitor and a dock for it but if you can get all that it’s more than workable as a daily driver! But I wouldn’t use this to take notes in class haha
Decent vid, but Coilwhine =/= coolers running fast. Coilwhine = a component in the GPU that makes some type of Electric noise. Ally doesn't really have bad coil whine.
Since my SD card is solely used for emulation and has failed numerous times, the fan curves are not reducing the overheating of the SD card reader. This is just Asus talking shit
They’ve mentioned something recently about how it’s something to do with the power delivery to the sd card slot idk. But long story short they offered an even more extended warranty since this video had gone up
I have a deck too but since i got the slly extreme version, i havent touched the steam deck. Its just better in every single way and every deck verified gsme just runs better on the wlly for the most pwrt. The build, buttons, screen, power. Its all better. Thr deck had one thing superior. Battery life, but its not that much better. People buy a deck to trick their brains into thinking they have a switch like console. Thats it, the deck is for console kids. The ally is for logicial men and women
PC Gaming is not great. Steam Deck is my 1st PC. Console gamer here. Asus has the infrastructure to be like Nintendo, Xbox or PlayStation. I think Asus and the multiple PC vendors should create a universal system. Docking stations come free when you buy their expensive handheld systems. When you connect to the docking station, TV or monitor is automatically turn on with the pc handheld going max input and fans sounding like a ps3. When I undock. It automatically changes the settings to the game for handheld gaming. Enough of my rant. My deck fell and is getting fixed. But debating on selling it and buying the ally x so I just have one system for all the games not on my Nintendo switchand my Nintendo switch.
@@YOUNGJBR Z1 Extreme by default settings. That’s what PC gaming needs. Also man there’s so many launchers. It’s insane lol. That’s why I’m confused when PC gamers complained about PS logins. Most triple A games require it from other publishers.
I agree that windows is not ideal for gaming especially on a handheld. But tbh the only entity that can truly remedy that issue is Microsoft themselves. We need an XboxOS that can organize all the games from Steam, Gamepass, epic, Ubisoft, and so on (similar to Steam OS) Would be me much easier to navigate. But not sure Microsoft wants to do that but docking is being resolved with the ally X because it’s including two usb4 ports so you won’t have to buy a dock at least, but would just need an hdmi to usbc adapter and power cable plugged in.
@@WarAlex16 There's many launchers because there's variety. I can get the same game from 6 different launchers, and if I don't find a game on Steam I know for sure I can find it on another launcher. Why is that insane? I'd rather have 5 launchers (technically, most people have just 1: Steam. And it has most games) and be able to play 90% of existing games, rather than have just 1 store like a console and be limited to the games that are on that store only.
"...although the screen is ONLY 1080p..." - at this resolution - size ratio (7 inch), assuming you're ordinary human being, you're not even able to discern individual pixels mate.
@@KillerCam1020 even 900p is good enough. A 4k 31 inch monitor (the standard for 4k) has around 140 PPI (pixels per inch), For 1080p, the Ally has 320 PPI. Looking at the (albeit small) screen of the Ally in 1080p is like looking at an 8k monitor. This is definitely overkill for the size.
Not worth it. Far better to get the rog ally x. Also you are wrong about how the vrr works. When it falls below 48 fps it has low frame rate compensation.
"Far bettwr to get the rog ally x". Hey lil bro, not everyone is willing to shell out 800 bucks/pounds for one portable gaming machine lol The original Ally is still worth it
Well you could just avoid running games of slow SD cards and just use the internal Nvme drive 🤷 SD card load times and streaming stutters getting annoying.
The ROG Ally is currently at its lowest Price EVER at $549!
howl.me/cmsMEuf7lbd
(affiliate link)
Yup, I bought it 600 total, now watching your video on it.
its 399. for me rn the z1 though. the z1 extreme is 599
I just picked up a z1 extreme for $495 at Best buy moment ago. Can't wait to power it on
@@thisisfun4633 prices fluctuate depending on the sale!
349 best buy now
At work, short answer: Yes. lol
Just bought one for $360 yesterday definitely worth it no problems at all
Sweet deal 🫡
Oh nice!
@nursemikole Am buying one tomorrow for 380 pounds what do think Is it worth it?
Got it its perfect
got one for $350 earlier
I think the Rog Ally Z1 Extreme is still the best price-to-performance in the handheld PC market, especially if you can get an open-box/refurbished one for around $400-$500. The new Rog Ally X is simply too expensive for what is essentially just a refresh of the previous model. Most people don't need 24GB of RAM for gaming, it would be more for multi-tasking, which you can't really do in handheld mode that well anyways. The extra battery life is the only solid improvement, but it's simply not worth spending almost twice the cost of an open-box Z1 Extreme for a new X. I would rather wait for the 3rd gen model in the future, which I think will have a better iGPU than even the 780m, and offer more processing power. The X is simply not a big enough step up, although it is a nice refinement of what already exists.
Strix Point is launching soon, there will probably be an updated Rog Ally X next spring or even sooner
Dude I got someone offering me this for $300 which is bonkers do I deal ? I don’t own any handheld
Just bought the z1 extreme for $350 brand new off the marketplace 🫡💪🏾
@@jazzyjeff7not sure if you still deciding or not but make sure it wasn’t the one with the regular z1 processor make sure its the Z1 extreme
@@mont-doggBeatsI found one off FB she wants 300 for it but I’m pretty sure it’s the base model I asked her for what it is still waiting on an answer. But I found one at Best Buy open box z1 extreme I can get it for 349 what you think
Got my hands on a Z1 Non Extreme for 150$ and so far so good!
How and where
thats a steal!
can't get a usable laptop for that price, crazy deal
Got one for $350, it's great so far
Sweet deal brother 🫡
You didn’t really answer if they fixed the SD card thing really…
yeah i clicked because i wanted to know
According to reddit the problem is with poor placing of fuses that are also too sensitive and burn out too quickly. It is not difficult to change but requires SMD soldering skills and some magnification. It would be interesting to know if asus changed the model of fuses they use, it must be costing them a fortune on RMAs
Also you can improve the legion go speakers MASSIVELY by downloading fx sound and enable volume boost. The stock tuning sucks . Once i did that the speakers almost sound as good as the ally but not quite because they are upward firing which still sucks
True, but it lags with certain games, I think it puts some strain on the CPU, my sound was kinda choppy at times
Planning to buy ally with a powerbank with 65 watt output and 27000mah capacity wish me luck 🤞
How long does the battery life last with a power bank?
I am trying to figure out if I should get the Legion GO or Ally Z1 Extreme. I am a casual gamer and enjoy my FPS games such as COD, Halo, and so forth. I want something simple but also get the most out of the price. Legion Go has a lot of versatility to it with a bigger screen and kick stand and making it more of a laptop handheld than a gaming PC handheld. However, the Ally seems to have better performance and I figured, if I want to use it to watch movies, a simple case with a kickstand goes a long way. I have been out of the gaming scene for quite some time, and these handhelds have sparked much interest in me casually getting back into it. I just am really unsure between these two (steam deck is out for me) on which one to buy. They both seem to be neck and neck. I do have my own laptop that I use for work and other things. Would love to hear some feed back so I can make a rational decision. Thanks!
Solid review. I just picked up one brand new on sale for $350.
I already ordered my rog ally z1 extreme so i can't wait to try it out
Hope you are enjoying it!
I ordered today for 475 usd( 40000 inr) I think I am going enjoy my commute to office 😊
@@18bgaming84 Bro are you from India? If yes, can you tell me where you ordered from and the overall experience? Really curious to know bhai :)
I got a Z1 non extreme for 300 as a black friday deal. I have a Steam Deck OLED and curious
Been 5 days, which do you prefer? Or too soon
How do you like it?
One thing most reviewers miss is that rog ally is not only VRR down to native 48fps but also has low frame compensation LFC down to 30fps which does make it pretty smooth experience wise all the way down
They don't use Hall effect Joystick on ROG ALLY X?
All I’ve heard is that they improved the thumb stick plastic and made them easier to swap out I think
Nothing mentioned so basically no hall effect joysticks because if they were there , they would have flaunted it
Just got mine. Initial impression is the battery really sucks. I went through almost 50% just configuring settings and trying to get cyberpunk to run lol
my ally is playing silly buggers with me one day i play forza horizon 4 at 1080 medium settings and it runs great the next day i start the game and get a message saying youre computer does not meet minimum requirements you can try the game but will have problems.i play and everything is minimum settings and looks and runs horrible i restart the ally everything goes back to normal wtf is happening
It could be inconsistencies with or Wi-Fi or just age
might be the driver and the game not detecting the gpu?
its been good for ages now it was the first few plays it did it but i think it might be caused by playing on tv it seems to try playing everything at 4k when i go on tv i have to alter all settings back to 1080
bro what's with all the random face zoom?
Asus are scumbags, they never fixed the micro sd issue. They simply chose to ignore it. I never played heavy pc games but i think it stopped working on mines because it would never update unless i removed it
I actually heard that if you have a system that hasn't had the SD card fried yet, adding a few layers of thermal paste to the top of it can prevent it from being destroyed.
Excellent vid cam!!!🎉
m'y micro sdcard still doesnt work .
Does it work in other devices?
@@KillerCam1020 no not even on my computer it doesnt work , even with cardreader doesnt work , only one of my 3 cards only recorded screen shots on my ally ! i think its a windows problem .
@@KillerCam1020 they all work on smartfones and tablets but not on windows 10 and 11 ! bill gates is so stupid !
Got mine back from RMA repair just around a month ago and reader is already dead, they haven’t fixed the design flaw
dang thats really unfortunate to hear :(
608g vs 800 it's not worth the sacrifice? well for me it does every g less it's better for longer playing with less fatigue on hands
That was just a b roll clip ripped from an advertisement. The Ally X has more ergonomic grip and it’s only 678g in comparison.
Nice! But that price tag though...
Below 48hz the Ally uses LFC.
one good thing about the ally x
is that people are now selling the regular z1 extreme for much cheaper than usual XD
think i can get my hands on a used ally z1 extreme for around 25-35 % of less than its usual retail price here in my country and a used one at that price is around half the price of an ally x
The ally is a very good value right now!
@@KillerCam1020 yeah and for me ? I rarely need to go anywhere for long enough for the small battery to really matter
The lack of 2280 smaller grips and the stupid port on the top is annoying
But since the regular ally is like half the Price of the x i could probably deal with it
@@gmoddude12 wanted the X but made the same decision as you. The Z1E model's battery lasts for 1h if you play on 25w an AAA game. I thought about it and my bus rides are less than 1h, and trains have the options to charge your device so that wouldn't be a problem either. And a portable power bank is waaay cheaper than getting the x, so why pay double the price for just 10% performance increase. The only place that would benefit the x is a plane flight, as you're limited with your power banks (max 99wh) and they can take a long time.
How good will it be for using as a daily driver? I will be using ms office too will this be good for taking classes?
You will need to get a keyboard and mouse and a monitor and a dock for it but if you can get all that it’s more than workable as a daily driver! But I wouldn’t use this to take notes in class haha
@@KillerCam1020 as a secondary device only, sorry to say i will take the class not attend 😅, I am an assistant professor + gamer as well
Thanks. Great video on current state.
Bought it at $550 dirt cheap for a gaming pc game. It's all good 👍🥰
Decent vid, but Coilwhine =/= coolers running fast. Coilwhine = a component in the GPU that makes some type of Electric noise. Ally doesn't really have bad coil whine.
I meant the fan makes a whining sound rather
Just got myself a ally extreme for 430 euro the ally x is allmost double that price and heard it's only 10% more powerfull no thanks for that price 😂
I am screwed right now lol some how the rog ally thumstick FELL of and then somehow glue got into it sonnow the stick is stuck
Thats wild man. Hope you got it fixed by now haha
Rog Allyy Is best ❤
Have you Found an Solution how to enable Frame Gene to Emulators?
You can use lossless scaling which is a steam application
I would love one of these
What game is this 8:40
Do you mean just before @ 8:30? Thats Hellblade II: Senua’s Saga
@@KillerCam1020 good game ?
Eh. I’d recommend trying it on game pass it’s gorgeous, but it’s not for everyone.
Since my SD card is solely used for emulation and has failed numerous times, the fan curves are not reducing the overheating of the SD card reader. This is just Asus talking shit
They’ve mentioned something recently about how it’s something to do with the power delivery to the sd card slot idk. But long story short they offered an even more extended warranty since this video had gone up
I have a deck too but since i got the slly extreme version, i havent touched the steam deck. Its just better in every single way and every deck verified gsme just runs better on the wlly for the most pwrt.
The build, buttons, screen, power. Its all better. Thr deck had one thing superior. Battery life, but its not that much better.
People buy a deck to trick their brains into thinking they have a switch like console. Thats it, the deck is for console kids. The ally is for logicial men and women
Hey its great that it works for you!
Whole lotta knit picking but the answer is YES 😂
I wanted to keep the review balanced ahahaha
Upgrade? Sidegrade? Who knows?
PC Gaming is not great. Steam Deck is my 1st PC. Console gamer here. Asus has the infrastructure to be like Nintendo, Xbox or PlayStation. I think Asus and the multiple PC vendors should create a universal system. Docking stations come free when you buy their expensive handheld systems. When you connect to the docking station, TV or monitor is automatically turn on with the pc handheld going max input and fans sounding like a ps3. When I undock. It automatically changes the settings to the game for handheld gaming.
Enough of my rant. My deck fell and is getting fixed. But debating on selling it and buying the ally x so I just have one system for all the games not on my Nintendo switchand my Nintendo switch.
So you basically want a beefed up switch ? Thats the magic of PC being able to tweak your settings tweak the graphics ect you should get a real PC
@@YOUNGJBR Z1 Extreme by default settings. That’s what PC gaming needs. Also man there’s so many launchers. It’s insane lol. That’s why I’m confused when PC gamers complained about PS logins. Most triple A games require it from other publishers.
I agree that windows is not ideal for gaming especially on a handheld. But tbh the only entity that can truly remedy that issue is Microsoft themselves. We need an XboxOS that can organize all the games from Steam, Gamepass, epic, Ubisoft, and so on (similar to Steam OS) Would be me much easier to navigate. But not sure Microsoft wants to do that but docking is being resolved with the ally X because it’s including two usb4 ports so you won’t have to buy a dock at least, but would just need an hdmi to usbc adapter and power cable plugged in.
@@WarAlex16 There's many launchers because there's variety. I can get the same game from 6 different launchers, and if I don't find a game on Steam I know for sure I can find it on another launcher. Why is that insane? I'd rather have 5 launchers (technically, most people have just 1: Steam. And it has most games) and be able to play 90% of existing games, rather than have just 1 store like a console and be limited to the games that are on that store only.
Bro... you should have waited. Ally x is about to drop and has usb 4 with 32 gigs of ram. That usb4 is a game changer for cheaper external graphics.
Ally X does not have 32 gigs of ram
24gb RAM*
@borky1987 Either way, you're not bound to a $1900 egpu. I'm sure 8gb vram with 16 for system will perform better than 8.
I mention this in the video :)
Big nope i had a steam deck come with stick drift i will never buy a handheld without hall effect joysticks
thats fair!
Yes same for me
"...although the screen is ONLY 1080p..." - at this resolution - size ratio (7 inch), assuming you're ordinary human being, you're not even able to discern individual pixels mate.
Oh I know and I agree 1080p is the sweet spot for a display this small. I think the legion go screen is overkill especially for the z1 extreme.
@@KillerCam1020 even 900p is good enough. A 4k 31 inch monitor (the standard for 4k) has around 140 PPI (pixels per inch), For 1080p, the Ally has 320 PPI. Looking at the (albeit small) screen of the Ally in 1080p is like looking at an 8k monitor. This is definitely overkill for the size.
The sd card problem is caused by a board issue not the thermals
this was written before asus came out with their official statement
My question is : for how long can you play Genshin on it till the battery runs off? 😂🥺
45 minutes.
@ that’s way too short 😂😭
Not worth it. Far better to get the rog ally x. Also you are wrong about how the vrr works. When it falls below 48 fps it has low frame rate compensation.
"Far bettwr to get the rog ally x". Hey lil bro, not everyone is willing to shell out 800 bucks/pounds for one portable gaming machine lol The original Ally is still worth it
Overpriced and not worth it.
Just use it for storage and not playing games
destroy all your sd cards
Well you could just avoid running games of slow SD cards and just use the internal Nvme drive 🤷
SD card load times and streaming stutters getting annoying.
It still fries sd cards
Even sd lcd better than ally x
nah it's noticeably less sharp
This is pure cap.
trying to cope from getting the worse product, are ya?
@miuletzmitzu6641 ally is the one ripped off steam deck after deck become famous or ally never exit
so, is sd issue fixed?