Asus ROG Ally vs Steam Deck, 2 Months Later
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- Опубліковано 3 сер 2024
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Windows vs Linux? After bouncing back and fourth between the Steam Deck and the Ally, I think I have a better understanding of what makes one better than the other, and which use cases work better for each device.
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The company is called soylent and they make a green smothie? Are you sure we should be drinking that?
You’re one of the few people who saw that movie apparently. I agree dude, it’s either really BAD marketing or slightly good marketing (I guess). Either way, I’d never try it
Honestly surprised there was no movie reference in the ad read, but if you know, you know.
I’ve thought the same. Watched Soylent Green with my grandmother 20 years ago. It’s not a good name for a food company. 😂
People do not drink this absolute trash. it is terrible for you. DO NOT DRINK HUEL OR ANY OF THESE 'MEAL REPLACEMENTS'
TL;DR of this Video: Don't Buy a Steam Deck or ROG Ally! Buy a GBA and play Castlevania all day long.
Also make sure you’re non existent ally is being updated in the meantime
@@pebble848your*
@@rony_rst srsly man :(
@@pebble848 Sorry I couldn't hold myself.
*SteamDeck*
The Steam Deck is a game console first, linux machine if you need it second. And I'm 90% sure will get supported for a long time yet. I love that Valve actually listens to the community and gives us what we ask for. And idk about that boot time, mine never takes that long to boot up.
Just like they gave us Half Life 3
@@hounvs that’s still in the works lol just like Left 4 dead 3
I also use mine as a Windows workstation and it's the second fastest PC I own.
That and recent reports of ROG Ally heat melts or wrecks the microSD card is a real concern. Sure you can RMA it…but that’s a hassle and you’re without you’re machine.
@brutalhonesty07 Never seen an Ally melt a SD card and I am terminally online. It appears to be a software/firmware issue as the reader is the same one Apple uses and they had the same problem and it was fixed via software. I have had the Ally and Deck since their launches and I am sticking with the Ally. I sold my Deck to a friend and don't regret it, he loves the Deck but he did mention if he didn't have the Deck he would get the Ally instead after trying both out. Personally don't think you can go wrong with either. It comes down to what you play/are used to as Bob pointed out.
The trackpads and input customization settings make the steam deck well worth it for me. Allows a lot of pc games to run nicely without a mouse even though they were designed with one in mind.
With All you can also customize any game of any platform to the inputs you want. Doesn even need Steam overlay, can customize inputs to any game or software. Trackpads arent on it, though.
Yeap, those track pads are 100% the reason I won't even consider any of the Steam Deck alternatives. It is amazing just how much I use those things, even outside of as a replacement for a mouse. The touch menu bindings for the trackpads are a godsend for several of the games I play on it.
The GPD Win 4 almost scratches that itch with their physical keyboard and optical thumb sensor. The Ayaneo Kun comes the closest I think with its two trackpads.
Agreed
@@samuraidoggy thats one of the biggest problems, because the pc gaming history has such a long list of alternative control schemes, valve really did a lot of research and design work on this to get this aspect working, thats also the main reason why the Steam controller despite its flaws is so highly regarded and well beloved nowadays. The Deck simply took the ideas of the SC design and fixed its flaws and the result is basically the perfect pc controller which literally everyone should take a lesson from.
Most companies do not get this, Asus for instance like most others simply slapped a standard xbox controller left and right of the display and called it a day, works fine with most newer games, but you
a) have a huge advantage in first person games with the SC only surpassed by mouse WSAD
b) the decades old list of PC games are blocked to a big degree by having to rely on a gamepad only control scheme without a suitable mouse replacement option!
Chiaki on Steam Deck is really easy to setup, works with the controller by default, and has great performance. I’ve never had any issues with it.
Same here, no sound issue and been using it a lot playing Diablo IV from my PS5 lying on my bed.
Yeah I'm not sure why he said chiaki would be more difficult on steam deck
Chiaki? like the Danganronpa 2 character?
@@MichaelMineCraftings I love Danganronpa
@@MichaelMineCraftings the software is named after her
It's also worth mentioning that a lot of games running on Steam Deck can be put to sleep mode and then turn it back on and continue where you left of almost instantly. This way you don't even need to keep turning it off and on over and over again, plus when something in real life interrupts you for long time, it's just much better than putting the game on and let the device uselessly sips up battery.
It's not exclusive to Steam Deck, however. You can also do it on Linux with Gamescope + AMD/Intel GPU.
I do the exact same thing on my Ally and it works pretty good actually. It's a feature that I loved on my Steam Deck, but I've really had no problems with putting my Ally to sleep/wake on games.
This is not new.
Decks sleep mode makes it an easy choice over the ally imo
@@SenpaiMD, I have both. Works just fine on the Ally as well.
It's no where near as reliable on the ally.. Games will wake up and not run after sleeping for long periods of time. They'll run in the background while it waits for you to log back in to windows. You'll log in and the game will be in a window instead of full screen. It's not even on the same level as the steam deck in that regard.
Recently got a steamdeck, loving it, i turned it into the ultimate emulation station.
I did the same but there's a bit of a problem...I keep playing my Steam Games instead lol. I do love the fact I've got all my retro games there on the go through including PS2. I was surprised just how nice PS1 games can look when upscaled considered how much of a pixelated mess they can be.
@@skycloud4802can the play GameCube and PS3 games
For me the biggest advantage on deck are the trackpads, they work fantastic for FPS or any game where you control a camera. Also Heroic games launcher is really easy to use and works perfectly to play GOG or origin games. For Game Pass games, I stream them from my PC using Parsec
Try to add gyro aim to the trackpads... match made in heaven once you have adapted to it!
I just use Windows on my Steam Deck for Game Pass. 🤷🏻♂️
@@moskbarto9436working fine?
I just use a mobile 4090 on my ally and don't stream them 🤷♂️
The micro SD issue is NOT the fault of the cards actually, it's an issue with the placement of the reader on the device. It's next to some components that get very, very hot under hard workloads, as well as being right next to the left exhaust port. This leaves the reader being exposed to a *lot* of heat, while the safe operating temperature of the reader is 70C or lower. This has resulted in readers frying from heat. I've had it happen to both my launch day Ally, and the unit I got through RMA for the previous unit's dead reader, and there's tons of posts from people having the same problem on the r/rogally subreddit. It's an absolutely moronic design choice and I don't know how it made it through testing. Asus will literally have to redesign the main board to move the slot somewhere else, such as the bottom of the device like the Deck.
Its been shown concretely that its clearly something to do with the reader hardware itself and not heat, probably a voltage problem as that was the cause for macbooks with the same reader hardware having the same failure years ago and a huge proportion of the reported incidents have happened at low temperatures. Its poor design and R&D for sure but its not conclusively a heat problem
Asus has a history of releasing products before they’re ready. I thought their first handheld PC was going to have problems but they really out did themselves.🎉
@@DubiousChinchilla rog ally 2 electric boogaloo
I assume they released it early to compete with the Deck.
In all honesty even my oxp2 suffers from that. The SD slot ist next to the fan so my SD cart slot got so hot it doesent even hold the cart anymore had to stick it in with a piece of paper so I can't come back
The steam deck controller config options make it a no brainer for me - having community layouts for everything is HUGE if the devs haven't done proper support.
On top of that, the additional buttons on the back, the trackpads and most importantly the very detailed things you can DO with them in the settings (like turning the left trackpad into a little grid menu or scroll wheel) is a massive benefit for PC games that aren't necessarily built for controllers like Civ, Stellaris or Roller coaster tycoon.
This. It's awesome how I can just boot up a game that usually would have me messing around in the settings to get to control properly, like for example Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles on Wii. Booted up the game, and instantly was able play it with zero issues.
he also never mentioned that you can just put windows on the steam deck if you want it that badly.
@@bnutplayer8450 I mean I don't think that's a real use case - the drivers and experience on windows with the steam deck are pretty abysmal and wouldn't come close to touching the experience on the ROG ally
@@AndreasKingMedia win deck is at a pretty good point now and if anything windows is more usable on steam deck due to the track pads
They're downloading on Ally (and any other PC) too if you run Steam in Big Picture mode (maybe switched to default and put in autorun and so you basically get Steamdeck functionality at startup with more as option). Real benefit of steamdeck is pregen shaders, others can just be turned on any PC by steam itself.
The audio issue with Chiaki at 8:25 might be due to Dolby Atmos or the bitrate and frequency of the audio output. I had to turn off spacial audio and drop it to 16-Bit, 48000Hz to stop the stutter and crackle that was happening with Chiaki.
Exactly this. Increasing bandwidth for audio output will improve the stutter. But need to balance bandwidth between audio and video.
Hi, much love! Just finished TLOU remake on Ally yesterday and it’s amazing! I played that game since got my Ally day one, along the way I got those Asus updates and bios changes, etc. I can really feel the improvement on this little device just from a month ago! The experience I had with this game and Ally is so good, like the first time I play the original game on PS4. Steam deck is also going strong, persona and other light games and emus runs great on it! I’m glad I have kept my deck after getting Ally.
Is that game fixed yet?
STEAM DECK GANG 😎
FOR LIFE, but the ally is cool, in its own way
Here here
Hell yeah baby!
DECK GANG
DECK GANG
Ganondorf dances. MP4
I wanted to defend the steam deck really quick and say that you can install game pass and chiaki and I know he had issues with it but for me personally chiaki works perfectly. I played the entirety of Final Fantasy 16 through it and never really had an issue.
wtf how, Final Fantasy 16 release on PS4 only for now exclusively!
@@yudhaa remote play through chiaki
Controller don't work in gamepass. I threw my sd into the wall. Glossi work sometimes but stop working randomly. I fking hated it.
@@tykendrick800 controller works once you set it on the controller settings it takes seconds lol no need to throw it at the wall . And sorry your having that experience with chiaki for me personally it works really really well with the occasional screen tear every once and a while but connection has never been a issue
@@Senorgrav chiaki. What is that?
I assume you use steam os. I used windows. Had to use app called glossi. Have to reinstall it everytime I play a non steam game
I've had the Deck for a few months and really did like it, and with Heroic, I was able to get most of my games that I wanted to play on it. A little over a week ago I bought an Ally at Best Buy thinking "if I don't like it, I have 15 days to return it and nothing changes". Within 2 days I was taking the 1TB NVMe out of my Deck and putting it in the Ally and have fully switched over now. A lot of little things are needed to get Windows set up just right (not having to log in to a Microsoft account during setup, changing sleep/hibernate settings to have thing do what I want, Steam going into Big Picture as soon as it boots, mapping M1/M2 plus D-Pad down to be the Xbox button to bring up the Steam button menu during games, etc), but now the Ally operates pretty much like my Deck, but with a more power processor, better screen with VRR, and the ability to install ANY of my games because of Windows.
another great video Bab! random fact but did u know youre the only youtuber that I dont just fast forward thru your ad reads because they are always funny and original. keep up the great work!
I feel like ROG will abandon the Ally and the handheld market, but the Steam Deck will get multiple iterations and long lasting support. That coupled with devs catering to the hardware of the Steam Deck, should make the Steam Deck effectively run better from the optimisation.
I agree with your general points but your reasoning of “I think” leaves a lot to be desired 😂 “Tonberry King has spoken, and he has decided ROG will abandon the Ally”
no devs cater for the steam deck hardware. It plays PC games just like everyone else so it will not out perform other more powerful handhelds. What it does have an advantage is in low wattage senarios where the chip is more efficient
@@RandomWrongDeletion 🤣🤣🤣
@@crestofhonor2349 wdym there's some games that have steam deck specific settings for them, and also steam deck specific fixes for a few games, the one game I think of is The Last of Us Part 1
@@Jaxv3r Specific settings doesn't mean optimized for steam deck. That means they went and found already accessible settings in the game and just used that as the "Steam Deck" preset. Specifically optimized would imply these games are made to be played specifically on a steam deck like a console. It's just a PC running Linux and it has no more specific optimization than the ROG Ally, GPD Win 4, or any other handheld or gaming device. It's like saying max settings in games is specifically optimized for a 4090
Honestly, I think I'll just stick with my Steam Deck for now. Love that thing.
Agreed, you don't need extra more specs to play the same retro games, it's pointless when I have a gaming laptop anyways
It's still the ultimate gaming handheld because the few games it can't run well aren't the kind of thing you'd want to play on the go.
You just poor that's it
@@thevinisois rdrd2 alreasy working without an hassle?
with the new Ally bios update this morning, if you do not own a steam deck today, the Ally is the overall better option since you can tinker less, don't have to worry about the linux learning curve, and just use it how you please!
I completed my first Elden Ring playthrough on it and it was amazing.
what linux learning curve you talking about? you just sign in, download games and hit play
One if the few reviews i seen with actual hands on use very useful thanks
Just wanted to note that windows on steam deck is supported. And you can still access steam deck UI through big picture mode
I think he left that out because installing Windows on a deck can be a hassle and you lose so much performance by doing so that the Ally would just annihilate the Steamdeck. As a Steamdeck user myself, I can say that the deck is better used within its own specifically made environment. That being it’s Linux OS.
No, you don't lose performance at all.
Ally owner, extremely happy with it so far. I got to the point though where after reading through the Reddit threads about various optimization and tweaks that can be done to it, the ideal combo to kill Armory Crate and make it more bearable to use appears to be HandheldCompanion/G-Helper/Playnite. Been having a blast with it, and I've effectively been using it as a dockable handheld that's a laptop half of the time. I have no problem with Linux; I had been tossing myself around with the two options, and ended up realizing that I actually have a lot of fun tinkering with Windows. The above combo nets me at least 5 hours of battery life at 5W while emulating old handheld consoles.
Shit, it's extremely satisfying to launch a title from Playnite which I have configured to launch RetroArch with a Windows 98 SE VM through DosBox-Pure, and directly launches into the old Win3.x/95-era Journeyman Project games. If I need to make it portable, I throw a tiny mouse and the Ally/Jsaux dock into my mini duffle and bring a small 65/75% keyboard bag with me, and I'm out the door. These things are such a neat concept...I'm honestly excited to see what the future holds. No hate on either side; it's whatever fits your needs, and my Ally is everything I ever wanted. Hope the Deck owners are having just as much fun. :)
This is one of those rare occasions where having a large backlog of indie platformers, puzzle games, and other undemanding titles is a boon. If the Ally is working great for you, I’m happy for you. I’ll just be over here playing Patrick’s Parabox and Celeste on my Steam Deck.
All of which are on the Ally too though...
@@zybch But there's no reason to pay the Ally Price to run games like that.
Yep I got my deck on one of the first days of the sale!! Ordered the 64gb and slapped a 1Tb SSD in there and it runs beautifully!! Easily my top purchase of the year, it's safe to say I'm obsessed!!! 🤩🤩🤩
Hey Bob, loved to hear your perspective as someone with all devices available to you. I found with my steam deck that upgrading to a 1tb and then splitting that to dual boot steam and windows has worked best for me. Truth be told it can be a hassle to maintain the REFind script between major updates and to initially setup so that windows doesn't take boot priority. Its all possible and well documented just finicky. I use my steam os for gaming and then my windows is setup as my work "laptop". I mostly use it for CAD software such as Vcarve or fusion360 with a keyboard, mouse and monitor attached. On the odd occasion I will make quick changes using the on screen keyboard and track pads. the Ally not having track pads and 4 back paddles is a major deal-breaker for my use case. I'm now waiting for a steam deck like controller but with all the inputs. PS5 is close with a Rise4 remap kit but the back paddles can't be set by steam inputs they're only able to mimic the other buttons on the controller.
Love having both, but the Ally's performance increase and VRR screen still has me in the honeymoon phase with it over the Steam Deck and I do favor it rn. Steam Deck does feel more premium and plays some games better and has better sticks. If you can afford both, they compliment each other as much as compete. But if you gotta choose one, Steam Deck 64gb with a 1tb ssd replacement is the way to go. But if you're a Destiny addict and love VRR, the Ally can't be beat. Get a BB extended warranty if worried about QC issues and go swap it for another if there are any. Then you don't have to worry about dealing with Asus. Jelly of that Gameboy Advance Wolf-Jedi! It makes the screen on the Anbernic 35XX look cheap. Great video!
Dude when Zim spits out the carrot after being jostled with the blender bit I lost it. 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣
You're the only streamer I actually watch the advertisement for! Your editing it is phenomenal
Was part of the Q2 gang and received my Steam Deck mid June last year.
I've had the Ally for about 3 weeks and I'm loving it so far. Its screen and more power is what I like and felt the Steam Deck lacked. 10 mins playing TLOU pt1 made me switch to the the Ally as my main handheld. Final Fantasy 7 remake looks and runs great not blurry and jaggy which was my experience on Deck. Windows on the Ally really doesn't bother me, it has its moments but nothing major has gone wrong and I'm not a fan of AC but it's alright. The Ally is definitely for the bigger AAA games that require more power.
I must say even though SteamOS has its own issues I like its layout and how customizable it can be with plug ins. The Steam Deck gets compared to the Switch but it really has become the Switch of the Windows handhelds. It has a low entry point, easy to set up combined with Valve and its community it will always be a good choice over the higher end handhelds.
Very well put. Same exact situation here. Q2 steam deck and finally got an Ally. It’s tough to go back. The deck has been collecting dust. As for the trackpads and mouse games I play docked anyways and throw the Ally on turbo mode. Runs like a dream.
I agree with those two points as well. I wanted a great screen and it’s 120hz also I wanted to play heavy hitting games is not most or all. This does. The best part the sealed it for me was being able to use Xbox game pass without hassles like the steam deck. It just adds another console. I hope with updates they Star addressing the typical issues everyone is having to just making this as simple to plug and play wat u want. I might wait for Black Friday for one of these even though I’m tempted now.
Which version of the ally are you using, the extreme processor or regular ryzen?
I have been playing on Ally Day one release and have had no issues and yes you are correct ease of use then go for Steam Deck but i think the issue is anyone with both consoles will have to set expectations on what each systems have to offer (software) Steam OS is very polished vs FITENDOWS which is crap. Hopefully in the near future when a Windows handheld mode release then it would be an awesome experience. Great video as always!
I've configured steam to autorun on startup in Big Picture mode and got the steamdeck. Previously owned Steamdeck and got huge pain in ass with launchers, always-online games and other pc gaming stuff. And yep, had about 5 titile marked as Great on Steamdeck that didn't launch at all. So getting a bit better experience with Ally than with Steamdeck except for emulation.
I love your realistic approach. After seeing you multiple times, you've got me subscribed!
Great video man! Love the camera work! ❤
Dude you should probably just mention that it is possible to turn your steam deck into a windows machine. It isn’t very hard tbh
You can get the Steam Deck to do PS Plus streaming, I have it on mine. The issue is you can't map the PS4/5 Trackpad button which is shockingly important for most PS4 games as they use it for an options menu, or map, etc. So, on Ally, or AYANEO you can download a program to trick the controls to map a Trackpad button.
Or ps5 games like astro playroom
chiaki4deck mapped it for me, using the touchpads.
@@erickmagnus That works for doing remote play, but not for streaming games from the cloud I don't think.
Repairability es for me a big plus for the Steam Deck, aside of what others already mentioned, being a Console First and promoting gaming on Linux, instead of being complacent with the cumbersome experience with Windows 11 in “Handheld mode”. Steam is more community oriented, I will not be surprised if next year ASUS decides to predate on the Ally with another device to be released
Furthermore, because it’s a Linux machine it’s easier for the community to tinker with it (basically hack it beyond the limitations of Microsoft Windows)
You have an awesome personality so I just subscribed! Oh! The video was good too! 😂❤
Bob's ad/sponsorship videos have to be my favorite on UA-cam at this point.
Here's the Steam Deck's advantages -
Still $200 cheaper
Valve is more reliable than Asus
Better/longer customer service
Better/longer online community support
Better accessories ecosystem
Easier to use as a PC thanks to trackpads
Slightly better battery life
Easier to use
Way better sleep/wake feature
It's NOT Windows but it can if you want it
Black option which won't yellow
Disadvantages -
Weaker hardware
Display
Anti-cheat problem for certain games
Windows is still a more popular platform
Every Nintendo handheld was underpowered and it still sold the most for their generation. The first time they had the most powerful handheld, it's actually the Switch which is really a hybrid. It's basically what the Vita 2 really is but made by Nintendo.
The times Nintendo had the more powerful home console (N64, GCN) than the generation winner (PS1, PS2), they lost. So I don't think Nintendo has ever cared about having the most powerful console. The software and the support is what they focus on more.
Switch is a Vita on steroids. Deck is a Switch on steroids. We had PC handhelds years before the Switch but they we're still niche and went for over $1000. A $400 Deck disrupted the market. Now we see more newer PC handhelds going for under $1000.
I believe there are too many advantages the Deck has over the Ally that I would likely pick it every time unless they're priced the same or Ally is priced lower. And even then, I would still think hard on it. I can live with the weaker hardware and washed out display. Software and support is what matters most at the end.
Deck comes with a free case. That's a nice touch. To me, it looks better ergonomically. Everyone has been saying Deck is extremely comfortable to hold and feels much lighter than it looks.
I'm glad the Ally does exist though similar to Xbox existing for PlayStation to compete with. Competition inspires innovation. You don't want Sony and Valve to get complacent like Samsung is doing with their foldables.
Well said!
Great points made here. Extremely sensible take.
Yep and now the ROG Ally Z1 Extreme is 599 and the Deck OLED is 550.00. Tough choice!! I still don't know which one to go for haha
Great points
I was debating this for a while and I ended up going with the Deck. The Ally has far too many issues and are getting returned left & right and I'm only interested in playing some older Pc games & emulation. The deck is perfect for my needs. The screen and slightly better performance was my main attractions to the Ally honestly.
I have the ally. Not a single issue yet. Also been playing fallout 4 heavily modded o. It with no issues using vortex from nexus. I’d like to see the steam deck that that reliably. Because it will not. I know because I have one as well.
@@Someguy6571 good for you
@@Someguy6571was there any need for that?
@@Someguy6571have fun aiming with joysticks. Lmao. Not even a native gyro
@@Someguy6571"asus""reliability" LMAO
My issue with the ally, besides the price and the problems that have popped up since release, is that there's no mouse alternative. If you want to play civ6 or similar, that's going to stick. The deck has pretty great track pads that make it possible to play most mouse driven games.
I went with the steam deck when it was on the summer sale finally. I gotta say, it is my main go to for gaming right now. Also, when it comes to Chiaki, I did get it up and running and my experience with it was massively clean. I started and finished God of War III solely on my steam deck. Gotta say, I really am enjoying this baby beast. Thanks for the video of comparison!!
Pro Tip combine it with an XReal Air, that way you get a 140 inch oled screen on the go!
Something I don’t like about the ally’s design is how there’s no trackpads. It helps out a lot trying to play PC tycoon games that don’t have the best controller support.
Just connect a keyboard man
I got the Ally despite having a Steam Deck with a 2TB SSD, dual booted with Windows, and custom overclocked. I have settled on the idea that the Deck is basically the Switch of PC handhelds and I use it for lower end games that I can play for longer, and I leave the Ally for very specific, mostly current gen games that struggle on the Deck
This is a complete bs comment. The same games that struggle on the deck also struggle on the ally. Its just one of them struggles a lil less
@@deadringer8050 my definition of “struggle” may be different from how you or others may see it. With Destiny 2 for example when I try playing at max wattage on my Deck it struggles with holding 60fps. On the Ally it’ll be similar but I have more headway to increase the TDP if I want a more stable framerate, but the other thing (which I feel is grossly underrated) is the free sync display on the Ally which then even if I’m bouncing between 50-60 fps, it still feels smooth and I get to turn off V-Sync as a result.
@@deadringer8050Not really and I do the same thing that he does with my Steam Deck with a 1tb Ssd and 1tb sd (fully loaded with Roms) I love my Deck, but when it comes to AAA games it’s clearly night and day when comparing the 2
I do the same as you do lol. I just don’t have Windows dual booted on my deck however lol. That’s why I got the Ally
@@deadringer8050not true higher wats.
If anyone is having issues with playing gamepass games, make sure your date and time are synced with time zone. Had the same idsue after cuecking all updates and driver updates
Got the Steam Deck during the summer sale and I think it’s perfect for my use case. The only current Gen gaming console I owned was a Switch, and on my computer I pretty much exclusively played games through steam. Couple that with some prior exposure to Linux, and I’m loving my experience!
One thing you forget to mention is that you can simply dual boot into Windows on the Steam Deck via a MicroSD card. Since Valve themselves made drivers specifically for this and as long as you're willing to put in the setup time for getting that all configured, it knocks off a major reason to opt for the ROG Ally. At that point you're deciding if you want a higher powered system for $300 more that can itself dual boot into SteamOS (With Valve support for that), or if you would get the cheaper option that can still perform very well but comes with much more support for SteamOS.
There's also the matter of support, because Valve tends to support their items for years upon years upon years while we don't know how Asus is going to treat this since it's a fairly niche item.
What are you talking about, Valve has a much shorter track record on hardware support than Asus
@@divertitibro Valve still updaing the Steam Link from 7 years ago! Where I don’t think Asus even acknowledge a product they launched in 2020 ☠️
You can also partition your SSD. If you get a 2TB SSD for the Steam Deck, you could then partition it so SteamOS and Windows 10/11 each get their own 1TB from the NVME SSD. You will get much better performance this way for windows. I personally DGAF and only use SteamOS. Indie Games FTW. AAA games have been a joke the past several years for the most part.
Valve is only supporting steam deck cause it was successful. Eff the controller and the vr headset hahha
@@MrMilkyCoco where did you get that! All of Valve’s hardware still receive update until today!
The only thing Valve has done was discontinuing them early because they didn’t sell well!
I got the Ally and had SD, sold the SD, the games I wanted to play the SD was too restrictive, but it served a purpose to get the handheld PC party started. If you travel a lot get the Anker 737 140W external battery, it will run the Ally in the 30W turbo mode and basically triples battery life, puts all the power and screen to good use!
What games were you trying to play that didn't play on the SD? like Apex Legends?
@@ProjectRZ COD, also I had a rough time getting RDR2 to work, it had a memory leak issue, which eventual got resolved, but frustrating. Also easier to use GamePass and cloud gaming services like GeForce now.
People keep saying that the steam deck is better. I don’t believe it. It looks like an overpriced piece of garbage. I see that there’s too many problems with it. Who wants problems when playing games? They can call me an idiot, but the real idiots are the ones paying 599.99 for some extra content with the deck. THE ROG WINS. And it’s not even close.
@@raingirlcat2245 you never even used the sd. So your opinion isn't valid. Ive had both and like the sd better, some might like the rog. They're very close, they're similar with small differences really but to me the sd is more comfortable to use and runs smoother in terms of os
Thank you so much for the comparison between these two consoles. It gives us food for thought and which system to buy. I recently found out that KrakenSDR can be run on Steam Deck Console, but I hadn't considered that ASUS ROG Ally might also be able to offer a possible alternative option. I will check out if ROG Ally can run the software to support KrakenSDR so I can track signals through its system. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts and video. It is very much appreciated 👍
Both have advantages and disadvantages. It just depends on what you like playing. For me, I prefer the Steam Deck because 95% of my games are on steam and all games I want to play on it work great. I am not really a multiplayer fan and I don't have Game Pass so this is great for me.
I've owned a steamdeck since june of last year and was a little tempted to grab the ally, but I feel like the pick up and play nature of the deck is more appealing to me. Plus for handheld gaming I'd rather play lighter games like Vampire Survivors or Halls of Torment which runs perfectly on the deck.
If you have a steam deck the rog ally is not a decent enough upgrade to bother ngl! it's just for a person like me who doesn't own a handheld gaming device and wanting to chime in.
There was a rog ally demo at bestbuy where i could test the device just like an apple store. I was blown away…
Cause he's not looking at a z1 extreme. Can also get a mobile GPU and replace your desktop.
Pros: Full windows 11 desktop
Cons: Gotta use windows 11
Great video. Got a steam deck with windows dual boot. Was considering getting an oled for my son. Now I'm wondering if i should get an ally just to experience both.
I think one thing that is forgotten is that Steam Deck can have a dual-boot for windows (or you can just wipe steam OS). It might not be as streamlined as the Ally but for me, Deck takes the cake.
i had a dual boot hooked up to a 1tb ssd it caused so many issues until i just uninstalled it
As an owner of both I use the Ally. Steam deck is great and I got EA, gamepass, epic all working. However, I enjoy the power and screen on the Ally. I also like that I can play my entire library on the Ally. That said I am a savvy windows user so I don’t have a problem. The GPD Win4 was better for navigation having a tracking nub and keyboard. They also have a 7840u version but costs a lot more than the Ally.
I agree that the Windows environment is both what gives the ally it's versatility as well as what holds it back from being a truly enjoyable gaming experience. However, the gyrations involved in working with Windows is akin to the work you have to do on those little portable emulation handhelds from Amberic, Powkidde, and others to have a gaming session, or even on the Steam Deck when you want to get a game that isn't optimized for it. It comes down to picking your poison based on your use case.
On the Steam Deck, you download the executable (be it a launcher, installer or the game binary - doesn't even matter you just get an executable for Windows...), you add it as non-steam-app in desktop-mode, you switch back to its game-mode and hit play...
Works with any game from Blizzard like this... works with MTG Arena, actually everything I've tried so far... it's not complicated and you have to mess with desktop mode less than 5 minutes to do it.
I really don't get why people want to have the pain of running Windows if you could just skip that and play games. There are only very few games remaining you can't play on the Steam Deck and since launch this number is decreasing linearly.
Isn’t the steam deck ‘less poisonous’ than the rog ally? That’s why it’s great, it just works
@@thejackimonster9689ya but no EAC
You can get windows on the deck but you can't get steam OS on a Ally.
@@jeremywp123you can get steamos on ally, and windows on deck is horrible. And steamos on ally is probably not a better experience
Dude your ads are creative af and hilarious.
My husband just got an ally and I want to get one to play games with him, but I kindaaa want the steam deck more just because I use steam primarily annnnd I just love the little trackpads, it just feels so fun
I like the Ally for Game Pass games. I think the screen and audio blows the Deck out of the water. They're fantastic. And obviously the performance is better and you get the extra compatibility from having Windows. I think the Deck blows the Ally away in everything else. It's MUCH more comfortable, the sticks are far better, the trackpads make navigating the desktop much better/mouse games much more playable/add a ton of utility to control options, and the overall user experience is just far, far, far better. I also think the 1080p/120hz screen on the Ally is an absolute waste. The screen is beautiful for it's image quality but you're probably not playing many games at 1080p on it and definitely not at 120hz. I think they both have their uses but unless the games you want to play just don't work on the Deck it would be my go-to hands down. Besides the hardware/software Valve has been providing amazing post-launch support for the Deck and Asus is not there.
agreed the 120hz and 1080p is a gimmick beyond useless
@@OblivionPrime lmao i get 100 to 120 al the time what are you guys doing lmao
They could have save by making a 60hz 720p model.
I'm pretty sure you can use gamepass with the deck.
@@mikelreborn3254 you can play game pass cloud games but installable game pass apps only work on windows. Unless something new came out and I just don't know about it
I have to say that the Steam deck came out ahead for me personally mainly for initial price to entry and also for the support they offer after purchase in regards to replacement parts and aftermarket parts you can get now.
ASUS not supporting or offering parts or accessories for their products after launch does leave a bad taste.
(that being said if you don't have a desktop or laptop pc, The ally would serve dual purpose for you then that might be a better option for some)
I actually used the steam deck as my desktop for a couple of weeks.
It was surprisingly good, I always had UA-cam running on Brave Browser in background and it went quite smooth. Main issue I had is that it doesn't have the performance overlay to mess around with FSR/reduced shaders.
I played mostly WoW classic (1080p, 8/10 config with lower shadows and sun drafts, vsync off), mostly world/dungeons run at 100 fps (I capped at 100), big cities would get 40-50 fps.
I also played Halls of Torment, but I had to remove damage showing otherwise performance was terrible at the end of the level (didn't other optimizations).
I use the steam deck as my primary and my z fold 3 as an alternative desktop. I have a server that runs Windows that I can remote into if I need to. I think whatever your work flow lends to is what you should chose. I love the deck. Love it!
I have my Steam Deck dual booted with windows and it’s a perfect experience because I can use game pass on Windows 10 and I can have a more console-like UI on SteamOS.
Summary of the video: Instead of buying any of these consoles, just play GameBoy.
Great video review of the two units. You were so personable, that I liked and subscribed. I enjoy reviews from people who are fun to listen and watch when they are describing products!
Is there any chance you could do a review of playing DCS on the ROG ALLY (and if you are up to it, possibly a comparison on how the Steam Deck runs DCS)?
For those who don’t know what DCS is, the term means Digital Combat Simulator. You can fly all kinds of aircraft, and some in “high fidelity”. This means when you fly an F14 in high fidelity, you are in the plane going through all of the controls, switches, communicating with your back seat flyer and the tower/ground crew etc. It’s designed in those cases to be so accurate that you would be able to do it in real life if sitting in an actual cockpit. For many of the other models which are lower fidelity, it’s simpler to start up, taxi and fly up off of the runway. And the combat is epic. Just do a search for Growling Sidewinder on UA-cam, he has hundreds of really entertaining flight combat videos!
I watch all your videos simply for your ad reads. 😂 Thanks for making me laugh this early in the morning.
On topic, I do LOVE my steam deck, and thoroughly enjoyed decking it out (😉) in a skin, and protective casing/cover which it arguably doesn't need, but I love the end result. Only downside is it doesn't fit in the docking station the way it should but I work around it. I also spent some time figuring out how to get mods to work on it. If it's not through the steam workshop it's... not the most fun thing in the world and any time you want to make changes if you play the game on PC as well, you have to go through the WHOLE process again to set it up on steam deck plus make sure the mods match from PC/deck. I also noticed that sometimes a mod would work on PC fine and not the deck. If I ever do this again I'll connect a keyboard and mouse cause it was ROUGH. 😭 It was fun to see if I could though.
When the ROG Ally doesn't have some serious QC issues like every other handheld PC except for the steam deck, I'll consider it. Knowing ASUS however, I don't trust them.
To be fair the steam deck had endless problems it's first 6 months
One thing i like is Asus make the Ally for almost all markets but steam deck is only available in Western countries and Japan.
The steamdeck/steam community is what elevates the steam deck. I don't think many people care about tinkering with the backend of the system. they just want to play games.
On that commercial theres no number like Call 1-800. Nice video 🎉
New Steam Deck User here. Got mine in the Summer Sale and it was the best gaming purchase right after my good old GBA.
Don't forget about Cryoutilities 2.0+, it unlocks a lot more potential of the Steam Deck.
Yeah for some casual users, they won't even bother to install it, but the option is there if you want.
@@Jaxv3r it seems like a must-have based on the performance increases
@@Jokerwolf666 bro I don't even have cryoulities installed on my Deck
Can we get the best advertising compilations 😂
I got the steam deck on the summer sale in the UK! Sold out within a day!
I personally play Forza on my PC with my simulation set up 😄
😂 4:11 I see that one swear word slipped the wulff den censorship
EDIT: I got an ally because I lost my PC due to a watercooling leak. I never owned a steam deck to compare, but having a portable pc helped get by school assignments while gaming in bed. Can definitely overlook the fan noise since it's not a jet but the heat being vented out justifies the fan speed/noise
Sad the heat vent is next to the sd slot though. Wish they would've thought about this hardware fault. And now the ally is getting a class action lawsuit against it.
Wulf, the ally can support Holo ISO which is essentially SteamOS not made by Valve. That should handle SF6 MUCH better. It uses Linux and Proton.
I have it on my Ally and can confirm SF6 runs way better on this than the Deck
You are a very funny guy. I love your Soylent skit!!
That ad integration was nice
The Steamdeck is my go to. Because like you said. It is plug and play. I don't have to do much config to get what you want, and I agree. I really don't like linux, like at all. It's such a pain to navigate. My first month using the steamdeck was just figuring out how linux worked. 😅
But once I got emulationstation working on the steamdeck I just don't use desktop anymore and it's great! If I want to buy a game I just use my pc and then it just appears on the steamdeck and I can use them both hand in hand which is really nice. Also any emulated game I want to play just works too! The steamdeck is a computer after all. Although, if I was patient enough I should've waited for the ROG Ally because honestly I really do love windows even if it is janky on a handheld I'd rather suffer through that. But I am happy with the steamdeck overall it is great.
I got the Steam Deck well before we even knew the Ally existed, but if I was choosing from scratch again I'd be tempted to go for the Ally instead due to immediate access to so many more games. Now it's a question of do I make a dual boot system so I can use Windows on Steam Deck or just outright get the Ally as well for immediate access to more games, potentially a better laptop substitute, not replacement, and more power?
Dual Boots
I feel there is a short running advert series of your evil twin trying to cook your dog.
Next episode, a treat trial leading into the oven.
Hey man, good video. The only comment I would add about the steamdeck is you can load windows on it and there are a few pretty good tools out there that make that experience on windows fairly good and picks up a lot of the shortcomings when you do a dual boot.
Hey Bob, you should try to dual boot windows and steam os on the Steam deck. It’s much better now that it was a year ago, and it’s game changer.
I'm still waiting for them to release the cheaper Ally. Pretty sure its supposed to be $600 instead of $700. Considering if I got a Deck, I'd get the $400 version and drop $100~ish to get a faster 1TB drive for it, I feel like that would make the competition between the 2 closer for me. I'm sure the Ally will also have more updates and polish by then too (remember, the Deck had a ton of issues they polished out over its first few months).
It will all come down to weather or not the "cheap" Ally will have enough of a performance boost and versatility over the Deck to justify the extra $100.
That final fantasy 15 soundtrack at 2:00 do be HITTING
I have a GPD Win 4 and a Deck and feel pretty much the same, although I do edit videos and photos on the GPD. The Defk is my perfect emulator and indie game machine and the GPD is for one off games and actual work.
I just picked up the Ally (already have a SteamDeck) and the Ally is going to be more of a media center/arcade machine that I can use where as the steamdeck is going to be a straight up console. I love them both, but having the windows environment lets me tinker a lot with different things and gives me more than just a game console feel that the deck gives me
(yes I know you can do normal stuff on linux, no I don't want to learn how to do that as I have used Windows basically m entire tech life)
A complacent man you are... I dont wanna learn... my mom refused to learn the internet, email, facebook, and the world and her family passed her by.
I debated buying an Ally... but having a steam deck, decent spec pc, switch, series s and a strix g15 laptop seemed like it was probably too much already. I'm glad it exists for more competition in the "mainstream" handheld pc market though. Competition is good.
If these 2 conditions were met we Steam Deck is preferred any day ... 1> An Adapter to use regular full length SSD 4TB, 2> UFI supported bios so that we can install windows and Steam OS
Just modded a GBA SP and got a FlashCart for it, been playing that over my SteamDeck, PS5, gaming PC, etc. I agree with the "get a Gameboy" sentiment.
If I had to guess why some SD cards don't work with the Ally, it's probably because of how hot the Ally gets on its own. Some SD cards probably just can't handle those high of temps and give out. Just a guess though.
I think people are also buying crap generic cards too, that cheap Ali and Amazon crap ain’t gonna cut it. You need to pay a little more for better cards like Samsung or Sandisk, hell they hardly cost anything now. Data storage is at a all time low I think.
It's definitely a lot cheaper these days, for sure. I'm sitting on like 3 128GB Samsung EVO SD cards with nothing to use them in anymore. Lol
Ive only used the Steam Deck so far but I don't think I could go without the track pads, I dual boot windows and that nullifies the certain games not working on Steam Deck argument.
The track pads are the only clutch point for me. My roommate has a deck & they just feel great to use & I think it's a cool way to navigate the system, especially when you're typing.
Hey so right now the Ally is on sail on best buy's websight for $400. So put whatever sails best buy has into acount when picking. (Thats the same price as whatever the switch 2 is. I already own a switch so honestly might get one of these over the switch 2.)
Im hoping to spoil myself with a Asus Rog Ally for christmas so excited to see how this plays out
I was on business trip for two weeks. I was able to ditch my personal laptop at home and just brought Ally with me. I had a 15' portable monitor plus keyboard and mouse, the Ally provided me both entertainment and productivity as a PC which was great. My flight was delayed on my way back ,also Ally was there to keep me entertained for extra one hour at airport. I couldnt do that on a steam deck...
I have both systems and love both. The Ally is more for me when it comes to AAA games plus the graphical power behind it is a major plus. The ssd upgrade is very easy so I did that. My Steam Deck is mainly used for emulation now and Emudeck is free on Steam unlike Windows
What SSD did you do
As soon as they bring the steam deck pro out, I'm getting that! I want the same ecosystem and repairability, but with better screen etc
I hope you one day make a video about dual booting windows on the deck. It’s now easy to do with clover and it isn’t as bad as it used to be
I think the ROG look tries to sell itself. But I'm glad you mentioned that it feels like a Windows pc whereas the steam deck you can pick up and play. I get that windows is just plain difficult to create a console experience on, but Asus doesn't have me convinced it's worth trying their half baked console experience idea. I do feel like Valve really did an amazing job getting that console experience down. Maybe it's because Linux is easier to customize
After having both steam deck and the ally I can honestly say the ally is leagues better in my opinion. 1080p resolution and better hardware. I can easily play resident evil 2 at max setting with a buttey smooth 60fps. Steamdeck was just too restrictive. Especially when you want to get into modding games. The windows interface is just clearly better in my opinion. Battery life on both suck so that’s a non issue. Just plug it in it get a power bank
@@Someguy6571the windows interface is terrible, especially when used with a controller
@@raidev_ That I can agree with, but lets not be kidding ourselves... SteamDeck's Linux interface is complete trash as well and practically unusable unless you got a portable mouse and keyboard. And even then its terrible. Neither is any good.
@@Someguy6571 that is if you're really used to windows, i personally daily drive linux on my pc. I use gnome but KDE plasma (the desktop environment steam deck uses) is perfectly usable.
And also the steam deck is intended to be used primarily on the gaming mode which is very well optimized for the handheld controls
Bought both, but i use the Steamdeck more. The UI is far more plug and play
What type of games to you typically play on them?
You can boot automatically into the steam big picture mode in windows on the Ally just like on the deck
You're speaking from the perspective of having both. If it doesn't work on the Deck, you have the Ally to fall back on. For everyone else, if the game doesn't work due to EAC, you're just SoL. I still think the Ally is the safer bet.
I did this for the crackly sound in Chiaki on my Steam Deck and it worked: If you are getting choppy audio while using Chiaki for Windows, delete the file audio/qtaudio_windows.dll and lower the audio buffer to around 4000 (otherwise audio is very delayed).