This handheld machine is equipped with the 4nm processor AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme, which is specially designed for handheld machines . This handheld machine uses a 7-inch FHD 120Hz display. This handheld machine can even be plugged into the ROG XG Mobile and directly connected to the GeForce RTX 4090. Laptop may be more powerful than many people's desktop computers. That's right, it's ROG Ally . In this episode, we want to talk about ten things you should know about ROG Ally in detail. What are the advantages and disadvantages after long-term experience? Let's make it clear at once. Hi, welcome back. I'm Donkey . ROG Ally has been launched for a while, and our ROG Ally review has been delayed for a while. For no other reason than we really spent a lot of time testing the actual experience of ROG Ally and we I also got the XG Mobile equipped with GeForce RTX 4090, turning this small e-sports handheld machine into a performance cannon. But I believe everyone has seen how powerful the ROG Ally is, so in this episode we will talk about it. Ten long-term experience behind this super performance, advantages and disadvantages. In addition, we will also slightly compare the differences in the experience of the Steam Deck we have unboxed before. Ready for us to start. At the beginning of the program, we will directly solve the problem first. The main point is to talk about ROG Ally . The first question everyone must have is how is the experience different from Steam Deck? After sorting out the answers, I think there are three major differences. First, ROG’s hardware is obviously very social. Second, AMD’s Ryzen Z1 Extreme is very efficient. There is no doubt that it is stronger. Third, using a good screen on a handheld console is definitely the right direction . So whether it is using OLED or a good LCD, I support it with both hands. So the system is not bad. I think the biggest difference will be Steam. OS vs Windows battle, hey, hey, I have to be honest. In our current experience, there is really not much difference between the two camps. Except for the game library, but in terms of pure experience, I think there is still a lot of difference. The space can be further optimized. After all, everyone is the first generation. Just talking about the simplest problem of keyboard input method, both companies still have room for improvement. For example , the Steam Deck keyboard is used for input. Sometimes it will automatically pop up only in certain scenes. Instead , press Steam + Pop-ups are very anti-human , but the experience is actually much better on ROG Ally . At least in most cases the keyboard will pop up automatically. If it doesn't , you can call the keyboard through the shortcut menu on the left , but this is only the first step in Windows. The built-in keyboard is often used for touch typing. For example, when typing on a mobile phone, no matter where you type, you can see the input box and adjust the text. However, in the Windows interface, the position of the input box is often fixed. In this case, the input box is directly If you are blocked by the keyboard, you will want to say Oh! Where did I just hit and what did I hit ? But if I compare the difference, believe me , neither ROG nor Steam Deck will be the worst two. In terms of software, at least the experience is the best among the PC handheld consoles we have used. Very good. Two units. The second important point is why you say that ROG Ally is a socialized handheld computer? First of all, from the hardware point of view, ROG, which has rich experience in making laptops, can be said to be very good in the choice of materials. The meat may not be the best separately, but the overall quality is very balanced , and the materials used are also obviously socialized. For example, the power button cannot just add a fingerprint recognition and unlock when pressed . This is enough to be fragrant and requires card reading. The machine can't just be a card reader . It has to be a UHS-II high-speed card reader. It's fragrant enough . It needs a Type C hole. It can't just be a Type C hole. It must have a slot for ROG XG Mobile . No matter whether I can afford RTX 4090 or not . You have to give it to me first before I can consider whether to buy it. Then the back cover of the black and white sci-fi style machine must be easy to disassemble. The back cover can be easily opened by removing six screws so that players can clean the dust. It would be more convenient to switch to a large-capacity SSD . Or maybe it’s a game. Since we are talking about games, we must get a 120Hz high refresh rate screen. It doesn’t matter whether the game runs or not. When I browse the web, it will be smoother. But seriously. ROG Ally supports Freesync Premium , so this 120Hz is not just a simple 120Hz . Or when it comes to gaming, how can gaming eliminate two partitions of RGB that are bright enough to guide light evenly? RGB is placed directly on the front to directly double your spiritual performance . From the materials used Come to see ROG, it really understands what players want. The third important point is whether there are any precautions for use. I also helped you sort out the first SSD. Can you replace it yourself? According to ROG's official answer , just like laptops, you can replace it yourself. And it will not break the warranty , but if you accidentally break other parts when disassembling, then this pot of ROG will definitely not be carried, so remember to switch off the battery when replacing the SSD or doing maintenance. The power must be cut off , or you can go directly to the company and ask an engineer to help you install the second MicroSD. The problem of direct hot air blowing is that ROG has made adjustments in the new version of the BIOS. Remember to update it. In addition, after the update, you can also quickly use Armory Crate directly. Adjust the size of VRAM with Auto 1 - 8G (4G, 8G). You can quickly switch it and it will take effect after restarting . The first thing you should do after buying it is to update the BIOS. The overall situation will be much more stable, quiet and calm, and you can also avoid the problem of MicroSD overheating as much as possible. Physically speaking, this version of the BIOS is much better than the first version. The fourth important point is the VRAM size just mentioned. Is there any suggestion on which gear to choose? We have also measured the difference between the three gears in CS:GO, which has relatively ordinary VRAM requirements. It’s not that big at 4GB, the highest is 8GB, the second is Auto , and the lowest is the Cyberpunk 2077 that consumes a lot of VRAM. The frame rate of the 8GB gear will be slightly higher than that of 4GB. The lowest is the Auto gear. There is a gap of nearly 10 frames under FSR. It is recommended to choose between 4GB or 8GB according to the VRAM and RAM requirements of each game. You can also add In the new version of BIOS, you can clearly feel that ROG Ally is calmer than the original quiet one. The new version of BIOS is also less likely to have the problem of heating up to the handle. Although it may be related to the cooler weather , ROG should be more optimized. The fifth focus of heat dissipation and energy consumption scheduling is how the screen performance of ROG Ally is this time. For a handheld machine, improving screen performance is definitely a good direction. This is also where I most intuitively feel the difference when switching from Steam Deck to ROG Ally. ROG Ally uses a 7-inch FHD 120Hz display with a response time of 7ms . The special thing is that it supports FreeSync Premium, which can slow down the tearing problem in corresponding games. The screen is also socialized. The glass of ROG Ally is made of Corning. The DXC solution means that this is a piece of glass with anti-reflective treatment. I grabbed a tablet here for comparison, and I can clearly see that ROG Ally is less reflective and has lower brightness. The glass also uses the top-notch Corning Victus glass for display. In terms of effect, I won’t waste everyone’s time and go directly to the actual measurement results. After actual testing by the Bonnie team, in the default mode, the ROG Ally screen can reach 94% of sRGB, 72% of Adobe RGB , and 72% of DCI-P3, which is obviously better than the Steam Deck. 73% of the sRGB color gamut covers the last circle of CCT. It reaches around 8000K. It chooses a style that pleases the eyeballs, so it slightly sacrifices the color accuracy. Delta E reaches 9.8 , but the performance in the screen brightness part is very good. Manual maximum brightness can be used. Breaking through 520 nits, it is quite capable in relatively bright environments. It is worth mentioning that ROG Ally also has built-in ROG's signature GameVisual various display modes. You can directly create independent settings for each game in the game library menu of Amoury Crate. The file is very simple . Select the game you want to adjust and press Select Extreme Speed to turn on the full performance of GameVisual. Here is the display mode. You can choose the competition mode RTS/RPG or shooting game and choose FPS. etc. The sixth point is that I heard that the performance of ROG Ally is very strong . How powerful is it ? Have you been bragging about it? Before we talk about performance, let’s disassemble the machine. This time, ROG Ally is equipped with the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme GPU, which is designed for handheld machines. It uses the RDNA 3 architecture 12CU internal display and is matched with TSMC The most important thing about the 4nm process is that AMD has optimized the performance of Ryzen Z1 Extreme for handheld machines , making this processor more suitable for the positioning and characteristics of handheld machines. The m.2 SSD used here is the 2230 specification . Take advantage of it now The breaking price of SSD is 2230. There are also many cheap options appearing one after another. In addition, ROG Ally also comes with two luxurious fans. It is quite quiet in terms of experience, but I don’t think the temperature is too cold, so I directly measured 3DMark Time Spy 20 rounds of pressure. The test stability reached 97.8%. The whole CPU temperature dropped to an average of around 78 degrees. The highest temperature on the front was 37.2 degrees at the left air vent. The highest temperature on the back was 39.3 degrees at the right air vent . However, the handheld position was controlled at around 30 degrees, so the handheld The long-lasting feeling is good. The main heat will be concentrated in the air vents and rely on the screen to dissipate heat. The back cover maintains a cool state. At this time, the fan is not too noisy, about 43db. Come back and continue to look at the lower row of heat sinks. The TDP of the 16GB memory chip ROG Ally is designed between 9 and 30W . Through Armory Crate, you can set the silent 10W performance to 15W and the high-speed 25W. It can be released to 30W after plugging in . In the new version of BIOS, the judgment of the charger currently used has also been relaxed. Ordinary GaN chargers of 65W can also trigger those three modes. How to choose? For most classic 3A, my experience can probably be expressed in a jingle. So basically, at least the performance level is up, and the silent mode is selected to compete with each other. The situation of electronic containment will really reach the point where the movie-level frame rate is unplayable in vernacular. I also directly show Cyberpunk 2077 FHD with medium quality and mute. This is about the feeling. The average performance is 15FPS and it is very playable from the beginning. The average is 30 or more 40 pictures. The fan is also very quiet , and the top speed can reach a stable level of about 40 frames, but the fan starts to make noise. Everyone should have seen the running scores of ROG Ally, although we have tested them all , so instead of spending time looking at the running scores here Let’s go straight to the form. If you are interested, you can pause and watch. I can’t help but briefly talk about it. Let’s take a look at the CPU ROG Ally first. The single-core score is 1790 points. The multi-core score is 14192 points . What is the performance level of this? The single-core is about 12th. The Intel Core i7-12700H multi-core is even 11% better than the previous generation. Although this is the peak performance, the performance of this performance is really awesome when put into a handheld machine. The 3DMark Time Spy score is 3162 points. This performance is about the same as the laptop version. GTX 1060 or GTX 1650 Ti is also here to put the 3050 performance of the RTX generation for everyone's reference. Anyway, it is the best choice for high performance in handheld consoles. In fact, the only important point is this seventh point. Don't you have RTX 4090? Hurry up and connect it . If you still feel that it is not enough, ROG Ally also has an XG Mobile interface. Now we will plug in the XG Mobile of the RTX 4090 and lock the buckle. The system will automatically pop up a connection prompt . Click the connection to complete . Come on. Tested 3DMark Time Spy and scored 16904 points That is to say, it is directly 5.3 times higher than the original one. So this 5.3 times theoretical performance sounds very strong, but it is not unfeeling. When we compare it with several games, it becomes clear. For example, when we tested CS: GO, before plugging it in, the FHD image quality was about The average 160FPS is actually enough for playing. After plugging it in, it directly breaks through the average 406FPS. Or maybe Forza 5 selects FHD and ultra-high quality and turns on FSR before plugging it in . It only has an average of 40FPS. But with the blessing of RTX 4090, the measured frame number has increased by five. Times DLSS breaks through the average of 200FPS. It is not a dream to test another God of War ROG Ally . The average 32FPS in FHD high image quality plus the power of RTX 4090 is close to five times DLSS. The average performance reaches 140FPS. Finally, test Cyberpunk 2077. Well, FHD medium image quality is inserted . Going forward, the FSR averaged 50FPS. After plugging it in and turning on DLSS, it quadrupled to an average of 205FPS. This is not only the power of the RTX 4090, but also the power of the wallet. After all, the XG Mobile of the RTX 4090 is really not cheap. Wait, we will also test 4K in detail . I just want you to experience it first , but if you really have a small size and high performance , or you want to have a handheld console that you can take out and play on the bed , but you can also transform into a wild beast in front of the table. Mode , XG Mobile is the devil fruit . The eighth focus is not just how strong the performance is. I think another important point that should be paid attention to in handheld consoles should be the battery life. If the whole machine is fully loaded, that is, the performance demand is greater than the mode limit. In the third gear mode, the silence can last up to three and a half hours. The maximum performance can be about one and a half hours. The top speed is about a little more than an hour. So let’s think about the thinking mentioned above. The silence will be too stuck and the top speed will be too fast, so the natural performance setting is Bit is the most balanced choice , but I think the biggest pain point of current PC handheld consoles is battery life. It is an existence that absolutely needs to be equipped with a power bank when outside. However, in the past year or two, the energy consumption ratio has evolved rapidly. Then we took apart the ROG Ally. Seeing that there is still some space here, I can continue to plug in the battery. I think the battery life of the handheld device should still have some room for improvement. Please continue to work hard , so my habit is to adjust the image quality to the performance level to achieve stable frame. On a handheld computer, I think a stable 40FPS for an RPG simulation business is acceptable. Of course, if you ask for it , it can only be a stable 50FPS at most. I think this is the limit for most 3A games. I will also list a few games here if they are in terms of performance. The setting should be stable at 40FPS. What is the highest image quality that can be opened ? CS: GO FHD is absolutely fine, although relatively few people will want to play FPS games on handhelds. Forza 5 can probably be opened to medium image quality such as God of War 4 and Ghost. Both Tokyo Online and Cyberpunk 2077 can only run an average of 40fps at low image quality. I also tested the PCMark battery life test. The battery life test can reach 7 hours and 41 minutes. The actual test is 200 nits. One hour of continuous playback of YouTube videos at 200 nits causes about 15% power loss. The ninth key point: How is ROG Ally as a handheld computer in terms of appearance design? In terms of appearance, ROG Ally chooses black and white as the main visual. The entire sci-fi feel is very strong. The body size is moderate at 600 grams and the weight is a little lighter than the Steam Deck . It's slightly lighter than an iPad Pro 12.9-inch. I would never say it's light, but the body is well-weighted and feels pretty good in the hand. The operation uses an asymmetrical button design. Users in the Xbox camp should be able to use the whole machine soon. I think the buttons are all average (but the cross keys are a bit dull) (LR's feedback is lighter and crisper than the Steam Deck's) (but the XY buttons are activated quickly) (occasionally there is some offset and occasionally some stickiness, but It will also be triggered, so it will not affect it) (There are two buttons on the back) (The feedback is also a crisp short key type) (The four shortcut keys are crisp and clear enough to avoid accidental touches) But in terms of extremes, I think the delicateness of the operation is also In the future, everyone can work hard. The one on the lower left can call the control center to adjust the brightness, volume, performance mode , control mode and AMD, RSR. You can quickly switch here. You can also open the real-time performance panel. Here you can see the CPU, GPU usage and Frequency, APU power consumption, wattage and current FPS. You can also call up the keyboard and start the FPS limiter. This is very good. You can limit it to a more stable frame number and the experience will be better than going up and down. But for me It is recommended that ROG can add a more balanced option of 40FPS in the future. You can also quickly adjust the screen resolution update rate, etc. In addition, long press this button to enter the familiar interface. You all know it. The one on the right is Armory Crate SE. It is a version customized for handheld consoles. However, compared to the Steam Deck, you may have noticed that ROG did not choose to add a touchpad to the body, so the size is reduced , but there is no easy-to-use quick input or Windows indicators. This kind of operation, after all, ROG Ally is a native Windows handheld machine, so in fact, the touch operation in desktop mode is passable, and it is much easier to use than installing Windows on Steam Deck. In addition, starting from Windows 11, I think the touch operation of Windows is about It is between being easy to use and usable, and has reached the stage where it is no longer difficult to use. Soon we come to the last tenth point. Who is ROG Ally suitable for ? Is it still worth buying now? One thing needs to be clarified first , which is that it is related to e-sports. Compared with handheld computers, the experience of laptops is full of compromises. You have to compare it with desktop laptops. But why are handheld computers so attractive? Because handheld computers are so pure. You can easily experience the game after opening it. Wherever you want to sit and play, you can lie on the sofa, lie on the bed, or even sit in the car and enjoy your personal time. You can play anytime and anywhere. This is something that even the most powerful desktop computers or laptops will never be able to achieve. He just enjoys his personal time purely. The second thing I think is the price of the handheld device. You can play FHD masterpieces for more than 20,000 yuan, and the screen and speakers are not bad. The experience is still very good. After the last episode of the Steam Deck video was released, we saw many people sharing their background and experience as if they did not have a gaming desk. I see that many users of macOS also say that they can play 3A on their handheld computers. Compared with laptops or desktop computers, they don’t need a desk. The space can be used on the bed or sofa. You can take it out for fun or even occasionally need to make reports on ROG Ally. Even if the CPU is very strong , you occasionally need to do some work that requires CPU computing power or edit pictures and open Photoshop. It’s completely sufficient. You can connect it to a TV screen and turn it into a Windows PC directly . But do you think ROG Ally doesn’t have any shortcomings? It’s only the first generation. How could it not be there? We have two main expectations for it , but it’s not so much our expectations for ROG Ally. Rather, it is the first expectation for the entire handheld console market . I think the urgent problem that handheld consoles need to solve is battery life. I think the next goal is 3A, which can stabilize 40FPS in FHD quality and have three hours of battery life. That would be perfect. I know it will be difficult to achieve the state in the short term , but there is always a chance. Secondly , I think the Armory Crate SE integration is already in a very usable state , and compared to the previous Armory Crate, it is at least quite stable under the current version , but I believe it. Everyone must have various shortcut function details settings that want to knock the bowl, etc. After all, this is the first generation product. I think if ROG really wants to capture the hearts of players, it must now collect more user feedback about Armory Crate. Because it has the same concept as SteamOS, everyone can make a Windows handheld console , but it is not easy to make a Windows handheld console with a good experience. The first generation is definitely the time when people have the most opinions. We need to grasp everyone's sincere feedback as soon as possible. Now that Armory Crate SE is launched If you have a good idea and do it carefully, this will be a watershed in the handheld experience. It may also be a moat for ROG. By the way, I think all handhelds and even Windows tablets have the same problem , such as the keyboard automatically popping up. Improve input efficiency, etc. I think if it is solved , not only handheld computers but also Windows tablets will be better to use. Overall, we feel that the novelty of the handheld market will definitely pass. Any successful technology product cannot rely solely on novelty to succeed, right? In fact, it is still possible. There are many imaginable ways to play, such as built-in physical keyboards, detachable handles , better screens, OLED screens, high screen-to-body ratio screens, etc. This is still a time when you can play handheld games happily and whimsically . I hope everyone can continue to bring them. Come to cool things. If Steam Deck has helped bring PC handheld consoles into the public eye, then ROG Ally has given a shot in the arm to the entire handheld console market. I have begun to look forward to what the next generation of handheld consoles will look like. Let handheld consoles Playing 3A with high performance and ease is really getting more and more fun. At the end of the show, we will share the external exposure test and the frame rate performance of each game we have tested for your reference. It also took several days to complete the test . Please support me. You are also welcome to sponsor us by joining the channel membership or using YouTube's super thank you button to complete more reference value actual test programs. I hope you all enjoy watching it. If you have any questions or things that the Bonnie team has not mentioned, please leave a message below to discuss. I'm a donkey, so we'll see you next time. At the end of the day, let's listen to the external performance. Here we also directly compare Switch and Steam Deck.
