ASUS ROG Ally vs the Steam Deck: Which handheld gaming PC is right for you?

[Music] right now we're in a sort of Renaissance for handheld gaming PCs this you see after bringing renewed attention to the category last year the steam deck is facing its toughest opposition yet in the Asus Rog Ally That's because in addition to a sleeker design asus's portable gaming machine features a number of fancy components including a higher res 120 hertz 1080p display some really Nifty Cooling and even a new chip from Andy designed specifically for handheld PCS all told it's one of the most compelling alternatives to the steam deck yet so instead of doing a normal Standalone review this time I want to do something a bit more face-offie because let's be honest the real question most people are asking is if you should get valves handheld or this newcomer from Asus foreign first things first let's talk about pricing at seven hundred dollars the Ally appears to be way more expensive than the steam deck which goes for as little as 400 or sometimes even less if you catch valve running a sale at the time of the recording a base team deck costs just 360 dollars which is 40 bucks off meanwhile the top end model is going for just 520 which is a big 130 discount from normal that said because that Ally comes with a 512 gig ssds standard it's not really fair to compare it to the 400 base steam deck which only has 64 gigs of onboard storage that means a better comparison is a fully loaded model which features the same amount of storage along with valve's upgraded anti-glare Edge screen which is the version I used for all of my comparisons so even when compared to the most expensive 650 config you know the normal pricing for the steam Deck The Ally still costs about 50 more which means for people on a budget valve's machine is the better value oh and one more thing to consider is that unlike the steam Deck The Ally doesn't come in the case Aces charges an extra forty dollars for that and after lugging this thing around for the past few weeks I can definitely say you're going to want some form of protection to prevent the screen from getting scratched or from putting too much pressure on the joysticks when you toss it in a bag so that's another small Advantage the steam deck has when it comes to pricing now let's take a look at the Allies design which has some notable departures from the steam deck measuring 11 inches wide and weighing 1.34 pounds at least on paper the Ally appears to be very similar in size to the steam deck but those figures don't fully encapsulate how much smaller the Rog really is at 0.83 inches the Ally is half as thick as the steam deck you also only get two buttons around back while in front Asus doesn't include those little touch pads like you get on valve's machine which may be a bit of a downer for anyone hoping to play traditional mouse and keyboard games that leaves you with a very familiar Xbox style layout with two joysticks a standard assortment of face buttons and shoulder triggers along with some extra cuts for quick settings and Asus Armory crate app there's also a handy fingerprint sensor built into the power button a volume rocker and a single USBC Port which you can use on its own for data and charging but also for hooking up Asus XG Mobile Dock and just like the steam Deck The Ally has a Micro SD card slot for expandable storage which is very appreciated overall it's a very functional setup all the controls are easy to reach and I haven't had any issues with buttons getting stuck like I've heard about from some other users I also appreciate how the Allies smaller bezels make the device feel more compact even if it's 7-inch display is the same size as the steam Decks that said the one thing I do miss are bigger grips in back because while I know Asus was going for something Slimmer holding the Ally just doesn't feel quite as secure or comfortable speaking of the display the Ally screen is one of its best features not only is it 120 hertz panel its 1080p resolution is also sharper than the steam decks 800p on top of that the Ally is way more colorful and a touch brighter at around 475 nits versus closer to 400 nits for the steam deck when viewed side by side there's no competition the Ally screen pops with Rich Hues and sharper details which really helps when you're trying to read small tool tips on a tiny screen now without getting into a big debate about how much resolution you really need on a portable PC the steam ducks low-res and more washed out looking display has been one of my biggest complaints while the system since launched so I'm really happy to see the panel Asus picked out for the Ally even if you can't always take advantage of its 120hz refresh rate in more demanding games however when it comes to picking a winner that's a bit tougher the Allies Slimmer dimensions are great for frequent Travelers and I think anybody can appreciate a nicer screen on the other hand while the Allies buttons and joysticks feel a tiny bit tighter they aren't meaningfully more responsive and again you only have a pair of rear buttons and no touch pads so for this category we're looking at more of a tie as for performance the Ally has a significant leg up over the steam deck as the sports amd's new Z1 extreme Apu and 16 gigs of RAM I should also mention that there will be a cheaper version of the Ally with a non-xtreme version of the Z1 chip due out sometime later this year but obviously that's not available yet unfortunately out of the gate the Allies performance was really kind of underwhelming that is until Asus released an updated set of drivers and firmware a couple weeks after launch originally with both the Ally and the steam deck set to 15 watts frame rates and games were very very similar and Shout out the Tomb Raider at 720p and high settings the Ally averaged 43 FPS while the steam deck hit 42 FPS so basically neck and neck it was nearly an identical situation in cyberpunk 2077 where both systems hit 44 FPS at 720p on medium frankly that's not very impressive for a fancy new silicon and it's really far off some of the claims Aces made about the Ally pre-launch but then I updated the system which by the way took more than a couple install and restart cycles and that's when the Ally really started to distinguish itself with the Ally fully patched frame rates jumped up by 15 to 25 percent and the Ally started to hit 54 FPS in Shadow of the Tomb Raider and 50 FPS in cyberpunk 2077 at the same settings that's a noticeable difference but it gets even better because while the steam that talks out at 15 watts the Ally also has a turbo mode that boosts total power drop to 25 watts or 30 Watts if you're plugged in so with the 25 watt turbo mode activated I was able to get 60 FPS in Tomb Raider and 67 FPS in cyberpunk which is pretty impressive for a handheld PC so even though the Ally doesn't even come close to offering double the performance of the steam deck like Asus initially boasted for people who want big performance in a portable device the Ally is the easy pick of course with all that oomph comes diminished endurance in general I found that the Ally typically only lasts about an hour and a half to two hours on a charge you know depending on the title meanwhile the steam deck often gives you two and a half to four hours or even longer for a less demanding fare but to really put that into perspective I play Diablo 4 on both machines at medium settings starting at 100 and I didn't stop until they died the Ally conked out at 1 hour and 31 minutes it's compared to two hours and seven minutes for the steam deck and let's not forget Diablo 4 doesn't have native Linux support so the steam deck runs it in an emulation layer which uses some extra power in short if you really care about getting the longest lasting handheld PC the steam deck is it as for audio the Ally has some rather Punchy front firing stereo speakers which sound a lot better than what you typically get on a similarly priced laptop but to me the more impressive thing is what you don't hear fans blaring in the background I'm not entirely sure what kind of voodoo Asus did to the Allies internals but it's surprisingly quiet it barely registers above a whisper even while running benchmarks and when compared to the whiny word that's almost always coming out of my steam deck the Ally is definitely the more family-friendly device I can game on it while watching TV with my wife without her needing to turn up the volume or Worse take it from me and that's a small but important way to maintain a happy home the last major difference between the Ally and the steam deck is their software instead of going with something like valve's Linux based Steam OS Asus went with Windows 11. the idea was to ensure that the system works with all of the major game stores like steam Battle.net epic and more which it does on top of that Asus tweaked its Armory crate app to serve as a game launcher while also being the place where you can adjust various settings like the Allies RGB lighting one tap on the right button lets you see all your installed titles at a glance while a tap on Aces other button on the left brings up a menu for Quick Settings like operating modes game profiles Etc both of which are really handy the small issue is that when you're not using Armory crate Windows 11 still feels clunky Microsoft's OS simply isn't designed for smaller devices without keyboards that often have to rely on touch controls yes there's a dedicated desktop mode toggle that lets you use the right joystick to move your mouse and the right shoulder buttons to click but that sort of feels more like a Band-Aid than a solution to having a purpose-built gaming UI you know more like Steam OS but more importantly even though the Ally can run basically every Windows game ever made the experience isn't always super smooth for example when I tried to play Street Fighter 6 the game booted up in windowed mode and cut off the bottom of the UI so I couldn't see the navigation menu and even after I sorted that out the game still ran poorly at its default settings I was getting just 20 FPS which made the game Run Like a slideshow so then I had to spend the next 10 minutes fiddling with the graphic settings meanwhile on the steam deck I got a consistent 60fps from the jump which was kind of a surprise since I was not expecting a game that has only been out for about a month to be this well optimized on Linux there's a flip side to all this though because while you can install games like Diablo 4 on the steam deck even though they aren't available on Steam and they aren't steam deck verified it can be a real chore to get them up and running you have to install the Battle.net launcher manually change the steam desk compatibility mode and then add that as a non-steam game and then you kind of have to do it all over again because you have to install Diablo 4 itself change that compatibility mode and then manually add that to steam decks Library too and that's skipping a lot of the more complicated steps in between now there are a ton of online how to's to guide you through the process but if this is your first time trying this process on Linux you're looking at a 10 to 15 minute procedure at best there's no just sitting down and hitting play in contrast getting D4 to run on the Ally was a breeze and even though the game runs relatively well on both systems there were a few more hitches installers on asus's machine overall steamos is generally easier to use unless you run into a game that isn't deck verified or just doesn't run on Linux at all which is where the Ally has an advantage but is that enough to hand the wind to Asus I'm not so sure which leaves this category in sort of a draw as well so let's tally everything up after getting a chance to test both devices side by side I've got a few takeaways the first is that I'm even more impressed with the steam deck than I was at launch over the past year and change valve has put a ton of work into polishing and optimizing it I don't think any Gadget in recent memory has gotten as many updates as this thing and now that there are over 10 000 steam deck verified games it's Library ain't shabby either we're at the point where you can play new AAA titles like Street Fighter 6 on day one while other games like cyberpunk 2077 are getting custom graphic settings specifically for the deck so you don't need to spend a ton of time tweaking performance but more importantly starting at just 400 the steam deck is the easy pick if you're on a budget as for the Rog Ally simply calling it a more powerful steam deck doesn't feel quite right thanks to its Z1 extreme chip it definitely has an edge and performance but for all that speed there's a trade-off in battery life even with both systems running at 15 watts the steam deck lasted long longer every time which means the Ally isn't always the best companion on longer trips you also don't get built-in touch pads or as many of your paddles and while you can run basically any game ever made on it Windows 11 just isn't as well optimized for systems like this as Steam OS valve has a big Advantage here thanks to being in charge of both software and Hardware design for its device however while I like and appreciate the steam deck the Rog alley is gorgeous screen and super quiet fans would always have me kind of looking over my shoulder like that distracted boyfriend meme okay so which one should you get well to answer that you really need to figure out what kind of gamer you are thanks to Steam OS I'd argued that the steam deck offers a simpler more console-like experience you know just so long as your games have been verified to play nicely on valve software the same deck's touchpads also help out in titles that were originally designed for mouse and keyboard so it's really important for you to have an idea of what you want to use these things for meanwhile if you're more of an Enthusiast who likes to tinkerable settings and will appreciate higher frame rates and the sharper display the Ally might be the machine for you it's also the more portable of the two so if you really care about packing light that might be the deciding factor also if you are even thinking about trying to use one of these things as a portable desktop you know by plugging it into a monitor Asus XG mobile dot gives you an easy way to add more performance because of its built-in GPU along with a range of connectivity options but with prices for those starting at above a thousand dollars that'll cost you the other big unknown is how well Aces is going to support the Ally because as we've seen with the steam deck without regular updates good Hardware can only take you so far but regardless of which one you pick there's a lot to like about the latest generation of handheld gaming PCs and I hope this is only the beginning of a long line of compelling devices but tell me what you think is the steam deck more your speed or do you want something with a bit more horsepower like the Rog Ally let me know in the comments down below and as always stay tuned to engage it from more news reviews and hands-ons

Channel: Engadget

Views: 366,608

Keywords: engadget, technology, consumer tech, gadgets, science, gear, tech, Steam Deck, Steamdeck, ASUS Ally, ASUS handheld, handheld gaming pc, valve steam deck, valve steamdeck, steamdeckreview, Asus Ally Review, ASUS ROG Ally, ASUS ROG, ASUS gaming, ASUS, Rog ally, steam deck, comparison, handheld, review, valve

Id: ZCelICP6f5E

Length: 14min 14sec (854 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 13 2023