Steam Deck OLED vs ROG Ally

if you've been thinking about getting a PC handheld and you were debating between the Steam deck and the RG Ally well the steam deck OLED just made things a lot more [Music] interesting a portion of today's video is sponsored by nordvpn make sure to use the link down below to get four free months when you sign up for a 2-year plan the PC handheld Market has been steadily growing and two of the main leaders that a lot of people have looked at are valve Steam deck and asus's Rog Ally offering some very different strengths depending on what you're into now in previous videos where I have talked about the original version of the steam deck versus the RG Ali the very simple distilled version of my comparison between them really came down to the steam deck offering a lower barrier of Entry price-wise as well as being a much more userfriendly experience right out of the box and something that is a little more direct in terms of just being a more traditional gaming handheld while the Rog Ally is offering something with greater performance power as well as a considerably larger Library thanks to being a Windows device rather than using its own custom OS in exchange for a little bit more wonkiness and awkwardness because of the fact that Windows 11 isn't really made for a handheld while some of this still holds true with the steam deol I think things are a little bit more interesting now due to a number of different upgrades that the steam Tech OLED offers over its original model uh chief of which is of course that change in display but there's some other things worth talking about as well so with all that in mind let's talk about steam deck OLED versus the extreme model of the Rog Ally uh to begin with price wise the RG still ends up being the slightly more expensive option of the two at least when it comes to MSRP steam deck oleds come in a 550 and $650 price option the key difference being the 650 option gives you more storage at 1 tbte while also offering an anti-glare screen and a slightly fancier carrying case whereas the rogg Ally is coming in at least MSRP wise $700 although it has gone on sale a few times since release now the key reason why the rli is a more expensive device out the gate is because it is more powerful it does offer a stronger chip set than the steam deck does enabling it to run more demanding games with better frame rates or greater Fidelity depending on your preference aside from the chipset there are some other aspects of just how the RG is designed that does give it an edge performance- wise over the steam deck including the fact that it's display while not OLED like the steam deck OLED is at a higher resolution of 1080p as well as having a higher refresh rate the steam deck OLED has seen an increase here going from 60 HZ to 90 HZ but the RG Al still has that beat out with a 120 HZ refresh rate this means that for those games that are less generally demanding while both the steam de OLED and RG Ali might be capable of running them if you can get those games to hit up to 120 frames per second you're going to get a smoother higher frame rate on the Rog Ali at least in handheld mode than you can with the steam deck topping that off you're also going to get a Sharper Image thanks to the fact that while they offer similar screen sizes 7 in on the rli and 7.4 on the steam deck OLED you're going to have a Sharper Image thanks to that higher resolution though personally in my experience I found that with the screen size only being 7 in while 108 P does result in a Sharper Image generally I've had a better experience still dropping it down to 720p and instead Focus that extra power on getting the frame rate up as well as maybe turning on some visual effects that you wouldn't be able to enable at that higher resolution another point of comparison I want to touch on for the two again also is the concept of the OS that they're each running with the steam deck running its own custom OS based on Linux whereas the rli is running Windows 11 as I said at the top end of this video generally speaking one of the advantages of the steam deck using its own custom OS is that it is one that I find to be a lot more user friendly right out of the box it is more limiting in a number of ways because of the fact that you are technically at least out of the box only able to run your actual steam library and even then there are some games that are locked off because they don't play well with the steamex OS maybe because of things like anti-che that's why the multiplayer library on it is cut off quite a bit and there are ways to make some of these games work on the steam deck outside of just simply installing Windows but it's going to take a little bit of work whereas the Rog Ally running Windows 11 out of the box you're going to have some wonky moments here and there because Windows 11 wasn't really meant to be made for a handheld and I do still have this kind of ongoing question my head of whether or not Microsoft is at this point considering launching a game version of Windows 11 to support all these PC handhelds that are starting to come out personally I think that would be a great idea uh to fit these machines better but as it stands you're running just regular old windows 11 which gets a little weird sometimes the advantage of that though is you're running Windows 11 and therefore everything that runs on it is going to run on the Rog allies you're not only having access to your full steam library but you're opening up other services as well whether that's being able to run Battlenet being able to run Xbox and taking advantage of Xbox game pass epic game store for things like fortnite there are just a large number of games that you can't technically run on the steam deck at least out of the box that you can on the Rog Ally being a Windows device also means that it's really easy to run not only games but a bunch of other useful apps on it for instance a VPN like from today's sponsor nordvpn privacy and security are some really important things to maintain on the internet and one of the best tools to be able to help keep those things safe is a VPN at home it's important as a way to help protect your privacy while browsing the internet but especially if we're ever using devices out in public and taking advantage of public Wi-Fi whether that's on your phone MacBook even the Rog Ally nordvpn supplies some great Peace of Mind by making sure that all your data stays protected while you're on these more open networks along with their VPN there are a number of other services that Nord offers that you can pick up at the same time for instance Nord pass which gives you a secure way to manage your passwords cuz you never want to use an easy to remember one across all your account that is the worst idea possible as well as Nord Locker that offers a terabyte of cloud storage that is safely encrypted now as part of a special going on right now I do have my own link that is nordvpn.com Kevin kenson and if you use that link you're going to get four free months on top of signing up for a 2-year plan of which in the first place only costs at minimum three bucks a month to get BAS basically cheaper than buying a single cup of coffee once a month even cheaper than actually if you buy por offs like I do topping off all this piece of Mind nordvpn does also offer a 30-day money back guarantee so if you start using it and for whatever reason you change your mind you just don't want to throw the money down right now or it just isn't for you well you've got 30 days to change your mind and get that money back no problem so don't forget if you want to have a little more peace of mind use that link down below and sign up today but where things get interesting with the steam deck OLED is the fact that well yes it is still a lower resolution display as well as being a lower refresh rate it is closer refresh rate wise than the original one was going to 90 from the previous 60 HZ on the regular steam deck uh and that changed to being an OLED display which in my mind has a much larger impact than I think some people give it credit for yes the 1080p resolution on the RG means that you can get a sharper image on some games where you can really tell the difference at that screen size but with OLED you're getting a major advantage when it comes to brightness colors and just general contrast of the image image if you're looking at a game where performance-wise it's running basically the same on the steam deck as it is on the Ally the OLED display on the steam deck is going to make a large difference and offers in my opinion a superior looking image it's just important to remember that again because of the power difference between the two systems that isn't always going to be completely true uh great example here something like say Hades this is a game that is not super demanding compared to some of the other options out there you're able to run a very stable frame rate on the steam deck OLED and the OLED display is a great fit for this particular game you have a lot of strong colors with contrasting highs and lows a lot of negative space rendered in Black that looks great on OLED and is generally just going to be a better looking experience but if on the other hand you're looking at a game like say cyber Punk or balers Gate 3 these are games that you know are demanding enough that yes you can get them to run on the steam deck and they're absolutely playable but you are going to be getting a better looking and smoother running experience on the r especially once you take the time to really dial in the settings just the way you like to be perfectly honest both these are games that in my mind mind still look and run best playing on a more traditional gaming PC setup but if you want to run them on a handheld PC as far as being able to leverage their power goes the Ally is the superior option here now something it is related to this though is also the idea of how well these operate as handhelds with a very important question being battery life well the rgla is a more powerful machine being more powerful also means it's more power hungry and this is one of the big updates the steam deck olet has over its original is that it's actually a more efficient machine thanks to having a die shrink for its core Parts while also offering a larger battery as a result when it comes to playing these systems on the- go untethered from power generally speaking the steam deck is running far longer than the Rog Ally does which is just going to be burning through its power especially if you're running it in one of its more demanding profiles like turbo mode when you want to get the most out of more demanding games uh one of the comparisons I drew previously that is especially true now is that it kind of almost feels like the old school Game Gear versus Game Boy situation where yeah the Game Gear was a better looking more powerful system system but it died really quickly and ended up requiring you to be plugged into walls really often whereas the Game Boy you could get a lot out of just a pair of doublea's for a very long period of time and that kind of feels like a similar situation here right the steam deck ends up working out as a system we able to actually use portably on the go for longer periods of time but if you find yourself gaming in situations where you don't mind being plugged into a wall you're going to be able to take more full advantage of the raw power the r Ali has to offer something else I want to touch on really quick as well is the physical design of the system uh in particular while both of them have their slight eccentricities as far as what they've chosen to emphasize for Comfort uh between the two I would say steam deck edges out a little bit for me uh this primarily comes with the fact that the grip design on the steam deck and steam deck OLED is more pronounced and rounded in a way that is very comfortable for your hands to wrap around the trade-off here that I think the Ally does handle better is the stick and button placement uh it is a more traditional alignment that feels like a controller you would use on other systems whereas the Ste steam Tech has opted to shove all the sticks and buttons to the top of the unit that can be a little more Awkward to reach because they want to make room for the touchpads that personally I don't really use a ton I know I've seen some people who love these things and really talk about the benefits they offer for certain games it is not a thing that I personally leverage very much for the games I play so that might be a little bit more of a user specific thing of how much you like the touchpads or not but if touchpads are a thing that you don't really have a lot of interest in using I will say that the button and stick layout for the Rog Ali is a more more comfortable experience even if the grip on it is shallower and a little more Awkward for prolonged play times another thing worth noting for both these systems is the differences in storage this was much more pronounced on the previous version of the steam deck where 512 was as big as it got and that was the most expensive version whereas now 256 is the entry level with the Baseline OLED offering 512 storage the same as the Rog Ally while coming in at a considerably lower price point and the most expensive version of the steam deck OLED which still comes in at a lower price point the most expensive Rog Ally at least by MSRP is offering a full terabyte option both these systems also give you the ability to expand storage by making use of a micro SD card there have been reported cases of people having trouble with the micr SD card reader on the Rog Ally because of how hot the system can get and that apparently warps the actual Port itself a little and has caused problems it is not something I have personally experienced as much but the reports have certainly been numerous enough that it's not something I want to completely discount personally 512 I think is a plenty for most people out there especially depending on the kind of games that you want to R on these handhelds but if you really want to cram as many games as you can in them the steam deck is the one that currently looks to be the slightly better option thanks to offering that terabyte option as well as having an SD card reader that has been less problematic while the main advantages the RG offers over the steam deck I think still hold true when compared to the steam deck OLED the OLED is getting a lot closer with everything else it has to offer especially in terms of having that nicer built-in display to really take advantage of in some games and it leads me to the point now where at least as far as the the outof Box experience goes if your goal with a PC handheld like this is to primarily run older titles Indie Games things that are not necessarily as demanding and they are available on Steam the steam deck is in my mind the absolute way to go particularly the OLED model it is just simply a better handheld in the sense of being a handheld thanks to its greater battery life and how beautiful this display can look not only offering OLED but also a higher brightness than the r Ali does going as high as 600 nits versus the 500 on the Ally meanwhile the Ally is still a more powerful machine that can run a greater variety of games and if that is more important to you the specific games you want to play in handheld mode are ones that just don't make sense on the steam deck where that's where the Alli ends up being your answer it really does come down to just what exact libraries you're trying to leverage if you care a lot about wanting to use PC game pass from Xbox and running more demanding titles like cyber Punk or balers gate and that's the main stuff you really want to do on one of these handhelds the GLI feels like a clear winner here but if your main focus is steam library and more kind of middle demanding titles and you're going to save more demanding stuff for a traditional PC setup steam deck is absolutely the way to go on my mind zero doubt and that really is reflected in my own personal day-to-day use with both of these since getting the OLED I have been using the AI less and less and for those games that are demanding I Rely more on using a home PC setup I might check in on them using a handheld but it really isn't my preferred experience I would rather just use a gaming PC for those and for everything else Indie titles going back to older stuff uh the OLED has just been a great experience so those are my thoughts on Steam deck of OLED versus Rog Ali if you are interested in grabbing either of these devices I do have links posted Down Below in the description I do want to thank nordvpn once again for sponsoring today's video and again don't forget to use this link to get yourself four free months when you sign up for a 2-year plan as always if you enjoyed this video hit the thumbs up button to let me know subscribe if you haven't yet and I will see you guys later

Channel: Kevin Kenson

Views: 156,634

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Id: 4gwaRWbuF5k

Length: 13min 58sec (838 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 14 2023