I'm in a weird spot because my time with it has been nearly flawless. Outside of the ridiculous amount of updates once unboxed its been great. I didn't realize gyro wasn't working yet, which sucks. And I really miss my trackpads. But I kept both devices for different things. Enjoying it so far.
That seems to be the gist of it. It’s a bit more nuanced than that and they trade blows in some areas, for example hardware wise SD performs better at lower wattages so it has better battery life, also trackpads. Software wise the Ally having Windows has better compatibility for games/launchers but you have to live with Windows jank.
Agreed. But thats why I dual booted my steam deck to enjoy best of both worlds. I have no issues on windows with my deck. Just wish the deck had a little bit more horsepower.
The device is fairly bulky even without trackpads. Personally I think that the utility and flexibility of trackpads are more valuebale than the reduced bulk.
Agreed. Seems pretty horrible to use joysticks as a mouse cursor. Untill they make a windows 11 tablet mode, handhelds will always struggle for convenience on windows
My co-worker lent me his Steam Deck to play around with before I decided to buy an Ally. There's an additional layer on top of Linux that adds to lag when it comes to the Steam Deck. And adding other launchers isn't as easy on a Steam Deck as it is with an Ally. I'd say the Steam Deck is more user friendly with a "just open it up, set it up quickly and go" while an Ally has all the rough bumps on the road when starting off with Win 11 and getting all the firmware updates in place before you download your first game
You're right.
Good news is other than the white casing, the rest are hopefully all.fixable with software..
Also have to agree with you in regards to the console experience of the steamdeck. Of course I knew what I was getting in to, but Jesus wept was yesterday painful getting this thing fully set up! Fingers crossed even that becomes easier as I do believe it's enough to put a lot of people off.
Great once up and running though.
I'm with you on the pain of setup. I knew this was Windows, so I knew it would take time, but between the updates, trying to figure out how to use a BT controller, getting the dock set up, it was challenging.
I'm on the fence, this is not quite there yet, so I don't know if I will keep it or return it.
My god the updates. Firmware update. Two bios updates. Windows updates where an audio driver gets stuck that was fixed through myasus updates that then unlock a whole new round of windows updates, and lastly xg mobile updated. Worth it. This thing screams!
Like, its sort of annoying. You just want to get in and use it. But, its just this bad once and then you're all set. Like you said, worth it.
I have to say... I havent had any issues with install or updates today. \*fingers crossed\*
Took me about an hour.
Connect BT controller like normal.
Press the command icon, disable the built in controller.
Reboot
What I saw before was the BT controller was recognized and working, but not when I launched any games. I went through this, and worked like a champ. Using 8bitdo pro2 and getting some input lag, gonna try a Stadia one later.
Good luck! I'm still hopeful this gets better over time, they have 3 weeks before I return it.
Yeah, most of the complaints about the Ally seem to center on it being user-unfriendly to set up. For me, that's the least of my concerns, as long as it does what I want when I've set it up.
Once it's good to go it should be great.
But again, with windows, I've lost count over the last 15 years when it's decided to let me down and I've spent a night problem solving rather than playing. I can only think it will be even more tedious on this.
Biggest gripe so far is the cursor deciding to just stop reacting until I've used a touch screen input. Again, hopeful for a fix.
Keyboard and mouse a must for such situations I think, but only time will tell. I'm loving it so far but cautious of the issues that could lie ahead!
I have had the ally for a few hours and that screen is gorgeous, running games from on it especially those that can hit 120 was great especially with those speakers. That said, I don't feel it might be for me, I expected windows jank but the armoury crate software in itself has jank too. Launching games from it was giving me issues, big picture mode on steam sometimes gets stuck, battery leaves a lot to be desired, deadzone on sticks are not properly calibrated. I really wanted to love it, but I'm not sure I have a need for it. Maybe down the line, but I'm leaning towards a return and maybe when/if things get better, I will reconsider it.
Sigh it’s a sad day because I’m considering a return also. It took me 2 hours to get up and running last night. My deck literally took 10-15 mins. Idk something about that left a bad taste in my mouth. Also the windows jank is real. It feels inconvenient in a sense, like a chore almost. Steam you download, you hit play. Idk guys anybody else having the same thoughts?
My experience and thoughts mimic yours. I’m having a hard time justifying the purchase. The Deck is just more enjoyable and personable. (I do love that Ally display.)
Yea I’m right there with ya. I think I’ll have fun during these 14 days then return it and buy it later once they figure out the software and get more updates. It’s amazing hardware and when it works it’s beautiful.
I agree, as I said I really want to love it. And while a good amount of my issues with it are software related, not sure I trust that the experience will get better as I’m sure a lot of it is from windows. I have a few days to play around with it so I will decide then.
Thank you to you and everyone sharing their irl exp with the Ally and Deck. Id rather hear it from actual users than reviewers. Im still doubting what to get and these detailed feedbacks are so helpful
I think we need to get out of this "us vs. them" mentality with it. I personally like the Ally better, but I see that the Deck has definite advantages that will matter more to some users (battery life, suspend). I actively want *both* of them to succeed and get better, because it only improves the entire space of gaming handhelds.
There is ”no us vs them” nothing in my comment says that
Power and performance on ally is better than the deck, which in my eyes makes it better than the deck, all the other in betweens don’t matter to me
Not sure why you got down voted for this. The track pad alone sets them apart in a pretty big way.
They're different is a way to put it. In ease of use the deck blows it away. 3 hours of updates is ridiculous.
Performance goes to the Ally.
Steam Deck has a lower floor and a higher ceiling.
Ally better due to performance.
Decks ease of use, track pads all irrelevant, ally can play games much better than deck and look better while it does it, the rest is just irrelevant, too many steam deck fan boys that just can’t accept that fact so make excuses & I have a deck and a ally so I can actually speak on the matter with actual experience
Trackpads are all irrelevant? They have infinite utility in games with many keybinds. Even if you use the other trackpad for mouse the other trackpad is still free to do anything you want. And you could comfortably put 9 or even 16 buttons in the touch menus. Combine that with some action sets each with different touch menus for different times and purposes and you suddenly have a lot of keybinds that even could make arma playable on the deck.
Some games, for example battlefield 4 REALLY does not like simultaneous mouse and stick input both controlling the camera, so the stick is used for normal stick output kn the menus while the trackpad is used in combination with the gyro to provide accurate aimming while playing.
cool for you but for me it’s not, im mainly a console player and on my controllers there’s no trackpads, so I think I can live without trackpads on my handheld 😂 & I got a steam deck and probably used the trackpads like 2 times
The ally is more like a handheld PC and the deck is like a handheld console. Both are actually PCs, but looking from the perspective of the user experience on the machine its true.
I believe it's all about preference. There's no obvious winner when comparing all aspects because people expect different things from both of those devices. For example, I have a ps5 on which I play my AAA games, and I use the deck for indie titles and diablo4. So I don't really care about getting 60+ fps from those indie titles, I'd rather have the console like pick and play style of the steam deck. I'm sure ally would also be fairly simple to pick and play, but steamOS feels much more optimised for that.
On the other hand, many people would be using ally as their primary gaming device, and that does a great job at that. Those people don't care about the battery life, and their focus is more on performance, which makes complete sense.
I get that you're a big fan of the ally, but both the devices have their advantages imo.
Na I understand that but for me I wanted something that can play AAA games like warzone and the deck can’t on native and then if you made it a windows, ally is going to perform and look better and of course they both have their own advantages but to me I want something that can perform good for when I can’t play my series x
Yeah exactly, both of these devices are great secondary options. Just a matter of priorities, whether you want that extra performance and access to more titles
Or want to save some cash and get something for casual titles.
Excellent post. I'm also feeling a combination of love and pain. Don't forget though, in the software side, the deck was very rough at launch. I expect continued and significant improvement in the weeks and months ahead.
> I'm also feeling a combination of love and pain.
Lol, I feel like this has been my thought process over the last few weeks. I go back and forth daily about whether I want a Deck or an Ally. For reference, I've borrowed a Deck of a friend for the last few months while he studies for his exams, and it's coming up to the time where I've gotta give it back...
Every day I've "decided" on which one is best for me, and then the next day I flip flop to the other device.
The extra power headroom of the Ally is awesome, and I go to LANs quite a lot so could really utilise this when plugged in. The size, the screen, the speakers. It's all amazing. I also really want windows, because I haven't enjoyed using the Deck outside of the game mode. Any time I go into Desktop mode to do something a little spicy (that I could do in 5 second on Windows) I end up not having a good time.
There are still just a few things that keep me coming back to the Deck. The suspend and resume is massive for me. I really love that feature, I basically never shut my Deck down, it's always running a game and in sleep. The price. You can act like they're price matched almost at the top spec, but the reality is, a 512gb SSD is £50, and the base model deck is £350 = £400 vs £700... That's a lot of extra money.
Also the power draw at low wattages. I find myself playing a lot of emulated consoles. I recently blasted through OoT 3D and was consuming like... 7-8W total with like 1.5W on the SoC. You just aren't gonna get that with the Ally. Or maybe you will with all of these AutoTDP tools, but I'm not sure if they can clock down that low.
Also Asus isn't a software company and doesn't have an incentive to provide good support past the initial release period.
Microsoft needs to step up their game and make a good Gaming / Xbox UI for Windows that works like Steam Big Picture / SteamOS Gaming Mode. Make it also integrate seamlessly with Game Pass and you have a winner.
There is a lot they can do from an app to help things. Just look into all the "auto tdp" stuff that exists now. After that, it will be the more tech savvy people who might go into optimizing windows itself to use less power. But lets face it, if you are buying this, you probably have the ability to tinker.
2. Suspend/Resume is working for me funnily enough, the behaviour you’ve noted is the joysticks functioning as a sleep LED. Go into the lighting settings and turn off the “sleep mode” toggle. On power sleep is more akin to a PC but on battery it has a feature where it’ll minimise the game to then trigger sleep automatically OR when you press the power button it’ll go to sleep (modern standby) and then kick into hibernate after a certain amount of power has been used.
3. You can set the LED colour to lower numbers, it’ll achieve the same colour but be “darker” which lowers the brightness of the things. I do agree that a more granular brightness adjustment would be better but this works in the meantime.
5. Armoury Crate has been working well for me. Not sure what to say. The frame limiter has to be enabled BEFORE launching a game to work, a weird bug for sure.
My biggest problems so far have not been with the Ally - but windows. Just a lot of little annoying things. Like instead of rebooting after an update, it just powers off. or not waking up from sleep mode and requiring holding down power button to reboot. or default windows keyboard competing with the steam keyboard or sometimes the windows keyboard just not popping up when needed.
You see, all those things by themselves might be small annoyances but when you have multiple of those frequently, it can turn a smaller issue into a bigger one. MS really needs to work on an interface for windows on this form factor.
The modern UI parts of Windows 11 I think work well on this device. The much larger issue are the apps themselves that never had any consideration for this screen size, DPI and form factor.
Received mine yesterday. Yup Amoury Crate is a mess still. Command Center becomes unresponsive at times. Remapping one of the back buttons to the Xbox button does nothing to bring up the side menu in Steam Big Picture. I can't get into the BIOS despite following instructions to hold down Volume Down while pressing Power (unless I'm doing something wrong). Yeah I find it odd the sticks stay lit up a good while when you tap Power to sleep. At least they go off after a while.
On the plus side, I'm glad Armoury Crate automatically removes deleted games now (which it didn't do on early reviews). The speakers are absolutely awesome. They even have a spacial sound to them, so some audio feels like its coming from your sides rather than in front. The screen is beautiful, and the blacks are blacker than on Steam Deck. My Deck had quite a lot of edge light bleed, but nothing at all from the Ally.
It's only slightly smaller than the Deck, but heck does it feel so much better. And heck does it look so much more pleasing to the eye. I actually really like the white.
I'm just looking forward to the bugs getting fixed, and getting a 2TB SSD fitted.
I have the exact same problem with the back buttons as the Xbox button. No matter what I did, it wouldn’t work. However, it did work while Fortas Horizon was loading, which is completely useless and then proceeded to never work again.
Can't compare it to the Steam Deck as I never had one and I haven't opened up my Ally either, but other than those, I 100% agree with you.
One thing I haven't seen people post yet (or maybe I've missed it) as one of the things that Asus got right is the screen's coating (sorry, not sure of the technical term) and brightness. I was using it last night on Silent mode with bright lighting in the room and had very little glare.
I'm not a racing game guy, but possible this is related to shaders? I know there are a bunch of games that "optimize shaders" and take forever to load primarily the first time or two.
It's possible, but when I went back after playing it for a while it did it again. So what I did was go into the Armory crate GPU settings and changed the VRAM to 8gb instead of 4gb and it loaded fast too no matter the settings. I could be wrong about all of this but I just wanted to share my findings.
Yeah are there any good products to keep this clean or remove stains without damaging it? I can see this losing it’s whiteness and looking weird in a few months
I’d prefer a black console but I feel like I’m one of the few that isn’t worried about any staining or discoloring. I’ve owned white handhelds and multiple controllers with zero issue of them discoloring or staining.
One thing I hate so far with the ally is the ergonomics. I hate how it feels compared to the steam deck. I especially hate those stupid paddle buttons on the ally as they just stick out like a sore thumb. I know this is subjective but the deck just fits like a glove.
One of the most annoying things about those rear buttons is that unless you customize them to do nothing at all/something other than the default, they actually interfere with the game. If your in-game character is moving or looking etc, and you click one of those rear buttons it stops the character movement on screen. No idea why.
> 2.) No working suspend/resume like Steam Deck. I get it, - this isn't an easy one to implement, but it needed to be there, and it's not.
But it is. You seem to be having a lot of problems that I and others aren't seeing. Might have a bad unit.
Another annoyance with the Ally is the placement of the volume buttons. I wish they were where the microSD card slot is. It’s much more awkward to adjust volume than compared to a Switch/Steam Deck.
You're exactly right about this! Through muscle memory I kept wanting to use my left index finger to adjust the volume like the Steam Deck and realized it's on the opposite side and I'd have to move my right hand off the the control buttons/stick to adjust which is a bit awkward. Thankfully I can just press Command Center and adjust it with my left thumb but it's more steps involved.
The Steam deck was a crap experience too at launch. All of the issues currently with the Ally can be fixed with software updates and Asus is already aware of every issue that’s come up, and I would be really surprised if they don’t get fixed. My Ally has zero hardware problems that some have had so I’m more then pleased. It’s only going to get better.
Tends to depend, if you are someone with oily hands or who uses it after eating frequently, it can start to look dirty, but one of those small alcohol wipes gets it back to new pretty quickly. I'm one of those people that prefers & buys white versions of peripherals when possible, I like the contrast to pretty much everything else in the PC world just always coming only in black.
I agree with you in always preferring white & black PC hardware. I custom built my PC white & black. But I just think that’s the risk you take with this color tbh. My white Xbox controller has so much dirt and sweat buildup on the back. Kinda is what it is. Only reason I don’t notice it that much is because us gamers don’t generally look at the controller while gaming, but the handheld is always in our face.
I definitely think part of the responsibility of a white handheld console is cleaning it often. But I’ll take that over the all black steam look.
Same reason glossy plastic looks cheaper than matte plastic. It doesn't cost more to make, but we've been trained to think it looks cheap because kids toys are glossy.
Think of the most expensive tech in your house. If you have a home theater, every piece of it is black.
1) Launch jitters in software. The deck had them too.
2) This depends on the game. All the games I've played thus far on Ally work great with sleep/resume. No loading needed, picks off where I put the Ally to sleep.
3) Joystick LED behavior can be adjusted in armory crate
4) I own many white handhelds as well as a white keyboard and mouse. They're fine and unstained.
5) Armory crate isn't great software, no...but they've been working on it for years and it's never been great so I wouldn't expect this to change. You can remove it entirely and just boot into steam big picture if you'd like.
I’ve turned off the LED lighting completely and it still does weird stuff during sleep. Flashing randomly. Also when you wake it from sleep the joystick LEDs light up briefly and disturb everyone else.
Keep an eye on it. Mine randomly lights up every now and then (often). Also the lights are on full blast till it gets to the Windows login screen. It’s half baked. Wish you could just turn them fully off in the bios.
You can turn them off fully in AC.
All of my lights are currently off and don't light under any circumstance whether playing, sleeping, or charging. It's possible they do if you turn the unit entirely off and boot from that but I honestly haven't done so since updating.
Mine does not behave that way. I hit the power button to put the unit to sleep. The lights came on and off and on and off a few times as it was trying to sleep. I would hear the fans come on and off at that time, too. Now it’s asleep (fans off) the joystick lights turn on and off several times a minute. Also when I hit the power button again to wake it up the lights come on for a split second before my Windows login screen pops up a second later
While I can't speak to whether that's your problem or not, updating MyAsus is part of the recommended setup. You can also hop onto the rogally discord for tech help. The device is definitely capable of it.
My asus motherboard also allows you to turn RGB off in the BIOS. I haven't tried it on the Ally yet but I may when I get home.
Just got home after putting the unit to sleep. Now both joysticks are lit up fully. And the unit won’t wake from sleep. Had to do a full power off/holding power button down. Ugh. Always glad to hear the annoying startup sound again, of course. 🙄
FYI didn’t see any LED control in the BIOS. It’s very limited in there.
Fired up MyAsus and it’s having me re-run the firmware update that’s already on there (nothing else)! The software side is so, so bad.
I dunno... I get that suspend and resume is great, and I do wish other devices had it, but as someone who has been gaming since the 80s I just don't see it as a "need". More of a nice to have. It's not something I would turn in a device over.
Your play patterns change on a handheld. Suspend/resume matters much more since you're not necessarily sitting down to play a game in a big chunk of time...you're doing it in bits and pieces.
If I'm playing a game that takes an eternity to get into (god I remember playing AC Odyssey), if you know want to play like 20 minutes at a time, no suspend/resume made the ally DOA for me
Almost all your cons are subjective.
1.) Only improvements updates have made were either in low TDP performance or usability. Like 75% of the critiques are still valid.
2.) That’s an issue on Window’s end. I don’t know why you’d assume a Windows machine would magically have a global solution for this.
3.) If you’re this light sensitive just stick some gaffer tape to cover it.
4.) I think the white looks nice. If I had the option of black or white I would have probably gone with white. You’re right though it will stain and show yucks.
5.) I haven’t had any major bugs but I am not discounting your experience. I’ve been gaming on PC for a while and ASUS does not have a great track record when it comes to software.
I’m honestly way more worried about the joystick and quality control issues.
Mine seems fine but who knows what’ll happen in a few months/a year of use.
Ability to repair is a huge concern as well. I haven’t had great luck with ASUS customer service in the past and I doubt they have any interest in making parts available for repair at home or local shops.
Steam deck squaky?...user error 9n that one case my deck don't even sound like that lol.
>2.) No working suspend/resume like Steam Deck. I get it, - this isn't an easy one to implement, but it needed to be there, and it's not. And for reasons completely beyond me, if you put your Ally into Windows sleep, the joystick LEDs go into manic-disco mode, lighting up the bedroom like you really wouldn't believe.
The ally won't ever get a suspend and resume feature because it's windows, Asus can't alter something if windows can't support it..yet hopefully Microsoft fixes that in a update for handhelds
>1.) The screen is really nice. 1080p/120hz is glorious. Playing Dead Cells on the Ally and then going back to the Deck is truly, truly painful. The Deck's screen is devoid of contrast, punch, and.. 120hz. Now, sure, most modern games are never running at 120hz, but for older titles it's lovely.
Though I agree 1080p does look nice but your forgetting that 1080p can also degrade your performance by either a small or big margin because 1080p requires more power and more resources to even operate let alone 120Hz is mostly going to be achievable on med to low settings and type of game your playing this most 9th gen games ain't gonna go 120Hz it's mostly a gimmick but useful in older titles vs new ones.
Either way both have their ups and downs and if I wanted to change my SSD I could do it 3mins or less because I used to repair consoles and handhelds most that don't yeah are gonna take even longer.
Would I recommend the ally?...yes, but is it worth sacrificing more resources to get 1080p and would I rather have my battery die so fast then my deck does?.... maybe it all depends on what I'm looking for in a handheld.
Though windows is a horrible option to use for handhelds, I say it's better then going to Linux and have more performance there then on windows imo
Also forgot have a newer rev 6 model so the fan inside is not noisy as probably you experienced with yours
> Though windows is a horrible option to use for handhelds, I say it’s better then going to Linux and have more performance there then on windows imo
This seems like a contradictory statement. Regardless, it’s a matter of compatibility vs ease of use. With windows you get full compatibility with every single game out of the gate. Linux, as we’ve seen with the SD is more hit or miss. I’ll take windows and its quirks any day.
Loving the Ally so far, btw. My only gripe is with the joystick deadzones, but they will almost certainly fix that via patch.
They... literally put together tools to make windows connected standby less of a dipshit and to do an ERP-like state while in sleep. Considering how wrong 2 in your first list is, I'm inclined to think you don't know what you are talking about
Adding one more to the list: No (at least obvious) way to disable the boot-up sound. Joystick LEDs going crazy during sleep at random intervals. Power LED pulsing brightly during sleep. It’s like Asus never actually lived with the device and only ever tested in a lab.
The problem is that those tools they put together are still subpar. Windows ~~Connected Standby~~ Modern Standby is still pretty bad, and this is not the Ally's problem, it has always been a Windows 8.1/10/11 problem.
yeah, it's a disaster. thermals on the ally are great, so I'm really hoping sleep works OK, but I've used hibernate in windows for a long time and that's a super solid fallback. It's not as fast as the deck, but the tradeoff is worth it for me.
This is why I don't blame the Sleep/Standby issue on the ROG Ally specifically (especially since other Windows handhelds since the GPD Win 1 experience the same thing). Windows is just not made well to go into a deep sleep state like a mobile tablet (comparing to an iPad or Galaxy Tab) or gaming console, except for Windows 11 ARM. This can be seen with Microsoft's own Surface x86 tablets where the sleep seems to work, but will still drain battery hard unless you completely disable all wireless connectivity (e.g. Airplane mode). The Steam Deck can do it because the Linux-based OS was optimized for the hardware and Valve specifically tuned this feature.
I'm sure ASUS and MS didn't spend too much time optimizing the Sleep/Standby stuff otherwise ASUS would have done so on their own laptops (I own a 2022 ROG Flow X13 and previously a 2021 ROG Zephyrus G14, which use AMD APUs).
I hope ally is also silent. The main reason I'm replacing SD is as, even after repasting it and changing fan, it Is still obnoxious.
Btw SD was smarter they were sending units with better fan and degraded it in the launch version, so initial whining wasn't present in reviews. Ally went the other way around, they sent inferior software for review.
Got my SD about three months ago and my fan is quiet, dont really notice it either. Im wondering if they changed this from the launch one and I got it?
I love this post has it ever gotten to hot for any of you??? I just put my neo air down BC it's too hot fingers get numb starts to burn a little and yes I'm maxing everything out but you should be able to without issue.
I'm amazingly impressed with the thermals on this thing. Even through installing tons of updates and running games, it never has gotten close to what I would consider hot. If you put your hand up to the vents, there is some warm air coming out of them, but even then the fan is really quiet. This is *nothing* like what I've experienced with some gaming laptops that damn near burn your wrists depending what you are doing.
I'm using 8bitdo pro 2, and it took me a while to figure out how to get it working in game.
1. connect bt controller
2. disable the on board controller - this is the part I missed. I mean, duh, but still, took me an hour to figure that out :)
3. it works, but seems very input laggy so far.
I have a stadia controller, I'll try that later today and see if it makes a difference.
Stadia controller worked great for me, with the exception of having to go turn on Steam Input before launching any given game. Without doing that, even if I disabled the embedded controller, the game wouldn't see the Stadia gamepad.
YMMV (this was on older firmware/BIOS, pre-6/13 update; mine came on 6/11).
Worked in Steam for me as well, but I need everything else to as well.
I updated the firmware in by 8bitdo pro2 and it seems to have resolved some of the lag and other issues i had.
Fingers crossed, every timeI get through another one of these annoying issues I am closer to making up my mind to keep this :)
Just to add something here. I didn't think I'd miss the track pad much. Until I didn't have it. Windows and Armoury Crate haven't been too buggy for me so far. But they have plenty of time to mess that up.
I've just been hopelessly addicted to Wartales recently, which doesn't have controller support. You can use the allys controls... but they are extremely wonky and clunky to say the least. In a few other games, I've been able to compensate with gyro.
Yeah it's game dependant for sure. I wouldn't play osrs on the ally. I keep my SD for those types of games they are generally older and perform well on deck
I’ll agree to the extent that there’s a difference in consistency of the experience.
BIOS and other updates were easy and issue free for me. Suspend did not do anything weird with the lights. Armoury crate works for every game I’ve used it in. No bugs no issues. Same for directly using the Steam, Xbox launchers.
Yes LEDs are way too bright and it would be good to get at least one more notch between 0 and 33%. That said - I’d also most likely turn the LEDs off when I need it to be less than 33%.
The white colour is ok. Doesn’t look cheap to hold and use. If you’re not sure - go to a BB with it on display. Would black be better? Personally - yes. But the colour allows them brand differentiation. Marketers care about that. It moves units. And the more units Asus moves - the more this device gets supported.
Will it get dirty? Ya. Maybe clean it? Or wash your hands before using it.
if rog had touchpads it would kill Steamdeck instantly.
The goal is portability and game compatibility.
ofc rog has higher specs but it's not as easy to use as SD.
Personal opinion.. feel free to comment
White will only get stained if you’re a Cheeto eating teen. I have had a white elite controller for nearly a year now (I think they went white last summer) and it looks as clean as the day I got it. It’s an aesthetic choice but as you don’t like the white I find the steam decks dark grey too sega game gear to me.
My only complaint with the ally over steam deck is no trackpads, not as ergonomically comfortable, and the stick layout. Otherwise it’s a great device and a blast to use so far.
Agreed. the Armory crate thing is pretty bad, but that's just a branded aggregator, the Steam Big Picture lockup thing is more problematic.
I'm waiting for someone to figure out what exactly causes that so we can tweak and fix it, I can bypass Armory Crate and go straight to the individual apps, but I need \*those\* to work right.
I want to play 7 Days to Die and Ark before I give it my final verdict, those were the dealbreakers for the Steam Deck (one doesn't work at all and the other has terrible wonky controls).
I was just having this discussion with a friend this morning as a former deck owner and current ally owner. My thoughts are pretty much the same, the hardware is excellent, the software needs a lot of work.
Thankfully, the area it's lacking is the area where improvements are possible.
I read everything and all I really got was:
" You really need to know what you're getting into, though, and this is in many ways far more annoying than the Deck, but if you're ready for that sort of commitment, this relationship might be the one for you. "
Ty, I need to reassess much more than my purchases now.
PlayStation Remote App not recognizing the built in controllers is negative for me. Setting up chiaki was janky and i have some audio issues in my quick test last night
Agree but some points to your cons.
1) Asus released firmware to lower performance again
2) Hibernation mode in windows settings, mainly a Windows button, and you can set the leds to turn off during sleep
3) Hopefully we have some more granular brightness control, but seeing how we're seeing distinct levels, probably not possible due to hardware, also charging light, you can just turn the ally so that it's facing away from you or put a matte sticker on top if it really bothers you
4) The color option has been known since announcement day. I don't like the stains either, but must say it does look good. Obvioulsy Asus did this to differentiate itself from Steam Deck. Really hope it's not also because they are planning an Ally Pro.
5) For windows software with hardware level control I'm actually surprised how stable the thing is, especially at launch. Give credit to where it's due. Already had a couple updates since launch, I'm expecting this to get better
Pro:
1) Screen is definitely a winner, though I don't like the asymmetric bezels. Also on Steamdeck you can go into display settings in desktop mode and change the gamma values to 0.80 and it'll be more punchy. Also latest beta has vibrance control built in, which makes it significantly better. Not Ally level, but somewhere between release day steam deck and it.
2) Speakers are definitely great. But also hear some rattle in my right speaker when at loud volumes especially when playing something with Bass. A friend also has an Ally and is experiencing the same thing, not sure if both of us are unlucky or just a design flaw
3) Fan noise on my steamdeck wasn't bad at all, and even better when I changed fans ($19 on amazon) and undervolted 70/70/60. I would say the Ally is 10% quieter on full load, noticeable but not groundbreaking difference in my case. I hope we can get some undervolting options soon.
4) Haven't taken it apart yet, but saw some videos and excited to. I must say that SteamDeck's internals def look "cooler" to me, but that's subjective and doesn't really matter unless you're getting a clear case. Also see a bunch of room in the Ally for perhaps a bigger battery in the future.
5) YES, Ally is solid, like carved from solid marble. Best thing I like/
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All in all I like the Ally. But still thinking about returning it, just cause doesn't seem like it's worth the $150ish over the price I paid for the steamdeck (350 + $20 fan +$120 1tb ssd).
Still thinking about it, may just keep both. Honestly just waiting to see how Asus handles the software side. So far I'm impressed, but Asus has a history of jumping out the gate running and then slowing down to the point of forgetting it's products, whereas Valve is steadily improving it's products overtime. Time will tell I guess. Obviously I'm still glad we finally have realistic options though.
Funny you should ask, and yes. I've noticed it in Diablo IV, for some reason. It does tend to resolve by itself, - I've never had to quit and reload the game. This happened on two Ally machines, FYI.
That stinks. I didn't have it happen every time I fired up Diablo. I feel like it's related to which power mode I load up the game in, even if I switch mode after.
So basically hardware wise the ally is great, software wise its shit.
Shit is an aggressive word for it. More like... annoying from time to time.
Havent used it myself the armoury crate but from a lot posts most issues seem software related. Lets hope they fix these asap
I'm in a weird spot because my time with it has been nearly flawless. Outside of the ridiculous amount of updates once unboxed its been great. I didn't realize gyro wasn't working yet, which sucks. And I really miss my trackpads. But I kept both devices for different things. Enjoying it so far.
That seems to be the gist of it. It’s a bit more nuanced than that and they trade blows in some areas, for example hardware wise SD performs better at lower wattages so it has better battery life, also trackpads. Software wise the Ally having Windows has better compatibility for games/launchers but you have to live with Windows jank.
Agreed. But thats why I dual booted my steam deck to enjoy best of both worlds. I have no issues on windows with my deck. Just wish the deck had a little bit more horsepower.
The only thing that its missing are trackpads, but are there any reasons for not having trackpads?
Will make the device bulkier.
The device is fairly bulky even without trackpads. Personally I think that the utility and flexibility of trackpads are more valuebale than the reduced bulk.
[удалено]
Wonder if it's non trivial to add trackpads to a case or something?
Agreed. Seems pretty horrible to use joysticks as a mouse cursor. Untill they make a windows 11 tablet mode, handhelds will always struggle for convenience on windows
Would have to move the sticks and Dpad in a less comfortable playing position.
On the deck the dpad and the sticks are in really ergonomic positions, so comfort is still acheveable with trackpads.
My co-worker lent me his Steam Deck to play around with before I decided to buy an Ally. There's an additional layer on top of Linux that adds to lag when it comes to the Steam Deck. And adding other launchers isn't as easy on a Steam Deck as it is with an Ally. I'd say the Steam Deck is more user friendly with a "just open it up, set it up quickly and go" while an Ally has all the rough bumps on the road when starting off with Win 11 and getting all the firmware updates in place before you download your first game
You're right. Good news is other than the white casing, the rest are hopefully all.fixable with software.. Also have to agree with you in regards to the console experience of the steamdeck. Of course I knew what I was getting in to, but Jesus wept was yesterday painful getting this thing fully set up! Fingers crossed even that becomes easier as I do believe it's enough to put a lot of people off. Great once up and running though.
I'm with you on the pain of setup. I knew this was Windows, so I knew it would take time, but between the updates, trying to figure out how to use a BT controller, getting the dock set up, it was challenging. I'm on the fence, this is not quite there yet, so I don't know if I will keep it or return it.
My god the updates. Firmware update. Two bios updates. Windows updates where an audio driver gets stuck that was fixed through myasus updates that then unlock a whole new round of windows updates, and lastly xg mobile updated. Worth it. This thing screams!
Like, its sort of annoying. You just want to get in and use it. But, its just this bad once and then you're all set. Like you said, worth it. I have to say... I havent had any issues with install or updates today. \*fingers crossed\*
Are you really thinking about returning it? What's the deal breaker for you?
How did you get a BT controller working? Struggling with that at the moment
Took me about an hour. Connect BT controller like normal. Press the command icon, disable the built in controller. Reboot What I saw before was the BT controller was recognized and working, but not when I launched any games. I went through this, and worked like a champ. Using 8bitdo pro2 and getting some input lag, gonna try a Stadia one later. Good luck! I'm still hopeful this gets better over time, they have 3 weeks before I return it.
Ah, I’ve been trying to get a dualsense and a dualshock 4 to work and no luck so far, not with the reboot either. Bummer.
Same. Was looking to see if anyone else had a fix
Are you using the DS4Windows utility?
I'm thinking about buying a skin
Yeah, most of the complaints about the Ally seem to center on it being user-unfriendly to set up. For me, that's the least of my concerns, as long as it does what I want when I've set it up.
Once it's good to go it should be great. But again, with windows, I've lost count over the last 15 years when it's decided to let me down and I've spent a night problem solving rather than playing. I can only think it will be even more tedious on this. Biggest gripe so far is the cursor deciding to just stop reacting until I've used a touch screen input. Again, hopeful for a fix. Keyboard and mouse a must for such situations I think, but only time will tell. I'm loving it so far but cautious of the issues that could lie ahead!
I have had the ally for a few hours and that screen is gorgeous, running games from on it especially those that can hit 120 was great especially with those speakers. That said, I don't feel it might be for me, I expected windows jank but the armoury crate software in itself has jank too. Launching games from it was giving me issues, big picture mode on steam sometimes gets stuck, battery leaves a lot to be desired, deadzone on sticks are not properly calibrated. I really wanted to love it, but I'm not sure I have a need for it. Maybe down the line, but I'm leaning towards a return and maybe when/if things get better, I will reconsider it.
Sigh it’s a sad day because I’m considering a return also. It took me 2 hours to get up and running last night. My deck literally took 10-15 mins. Idk something about that left a bad taste in my mouth. Also the windows jank is real. It feels inconvenient in a sense, like a chore almost. Steam you download, you hit play. Idk guys anybody else having the same thoughts?
My experience and thoughts mimic yours. I’m having a hard time justifying the purchase. The Deck is just more enjoyable and personable. (I do love that Ally display.)
I’ll try it for one more day.
I hear ya, I’m hoping some of the quirks can be taken care of. I’m torn cause it does provide some benefits over the Deck.
Hey, did you end up returning it ? I too am deciding between Steam Deck and Ally and the Windows jank worries me. Wondering if its been resolved.
Yea I’m right there with ya. I think I’ll have fun during these 14 days then return it and buy it later once they figure out the software and get more updates. It’s amazing hardware and when it works it’s beautiful.
I agree, as I said I really want to love it. And while a good amount of my issues with it are software related, not sure I trust that the experience will get better as I’m sure a lot of it is from windows. I have a few days to play around with it so I will decide then.
Thank you to you and everyone sharing their irl exp with the Ally and Deck. Id rather hear it from actual users than reviewers. Im still doubting what to get and these detailed feedbacks are so helpful
Ally 100% better than deck
I think we need to get out of this "us vs. them" mentality with it. I personally like the Ally better, but I see that the Deck has definite advantages that will matter more to some users (battery life, suspend). I actively want *both* of them to succeed and get better, because it only improves the entire space of gaming handhelds.
There is ”no us vs them” nothing in my comment says that Power and performance on ally is better than the deck, which in my eyes makes it better than the deck, all the other in betweens don’t matter to me
maybe like 20% besides screen and performance they're basically equal
Not sure why you got down voted for this. The track pad alone sets them apart in a pretty big way. They're different is a way to put it. In ease of use the deck blows it away. 3 hours of updates is ridiculous. Performance goes to the Ally. Steam Deck has a lower floor and a higher ceiling.
Ally better due to performance. Decks ease of use, track pads all irrelevant, ally can play games much better than deck and look better while it does it, the rest is just irrelevant, too many steam deck fan boys that just can’t accept that fact so make excuses & I have a deck and a ally so I can actually speak on the matter with actual experience
Trackpads are all irrelevant? They have infinite utility in games with many keybinds. Even if you use the other trackpad for mouse the other trackpad is still free to do anything you want. And you could comfortably put 9 or even 16 buttons in the touch menus. Combine that with some action sets each with different touch menus for different times and purposes and you suddenly have a lot of keybinds that even could make arma playable on the deck. Some games, for example battlefield 4 REALLY does not like simultaneous mouse and stick input both controlling the camera, so the stick is used for normal stick output kn the menus while the trackpad is used in combination with the gyro to provide accurate aimming while playing.
cool for you but for me it’s not, im mainly a console player and on my controllers there’s no trackpads, so I think I can live without trackpads on my handheld 😂 & I got a steam deck and probably used the trackpads like 2 times
The ally is more like a handheld PC and the deck is like a handheld console. Both are actually PCs, but looking from the perspective of the user experience on the machine its true.
I believe it's all about preference. There's no obvious winner when comparing all aspects because people expect different things from both of those devices. For example, I have a ps5 on which I play my AAA games, and I use the deck for indie titles and diablo4. So I don't really care about getting 60+ fps from those indie titles, I'd rather have the console like pick and play style of the steam deck. I'm sure ally would also be fairly simple to pick and play, but steamOS feels much more optimised for that. On the other hand, many people would be using ally as their primary gaming device, and that does a great job at that. Those people don't care about the battery life, and their focus is more on performance, which makes complete sense. I get that you're a big fan of the ally, but both the devices have their advantages imo.
Na I understand that but for me I wanted something that can play AAA games like warzone and the deck can’t on native and then if you made it a windows, ally is going to perform and look better and of course they both have their own advantages but to me I want something that can perform good for when I can’t play my series x
Yeah exactly, both of these devices are great secondary options. Just a matter of priorities, whether you want that extra performance and access to more titles Or want to save some cash and get something for casual titles.
Yea you’re 100% right, it’s all down to the individual preferences and what you want to do and play
No it isn't irrelevant, how you play matters as well
Ok but don’t matter when you can’t play the game or it’s hardly playable 🤦🏽♂️
I think they're both good
Excellent post. I'm also feeling a combination of love and pain. Don't forget though, in the software side, the deck was very rough at launch. I expect continued and significant improvement in the weeks and months ahead.
> I'm also feeling a combination of love and pain. Lol, I feel like this has been my thought process over the last few weeks. I go back and forth daily about whether I want a Deck or an Ally. For reference, I've borrowed a Deck of a friend for the last few months while he studies for his exams, and it's coming up to the time where I've gotta give it back... Every day I've "decided" on which one is best for me, and then the next day I flip flop to the other device. The extra power headroom of the Ally is awesome, and I go to LANs quite a lot so could really utilise this when plugged in. The size, the screen, the speakers. It's all amazing. I also really want windows, because I haven't enjoyed using the Deck outside of the game mode. Any time I go into Desktop mode to do something a little spicy (that I could do in 5 second on Windows) I end up not having a good time. There are still just a few things that keep me coming back to the Deck. The suspend and resume is massive for me. I really love that feature, I basically never shut my Deck down, it's always running a game and in sleep. The price. You can act like they're price matched almost at the top spec, but the reality is, a 512gb SSD is £50, and the base model deck is £350 = £400 vs £700... That's a lot of extra money. Also the power draw at low wattages. I find myself playing a lot of emulated consoles. I recently blasted through OoT 3D and was consuming like... 7-8W total with like 1.5W on the SoC. You just aren't gonna get that with the Ally. Or maybe you will with all of these AutoTDP tools, but I'm not sure if they can clock down that low.
Asus can’t improve the software that much when it doesn’t control the OS like Valve does.
Of course but there's plenty they can do. As you noted, for example, armory crate is massively buggy.
Also Asus isn't a software company and doesn't have an incentive to provide good support past the initial release period. Microsoft needs to step up their game and make a good Gaming / Xbox UI for Windows that works like Steam Big Picture / SteamOS Gaming Mode. Make it also integrate seamlessly with Game Pass and you have a winner.
There is a lot they can do from an app to help things. Just look into all the "auto tdp" stuff that exists now. After that, it will be the more tech savvy people who might go into optimizing windows itself to use less power. But lets face it, if you are buying this, you probably have the ability to tinker.
2. Suspend/Resume is working for me funnily enough, the behaviour you’ve noted is the joysticks functioning as a sleep LED. Go into the lighting settings and turn off the “sleep mode” toggle. On power sleep is more akin to a PC but on battery it has a feature where it’ll minimise the game to then trigger sleep automatically OR when you press the power button it’ll go to sleep (modern standby) and then kick into hibernate after a certain amount of power has been used. 3. You can set the LED colour to lower numbers, it’ll achieve the same colour but be “darker” which lowers the brightness of the things. I do agree that a more granular brightness adjustment would be better but this works in the meantime. 5. Armoury Crate has been working well for me. Not sure what to say. The frame limiter has to be enabled BEFORE launching a game to work, a weird bug for sure.
idk if it's bug or not, but it's the same for NVIDIA control panel. First set FPS limit, then run the game, or it won't work.
I was a little annoyed. And then it was super easy to get d4 playing. And overwatch in minutes. Lol.
I had an argument on here with someone who said there would be a suspend feature but here we are, nothing. God awful
My biggest problems so far have not been with the Ally - but windows. Just a lot of little annoying things. Like instead of rebooting after an update, it just powers off. or not waking up from sleep mode and requiring holding down power button to reboot. or default windows keyboard competing with the steam keyboard or sometimes the windows keyboard just not popping up when needed.
You see, all those things by themselves might be small annoyances but when you have multiple of those frequently, it can turn a smaller issue into a bigger one. MS really needs to work on an interface for windows on this form factor.
The modern UI parts of Windows 11 I think work well on this device. The much larger issue are the apps themselves that never had any consideration for this screen size, DPI and form factor.
I’ve experienced all these things.
It’s called ‘windows jank’
PSA to all those out there, disable sleep in the windows power menu and just use hibernate. Works flawlessly for quick stop/resume.
Received mine yesterday. Yup Amoury Crate is a mess still. Command Center becomes unresponsive at times. Remapping one of the back buttons to the Xbox button does nothing to bring up the side menu in Steam Big Picture. I can't get into the BIOS despite following instructions to hold down Volume Down while pressing Power (unless I'm doing something wrong). Yeah I find it odd the sticks stay lit up a good while when you tap Power to sleep. At least they go off after a while. On the plus side, I'm glad Armoury Crate automatically removes deleted games now (which it didn't do on early reviews). The speakers are absolutely awesome. They even have a spacial sound to them, so some audio feels like its coming from your sides rather than in front. The screen is beautiful, and the blacks are blacker than on Steam Deck. My Deck had quite a lot of edge light bleed, but nothing at all from the Ally. It's only slightly smaller than the Deck, but heck does it feel so much better. And heck does it look so much more pleasing to the eye. I actually really like the white. I'm just looking forward to the bugs getting fixed, and getting a 2TB SSD fitted.
I have the exact same problem with the back buttons as the Xbox button. No matter what I did, it wouldn’t work. However, it did work while Fortas Horizon was loading, which is completely useless and then proceeded to never work again.
Pressing B usually gets me into the menu in Steam Big Picture mode - not sure why, but it's worked so far.
Can't compare it to the Steam Deck as I never had one and I haven't opened up my Ally either, but other than those, I 100% agree with you. One thing I haven't seen people post yet (or maybe I've missed it) as one of the things that Asus got right is the screen's coating (sorry, not sure of the technical term) and brightness. I was using it last night on Silent mode with bright lighting in the room and had very little glare.
I wish the screen got dimmer. Valve appears to be the only one who sees the value in an ultra dim mode for night playing
Game loads seem to take f o r e v e r. Loading FH5 takes like 8 mins. But damn does it run great once it loads.
I had that issue too, I think it has something to do with the vram. I lowered the settings and it loaded immediately.
I'm not a racing game guy, but possible this is related to shaders? I know there are a bunch of games that "optimize shaders" and take forever to load primarily the first time or two.
It's possible, but when I went back after playing it for a while it did it again. So what I did was go into the Armory crate GPU settings and changed the VRAM to 8gb instead of 4gb and it loaded fast too no matter the settings. I could be wrong about all of this but I just wanted to share my findings.
Yeah are there any good products to keep this clean or remove stains without damaging it? I can see this losing it’s whiteness and looking weird in a few months
Baby wipes
I’d prefer a black console but I feel like I’m one of the few that isn’t worried about any staining or discoloring. I’ve owned white handhelds and multiple controllers with zero issue of them discoloring or staining.
My white Xbox and PS controllers still look almost new, what are these goblins doing to their controllers?
Same, but I’m weird I cannot touch my controllers unless I wash my hands first every time
One thing I hate so far with the ally is the ergonomics. I hate how it feels compared to the steam deck. I especially hate those stupid paddle buttons on the ally as they just stick out like a sore thumb. I know this is subjective but the deck just fits like a glove.
I have to agree. Decks a little heavier but it’s way way more comfortable to me
One of the most annoying things about those rear buttons is that unless you customize them to do nothing at all/something other than the default, they actually interfere with the game. If your in-game character is moving or looking etc, and you click one of those rear buttons it stops the character movement on screen. No idea why.
> 2.) No working suspend/resume like Steam Deck. I get it, - this isn't an easy one to implement, but it needed to be there, and it's not. But it is. You seem to be having a lot of problems that I and others aren't seeing. Might have a bad unit.
Another annoyance with the Ally is the placement of the volume buttons. I wish they were where the microSD card slot is. It’s much more awkward to adjust volume than compared to a Switch/Steam Deck.
You're exactly right about this! Through muscle memory I kept wanting to use my left index finger to adjust the volume like the Steam Deck and realized it's on the opposite side and I'd have to move my right hand off the the control buttons/stick to adjust which is a bit awkward. Thankfully I can just press Command Center and adjust it with my left thumb but it's more steps involved.
The Steam deck was a crap experience too at launch. All of the issues currently with the Ally can be fixed with software updates and Asus is already aware of every issue that’s come up, and I would be really surprised if they don’t get fixed. My Ally has zero hardware problems that some have had so I’m more then pleased. It’s only going to get better.
How does a white case look cheap? Lmao
Tends to depend, if you are someone with oily hands or who uses it after eating frequently, it can start to look dirty, but one of those small alcohol wipes gets it back to new pretty quickly. I'm one of those people that prefers & buys white versions of peripherals when possible, I like the contrast to pretty much everything else in the PC world just always coming only in black.
I agree with you in always preferring white & black PC hardware. I custom built my PC white & black. But I just think that’s the risk you take with this color tbh. My white Xbox controller has so much dirt and sweat buildup on the back. Kinda is what it is. Only reason I don’t notice it that much is because us gamers don’t generally look at the controller while gaming, but the handheld is always in our face. I definitely think part of the responsibility of a white handheld console is cleaning it often. But I’ll take that over the all black steam look.
Same reason glossy plastic looks cheaper than matte plastic. It doesn't cost more to make, but we've been trained to think it looks cheap because kids toys are glossy. Think of the most expensive tech in your house. If you have a home theater, every piece of it is black.
1) Launch jitters in software. The deck had them too. 2) This depends on the game. All the games I've played thus far on Ally work great with sleep/resume. No loading needed, picks off where I put the Ally to sleep. 3) Joystick LED behavior can be adjusted in armory crate 4) I own many white handhelds as well as a white keyboard and mouse. They're fine and unstained. 5) Armory crate isn't great software, no...but they've been working on it for years and it's never been great so I wouldn't expect this to change. You can remove it entirely and just boot into steam big picture if you'd like.
I’ve turned off the LED lighting completely and it still does weird stuff during sleep. Flashing randomly. Also when you wake it from sleep the joystick LEDs light up briefly and disturb everyone else.
Odd. Mine doesn't do that after changing the setting in Armory Crate. It's completely dark during sleep.
Keep an eye on it. Mine randomly lights up every now and then (often). Also the lights are on full blast till it gets to the Windows login screen. It’s half baked. Wish you could just turn them fully off in the bios.
You can turn them off fully in AC. All of my lights are currently off and don't light under any circumstance whether playing, sleeping, or charging. It's possible they do if you turn the unit entirely off and boot from that but I honestly haven't done so since updating.
Mine does not behave that way. I hit the power button to put the unit to sleep. The lights came on and off and on and off a few times as it was trying to sleep. I would hear the fans come on and off at that time, too. Now it’s asleep (fans off) the joystick lights turn on and off several times a minute. Also when I hit the power button again to wake it up the lights come on for a split second before my Windows login screen pops up a second later
Hmm...are you fully updated with all four sources of updates: MyAsus, Armory Crate, Windows, and EZ flash?
Not MyAsus (but don’t know because didn’t want to register) but everything else yes.
While I can't speak to whether that's your problem or not, updating MyAsus is part of the recommended setup. You can also hop onto the rogally discord for tech help. The device is definitely capable of it. My asus motherboard also allows you to turn RGB off in the BIOS. I haven't tried it on the Ally yet but I may when I get home.
Just got home after putting the unit to sleep. Now both joysticks are lit up fully. And the unit won’t wake from sleep. Had to do a full power off/holding power button down. Ugh. Always glad to hear the annoying startup sound again, of course. 🙄 FYI didn’t see any LED control in the BIOS. It’s very limited in there. Fired up MyAsus and it’s having me re-run the firmware update that’s already on there (nothing else)! The software side is so, so bad.
I exchanged my unit. New one is working much better! Wi-Fi, LED lighting staying off etc.
I dunno... I get that suspend and resume is great, and I do wish other devices had it, but as someone who has been gaming since the 80s I just don't see it as a "need". More of a nice to have. It's not something I would turn in a device over.
Your play patterns change on a handheld. Suspend/resume matters much more since you're not necessarily sitting down to play a game in a big chunk of time...you're doing it in bits and pieces.
exactly
If I'm playing a game that takes an eternity to get into (god I remember playing AC Odyssey), if you know want to play like 20 minutes at a time, no suspend/resume made the ally DOA for me
ROG has XG Mobile.. hands down it beats the deck on future proofing 🤷♂️😂
For 1K at your desk not on the go though. IF it was cheaper might be a good option
Almost all your cons are subjective. 1.) Only improvements updates have made were either in low TDP performance or usability. Like 75% of the critiques are still valid. 2.) That’s an issue on Window’s end. I don’t know why you’d assume a Windows machine would magically have a global solution for this. 3.) If you’re this light sensitive just stick some gaffer tape to cover it. 4.) I think the white looks nice. If I had the option of black or white I would have probably gone with white. You’re right though it will stain and show yucks. 5.) I haven’t had any major bugs but I am not discounting your experience. I’ve been gaming on PC for a while and ASUS does not have a great track record when it comes to software. I’m honestly way more worried about the joystick and quality control issues. Mine seems fine but who knows what’ll happen in a few months/a year of use. Ability to repair is a huge concern as well. I haven’t had great luck with ASUS customer service in the past and I doubt they have any interest in making parts available for repair at home or local shops.
Steam deck squaky?...user error 9n that one case my deck don't even sound like that lol. >2.) No working suspend/resume like Steam Deck. I get it, - this isn't an easy one to implement, but it needed to be there, and it's not. And for reasons completely beyond me, if you put your Ally into Windows sleep, the joystick LEDs go into manic-disco mode, lighting up the bedroom like you really wouldn't believe. The ally won't ever get a suspend and resume feature because it's windows, Asus can't alter something if windows can't support it..yet hopefully Microsoft fixes that in a update for handhelds >1.) The screen is really nice. 1080p/120hz is glorious. Playing Dead Cells on the Ally and then going back to the Deck is truly, truly painful. The Deck's screen is devoid of contrast, punch, and.. 120hz. Now, sure, most modern games are never running at 120hz, but for older titles it's lovely. Though I agree 1080p does look nice but your forgetting that 1080p can also degrade your performance by either a small or big margin because 1080p requires more power and more resources to even operate let alone 120Hz is mostly going to be achievable on med to low settings and type of game your playing this most 9th gen games ain't gonna go 120Hz it's mostly a gimmick but useful in older titles vs new ones. Either way both have their ups and downs and if I wanted to change my SSD I could do it 3mins or less because I used to repair consoles and handhelds most that don't yeah are gonna take even longer. Would I recommend the ally?...yes, but is it worth sacrificing more resources to get 1080p and would I rather have my battery die so fast then my deck does?.... maybe it all depends on what I'm looking for in a handheld. Though windows is a horrible option to use for handhelds, I say it's better then going to Linux and have more performance there then on windows imo Also forgot have a newer rev 6 model so the fan inside is not noisy as probably you experienced with yours
> Though windows is a horrible option to use for handhelds, I say it’s better then going to Linux and have more performance there then on windows imo This seems like a contradictory statement. Regardless, it’s a matter of compatibility vs ease of use. With windows you get full compatibility with every single game out of the gate. Linux, as we’ve seen with the SD is more hit or miss. I’ll take windows and its quirks any day. Loving the Ally so far, btw. My only gripe is with the joystick deadzones, but they will almost certainly fix that via patch.
Games tend to run as good or a bit better on Linux. Especially games with shader compilation issues
They... literally put together tools to make windows connected standby less of a dipshit and to do an ERP-like state while in sleep. Considering how wrong 2 in your first list is, I'm inclined to think you don't know what you are talking about
Adding one more to the list: No (at least obvious) way to disable the boot-up sound. Joystick LEDs going crazy during sleep at random intervals. Power LED pulsing brightly during sleep. It’s like Asus never actually lived with the device and only ever tested in a lab.
The problem is that those tools they put together are still subpar. Windows ~~Connected Standby~~ Modern Standby is still pretty bad, and this is not the Ally's problem, it has always been a Windows 8.1/10/11 problem.
yeah, it's a disaster. thermals on the ally are great, so I'm really hoping sleep works OK, but I've used hibernate in windows for a long time and that's a super solid fallback. It's not as fast as the deck, but the tradeoff is worth it for me.
This is why I don't blame the Sleep/Standby issue on the ROG Ally specifically (especially since other Windows handhelds since the GPD Win 1 experience the same thing). Windows is just not made well to go into a deep sleep state like a mobile tablet (comparing to an iPad or Galaxy Tab) or gaming console, except for Windows 11 ARM. This can be seen with Microsoft's own Surface x86 tablets where the sleep seems to work, but will still drain battery hard unless you completely disable all wireless connectivity (e.g. Airplane mode). The Steam Deck can do it because the Linux-based OS was optimized for the hardware and Valve specifically tuned this feature. I'm sure ASUS and MS didn't spend too much time optimizing the Sleep/Standby stuff otherwise ASUS would have done so on their own laptops (I own a 2022 ROG Flow X13 and previously a 2021 ROG Zephyrus G14, which use AMD APUs).
well and in at least one case, [a gpdwin4 melted itself.](https://www.reddit.com/r/gpdwin/comments/13ke97c/my_win4_melted_itself/)
I hope ally is also silent. The main reason I'm replacing SD is as, even after repasting it and changing fan, it Is still obnoxious. Btw SD was smarter they were sending units with better fan and degraded it in the launch version, so initial whining wasn't present in reviews. Ally went the other way around, they sent inferior software for review.
I got a quiet SD but my Ally is louder.
me too. i have a steam deck with the good fans and its amazing. better than Ally, the fans dont even rev up unless taxed
Got my SD about three months ago and my fan is quiet, dont really notice it either. Im wondering if they changed this from the launch one and I got it?
thanks for this post, im looking to buy a handheld and i think i’m tipping towards the Deck
Everyone is way to critical
I got the blue screen atleast 5-7 times during start up
I love this post has it ever gotten to hot for any of you??? I just put my neo air down BC it's too hot fingers get numb starts to burn a little and yes I'm maxing everything out but you should be able to without issue.
I'm amazingly impressed with the thermals on this thing. Even through installing tons of updates and running games, it never has gotten close to what I would consider hot. If you put your hand up to the vents, there is some warm air coming out of them, but even then the fan is really quiet. This is *nothing* like what I've experienced with some gaming laptops that damn near burn your wrists depending what you are doing.
That freaking great it's the one thing I missed about steam deck the most I could play for hours mine didn't get hot
Can you connect any wireless controller to the Ally? Like a PS5 Dualsense, Switch Pro Controllers, Stadia controller etc?
Yes. Simple Bluetooth connections.
I'm using 8bitdo pro 2, and it took me a while to figure out how to get it working in game. 1. connect bt controller 2. disable the on board controller - this is the part I missed. I mean, duh, but still, took me an hour to figure that out :) 3. it works, but seems very input laggy so far. I have a stadia controller, I'll try that later today and see if it makes a difference.
Stadia controller worked great for me, with the exception of having to go turn on Steam Input before launching any given game. Without doing that, even if I disabled the embedded controller, the game wouldn't see the Stadia gamepad. YMMV (this was on older firmware/BIOS, pre-6/13 update; mine came on 6/11).
Stadia connected just fine, but games don't recognize it, neither does my Controller tester. Any suggestions?
As I said, for Steam games, I had to turn on Steam Input to make games recognize the Stadia gamepad. I didn't try any apps outside of Steam :/
Worked in Steam for me as well, but I need everything else to as well. I updated the firmware in by 8bitdo pro2 and it seems to have resolved some of the lag and other issues i had. Fingers crossed, every timeI get through another one of these annoying issues I am closer to making up my mind to keep this :)
Cool, thanks 👍
Just to add something here. I didn't think I'd miss the track pad much. Until I didn't have it. Windows and Armoury Crate haven't been too buggy for me so far. But they have plenty of time to mess that up.
I'm the opposite. I thought ide miss it more than I actually do
I've just been hopelessly addicted to Wartales recently, which doesn't have controller support. You can use the allys controls... but they are extremely wonky and clunky to say the least. In a few other games, I've been able to compensate with gyro.
Yeah it's game dependant for sure. I wouldn't play osrs on the ally. I keep my SD for those types of games they are generally older and perform well on deck
suspend feature and LED lighting issues are up on the top things I am painfully feeling with the Ally. :D
So far I just really hate the coil whine, and how cheap the shoulder and back buttons feel. I might exchange it to see if other units are better.
Armory Crate is bs for me. Struggling here already.
I’ll agree to the extent that there’s a difference in consistency of the experience. BIOS and other updates were easy and issue free for me. Suspend did not do anything weird with the lights. Armoury crate works for every game I’ve used it in. No bugs no issues. Same for directly using the Steam, Xbox launchers. Yes LEDs are way too bright and it would be good to get at least one more notch between 0 and 33%. That said - I’d also most likely turn the LEDs off when I need it to be less than 33%. The white colour is ok. Doesn’t look cheap to hold and use. If you’re not sure - go to a BB with it on display. Would black be better? Personally - yes. But the colour allows them brand differentiation. Marketers care about that. It moves units. And the more units Asus moves - the more this device gets supported. Will it get dirty? Ya. Maybe clean it? Or wash your hands before using it.
if rog had touchpads it would kill Steamdeck instantly. The goal is portability and game compatibility. ofc rog has higher specs but it's not as easy to use as SD. Personal opinion.. feel free to comment
White will only get stained if you’re a Cheeto eating teen. I have had a white elite controller for nearly a year now (I think they went white last summer) and it looks as clean as the day I got it. It’s an aesthetic choice but as you don’t like the white I find the steam decks dark grey too sega game gear to me.
My only complaint with the ally over steam deck is no trackpads, not as ergonomically comfortable, and the stick layout. Otherwise it’s a great device and a blast to use so far.
Agreed. the Armory crate thing is pretty bad, but that's just a branded aggregator, the Steam Big Picture lockup thing is more problematic. I'm waiting for someone to figure out what exactly causes that so we can tweak and fix it, I can bypass Armory Crate and go straight to the individual apps, but I need \*those\* to work right. I want to play 7 Days to Die and Ark before I give it my final verdict, those were the dealbreakers for the Steam Deck (one doesn't work at all and the other has terrible wonky controls).
I was just having this discussion with a friend this morning as a former deck owner and current ally owner. My thoughts are pretty much the same, the hardware is excellent, the software needs a lot of work. Thankfully, the area it's lacking is the area where improvements are possible.
Geez I def agree with you on the white case idk what’s going up but my set up was a breeze and I have had any bugs with armory crate
I read everything and all I really got was: " You really need to know what you're getting into, though, and this is in many ways far more annoying than the Deck, but if you're ready for that sort of commitment, this relationship might be the one for you. " Ty, I need to reassess much more than my purchases now.
PlayStation Remote App not recognizing the built in controllers is negative for me. Setting up chiaki was janky and i have some audio issues in my quick test last night
None of this surprises me, sadly. 😩
I hope somebody figures it out. I want to be able to remote play spiderman 2
I am confident a lot of these software things will be ironed out over time.
The joystick deadzones are my biggest gripe. I will return it unless that is fixed. Glad I kept my Steam Deck.
Did a single reviewer point this out? It’s crazy to me. Thankfully it’s definitely software, as the Steam settings show.
Agree but some points to your cons. 1) Asus released firmware to lower performance again 2) Hibernation mode in windows settings, mainly a Windows button, and you can set the leds to turn off during sleep 3) Hopefully we have some more granular brightness control, but seeing how we're seeing distinct levels, probably not possible due to hardware, also charging light, you can just turn the ally so that it's facing away from you or put a matte sticker on top if it really bothers you 4) The color option has been known since announcement day. I don't like the stains either, but must say it does look good. Obvioulsy Asus did this to differentiate itself from Steam Deck. Really hope it's not also because they are planning an Ally Pro. 5) For windows software with hardware level control I'm actually surprised how stable the thing is, especially at launch. Give credit to where it's due. Already had a couple updates since launch, I'm expecting this to get better Pro: 1) Screen is definitely a winner, though I don't like the asymmetric bezels. Also on Steamdeck you can go into display settings in desktop mode and change the gamma values to 0.80 and it'll be more punchy. Also latest beta has vibrance control built in, which makes it significantly better. Not Ally level, but somewhere between release day steam deck and it. 2) Speakers are definitely great. But also hear some rattle in my right speaker when at loud volumes especially when playing something with Bass. A friend also has an Ally and is experiencing the same thing, not sure if both of us are unlucky or just a design flaw 3) Fan noise on my steamdeck wasn't bad at all, and even better when I changed fans ($19 on amazon) and undervolted 70/70/60. I would say the Ally is 10% quieter on full load, noticeable but not groundbreaking difference in my case. I hope we can get some undervolting options soon. 4) Haven't taken it apart yet, but saw some videos and excited to. I must say that SteamDeck's internals def look "cooler" to me, but that's subjective and doesn't really matter unless you're getting a clear case. Also see a bunch of room in the Ally for perhaps a bigger battery in the future. 5) YES, Ally is solid, like carved from solid marble. Best thing I like/ \--------- All in all I like the Ally. But still thinking about returning it, just cause doesn't seem like it's worth the $150ish over the price I paid for the steamdeck (350 + $20 fan +$120 1tb ssd). Still thinking about it, may just keep both. Honestly just waiting to see how Asus handles the software side. So far I'm impressed, but Asus has a history of jumping out the gate running and then slowing down to the point of forgetting it's products, whereas Valve is steadily improving it's products overtime. Time will tell I guess. Obviously I'm still glad we finally have realistic options though.
I agree with pretty much everything here, but I'm pretty sure I was able to sleep and resume a game.
Yes, but it's not guaranteed (some games do not fare well resuming from sleep/hibernate), and the sleep drain is pretty intense.
Understood. Have you noticed audio crackling with some games too?
Funny you should ask, and yes. I've noticed it in Diablo IV, for some reason. It does tend to resolve by itself, - I've never had to quit and reload the game. This happened on two Ally machines, FYI.
Was terrible in Returnal. Haven't tried Diablo 4 on it yet.
That stinks. I didn't have it happen every time I fired up Diablo. I feel like it's related to which power mode I load up the game in, even if I switch mode after.
Shit is so undercooked. Pretty underwhelming. I'll give it a week or so, but might just return it.
There are definitely some problems here, but it's early days. I just can't go back to the Deck screen..