Asus Rog Ally – Great piece of hardware that came at a cost

The Asus Rog Ally is live and pre-order are open.

Tests are also released and we now know the ups & the downs of the new Asus handheld device that aims to compete with the Valve Steam Deck.

Reminder:

2 versions are available on the US, the only difference is the CPU: AMD Z1 for the cheapest version (599$) and Z1 Extreme for the most expensive one (699$)

Out of US, only the Z1 Extreme is open to pre-order, no info if the cheapest Z1 will be release or not.

Pre-order are open and the delivery date is set for the 13th of June 2023.

Both version came with Windows 11, 16 gigabytes of DDR5 ram, 512 gigabytes of storage, 7″ full HD with 120hz refresh rate.

Now if we sum the pros & cons from the testers:

The AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme is delivering 8.6 Tflops, while the AMD Ryzen Z1 gives 2.8 Tflops

PROS:

• Very powerful with the Z1 Extreme version, it can run at 60fps Cyberpunk 2077 in full HD with low – medium settings
• Nice to have in hands, the 608 grams of weight are not a problem
• Crisp and very nice screen
• 120hz refresh rate makes a big difference in games
• The device can run any library of games, any launcher available on Windows 11
• The cooling system is very efficient and quiet. The heat dispersion is very well done and the device is never hot.
• Rog XG Mobile compatibility for home gaming with and RTX 4090 mobile or an RX 6850M XT.

CONS:

• The battery life is ridiculous at the maximum power setting: around 45 minutes and can last up to 3 hours in low to medium power.
• Armoury Crate has bugs and often crash
• Some games don’t recognize the controllers buttons, some games are not working because they need mouse and keyboard
• Buttons may stay stuck on some occasion

CONCLUSION

Asus and ADM showed that it’s possible to innovate in PC portable handheld with a great piece of hardware. But it came at the cost of a mediocre battery life if you want to use the device at its full potential, which is the point when you purchase a device with the latest AMD chip. But some can argue than 40-60 minutes of fun is enough but then comes the software big issue: Windows 11 is clunky, drain extra battery and you need a lot of tweak between games profiles, game settings and device power consumption to get the best of the device, which is a huge pain point, even if you play near your outlet.

With rumors that a Steam Deck may come soon, or the highly anticipated Switch 2, better to wait a bit and see the answer from the competitors.

But if you are looking for short gaming sessions on the sofa, then use the device to work at your desk, and then plug it to the ROG XG Mobile and game on your big TV, you have the perfect all-in-one device for that.