The first console with AMD Ryzen Z1 APU released ASUS ROG Ally features Zen4 and RDNA3 architectures. The day has come, says AMD. ASUS has finally launched its ROG Ally gaming console based on AMD hardware. This is the first handheld console developed by ASUS and the first console to ever feature t...
I use my Steam Deck as a portable console too. My laptop is a super ultra light thing (XPS 13) that can't run games very well to begin with, but that's fine since I have it for work anyway. In the end, the two of those together still cost less than a competent (and new) gaming laptop. And I don't even have to put up with Nvidia's terrible Linux drivers!
only 2 back triggers to learn to avoid and/or deal with
minus:
single usb-c
it's on the top
no nifty touchpads
cloud restore only works if your warranty is active apparently which i promise will be annoying
nightmare:
the windows 11 and asus trashware startup experience; i mean my god, i had to do the cloud reinstall to even use the thing
on first boot OOBE i tried to just login with my existing personal ms account which i guess was my first mistake, but it worked fine. i added a fingerprint and it also worked fine. i then added a PIN and it also worked fine. windows downloaded updates and demanded a reboot which is fine. it rebooted and i logged in with a thumbprint just fine. then armoury crate said HEY FIRMWARE UPDATE DEMANDS REBOOT so ok fine reboot and down the spiral we go. fingerprint doesn't work. PIN fails, "something went wrong" with a side of 0xd0000225 over and over. check bios, v317. event viewer says something about some exe with "biometric" in its title failing repeatedly. looks like i have to update through armory crate again? oh, the asus app? does that require me to sign up? it sure looks like it does... ok no, just dark patterns. more updates. more failed login attempts and the most alerts from MS authenticator i've ever had in one afternoon. bios v319, windows and my asus and armoire box all claim everything's as up to date as one can get, but you're sure gonna have to get a notification and cancel a request to reset your PIN on each login
i genuinely thought it might be headed for a refund, but shift+f10 and OOBE\BYPASSNRO after cloud restore let me make a local account and it's been smooth since, but i've barely installed we <3 katamari reroll on it
It's complicated. I work for a FOSS company and I like what the WINE team and Valve have accomplished with proton. However, a lot of games struggle with cut scenes even with GE proton. A couple examples are Call of Juarez Gunslinger (the cut scene audio is crackly) and Persona 5 strikers (the cutscenes are missing the dialog). Games that will not enable the anticheat are also, obviously, a no go. Not the fault of Linux or Valve, but still a consideration.
One other feature that Windows offers is cloud syncing for games that store their saves in the user's Documents folder if they enable onedrive. For games without Steam cloud saves, it's simpler than setting up syncthing or copying the saves manually.
I picked up a ROG Ally yesterday and I also own a Steamdeck. The Ally definitely has rougher edges in software. I'm still debating if I am going to keep it, but some of the Windows pros are a strong consideration. I think what is unsung is how flawless the Switch is with it's docking and undocking experience. IMO neither the Deck or the Ally come close in that regard.
How did you manage to launch CMD from the Ally? Is it possible using the built-in touch keyboard during setup? I don't have a USB-C keyboard to connect, unfortunately.
It‘s really great to see more companies making mobile gaming PCs.
The overall quality of these devices has really improved tremendously over the past few years.
Although the Ally doesn‘t appeal to me personally, as I‘d really miss the Steam Deck‘s touch pads, its great OS and all the mods the community has already built for it, I‘m really glad to see more companies throwing their hat in the ring.
Mobile PC gaming seems to no longer be just a niche market, and that‘s great!
Hardware side is really impressive, but i prefer the steamdeck for now
For 2 reasons mainly :
Steam os
Touchpad
i play several games on the go where i use some type of mouse input and will not able to play them on the ally on the go, also i don't have gamepass and do not play competitive games where is necessary a kernel level anticheat (except vermintide sigh) so i'm really fine with proton and gaming with it.
I mainly play on linux even on a desktop so probably i'm really biased
ChimeraOS and HoloISO are pretty good options for 3rd party handhelds, but I agree, it would be so much better/easier if Valve did that and ultimately it would probably be a win-win for them.
I preordered one and got it on Monday after having the Steam Deck for almost a year now and being pretty much exclusively a Linux user (at home) for more than that. The hardware is impressive but I was less than happy with it shipping with Windows 11. I mainly got it to reverse engineer the RGB and add it to OpenRGB, after that my plan is to run some flavor of Linux exclusively on it.
Out of the box, the Windows 11 setup experience is absolute garbage as usual. Want to avoid logging in with a spyware account? You need to break out an external keyboard and USB dock, look up the key code to open a terminal online, then enter some cryptic command to reboot the system with the shitty Internet requirement disabled. Basically just to be able to bypass the Microsoft account bullshit like you could in Windows 10. Upon logging in, ROG software pops up and immediately starts making you agree to TOS nonsense. The OOBE is atrociously bad here.
That said, installed Steam to test and even in Windows the Big Picture experience is pretty solid. Can't do the fancy stuff like TDP control through Steam like you can with the Deck, but it's definitely a better interface than the ROG nonsense. Played some Risk of Rain 2 to test, ran quite smoothly, smoother than on the Deck for sure.
Then I tried installing ChimeraOS to a micro SD card using a USB flash drive for the installer. I was able to get into BIOS rather easily (hold Volume Down while the start animation plays) and disabled Secure Boot. Then I installed ChimeraOS to the SD card with an Ethernet connection for network. Unfortunately, after it installed I discovered the Ally can't boot from micro SD cards, so dual booting is going to be difficult. I was able to boot the card in an external USB reader, so the card was fine. No WiFi in ChimeraOS but maybe I needed to install updates/firmware, haven't had time to experiment.
Mostly have been working on reverse engineering the RGB. There are some built in modes and the ability to sync with other Aura devices. This can be controlled through the Armoury Crate software. I was able to get basic per-LED control working in OpenRGB but need to figure out how to control the built in modes before I'm done and ready to push it.
Other main gripes - no touchpads. Controlling a mouse pointer with a joystick is pretty terrible in comparison. Only one rear button per side rather than two. Not a 16:10 screen. The rainbow looking strip on the back is not RGB as I thought from pictures, it's just a holographic strip. The only RGB is around the sticks.
I have a Ayaneo 2 otherwise I would be ALL OVER the Ally. It just seems like such a great buy if you're looking for an alternative to the steamdeck. The biggest + for me with these windows handhelds is Xbox Game Pass. I love Steam to death, but native Game Pass support is a really nice perk for the windows handhelds.
Since these are amd's marketing tdp numbers, the actual limit would be 35% higher at 20W for van gogh and 40W for Z1e. Both handhelds have 40000Wh batteries and steam deck already dips below 1.5 hours with some games, meaning the screen, cooling and conversion losses add up to 6W.
If people continue to play their games at 800x1280x60 on the rog ally it will last longer but if they try utilizing the better screen and faster apu it will have much worse battery life. It also needs stronger cooling or it will inevitably ruin hotter reducing battery efficiency, and it has a brighter&faster screen too.
Whenever one of these handhelds pops up the main selling point is always "more powerful than the steam deck!" or "steam deck is only 720p 60hz!" But no one seems to understand that valve picked that specific hardware for a reason. The 720p screen uses less power and the APU doesn't have to push a 1080p panel on a handheld meaning more battery life, the APU at the time was probably the most power efficient for the performance so the battery doesn't last for only an hour, it last for 4 or 5 (not sure on exact numbers). The ROG ally is probably going to run very hot compared to the steam deck, but that's speculation on my part. Valve is full of smart individuals, they didn't pick the hardware they did on a whim, that's where the difference is going to show between these devices and the steam deck.
The lack of touch controls was a red flag for me, too. Having a trackpad as a backup input device for menus and things seems like it'd be pretty important, but I don't have a Steam Deck so maybe I'm wrong.
Performance numbers alone, yes. It's a newer CPU on a newer node. Absolutely. The screen is also 120hz, and 1080p.
User experience wise, I don't think so. Windows 11 is barely functioning for me on a desktop, how is it going to handle on a console device? Rog software has been pretty crappy on desktop too, it's similar here. The videos I've seen show a wonky experience.
Its not all bad, but it isn't a direct competition. I think the Steam Deck delivers a tailored experience, while this delivers a laptop in a small package.
Yeah I think the market for "I will also use this as a laptop" is so small that the vast majority of people wont factor that in, and for the 19 people that will genuinely use this as a traveling computer it will be great for them. But by and large I think 90% of people that wanted a "switch but for my PC games" already jumped on the steamdeck backwagon and there just arent that many more sales to pick up from that market segment