Remember how back in the day, if you wanted to take your PC gaming on the go, you had to first strap on a kidney belt and chalk up your hands before you could move your gargantuan tower around? These days, having the power of a proper gaming PC reduced to a form factor that won’t rearrange your spine isn’t a pipe dream, it’s a reality. We’ve had gaming notebooks from the likes of ASUS, MSI, HP, and Razer, and for anyone looking for something that’s even more transportable, there’s the Steam Deck.
It’s chunky, but brilliant hardware that pinches a few ideas from the Nintendo Switch and puts a Valve spin on it, and has also inspired an arms race for compact computing. Now, enter ASUS, a company that took a hard look at this line of hardware and wanted to make it even more mainstream. The ROG Ally is the end result, a good-looking piece of technology that packs an impressive selection of bleeding-edge hardware into a sleek shell.
Its got power, versatility, and some of the best ergonomic design that you can get your hands on. But it also has some of the worst software powering the entire experience.
Hardware
On a technical level, everything about the ROG Ally looks and feels impressive. The model that I spent a few weeks with was the top-of-line ROG Ally, one that sported a custom AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme APU chipset, 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and a 512GB NVMe SSD for storage. The screen is another attention-grabber here, as the seven-inch IPS display has a 1080p resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. Not too shabby.
As for the actual feel of the ROG Asus, this is ergonomic ecstasy. As someone who gets weird hand-cramps from the Joy-Cons on the Nintendo Switch and has swopped them out for Hori controllers that provide a more standard hand-feel, the ROG Ally is surprising with just how comfortable it is to hold for an extended period of time.
This model has sharp curves but subtle textures, and the weight, a mere 608 grams, makes it lightweight to use. That weight is evenly distributed throughout the entire body, creating a delicate balance between your hands while you’re exploring a sandbox or making your tyres scream as you drift around a corner in a racing game.
The controls are mostly solid as well, as ASUS has packed some terrific face and shoulder buttons into this design, added some extra paddles, and finished it off with a pair of superb analogue sticks. Sure, the layout probably won’t appeal to DualSense supporters, but if you’re used to an Xbox controller and its symmetrically arranged analogue sticks, then you’ll feel right at home here. The only downside? The D-pad, which is a single piece of molded plastic that doesn’t quite have the precision that you want. It works, but don’t expect to rely too much on this for a few rounds of Street Fighter 6.
The end result is a gaming setup that’s in line with the modern-day standard, one that conforms to virtually all games and gives you a responsive selection on inputs. Overall, the ROG Ally feels great to game on, and looks even better thanks to the top-notch screen that’s been installed.
It’s debatable as to whether or not you need more than 720p on a gaming display of this size, and while you have arguments for and against it, there’s no denying that anything you’ll play will look sharp on the ROG Ally. It has some glorious DXC anti-glare treatment for when you’re outside, scratch-resistant glass in case your cat decides to walk across it with their untrimmed claws–Hi Leo!–and its bright enough at 500 nits to illuminate your entire room when the lights go out.
This display thrashes the Steam Deck screen in a head-to-head showdown, especially when you see just how sharp games look on it. That 120Hz frame-rate makes the action appear ridiculously smooth for games with high frame-rates, which helps sell the power fantasy of the ROG Ally.
So what does all of that mean when it comes to actually playing games on this handheld PC?
Gaming
Now there’s a major caveat here. I had the ROG Ally in early May for two weeks and the firmware was basically overbaked. Yes, ASUS sent out review units across the world that weren’t ready to be reviewed properly, and as tech YouTuber Dave Lee (aka Dave2D) has explained, a recent firmware update that only works with the latest driver has resulted in 15-20% better performance. The good news is that the ROG Ally was already pushing out some great graphical performance even in this initial state, but with the software update? The gameplay footage you’re seeing throughout this review is going to look and run substantially better.
A quick further note as well: I’d stick to Turbo mode for games while charging, and performance mode while I was unhooked from the wall.
When it comes to raw numbers, the ROG Ally outperforms the Steam Deck by a massive margin. The AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme APU is designed to deliver more pixel-rich gaming experiences while ensuring that frame rates do not suffer. Yes, the ROG Ally will beat the Steam Deck hands-down with better performance, although the results may vary.
The ROG Ally’s performance domination boils down to how you’ve got an individual game set up and which resolution you’re running with. Personally, I think you’ll be just fine with 720p, and that’s where the hardware shines. Not only is it still a sharp transmission of images, but at that resolution, you’re going to get a silky-smooth framerate as games regularly run brilliantly at 60fps. Dial up the resolution to 1080p and you’ll, on average, see demanding games run between 45-55 frames-per-second, with this effect becoming noticeable during more intense sequences.
But overall, I was really impressed with what I saw on the ROG Ally. I ran it through a gauntlet of games, ranging from emulators to more modern titles, and with games like Cyberpunk 2077, Marvel’s Spider-man, and Dirt 4 cranked up between medium and high graphical settings, it was astounding to see them run so well on such a compact device. I’m a sucker for older games as well, so playing old favorites like Batman: Arkham Knight and Wolfenstein: The New Order at a high graphical fidelity also put a smile on my face.
Of course there are exceptions to the rule, and some games flatout refused to work properly during my testing. I know it’s not fair to use it as an example, considering just how bad a state it’s in on this platform, but Star Wars Jedi: Survivor flatout refused to work on the ROG Ally and the Resident Evil 4 Remake demo was a stuttering mess. This is where Valve scores a few points for the Steam Deck, because at least with its verified program, you know exactly what will work on that system and what won’t, as compared to the install-and-see-for-yourself approach that the ROG Ally has.
This is where the Steam Deck reigns supreme, because if there’s one thing that the ROG Ally makes abundantly clear, it’s that Windows is probably the worst operating system to have on a handheld gaming system.
Software
I’m not going to mince words here, Windows on the ROG Ally is a rage-inducing piece of software that should be classified as a war crime. Again, I’m writing this script in May 2023 and I’m hoping that by the time this review goes live after my embargo lifts, that ASUS has made some positive software strides. But I cannot stress enough just how much I hated Windows on this machine. It’s more awkward than square wheels on a car, and asking it to do anything properly the first time is a Herculean labor. Switching between apps, getting it to use some of the functions from the ASUS Armory, or watching it crash because an installation couldn’t complete… it’s a pain in the ass that I could live without.
Navigating through it isn’t much better either, and I say this as someone with incredibly dainty fingers. It was like trying to do brain surgery with a battle-axe instead of a scalpel, as this desktop OS has not translated well to the form factor of the ROG Ally. The silver lining here is that you do get a more flexible machine when it comes to installing games, as you’re free to add titles from Steam, Xbox, EA Play, Epic Games Store, and much more.
But it’s a ballache to do so, and one that’s hamstrung by Windows bullsh*t, especially when you see just how much better the bespoke SteamOS functions on the Steam Deck. There has got to be a better way to create a more intuitive gaming operating system that can leverage the versatility of Windows. Especially when I just want to lie back and get 90 minutes of gaming in.
Battery
There’s no getting around the fact that the ROG Ally does not have the best battery life. While it may have the same battery capacity of 40 watt-hours that the Steam Deck does, Valve’s machine uses its electrical juice much more efficiently. The best-case scenario, using games with the most modest of graphical requirements and with battery-saving options turned on, is around 3-4 hours on the ROG Ally. But then again, how many of you are willing to drop some serious cash on a handheld gaming device just for a few rounds of Papers Please and Into the Breach?
Realistically, using more modern games, you’re looking at around one to one-and-a-half hours from a full battery, which isn’t great. Sure, you can stretch your playtime to two hours or more by switching to lower graphical settings and limited framerates, but at the same time, anyone buying the ROG Ally is looking to acquire a handheld gaming device that doesn’t compromise. These times are also highly dependent on the games, as an hour with Spider-Man had the ROG Ally circling the drain while Batman: Arkham Knight was surprisingly longer-lasting. Go figure.
At least the ROG Ally recharges quite quickly with its included adapter, and if you leave it alone, you can easily have it refueled and ready to go in just over an hour. Handy stuff, when you know that load-shedding is on the way.
Conclusion
There’s a lot to like about the ROG Ally. There’s a lot to dislike as well, and the question for anyone looking to grab one is if you are willing to put up with some short-sighted design decisions to get uncompromised gaming while you’re out and about? There’s no denying the fact that the ROG Ally can handle almost anything you throw at it and hits back with bleeding-edge quality. But the trade-off here is that you’re going to have to deal with a terrible operating system and mediocre battery life.
It’s a compromise that’s unavoidable, and yet, even with those hang-ups, I still have a soft spot for the ROG Ally. I think it’s admirable that it’s willing to push portable PC gaming to this level. And it has a flexibility to it that puts the Steam Deck to shame. The fact that it contains all of this in a physical design that is drop-dead sexy helps as well, and the pricing puts it on par with Valve’s hardware.
| Asus ROG Ally Z1 Extreme review | |
It’s a phenomenal device, but one that comes with a few asterisks that you really need to consider before committing to it. |
7.5 |