Steam Deck vs ASUS ROG Ally - Which One Will I SELL?
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- Опубликовано: 6 июл 2024
- It's the ASUS ROG Ally up against the Steam Deck in today's hardware review, comparing these two handheld behemoths and going in depth on literally everything I could think of.
Yes, it's a slightly different review today, but having the Steam Deck in my possession this past year and now a week with the Ally, I was always going to be returning one of them, but which?
It's a HUGE review, and I won't lie my pedigree chums, the recordings aren't always the best, but what I really wanted to get through in todays review is how they both 'feel'. The issue with benchmarks is that they only tell half the story, whereas Reggie wanted to give more detail around the handhelds in every day use. So with that, I have kept away from as many technical numbers as possible.
So here come the Chapters:
Intro: 00:00
Note On Filming: 00:39
Packaging & Contents: 01:13
Ergonomics: 02:53
Connections: 05:49
Screen: 07:32
Software: 09:57
Battery: 15:19
Ally Issues: 17:38
ROG Peripheral's: 20:00
Ally SSD Install: 20:57
Benchmark Conditions: 21:59
American Truck Simulator: 23:27
Deathloop: 25:43
Diablo IV: 28:21
Divinity Sin 2: 31:32
Fallout 4: 33:51
No Mans Sky: 36:41
Resident Evil 4: 40:14
Shadow Of Doubt: 44:05
Shenmue 3: 47:16
Phasmophobia: 49:41
What One Will I Sell?: 51:00
#asusrog #steamdeck #handheld #asusrogally #allybenchmarks
PHANX RUclipsR (Subscribe to him for your Ally Needs): • Asus ROG ALLY SUPER EA...
Reddit Post on Deadzone: / psa_joystick_deadzone_...
SSD I used: sabrent.com/products/sb-213q-2tb 
Игры
I open myself up to all sorts of criticism on my admittedly average benchmarks, but my purpose is to really demonstrate the 'feel' between the two systems when all things are equal based on their native resolution. In my mind, it 100% depends on your own individual needs and the reality is the best handheld would be a mix of the two, with the Ally Design and power with the Deck software and battery.
I agree with your conclusion. The Steam Deck is a nice unit, but the Ally has the performance and a better screen. Battery life is not as big a deal for me as I will usually be near some power source and I bought a 100W power bank to use with it.
Thanks
bro back button and up on dpad bring up the keyboard for first setup lol!
Best review I've seen @cockneygamer. You focused a lot more on the experience of the console, and boiled it down to "this is why it works for me because this is how I use it". Appreciate the thoroughness and keeping the review updated in the comments as your issue with the SD card came out. I can tell a lot of work went into the video, thanks for the time. Not worried about benchmarks etc - I've been waiting for someone to tell me which one they reach for most of the time.
Very kind mate. I actually returned my Ally over the SD card issue and replaced it with… another Ally. I love my steam deck but the Ally just is a step up for my personal needs. Even with its issues, it’s a wonderful little device. Thank you so much for your kind words.
"No pause/resume feature on the Ally".
That's a deal breaker for me right there.
There may not be much Asus can do about that either since it's Windows. It's where Valve has a huge advantage they control everything about the OS and software and can make it do whatever optimize it however whereas Asus is at MS's whims.
Couldn’t you just minimize the game on windows?
I thought he said 'ISIS' at the beginning of this video and spit my sprite cranberry out of my mouth lol
😂
😂😂😂😂😂😂
IRA vs Taliban
Have you used the vibrancy plug in for decky loader, on the steam deck? It makes a huge difference on how the colors display, I can't use my steam deck without it anymore.
*UPDATE* - Sadly my Ally has sadly caused a failure of my MicroSD. This appears to be a developing issue with many on Reddit having the same issue and ASUS refusing to accept is is an issue at all. Worth noting the MicroSD continues to work in other devices as normal, it's just the Ally that it does not. Will be exchanging for a new unit but I suspect it will continue to happen. Just giving you all the facts since this video was uploaded!
I don't know about "ASUS refusing to accept is is an issue at all". They put out a press release Monday stating that they're aware of the issue are are looking into it.
Well, at least you have a hell of a screen which you spent the whole video praising as if it's the only thing that matters in a complete experience. A very polarizing review.
@@darkdagon6 did you even watch the video? I literally recommend people get the Steam Deck?! 😂
Well-organized and in depth review. Awesome
Thank you mate, appreciate that a lot
Great review!
really great video, and well presented. watch the whole thing!! ❤
That’s very kind of you to say mate! Appreciate that. Was certainly a tricky video to pull together so means a lot of you to comment that!
@@cockneygamer you can clearly see alot if time and effort was put in this !! look forward to more content
I'm a beginner in these types of devices but what I'm used to is the ps4 and xbox so if I wanna run both ps4 games and xbox in one of these handheld devices which one should I buy?
Do you mean retro Xbox? If so arguably the steam deck is better supported right now for emulation. Emudeck is on both handhelds but supported better on the Deck. But that is fast changing too.
If you mean like Xbox gamepass, then arguably the Ally is where you want to be as all launchers just work. Likewise the power is there to run a lot of these games. PS4 games that can be bought via steam such as God of War would run better in the ally, unless you are talking ps4 emulation.
@@cockneygamer yeah sorry I meant xbox one
I know you said you didn't optimize your Diablo 4 settings on the deck, but still the performance you were getting was so odd to me. Before even touching settings on D4 on my deck I was getting between 45-60 fps. After some fiddling with settings, i figured locking it to 50 fps with graphics on high provided me the best experience. So it's weird to see that you had to drop graphics down to low to get better performance.
Either way, great video man!
Very good point my man. I know various patches were released through out too but thank you for sharing as it’s good for people to know. As a side note, I know that particular down is quite draining graphically. Especially with so many other people wondering around. I will see outside the cities and towns that things improved dramatically. Thank you again’
When looking at battery life, it's worth noting that charging the Ally takes half the time of charging the Steam Deck. So, while battery life is shorter, overall, you can charge the Ally battery and be back to gaming while the Steam Deck is still charging. Just something else to consider.
Then again limiting tdp to 6-10w on deck games still run the same and temps drop alot.. This leads to gpu/cpu to keep boost higher and batterylife is boosted 30-60 minutes. And any other handheld cant even run games at that tdp.
I was close to getting the Ally but I just need the battery life when I’m on the move not to mention I got my Steam Deck during the steam spring sale for $350 ($390 because of tax and shipping) which put it at the same price as the oled Switch and recently picked up a 2TB ssd for $119 and in total spent around $509 for my 2TB Steam Deck which is significantly cheaper then the Ally. Around my area in NYC I’ve also seen 256GB Steam Decks go for around $250 barely used on Facebook marketplace which is a steal so for me it’s such a tough sell especially because I know the Ally has to be plugged in for max performance which I want but not at the cost of being stuck to a power bank or wall outlet to achieve that. I also feel that by the time Steam Deck 2 releases Valve and AMD will have found that performance/battery balance with the next chip while not having to be plugged into power constantly and probably have a better screen which will blow everything out of the water so I’m sticking with Steam Deck for now. If I do happen to stumble on a ROG Ally for a really good price later down the line maybe I’ll consider it.
Spot on mate. I feel overall the deck is the better buy… even though in my use case I prefer the Ally. I truthfully don’t get how the Valve team got their magic to work on so little power. It’s amazing.
Do you recommend buying the Ally over the Deck for playing pc games like Control, Jedi Survivor, Tomb Raider, Last Of Us, Dead Space Remake and MK11?
In terms of raw power… absolutely yes. Likewise for launchers it’s just easier.
However, this assumes you’ll be at home, plugged in to get that power and battery life. If however you think you’ll be on the move with your handheld and won’t have access to a plug, then the Steam Deck is the way to go. It’s incredible how much performance it produces on much lower power. It really depends on your individual use case, but for me personally it would be the Ally for games like you mention.
@@cockneygamer ok and have you had any setbacks with the current retail unit like joy stick drifting or buttons sticking etc. was going to get it yesterday as Best Buy has it in stock but don’t know if should wait a month or 2 once they get newer units in that might be better
No issues my end. There is a dead zone on the sticks that is software related and everyone is waiting for the fix. One thing to say in Bestbuy is I believe they do a 15 day return (double check that) so maybe look into it. I will say… the first 24 hours were not enjoyable for me at all… update after update and I didn’t feel like I was getting my moneys worth. Now though, I love it.
@@cockneygamer perfect and appreciate the feedback. Liked your take on this and good luck and hope your channel keeps growing as long you want to keep it going
Thank you lad, much appreciated. Indeed, would love to keep this growing. Alien Dark Descent will be my next review!
If the ally was black and had at least 4 paddles on the back then I’d seriously think about selling my deck and getting it but until then performance differences just are not big enough for me to pick it over my SD. I’ve got all the games I care about running on my SD and they run great. Cryoutillites make the SD run quite a bit better too.
They have black textured skins for
the ally
I’m willing to bet the ally doesn’t need the back pads. I think the steamos and desktop mode make it where sometimes the steam deck needs those extra pads. Not to many games will really need those keys. I think steam deck has them because the operating system modes. (Desktop/game pad)
1000000x more engaging than most of those boring gamer YT’s. Why they have more subs than you is beyond me.
Oh you Fantastical Fox you… that is honestly so kind of you to say. Comments like that keep me going. At present the data is showing we are growing as a gang around 180 subs per 28 days. So soon we take over the world!
So, still worth it with the microSD card heat issue?
A fantastic question mate and it’s a tough one. I’m on my second unit and so far so good.
Do I regret the Ally? Not at all. And do I regret selling my Steam Deck? Not one bit.
There is something truly brilliant about picking up the ally and having all that power with that amazing screen. And it feels better I think in the hands and way way lighter than the Deck.
But am I angry? Yes…. Because in my mind there is clearly some sort of inherent design flaw and I feel ASUS is slow to actually do anything or even admit there’s a problem. If they had it fixed I’d recommend an Ally hands down. But when you are paying $700 or so, surely you deserve everything to work. So it’s difficult for me to recommend over the deck right now unless you are ok with risk in the SD card slot failing potentially.
Oy Oy Balham market, from Tooting myself. Nice comparison vid, I'll stick with my Steam Deck for now as it does everything I want as I play a lot of indie games and emulation, I don't really play AAA titles, if I do fancy one I play it on my main box. Subbed and liked for a fellow Cockney geezer.
Totally lad… and in fact it’s the handheld I recommend for nearly all users. It’s honestly black magic. Thank you for the sub you diamond geezer.
Two docks and 3 charging bricks later and I still cant get the Ally to recognize my monitor. No quick resume, slow to wake up from sleep... lots of things that made me pack up my ally and take it back
I see “Cockney Gamer” and my ASMR and Gaming self perked right up and I immediately hit the sub button.🤘
I am at your service lad, and welcome to our gang! Appreciate your comment and sub.
@@cockneygamer Absolutely! Great video btw, I agree on pretty much everything you’ve said!
Lovely of you to say mate. But if you don’t agree, please always share. My opinions are just that. This channel belongs to you guys now, all I’m here to do is open up discussion and hopefully cause a little laughter where I can! Thanks again lad
Getting stutters? Goto armory crate, settings, operating mode and gpu settings and set the vram to auto. Its set to 4gb by default
I have the asus rog ally and when ever I play left4dead2 I experience some lag and glitches while playing it
I can’t comment on that particular game, but some people have found success by upping their VRAM to 8gb on certain games.
Have both and im gonna keep both but i know which one i’ll use the most it all comes down to being able to play all my games, better screen and better wifi. (Ally) the steam deck still has its advantages mainly low wattage gaming 10 and under.
Absolutely mate, and thank you for that comment. Fact is, and I should have noted this clearer, if you have the ability to, there is a scenario where both handhelds can co-exist peacefully together like an Xbox and PS5. They both have advantages over the other in different scenarios.
The track pads is what gave the Steam deck it's bulkiness and of course it's quality moldings, but I thought the screen on the steam deck was OLED?
On the deck? Oh I wish it was lad, because O would sell the Ally and rebuy the deck immediately!
@@cockneygamer I don't know?....I may just buy the ASUS Ally it does looks promising.
So I will say I’ve had to RMA my first Ally due to an micro SD card slot failure. A LOT of people on Reddit with same issue, so maybe hold fire and see how it plays out.
I just got rog ally & im also thinking about getting a steam deck aswell
You know… I honestly can see how they both exist. Deck would be my handheld that’s more in the go, especially when I need the battery, and Ally for when I’m close to a plug socket
Fun fact: there is no grip texture on the steam deck thumbsticks because the center of the sticks are touch sensitive. Dont believe me? Go play Prey 2017
Epic review
You absolute diamond geezer. Thank you good sir.
Been looking at the SD but l want to play MSFS and it looks like crap on the SD.
I'll be honest, I'm not sure how MSFS would work even on the Ally. Maybe the best way there (and indeed cheaper!) is to get an Xbox and play it that way. I think they even have peripherals you can use, which would still be cheaper than the Ally/Steam deck once totaled up (plus at 4k!)
@@cockneygamer l saw someone using game pass and it ran pretty decently. I have a PS5 and a One X that l barely use.
@@kevinjackson7539 oh that’s good to know. One thing I’d say about benchmarks I’ve seen on MSFS (not on handhelds but in general) is that they are usually in some mountainous region, at 10k feet above, and rarely inside the cockpit view. The real test is inside the cockpit, around 1-2k feet and always from inside the cockpit, as that really is where you would be running/learning to fly. The great thing about the ally is that you can easily hook up a mouse and keyboard with a dock and have it running at 1080p. The other good thing about flight sims is that generally speaking 30fps is pretty good given the slow movement of things on screen once high in the sky (and of course all the mods you can download).
@@cockneygamer Great points and that’s why I’m going with the Ally it’s a windows 11 pc
For me even with the Ally small issues, the SD has been out a year and had plenty of issues in the beginning. Both are great but the ally wins for me in the fact that i can play all my games from all sources without bootloading/ side loading or modding the system like you would have to with the SD. I also dont like the display on the SD and the huge ass bezels. They remind me of the OG switch. I love the more screen real estate of my Switch oled to compare. The ally is significantly quieter when it comes to fan noise as well and its over all form factor is more for me. But in this choice its a win win not matter what for us gamers.
You are spot on regarding the Ally's display. Its a major upgrade. Glad you mentioned the better touch screen responsiveness. Navigating Windows is much easier than Steam OS desktop mode using the touch screen.
But not easier than the trackpads , ups.
@@darkdagon6idk I have a steam deck and the track pad is nice yea but I only use the right track pad I’m getting a ally 2morrow I’m willing to bet the right analog stick moves and performs better than the steam deck which is veery annoying to the point the track pad makes it a big plus for deck to have.
Considering everything, I think my best bet would be to go for the steam deck, price point... stability, battery life and what not . But I want the Asus rog soo bad... something about having better screen and the aesthetic of it really calls to me 😂 but it's soo priceyyyy and SD is on sale ...
Oh mate I hear you…two questions that might help… 1) what type of games do you play? 2) will you play it a lot on the move?
Overall, right now, based on price, power, software etc, I think the Steam Deck is the better buy. It’s the one I would recommend. However it’s not the one that is right for me and I personally love the Ally!
i am soo soo sorry i didn’t understand a single word of what you were saying
Somebody wasn’t using vibrant deck on their steam deck… you know you can use the vibrant deck feature and get the same saturation and color that you can get on the rog ally…
Vibrant Deck doesn't expand the Steam Deck display's color gamut (Only 68% sRGB).
I have both SD and ally atm and I use vibrant deck on the SD. Even with vibrant deck there is no comparison between screens. Ally screen blows SD screen out of the water.. Its not even in the same league, not even remotely close.
I personally never used vibrant deck but my understanding is that all it does is saturate colours. Which understandably makes it look a little more active in screen… but you’re always limited by the 800p unit and the color gamut range?
Solid review, as you point out how the SD is still the better buy overall, but how most of what makes it a Deck are features you really have no need for. Me and my son would vote the same way, as I'm more in to the features of the deck, and while I would love a better screen, or a smaller device, I know that will happen when the revision comes along(and none of it is a deal breaker for me).
My son on the other hand, would prefer the better screen, the higher refresh rate, etc. He would also rather use Windows, as that would work out better for what he needs to do, I personally can't stand windows, and would never want it any were near a gaming device. Both are great devices with an amazing value, but personal preference is what it all comes down to, and there is no wrong answer.
100000% lad. Exactly right. And I’ll be honest, if Steam Deck 2.0 comes out next year with a better screen and more performance, I’ll probably sell my Ally. It’s hard to say “this is the one to buy” because as your rightly say, it totally comes down to how you would use such a device. However, if I was pushed to recommend a device to anyone it would be the Steam Deck, even though that’s personally not what I would go for. Thank you for taking the time to put your thoughts down.
I went to Best Buy to check out the Asus rog ally and couldn't even make it through the Forza Horizon 4 demo, started somwhat fine and instantly began to stutter. The Stutter got worse and worse until the game crashed, couldn't exit the game it was stuck on the frozen screen. Maybe the Best Buy employees didn't know how to set it up. Experienced issues with SD but never that bad.
I had exact same issue at my bestbuy! Was truly awful. I hear some aren’t even plugged in and I think the demo stands just aren’t setting these up correctly. I assure you though in real life it’s genuinely brilliant and Forza is smooth as butter!
@@cockneygamer Yeah, I figured that after seeing endless video of the rog Ally. I've read that there is a lot of tinkering involved, more so than the SD. Yeah, I'm dying to get one just gotta convince my wife or buy her a Prada purse haha.
@@panamike6178 ha ha ha… that sounds like an expensive gift. I’ll be honest mate… I HATED the Ally in the first 24 to 36 hours. It was just update after update, with juggles, download and general nonsense. I never had that issue with the Steam Deck. But… one you get it all set up, running how you like, my enjoyment factor is far greater than I has with the deck.
I convinced my wife by promising to either return the ally or sell the steam deck as technically that would make it “free”…. Little does she know.
I agree I've never actually gotten epic game store to work correctly on the steam deck!
Very disappointing
Lack of skill
Rog ally 100!
you would have thought ladies would get 240 volt handheld devices by now
This guys tone tells it all. Also battery is great for the device. Try complaining about gaming laptops and you’ll get laughed at. It’s like saying the switch is better because the battery last longer. You can’t have it all guys, power means power and you need more the more you have.
I truly think software updates are going to solve a lot of the battery concerns, especially on indie titles. I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised if we get a 5w option at some point which will help massively
I love the porn references you make in this review lmao
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Can you compare MW2 on both devices. Oh wait…. thats right.
Hahah
MW2 plays great at a solid 60 fps low/medium settings on steamdeck. There's one down for ya :).
Haha I’m dual booting steam os and windows 11 on my deck as we speak off my newly installed 2TB drive. MW2 workin just fine over here 😊
I found that if you're used to gaming on a PC, which is the target audience arguably, then the Asus Ally delivers exactly what you might expect.
External graphics cards seem to be a thing you might do if you want to hook it up to your living room TV at 4k.
Diablo 4 was easy and ran well on Asus Ally. And any games that use anti cheat software might make having Windows 11 useful.
Lately, ASUS has received a lot of criticism for it's faulty hardware and it has already started to happen with the Ally.
My Ally bricked after a forced update. I could've either troubleshot the problem or swapped it out, but I instead went for the refund. The BestBuy cashier placed the Ally on a shelf literally filled with other Ally's. I thought those were for sale so I asked him if they just resell the returns without even looking at them first and he informed me that the loaded shelf were all returns that were going to be sent back to Asus. That was a bit shocking.
The steam sucked at launch why does no one mention this everyone says oh rog ally bad when it just came out the steam deck came out a year ago it sucked at first but look at it now I am gonna wait though just to see what asus does
@@CJTheTokay Simple. Asus has a bad history with technical problems and piss poor customer service.
@@CJTheTokayThe SD wasn’t half as bad which is why it still sold
@@jmelz155 the ally is still selling there are lots of people who have said that the ally is doing better now than the sd did at first
The Asus ROG Ally is absolute trash... Im sad to say... mine lasted 2 weeks, before the SD card reader fault reared its ugly head, and just locked the system up completely, any time a card was in the slot. I can forgive the early adoptor issues, the terrible buggy Asus Armory Crate, the input lag.. the joysticks deadzone issues, (not really into FPS here)... and the endless, endless updates and crashes to desktop, that windows environment entails. And the fact that you actually spend more time setting up the system for your games, and then problem solving why your game isnt running properly, than actually playing it... What I cant forgive is the mind numbingly brain dead decision to put the SD card reader, right next to the power distribution chips, and on top of the exhaust fan.... a child could have forseen that would be a problem. Such a shame.
Not going to argue with any of this mate. Since doing this video, I’ve experienced similar problems. I’m now on my second Ally. If another problem persists I’m just going to get a refund I think.
Not even mention steam input
Steam input works on the ally as it’s just a standard Xbox controller set up. I’ve downloaded profiles no problem. So it’s not really a plus to either system here other than being good for us consumers.
Look like my comment didn't go through probably deleted by automated system.
But I was saying, then you should have talk about heavy key binding games, like Battlebit remastered being unplayable without virtual menus, on steamdeck we have extra input hardwares which is trackpads.
But ally you have to make mode shift on sticks instead.
I literally say it’s missing trackpads which in certain games is needed?
@@cockneygamerwhich mean I completely missed that part.
@@chariothe9013 03:35 :-D
Very cockney :)
I’ve had to tone it down sadly… had too many complaints that people couldn’t understand a word I was saying!
I love not understanding what you say though. That’s the beauty of your English, you sound like Michael Caine, don’t change anything about it mate 🤘🏼
I would never ever buy a STEAM deck, I don't like the concept of buying something to rent something.. Yes why buy a gaming tablet for rented games.. For watching movies maybe I would go ROG... Steam is just a big corrupt company.