Thank you for saying so, I really appreciate it. I went back and forth when making this video trying to decide if people were sleeping on game streaming on the Ally, or if it was so obvious it wouldn’t be worth mentioning 😅 I think game streaming really is missing from ASUS’s marketing because they didn’t want it to be seen as a “stupid expensive Logitech G Cloud”, which is fair enough. On steam deck it’s more obvious as the steam link integration is right there, but on Ally setting up Moonlight is the way to go. Maybe they couldn’t market game streaming for the Ally because they don’t have a built-in solution. Thats my thoughts anyways ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Price is Crazy... But honestly all the high end handhelds are a bit out of control... I paid about 650 for the Steamdeck Oled after tax and thats not even the top tier version. I think you are better off putting that money in a Desktop if you don't already have one... If you have a beefy Gaming PC then a Handheld is just a bonus.
This is the way 👆I think there are peeps out here thinking they’re gonna buy this and have a desktop class gaming experience, because the marketing for these handhelds plays up that aspect of it. If you wanted desktop gaming before you bought a handheld, you’re still gonna want desktop gaming after you bought the handheld. If you want desktop class gaming, you gotta just invest in a solid gaming PC. Handheld is a bonus like you say, especially when you can game stream to it after your gaming PC is already gucci to go-go.
@@dylanmacintosh ok perhaps I will want a new desktop at some point but portability in my rig is top priority and since I'm not a hardcore PC gamer, just getting my feet wet with PC gaming through an Ally Extreme and being able to play all my retro stuff booting into Batocera Linux is super sweet - adding Windows to my mix of Ubuntu (home server), macOS, iPadOS, and Android gives me a lot of options - I guess I'm just a generalist and don't go to massively deep in any area to notice what I'm missing!
@@knifeknerdreviews4609 699 for a 1080 high end lcd with 120hz refresh rate, 80w battery, 1tb ssd, a solid apu, built in controllers, fantastic speakers, phenomenal cooling system, WiFi 6e, and even faster charging is more like a steal. The fact that this thing can literally be used for normal pc things by just docking it is incredible. Sure 699 for an item is no slouch but it’s fairly price when you look at what it does as a whole. It’s not like you have to buy this ever year. I have a built 3080 desktop and the ally x will be perfect for me since I travel a lot. I’m never away from a power outlet or battery pack , and I’m never just sitting on a train or something that requires more than 3 hours battery which this will do (game dependent) I have a steam deck Oled and it’s great but I will be selling for this so that I can have access to all of my libraries , steam, gog, epic for the freebies, and game pass. Literally setting up the device is easy , plug into a dock download your launchers and never really have to use windows again unless you want to go back and add emulators. As much as I like the SD Oled I’m not a fan of the 16:10 aspect ratio with getting black bars or stretched image. It’s an Indie, emulator beast with ease of use for sure but not what I’m looking for when another device does everything I need. Unfortunately I can’t take my 3000 dollar gaming pc with me so the ally works great on the go and I’m not expecting to get that type of performance on the ally.
@@udance4ever That makes total sense to me! If I was just getting into gaming these days, and could only have one device, I would totally gravitate towards the higher end handheld models like Ally X. Super portable and flexible. But like you say, you've got a lot of options there so it's hard to choose just one. I've been using my Ally for anything from gaming to 3D design and 3D printing. It's just a really handy, fun device. More videos coming soon!
Yessir. Hit the mark for me, already have a beefy PC and since I don't own a handheld and the X is about to come out I was decided might as well get a brand new handheld that's about to come out. (also I like the white but I need the black design lmfao)
They don’t make the Oled because there are no VRR Oled panels of this size and would cost a ton to make for one company. I have the steam deck Oled and will get the ally x because while the SD Oled is nice I do miss having all my native launchers and all my games not buying games twice just to fill my steam library. The lcd panel is the ally is very nice and I much prefer having the option for 1080 p and 16:9 aspect ratio. Both are great devices just depend on your use case.
i ended up getting a steam deck for less than 400$ on sale and i’ve been streaming with it more than playing locally! not only for the performance but also because i don’t wanna download everything twice!!
Yesss storage is a big bonus with game streaming too! I thought about including it in this video but it really depends what storage you’ve got in your gaming pc. I think most people have 1-2TBs in a gaming PC but I guess you could also install the same size drive in a Windows handheld. The true benefit being exactly as you said though, you don’t have to download everything twice. If you don’t want to wait to play, just stream from your gaming pc- done deal you’re already playing 👌
@@dylanmacintosh it’s so convenient to not only not have to wait for the game to download but not have to spend more for storage in the handheld, i have 4tb in my pc and id rather just use that
@@tparty2123 exactly, it definitely saves money too. A 4TB nvme ssd costs like $250-300 bucks rn if you wanted to put that in the Ally it would make the price go up like another 50% depending on which model you got 🙂↔️ better to put that storage in your PC, and just stream it
@@mreverybody1150 that’s a good point, although it’s just very convenient to just launch moonlight and play, especially from going to desk to couch or to handheld, but if you’re going on a trip where the internet won’t be as good i see that being pretty useful
Great question, but it’s nothing too crazy- my gaming PC is wired into my wifi router, which is a TP Link Deco XE75 (non pro). It’s WiFi 6E, so I’m using the 6GHz band on my devices that support it, like the ROG Ally. But when I check the Moonlight analytics it says 1080p 120hz takes around 28Mbps, so it really doesn’t have much trouble on the network side, especially since my Gaming PC is wired in via Ethernet. It’s just my client devices like ROG Ally that have to worry about the WiFi Bandwidth. The real benefit to being on the 6GHz band more than just the speed (there’s more than enough even on 5GHz) is that it’s not bogged down by everything else on my network on the 2.4 or 5GHz bands. The only devices connected to the 6GHz band at any time are the devices I use for game streaming. That might change as I buy more devices that support Wi-Fi 6E or 7 as it becomes more popular in the future, but for now, that’s just the way the cards fall, on my network at least. I hope this helps, but please let me know if you’re having any more questions. Cheers!
@@dylanmacintosh Thanks for the detailed response. I too shifted the PC to a wired ethernet connection and have noticed almost rock solid streams. I'm using my secondary phone paired with a Kushito run games at 720p &120Hz connected to a bog standard Dual Band Tp link router. Have tried a virtually display to run at native 21:9 resolutions and keeping the PC headless. Thanks for the great content and engagement. Happy gaming!
@@MohammadImranM That’s awesome to hear! I’m glad someone else is running 21:9 headless because that’s something I struggled with for a long time 😅 but it’s so awesome once it’s working great. I just wish there were more laptop-type form factors to use as 21:9 “thin clients” but, I digress since phones are usually in that ultrawide range when held horizontally, as you have found as well. Awesome stuff! Thanks for the kind words and of course for watching and commenting, it’s much appreciated 🙏
I prefer Steam Deck due to emulation and OLED screen. Yeah, I know it is expensive and "bad" specs, but not a big deal when you are 100% satisfied of your product
Steam Deck OLED looks awesome. One of my friends got one of the transparent with red/orange accents and it is sooooo sick looking I can’t wait to try one.
You know that emulation isnt a SD adventage because it works perfect on rog ally as well? The olny and huge adventage is OLE screen and not always, sometimes I prefer Rog due to VRR but for indies and less demanding games SD is perfect
I think the Logitech G Cloud will be a better fit for game streaming: lighter, very good battery life, screen is amazing, control is good too and cheaper.
This would be a great comparison video. For $299 it is definitely cheaper so that’s a huge plus, however the screen is only 60hz, not 120hz like the Ally. It runs Android which is fine for most people, but won’t play windows games locally, just Android games. Also I’ve really grown attached to the Windows client controlling the Windows host for the reasons I stated in this video. So I f I’m stepping down to a 60hz display on an Android device, then I might as well use my phone with an Xbox controller attached, and if I’m spending $299, I would strongly recommend spending the extra $100 to get the base model Ally on sale with 120hz display, and full Windows operating system, also allowing you to play lots of Windows games on the handheld itself instead of “only” relying on game streaming like the G Cloud. So, while a great suggestion, for my needs I prefer the Ally. But definitely a great comparison!
They bring out the new x version but all it has is more storage and 16 more GB like how can you charge so much for it it’s the exact same as the old one in my opinion not worth the bump price of the x version
I agree with both of your points, and I don’t think the Ally X redesign is in vain- I think for the right person it makes sense. But if you’re game streaming anyways, my point is it’s more of the same for a lot more money. Some peeps just want the best of the best and that’s okay too. I have no qualms with the Ally X other than that it’s more expensive 🤑
@@wikwayer that’s okay, thank you for being honest, and thank you for tuning in and commenting, I appreciate the feedback. The tldr for this reasoning is that the Windows client controlling the Windows host works better than any other client type that I’ve tried, because the native inputs from the Windows handheld client can be processed natively on the Windows host, like the thumb stick mouse, the button clicks, even the dpad, touchscreen, pop up keyboard, everything. So for some folks who know what they are looking for this is worth the money for the convenience, but for most people you should still try streaming on your other devices you already have first, like a phone etc. But if you already have a Windows handheld, you owe it to yourself to try game streaming with moonlight. Again thank you for watching and commenting.
I’m wondering why you think so? 🤔 This device in particular very clearly plays games on its own, just not in 1080p 120hz like the built-in screen can do. So why not stream games and play on the comfortable form factor of the Ally in 1080p, 120hz? I also like to point out that this is self-hosted, not a cloud subscription like Xbox or GeForce NOW- it’s totally free to try it so why not?
![BEST Gaming Handheld in 2024!? [Steam Deck OLED | Ally X | Legion Go | Claw]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/czoKrKcgHaY/mqdefault.jpg)
![BEST Gaming Handheld in 2024!? [Steam Deck OLED | Ally X | Legion Go | Claw]](/img/tr.png)
Subscribed. This is the info we all need.
Thank you for the kind words 🙏
This is an excellent review, other channels have not highlighted the game streaming ability. Thanks.
Thank you for saying so, I really appreciate it. I went back and forth when making this video trying to decide if people were sleeping on game streaming on the Ally, or if it was so obvious it wouldn’t be worth mentioning 😅
I think game streaming really is missing from ASUS’s marketing because they didn’t want it to be seen as a “stupid expensive Logitech G Cloud”, which is fair enough. On steam deck it’s more obvious as the steam link integration is right there, but on Ally setting up Moonlight is the way to go. Maybe they couldn’t market game streaming for the Ally because they don’t have a built-in solution. Thats my thoughts anyways ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
you can get the one with z1 extreme for $400usd in the used market. I got mine on ebay for that price and Im happy with ir
That’s quite a deal! I’m glad you’re enjoying the ROG Ally, they’re great devices.
Congrats man! Quality content !
Appreciate it!
Price is Crazy... But honestly all the high end handhelds are a bit out of control... I paid about 650 for the Steamdeck Oled after tax and thats not even the top tier version. I think you are better off putting that money in a Desktop if you don't already have one... If you have a beefy Gaming PC then a Handheld is just a bonus.
This is the way 👆I think there are peeps out here thinking they’re gonna buy this and have a desktop class gaming experience, because the marketing for these handhelds plays up that aspect of it. If you wanted desktop gaming before you bought a handheld, you’re still gonna want desktop gaming after you bought the handheld. If you want desktop class gaming, you gotta just invest in a solid gaming PC. Handheld is a bonus like you say, especially when you can game stream to it after your gaming PC is already gucci to go-go.
@@dylanmacintosh ok perhaps I will want a new desktop at some point but portability in my rig is top priority and since I'm not a hardcore PC gamer, just getting my feet wet with PC gaming through an Ally Extreme and being able to play all my retro stuff booting into Batocera Linux is super sweet - adding Windows to my mix of Ubuntu (home server), macOS, iPadOS, and Android gives me a lot of options - I guess I'm just a generalist and don't go to massively deep in any area to notice what I'm missing!
@@knifeknerdreviews4609 699 for a 1080 high end lcd with 120hz refresh rate, 80w battery, 1tb ssd, a solid apu, built in controllers, fantastic speakers, phenomenal cooling system, WiFi 6e, and even faster charging is more like a steal. The fact that this thing can literally be used for normal pc things by just docking it is incredible. Sure 699 for an item is no slouch but it’s fairly price when you look at what it does as a whole. It’s not like you have to buy this ever year. I have a built 3080 desktop and the ally x will be perfect for me since I travel a lot. I’m never away from a power outlet or battery pack , and I’m never just sitting on a train or something that requires more than 3 hours battery which this will do (game dependent) I have a steam deck Oled and it’s great but I will be selling for this so that I can have access to all of my libraries , steam, gog, epic for the freebies, and game pass. Literally setting up the device is easy , plug into a dock download your launchers and never really have to use windows again unless you want to go back and add emulators. As much as I like the SD Oled I’m not a fan of the 16:10 aspect ratio with getting black bars or stretched image. It’s an Indie, emulator beast with ease of use for sure but not what I’m looking for when another device does everything I need. Unfortunately I can’t take my 3000 dollar gaming pc with me so the ally works great on the go and I’m not expecting to get that type of performance on the ally.
@@udance4ever That makes total sense to me! If I was just getting into gaming these days, and could only have one device, I would totally gravitate towards the higher end handheld models like Ally X. Super portable and flexible. But like you say, you've got a lot of options there so it's hard to choose just one. I've been using my Ally for anything from gaming to 3D design and 3D printing. It's just a really handy, fun device. More videos coming soon!
Yessir. Hit the mark for me, already have a beefy PC and since I don't own a handheld and the X is about to come out I was decided might as well get a brand new handheld that's about to come out. (also I like the white but I need the black design lmfao)
Would be nice to see ASUS make a OLED Ally.
Right?? Now THAT would be a different story…
They don’t make the Oled because there are no VRR Oled panels of this size and would cost a ton to make for one company. I have the steam deck Oled and will get the ally x because while the SD Oled is nice I do miss having all my native launchers and all my games not buying games twice just to fill my steam library. The lcd panel is the ally is very nice and I much prefer having the option for 1080 p and 16:9 aspect ratio. Both are great devices just depend on your use case.
I don't want to pay 1k 😂
They seem dedicated to keeping VRR and not downgrading.
Got the extreme for $485 excellent open box . They are out there but you gotta jump on them lol
I just paid 250 for a brand new one somebody was selling on eBay
We love a deal!
@@fleshwound7033 I assume this was the base model!
i ended up getting a steam deck for less than 400$ on sale and i’ve been streaming with it more than playing locally! not only for the performance but also because i don’t wanna download everything twice!!
Yesss storage is a big bonus with game streaming too! I thought about including it in this video but it really depends what storage you’ve got in your gaming pc. I think most people have 1-2TBs in a gaming PC but I guess you could also install the same size drive in a Windows handheld. The true benefit being exactly as you said though, you don’t have to download everything twice. If you don’t want to wait to play, just stream from your gaming pc- done deal you’re already playing 👌
@@dylanmacintosh it’s so convenient to not only not have to wait for the game to download but not have to spend more for storage in the handheld, i have 4tb in my pc and id rather just use that
@@tparty2123 exactly, it definitely saves money too. A 4TB nvme ssd costs like $250-300 bucks rn if you wanted to put that in the Ally it would make the price go up like another 50% depending on which model you got 🙂↔️ better to put that storage in your PC, and just stream it
I don't mind the downloading because you can do local transfer saving time and install on a 1.5Tb or 2Tb Micro Sd.
@@mreverybody1150 that’s a good point, although it’s just very convenient to just launch moonlight and play, especially from going to desk to couch or to handheld, but if you’re going on a trip where the internet won’t be as good i see that being pretty useful
What does your network setup look like to stream 1080p @ 120Hz?
Great question, but it’s nothing too crazy- my gaming PC is wired into my wifi router, which is a TP Link Deco XE75 (non pro). It’s WiFi 6E, so I’m using the 6GHz band on my devices that support it, like the ROG Ally. But when I check the Moonlight analytics it says 1080p 120hz takes around 28Mbps, so it really doesn’t have much trouble on the network side, especially since my Gaming PC is wired in via Ethernet. It’s just my client devices like ROG Ally that have to worry about the WiFi Bandwidth. The real benefit to being on the 6GHz band more than just the speed (there’s more than enough even on 5GHz) is that it’s not bogged down by everything else on my network on the 2.4 or 5GHz bands. The only devices connected to the 6GHz band at any time are the devices I use for game streaming. That might change as I buy more devices that support Wi-Fi 6E or 7 as it becomes more popular in the future, but for now, that’s just the way the cards fall, on my network at least. I hope this helps, but please let me know if you’re having any more questions. Cheers!
@@dylanmacintosh Thanks for the detailed response. I too shifted the PC to a wired ethernet connection and have noticed almost rock solid streams. I'm using my secondary phone paired with a Kushito run games at 720p &120Hz connected to a bog standard Dual Band Tp link router. Have tried a virtually display to run at native 21:9 resolutions and keeping the PC headless. Thanks for the great content and engagement. Happy gaming!
@@MohammadImranM That’s awesome to hear! I’m glad someone else is running 21:9 headless because that’s something I struggled with for a long time 😅 but it’s so awesome once it’s working great. I just wish there were more laptop-type form factors to use as 21:9 “thin clients” but, I digress since phones are usually in that ultrawide range when held horizontally, as you have found as well. Awesome stuff! Thanks for the kind words and of course for watching and commenting, it’s much appreciated 🙏
1100 for ally x in eu here and some people already got it😂
Woah 🤯 and I thought $799 US was steep 😅
nice vid and thx for advice!~
Well you’re very welcome! Thank you for the kind words.
I prefer Steam Deck due to emulation and OLED screen. Yeah, I know it is expensive and "bad" specs, but not a big deal when you are 100% satisfied of your product
Steam Deck OLED looks awesome. One of my friends got one of the transparent with red/orange accents and it is sooooo sick looking I can’t wait to try one.
bad specs what do u mean😂
What emulation can the SD do that the Rog Ally cannot?
You know that emulation isnt a SD adventage because it works perfect on rog ally as well? The olny and huge adventage is OLE screen and not always, sometimes I prefer Rog due to VRR but for indies and less demanding games SD is perfect
I so the same the steamdeck is for emulation the rog Ally is for early access pc games and mods.
I think the Logitech G Cloud will be a better fit for game streaming: lighter, very good battery life, screen is amazing, control is good too and cheaper.
This would be a great comparison video. For $299 it is definitely cheaper so that’s a huge plus, however the screen is only 60hz, not 120hz like the Ally. It runs Android which is fine for most people, but won’t play windows games locally, just Android games. Also I’ve really grown attached to the Windows client controlling the Windows host for the reasons I stated in this video. So I f I’m stepping down to a 60hz display on an Android device, then I might as well use my phone with an Xbox controller attached, and if I’m spending $299, I would strongly recommend spending the extra $100 to get the base model Ally on sale with 120hz display, and full Windows operating system, also allowing you to play lots of Windows games on the handheld itself instead of “only” relying on game streaming like the G Cloud. So, while a great suggestion, for my needs I prefer the Ally. But definitely a great comparison!
They bring out the new x version but all it has is more storage and 16 more GB like how can you charge so much for it it’s the exact same as the old one in my opinion not worth the bump price of the x version
You just listed the reasons why it's price more. More ram = more money, bigger ssd = more money, bigger battery that less to redesigns = more money.
I agree with both of your points, and I don’t think the Ally X redesign is in vain- I think for the right person it makes sense. But if you’re game streaming anyways, my point is it’s more of the same for a lot more money. Some peeps just want the best of the best and that’s okay too. I have no qualms with the Ally X other than that it’s more expensive 🤑
@@graves1096 16gb ram cost nothing and 500 extra gb aswell is also cheap as chips
@@Jdmx_7 it's actually only 8GB more for a total of 24GB
Excuse 😂 me you are recommending streaming for a device that cost 400 dollar 😂
I agree, it sounds crazy, but did you watch the whole video? 🤔 This point is addressed at 4:43
@@dylanmacintoshI didn't the argument sounded so grotesque I stopped watching the video sorry
@@wikwayer that’s okay, thank you for being honest, and thank you for tuning in and commenting, I appreciate the feedback. The tldr for this reasoning is that the Windows client controlling the Windows host works better than any other client type that I’ve tried, because the native inputs from the Windows handheld client can be processed natively on the Windows host, like the thumb stick mouse, the button clicks, even the dpad, touchscreen, pop up keyboard, everything. So for some folks who know what they are looking for this is worth the money for the convenience, but for most people you should still try streaming on your other devices you already have first, like a phone etc. But if you already have a Windows handheld, you owe it to yourself to try game streaming with moonlight. Again thank you for watching and commenting.
Got my ally for 399. Love it...
That’s what we love to hear! It’s an incredible device, especially at that sale price.
Wait… this kind of products is not for beggar anyway so why talking about price?
800 😅
This is true! 🤣 Sounds like a lot right? 🤑
Game streaming is so 🥱 🥱
I’m wondering why you think so? 🤔 This device in particular very clearly plays games on its own, just not in 1080p 120hz like the built-in screen can do. So why not stream games and play on the comfortable form factor of the Ally in 1080p, 120hz? I also like to point out that this is self-hosted, not a cloud subscription like Xbox or GeForce NOW- it’s totally free to try it so why not?