I am glad to hear the Ally X has been as good as it has. Makes it a lot more fun to talk about, plus I always welcome more handhelds that are enjoyable and maybe get's new people on the PC ecosystem!
Heck yeah, enjoy it man. Great technology, what a time we live in honestly. I'm going out today to maybe buy one, but believe it or not, I'm still deciding between that, the Legion Go, or a Steam Deck OLED.
@@sempuku So I went out to the store, held all of them, and here's my current thoughts: - Battery life is good, but ultimately whatever when we can buy external battery banks. - I was lucky enough that the store i went to had street fighter 6 on the LegionGo, and the steam deck oled. Both were fun to play, but I was surprised to find despite the bigger screen, I preferred the steam deck oled screen for quality of colors - for me personally, holding the steam deck feels the best in the hand (molds to them nicely), and weight distribution is perfect. Although the longer i held the asus rog x, the more it grew on me, even though its super dense Concluding that, I think I could buy one of the three and be happy. However, with the pricing of the Steam Deck Oled being $600 (in my currency) cheaper than the rog x, with similar performance and battery life (extendable with battery bank) with a better screen, actual console like sleep wake function, and if i really need windows I can install it along side steam OS, I belive this is the best option for me right now. Hope you can get something you like and enjoy :)
Same my first gaming PC handheld crazy to say I'm more excited to learn how it works and how to set it up then I am playing the video games LOL but that will change soon.
Dangit Russ! I didn't notice that 'shelf' you mentioned previously, but now I notice it every time I grab the Ally X. Why did you have to put that in my brain, I can't not notice it now! :S
How was it man? I’m thinking of getting one. Was it significantly heavier than the OG Ally? I returned mine because of the battery. Let me know about your experience, thanks.
@@edssszyall I can say is honestly, pick up and playability isn’t quite what it was on the deck but zero compatibility on games I was having lots of issues with on the deck. Specifically older 2012-2017 era games I wanted to catch up on such as fear or splinter cell stuff. Would highly recommend windows over proton atm… also people say the OLED over the lcd…. I dunno the screen is great and the resolution even better. All in all I regret nothing from my purchase
Still have my original lcd Steamdeck, still enjoying it for what I use it for. At the same time excited how these handhelds are progressing. Enjoyed the PODCAST, stay rad guys.
@@NerdNest Awesome! Thanks guys and thank you Litzkrieg, never thought I’d actually be selected. I really appreciate it! Keep up the great job on the podcast, I love watching all your channels for the latest on gaming and tech news.
I’ve been waiting to pull the trigger on a Steam Deck OLED, but now I need to consider the Ally X. I tried the Ally at Best Buy when it came out, and the low tension of the sticks, overall ergonomics, and battery life made it a no go. With those being addressed and more makes it a much tougher choice.
@holdtheonions good for you The first ally was/is garbage I bought it and then sold it cause I got deck oled But the rog ally x is another story completely I won't sell my sd oled anyway I love it
@@porcupinetree3033 im torn between these two. A pricier, more compatible , better performing device vs 20% performance dip , trackpads and of course, OLED! Ughhhhhhh 😞
Great video y'all! I really enjoyed everyone's opinions. I'm tempted to snag one and dual boot, but I probably won't because the SD OLED is just that comfortable... And I already paid a pretty penny for it.
Seems like a bigger upgrade than the 1st gen steam deck to the OLED. Its ability to play those AAA titles the deck can't handle as well as getting long battery life for the low end games makes it worth looking into. If the Ally X had come out before the OLED I probably would have bought it.
I was glad to hear the dpad discussion. One of my major hang ups with the original ally is the dpad. I just don’t think it’s good for retro gaming. So when i saw the X had a better changed dpad it almost made me want to upgrade (in addition to the obvious perks like battery life). Hearing that i may not find the new one satisfying for retro games either helps me with my decision to stick with the launch ally and wait for the 2. Great video guys
Bazzite is great stuff and like Bill said, if he can figure it out, so can you! Speaking of which, I'm still waiting a bit until I finish doing everything I need to with the Ally X on Windows to proceed with installing Bazzite on it.
Thank you all for your honest opinions. I own an SD, SD OLED, Legion GO, ROG Ally, and Switch, and now my ROG ALLY X is coming today. Honestly, I got the X due to the battery increase and the fact that I play other Launchers that the SD can't support (yet). Overall, I like the SD because of its comfort, but the ROG Ally X will hopefully exceed my expectations for the battery and improvements in the comfortability of the grips.
@@bloodofdepanta Honesty, I love the Ally X. Yes, the nuances of Windows not fully supporting handhelds are still bad, but ASUS has made huge improvements in Windows navigation and with Armory Crate. That 80wh battery and extra RAM are excellent, and I see a difference from the original Ally dispict it not being the Ally v2. Comfort-wise and with the grips, SD still wins in my book, but the Asus did make massive progress with the ergonomics of the Ally X. X is my daily driver today, especially since I just installed a new 4TB SSD.
Love this podcast, get excited each time it drops for my drive to work. I'm on the Legion Go (with Bazzite) for the last...5 months ish (can't go back to Windows) it's solid and I love the bigger screen - not tempted with ally but I'm interested in the amd ai 300 (strix point NPU) has to offer + what the switch 2 brings (exciting time for handhelds still) - also $700+ is expensive but it's why reviews from you all is so important as once I drop that kind of money I'm committed to that device for 2+ years 😊
Phawx is wicked smart... I dont get any of the power settings and I never even consider it. I love the Deck and adjust things until I get a stable FPS thats it. The biggest problem I have with the Ally is the lack of a trackpad which I feel like is a must for a PC based Handheld. Based on this, I have been considering a Legion GO, but I am waiting until a 2nd version. Lots of announcements coming soon I can imagine.
I use dual boot. I have windows partisan because of those Windows games that don’t work on Linux and want to update my bios or AMD drivers with no worries I use a rEFind fork bootloader. When my Asus and Legion Go turns on, I tap and choose what OS I want to boot. (Many will say it’s like Clover on the Steam Deck LCD) Again, love the podcast as always
I am happy, that the ally X does not have an OLED screen. That Burn-in is really something I do not want. I don't wanna have a great screen for a year and after that, the screen degrades badly. I hate the burn-in on my 1.5 year old Screen. My nephew has Zelda hearts burnt in for his Switch OLED. If you could replace the screen easily for like 40 bucks all 2 years, I would be fine with it, but that is not the case so far.
The only thing I could complain about the Ally X, that the Legion Go improved is that above all else... why do all these handhelds refuse to put a nice kickstand or a kickstand at all (like the Switch)? Also a X-Input on the face controller off switch should be implemented to turn off the controller's X-input device and not take over the Player 1 if you decide to plug this to a station and play on a bunch of Bluetooth controllers... I don't think based on what I remember on the original Ally you could disable them, but it wouldn't turn them off as a X-input device... the Legion Go had this as a byproduct of FPS mode switch, it turned of the X-Input driver and turned the face controllers to Mouse & Keyboard... quickly solving the hurdle by chance. Hope the Legion Go X or 2 or Pro... learns from all of this, and provide the good changes the Ally X did from the former Ally. Such as 2280 drives, bigger batteries & more RAM for more bandwidth for mostly more stable frametimings and less stutter. If they could also change the screen to landscape 16:9 that would be swell... while still keeping it around an 8" screen even if ends up a bit wider, but to solve the finicky issue of native portrait displays... and if they decide to a little more, change the Z1 Extreme for a 7840U/8840U so we can get standard driver support and not wait months for this OEM slow driver updates... let us get normal & consistently released AMD regular drivers, so I don't have to sideload. On a Legiong Go X/Pro/Super/2 Keep the awesome kickstand, keep the FPS switch, keep the detachable controls, keep the mouse touchpad those thing made my Legion Go preferred system & stand out over the original Ally besides the slightly better battery and slightly bigger screen despite the portrait display headaches I had to deal with and mitigate through software... but do make all these improvements that the Ally X made over the X, the tangible big improvements. More RAM, More Battery & 2280 SSDs.
Great successor to the og Ally but at $800 it’s not worth it to me. I’m still rocking my LCD Steam Deck and it does everything I need. But kudos to Asus for this very nice update.
16:15 Growing up we were way too poor to own Nintendo when they started it. So I got into consoles with the Xbox. Now, I can NOT play Nintendo games because of the weird button layout. 1:05:46 I look forward to The Phawks’ video showing us how to do this 😂
Regarding the ABXY placement , I like an idea from Girlfriend Reviews. In her GameCube video, she explained the virtues of the controller and said "X button is in the X axis, Y button is on the Y axis". Naturally, your preference is still correct, but I like GR's explanation :)
dont forget how much we have to thank the steam deck for setting the standard as far as what handhelds should be. and dont forget the stealthy john wick demeanor they did it in too with the oled.
Nice! I really enjoyed everyone's input..😘😁I wont sell my orig Ally just yet because I live in Antarctica and things cost heeeep's. JB Hi-FI want like $1600 AU... 🙃
Regarding favorite kind of dpad... My favorite wasn't even a dpad at all technically, it was more of very low stick on my first emulation oriented handheld, the gamepark gp32 blu. It had microswitches and it was so precise, I loved that! But I don't think anyone uses that style anymore...
It may be a small percentage but there is an issue with Steam Deck Oled screen for people that suffer with PWM. My local stores do not have demo units of SD Oled (even the LCD) but they do have for ROG Ally. I tried the Ally in store and did not suffer any symptoms. I still wanted to get a SD Oled so I got one, got home, first minutes of gaming - I go a headache and felt dizzy. Researched and it has to do with the screen. I suffer the same thing with CRT monitors back in the day - I had to buy CRT monitors with good refresh rate. Had to sell the SD Oled the next day on the 2nd hand market at a loss of course. I may just buy the Rog Ally X. I do not understand why locally, there are no demo units of the Steam Deck which would have help me with my purchase.
I played the first Valfaris and really liked it. It kinda felt like a modern day NES game. Not graphically, but the gameplay and difficulty, just more generous with the continues.
i think the problem with rog ally x is the $800 price tag. the steam deck for $550 is still a better sell. but i rather have the oled blacks than a higher resolution and i dont play anything that is big as i rather play them on my pc. that 800 price tag puts it into a niche product
GPD still does the best dpad for me. Look forward to the next generation of handhelds and see if they also pickup on the battery trend. Not a fan of bringing massive powerbanks with me for the winmini
400 dollar steam deck lcd (64gb) vs 930 dollar rog ally x ? bear in mind im from south africa and valve has not released the deck in our region and the cheapest model oled is the same price as the ally x. we can also get the z1 extreme at approx 680 dollars
I prefer the Ally because I have a lot of games on different platforms, especially on Game Pass. For only AU$11 per month, I get access to many games, and I can also play my games on Epic and Steam. As long as I can play all my games, whether on Steam, Game Pass, or Epic, I'm happy to deal with Windows. It just depends on your needs, and for me, the Ally with Windows suits my needs better. My gaming laptop is already 7 years old and can no longer handle modern games. I don't want to replace my laptop since it still works well for productivity tasks, and my Ally is the perfect companion to handle gaming. I use my Ally for pure gaming and my old laptop for productivity.
So for My ROG Ally I should use Battery Saver Not Power in the windows settings. Gonna have to try this. It would be awesome to have a little better performance I almost always play plugged in. So mind blown. Thought I was doing what made sense.
Steam Deck fails for me because when you put it in sleep mode and start it back up to play your game, the sound gets messed up and you have to restart the game. I wish Valve would fix this.
Speaking on back buttons, if you try them for a little while they become second nature. Makes shooters next level when you can Jump and Pickup Items without taking your finger off the joystick.
It'd be interesting to see sales figures for the "refreshed" handhelds compared to the initial releases, I'd hazard a guess and say the later models will have much low numbers, as at the time of the initial releases there were no (mainstream) PC gaming handhelds (at a reasonable price) and I for one was on straight on the waitlist when the deck became available as it would fit my gaming needs perfectly. Also an indicator was that the deck was a huge waitlist even after they started shipping, whereas with the OLED deck you could just buy one on the day of release, so either valve got their production much improved or the numbers weren't as much as they expected. Now that I have a handheld, it's going to take a big jump in the experience (most likely performance) for me to spend money on another one, and I would guess that's the same for the majority of handheld gamers out there while their Gen 1 Decks, Ally Xs etc are able to play the current releases at a reasonable playing experience. BTW great show again and loving the longer runtime to allow some in depth discussion. Also not sure if you were aware the audio podcast was available a day before the video, I know you mentioned you held back the RUclips version but didn't know if you meant to delay the audio version as well
This would be perfect except the screen is too small for me. I don't need an 8.8 inch screen like the Legion Go but an 8inch screen on thebally sure would have been nice. Even going to 7.4 on SD OLED makes a difference
I got the Ally X and the comfort is stop on. I don’t find myself tucking my pinkies underneath the device and the placement for the macro buttons is ergonomically placed and is really easy to press unlike the steam deck were I find myself changing my grip style trying to accommodate the back buttons and I haven’t used them since owing the deck. The only adjustment to be made is the smaller screen size compared to the steam deck oled but I wish Asus slimmed down the bezels a bit so it looks more sleeker. I probably use windows for a while before making the jump to bazzite other than that Asus has made a really great product and moving forward hopefully they learn from there bs practices and arrogant attitude towards loyal customers.
Hey Bill, could you in a future video show the sleep/quick resume option if the Ally X even has one compared to the Steam Deck? I don’t want to dual boot with Bazzite but would like to see how the Windows Hibernate fares with the upgraded Ally X.
The moment I put bazzite on the rog ally 2023 never even thought of windows. With a 2 TB drive now this is my PC on the couch. And my steamdeck is more hybrid. Wife enjoys it and we don’t have to play for PS+ 😂
The thing that bugs me about button layouts is that Nintendo set it up first. Sony initially copied that setup with Circle being used as the confirm button. In fact, up until the PS5, Japanese Playstation games still used Circle as the confirm button. It's everyone else who switched it up just to be "special" I guess. There was zero reason to do so. Confirm on the right button will always feel like the "correct" layout to me.
always chuckle at the controller "contra" test, when i want to test a controller i boot up the PS1 game "Street Fighter EX2 Plus" or the "EX Plus Alpha" version, in practice mode all your inputs are shown in sequence at the bottom of the screen so you get to see exactly what the controller/dpad is doing when you try certain movement sets.
I'm always shocked people even play games like Contra in 2024. I played that when I was five years old in 1987. The fact that it's used to critique a d-pad in 2024 seems a little crazy.
For me, what I expect is not Valve following in and slapping an 80 watt/hr battery in it. What I as a consumer expect, is for them to wow me (Ritch had a hot take on this as well some time ago), and for every other manufacturer to chase after Valve. That's what they did with both LCD and Oled models. Asus just showed their experience in hardware manufacturing with the Ally X and its genius. Ultimately my expectations are that Valve will still lead in innovation, if they don't, I might look elsewhere for the best product.
So just got my ally. Left trigger was not working. Opened it up and the magnet was stuck under the fan. Had to get it out now gonna try super gluing it back in place
SD OLED vs. ROG Ally X, Which is the better screen purely for emulation, both are powerful enough for emulating the games i want to play, but is one screen better than other to a noticible degree? Am i right in thinking that a 16:10 800p is a better aspect ratio for scaling 16bit era games than a 16:9 screen.
But hey if you're enjoying the bigger screen and don't need more battery stick with the go. You already have usb 4 so 🤷 your really only missing the battery. You can get a basus 65watt 30k mAh battery. That's basically a 30Wh battery so you're only missing 10.👌
@@527bmanzella Didn't use one for my install also. Thanks. And for those wanting to upgrade, I would highly recommend you copy the SSD drive using a PCie adapter and recommended software. My copy was super fast taking only about 20 minutes.
Incase of organismic as my personal preference control and range aiming on center is completely comfortable..unlike steamdeck specialy those joystick.. still i don't have one yet😂😂
The release of the Ally X is why I'm not intrested in buying an Ally. I can't trust that they won't abbandon it and create a Ally 2. There is a problem with releasing devices too soon. I mean why on earth would I spend that much money for something to be obsolete within 1 year???
@@silentmat2029 I greatly disagree releasing replacement too soon kills the brand and innovation. I mean why buy something when I know it's gonna be obsolete the next year? This is way GPU have been terrible for us consumers.
@@AntonioCunningham That’s not what I was saying, but how do you know for sure that this device will be obsolete within the next year? So far, the team at ASUS has not abandoned the OG Ally. They are still receiving armory crate updates and have updated their warranty system. It’s not the best, but there is no way it’s obsolete yet.
@@silentmat2029 The fact that they made another Ally is enough to kill any trust from that company. If I had a Ally, I would stop using it and avoid this company from then on. I feel stupid for buying something that they will replace the following year. (which is why most people stick to consoles even though PC does so many things better) I mean they started talking about a Ally 2 8 months after the release of the first Ally. If this is the path of PC portable consoles plan on taking, then *I want it to fail* Give people time to enjoy their device. Give developers time to target the hardware. And no, just updating old hardware doesn't remove the fact that you're using inferior hardware
@@AntonioCunningham Bro, what are you smoking? They made this a refresh because there were too many problems with the first one. The Steam Deck got its refresh with the OLED within 1-2 years. We are advancing, but not there yet with the tech in the PC Handheld space to completely go overboard with the upgrades. If it happened, people would call them out for it already like with Ayaneo. People stick with consoles because they are affordable and targeted towards casuals. Casuals don’t care about inferior hardware and features. But we gotta look at what’s the standard performance and features for these handhelds. The Ally most of those marks compared to its other competitors. There were mentions about the Ally 2, but they stated that there were no plans for it in the coming few years. This is because the mobile processors we have right now are the best there is. There were talks about the Ally 2 in conjunction with the Ally X concerning why certain upgrades were near impossible. The fact that Asus is still supporting the OG Ally is amazing. Credit should be given there and it shows that they’re committed to the Ally series. Matters not if it’s inferior hardware, it just needs to work properly.
Released at the same price as previous model like most refresh of this kind : huge win. More expensive : huge failure. Usually the point of a half life refresh it to get more for the same cost. You can price it more with a real costly upgrade. Plus Steam Deck might be less powerful but they created an almost handled console experience, it has an OLED display and (minor but not for me) it has trackpads. I also tried the Ally in store and the ergonomics/buttons feel a bit worse. Probably a good niche product but even for this market I feel like launch price is just too much for this kind of thing. The main appeal is for AAA but I usually play them on big screen not on handled.
i want a ROG ally X shell and battery, with the SD oled display (800P is just fine for 7.4" ) and HX 370 APU :P ( steamOS will be a nice bonus ) is that too much to ask ? that should do well in UE5 games over 360P finely :)
I call NAY on not needing more CPU some of us do use that cpu grunt in games, and it would suck to go backwards on that front just for a bit more GPU power. Yes i would agree most probably dont, but would suck to go backwards
Did you still have the squeaking dpad on your new unit? I purchased mine on Sunday and had the same issue. Accidentally ordered two so I’m wondering if I should open second one or just wait for it to get worked in.
How do you have a combined 8TB of space on your Ally X? 3.7 TB on the internal drive and 3.7 TB on another SSD?? Maybe that display is referencing a disconnected external SSD?
The main issue I have with windows rn is the sleep/resume and if Bazzite also has that probelm rn personaly don't wanna switch to it. Has anyone been happy with windows sleep/resume on Ally? I dual boot on SD and in windows it is a hit and miss. Another issue I have the display on Ally is the size. It has HUGE bezels I would have loved to see something bigger.
1:04:20 While this would get you on Windows via a VM am I right in thinking this still wouldn't let you play games that use kernel level anticheat and there would be other games that would work but you would get banned for using a VM
I used to think Bill was such a Steam Deck homer when the Ally first came out. 😆 I have gone full circle from the OG Steam Deck, to several windows handhelds, and finally back to the OLED Steam Deck. Until Steam OS is available on these windows devices, I will not be buying another. Steam OS is just that good and I play on Steam Deck way more than I did any of the others. In large part because of the sleep and resume function. Being able to pick up and play for a few minutes is my primary use case for a handheld. I'm also a sucker for anything OLED. This has become one of my go to podcasts every week. Keep up the great work fellas!
I don't see how anyone can say the ergonomics weren't good on the OG ally and only slightly better on the X. This definitely is a case by case basis. Maybe you just have giant hands or something. But both Ally's feel great in the hand. It snot perfect but it's on par with the deck for me anyway. If anything I prefer the ally X weight distribution compared to the giant deck size
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I am glad to hear the Ally X has been as good as it has.
Makes it a lot more fun to talk about, plus I always welcome more handhelds that are enjoyable and maybe get's new people on the PC ecosystem!
Gotta say that I love you all, your content and your channels! Keep it up! ❤
Thank you guys for this whole breakdown on the Ally X. I’ve been holding off on purchasing and this was just what I needed to see. Appreciate y’all!
never had a handheld. Just purchased the ally x cant wait to check out this week!
Heck yeah, enjoy it man. Great technology, what a time we live in honestly. I'm going out today to maybe buy one, but believe it or not, I'm still deciding between that, the Legion Go, or a Steam Deck OLED.
@@grimzreapersunagehey man! I’m in your same page. Just curious what did you finally decided?
@@sempuku So I went out to the store, held all of them, and here's my current thoughts:
- Battery life is good, but ultimately whatever when we can buy external battery banks.
- I was lucky enough that the store i went to had street fighter 6 on the LegionGo, and the steam deck oled. Both were fun to play, but I was surprised to find despite the bigger screen, I preferred the steam deck oled screen for quality of colors
- for me personally, holding the steam deck feels the best in the hand (molds to them nicely), and weight distribution is perfect. Although the longer i held the asus rog x, the more it grew on me, even though its super dense
Concluding that, I think I could buy one of the three and be happy. However, with the pricing of the Steam Deck Oled being $600 (in my currency) cheaper than the rog x, with similar performance and battery life (extendable with battery bank) with a better screen, actual console like sleep wake function, and if i really need windows I can install it along side steam OS, I belive this is the best option for me right now.
Hope you can get something you like and enjoy :)
Same my first gaming PC handheld crazy to say I'm more excited to learn how it works and how to set it up then I am playing the video games LOL but that will change soon.
@@sempuku hey thought i replied to your comment but my phone is bugging, let me know if the answer came through or not
The battery comparisons to the oled in Russ’s video is astonishing. Might reconsider
@@feetenthusiast1015 that's what the Ally 2 will address for starters
Dangit Russ! I didn't notice that 'shelf' you mentioned previously, but now I notice it every time I grab the Ally X. Why did you have to put that in my brain, I can't not notice it now! :S
Whoopsie! 😅
So glad someone got the code! This community and yalls channels are my favorites, so happy to let someone else around here enjoy. Runs great on Deck!
Mine is supposed to be in today, super excited
My Fedex say delayed. 😢
Mine will be here tomorrow
How was it man? I’m thinking of getting one. Was it significantly heavier than the OG Ally? I returned mine because of the battery. Let me know about your experience, thanks.
@@edssszyall I can say is honestly, pick up and playability isn’t quite what it was on the deck but zero compatibility on games I was having lots of issues with on the deck. Specifically older 2012-2017 era games I wanted to catch up on such as fear or splinter cell stuff. Would highly recommend windows over proton atm… also people say the OLED over the lcd…. I dunno the screen is great and the resolution even better. All in all I regret nothing from my purchase
The entire gang! Awesome.
Mine arrived this morning. Very pleased with it 🥳🥳
Scrolling RUclips wondering when the podcast will post, then it posts. 😂 Mindreader, Bill.
Still have my original lcd Steamdeck, still enjoying it for what I use it for. At the same time excited how these handhelds are progressing. Enjoyed the PODCAST, stay rad guys.
I'm really encouraged by the improved D-pad feedback here, I'd like to pick one up now.
Awesome show guys! only watched 50 % so far but will definitely keep going when im a little more free later.
Mine arrives tomorrow. I love that you can swap in a full size NVMe. Also I loved the original Valfaris. Didn’t realize the follow up had released.
Steam code giveaway from Twitter (username Litzkrieg): EV5MP-JJKE7-2FE2T
Game is Valfaris: Mecha Therion
@@NerdNest Awesome! Thanks guys and thank you Litzkrieg, never thought I’d actually be selected. I really appreciate it! Keep up the great job on the podcast, I love watching all your channels for the latest on gaming and tech news.
@@MrHellscythe You're welcome! Love this community
I’ve been waiting to pull the trigger on a Steam Deck OLED, but now I need to consider the Ally X. I tried the Ally at Best Buy when it came out, and the low tension of the sticks, overall ergonomics, and battery life made it a no go. With those being addressed and more makes it a much tougher choice.
@holdtheonions good for you
The first ally was/is garbage
I bought it and then sold it cause I got deck oled
But the rog ally x is another story completely
I won't sell my sd oled anyway
I love it
@@porcupinetree3033 im torn between these two. A pricier, more compatible , better performing device vs 20% performance dip , trackpads and of course, OLED!
Ughhhhhhh 😞
Ordered one yesterday from Best Buy, will receive it today! If I don’t love it, will return.
Well, did you love it?
@@ColeMay omg it’s so good! Yes! Such a game changer from the first gen.
Start and Select GANG vote
I will ALWAYS call them start and select.
It is the way!
Love this group and appreciate everything you all do. Please keep it up!
Great video y'all! I really enjoyed everyone's opinions. I'm tempted to snag one and dual boot, but I probably won't because the SD OLED is just that comfortable... And I already paid a pretty penny for it.
From what ive played so far, the ally x has met my expectations and is worth the price imo
Seems like a bigger upgrade than the 1st gen steam deck to the OLED. Its ability to play those AAA titles the deck can't handle as well as getting long battery life for the low end games makes it worth looking into. If the Ally X had come out before the OLED I probably would have bought it.
I was glad to hear the dpad discussion. One of my major hang ups with the original ally is the dpad. I just don’t think it’s good for retro gaming. So when i saw the X had a better changed dpad it almost made me want to upgrade (in addition to the obvious perks like battery life).
Hearing that i may not find the new one satisfying for retro games either helps me with my decision to stick with the launch ally and wait for the 2.
Great video guys
Love the channel, all chats are very informative and light hearted. Keep up the good work.
Sheesh, the Phawx, and his in-depth knowledge is scarily impressive!
Been waiting for everyone to come together 🦾🦾🦾
Bazzite is great stuff and like Bill said, if he can figure it out, so can you!
Speaking of which, I'm still waiting a bit until I finish doing everything I need to with the Ally X on Windows to proceed with installing Bazzite on it.
Thank you all for your honest opinions. I own an SD, SD OLED, Legion GO, ROG Ally, and Switch, and now my ROG ALLY X is coming today. Honestly, I got the X due to the battery increase and the fact that I play other Launchers that the SD can't support (yet). Overall, I like the SD because of its comfort, but the ROG Ally X will hopefully exceed my expectations for the battery and improvements in the comfortability of the grips.
How do you feel so far? I have an SD and I'm looking to jump straight to ally x
@@bloodofdepanta Honesty, I love the Ally X. Yes, the nuances of Windows not fully supporting handhelds are still bad, but ASUS has made huge improvements in Windows navigation and with Armory Crate. That 80wh battery and extra RAM are excellent, and I see a difference from the original Ally dispict it not being the Ally v2. Comfort-wise and with the grips, SD still wins in my book, but the Asus did make massive progress with the ergonomics of the Ally X. X is my daily driver today, especially since I just installed a new 4TB SSD.
Man... Just got the X. It causes a hell of a first Impression!
It feels so good
@@FSuixo agreed
Love this podcast, get excited each time it drops for my drive to work. I'm on the Legion Go (with Bazzite) for the last...5 months ish (can't go back to Windows) it's solid and I love the bigger screen - not tempted with ally but I'm interested in the amd ai 300 (strix point NPU) has to offer + what the switch 2 brings (exciting time for handhelds still) - also $700+ is expensive but it's why reviews from you all is so important as once I drop that kind of money I'm committed to that device for 2+ years 😊
Love the long videos
Phawx is wicked smart... I dont get any of the power settings and I never even consider it. I love the Deck and adjust things until I get a stable FPS thats it. The biggest problem I have with the Ally is the lack of a trackpad which I feel like is a must for a PC based Handheld. Based on this, I have been considering a Legion GO, but I am waiting until a 2nd version. Lots of announcements coming soon I can imagine.
I use dual boot. I have windows partisan because of those Windows games that don’t work on Linux and want to update my bios or AMD drivers with no worries
I use a rEFind fork bootloader. When my Asus and Legion Go turns on, I tap and choose what OS I want to boot. (Many will say it’s like Clover on the Steam Deck LCD) Again, love the podcast as always
I am happy, that the ally X does not have an OLED screen. That Burn-in is really something I do not want. I don't wanna have a great screen for a year and after that, the screen degrades badly. I hate the burn-in on my 1.5 year old Screen. My nephew has Zelda hearts burnt in for his Switch OLED. If you could replace the screen easily for like 40 bucks all 2 years, I would be fine with it, but that is not the case so far.
fear mongering much? unless your sister left it on for a 1000 hours she wouldnt have burn in
Oled does that though. My laptop is oled and is very alert with burn in situations and puts a screensaver. @@sasuke11457
The only thing I could complain about the Ally X, that the Legion Go improved is that above all else... why do all these handhelds refuse to put a nice kickstand or a kickstand at all (like the Switch)?
Also a X-Input on the face controller off switch should be implemented to turn off the controller's X-input device and not take over the Player 1 if you decide to plug this to a station and play on a bunch of Bluetooth controllers... I don't think based on what I remember on the original Ally you could disable them, but it wouldn't turn them off as a X-input device... the Legion Go had this as a byproduct of FPS mode switch, it turned of the X-Input driver and turned the face controllers to Mouse & Keyboard... quickly solving the hurdle by chance.
Hope the Legion Go X or 2 or Pro... learns from all of this, and provide the good changes the Ally X did from the former Ally. Such as 2280 drives, bigger batteries & more RAM for more bandwidth for mostly more stable frametimings and less stutter. If they could also change the screen to landscape 16:9 that would be swell... while still keeping it around an 8" screen even if ends up a bit wider, but to solve the finicky issue of native portrait displays... and if they decide to a little more, change the Z1 Extreme for a 7840U/8840U so we can get standard driver support and not wait months for this OEM slow driver updates... let us get normal & consistently released AMD regular drivers, so I don't have to sideload.
On a Legiong Go X/Pro/Super/2 Keep the awesome kickstand, keep the FPS switch, keep the detachable controls, keep the mouse touchpad those thing made my Legion Go preferred system & stand out over the original Ally besides the slightly better battery and slightly bigger screen despite the portrait display headaches I had to deal with and mitigate through software... but do make all these improvements that the Ally X made over the X, the tangible big improvements. More RAM, More Battery & 2280 SSDs.
Great successor to the og Ally but at $800 it’s not worth it to me. I’m still rocking my LCD Steam Deck and it does everything I need. But kudos to Asus for this very nice update.
16:15 Growing up we were way too poor to own Nintendo when they started it. So I got into consoles with the Xbox. Now, I can NOT play Nintendo games because of the weird button layout.
1:05:46 I look forward to The Phawks’ video showing us how to do this 😂
Regarding the ABXY placement , I like an idea from Girlfriend Reviews. In her GameCube video, she explained the virtues of the controller and said "X button is in the X axis, Y button is on the Y axis".
Naturally, your preference is still correct, but I like GR's explanation :)
dont forget how much we have to thank the steam deck for setting the standard as far as what handhelds should be. and dont forget the stealthy john wick demeanor they did it in too with the oled.
Nice! I really enjoyed everyone's input..😘😁I wont sell my orig Ally just yet because I live in Antarctica and things cost heeeep's. JB Hi-FI want like $1600 AU... 🙃
Regarding favorite kind of dpad... My favorite wasn't even a dpad at all technically, it was more of very low stick on my first emulation oriented handheld, the gamepark gp32 blu. It had microswitches and it was so precise, I loved that! But I don't think anyone uses that style anymore...
The ROG ally x just makes me super excited for the Ally 2! While I can appreciate the X Im okay waiting another year or 2 with my good ol ally 1
$800 is not too expensive for X, but in Europe the ROG Ally X costs 950€ which is over $1000 and that is just too much.
Same in Canada, too much for sure
you forgot the tax in US
It may be a small percentage but there is an issue with Steam Deck Oled screen for people that suffer with PWM. My local stores do not have demo units of SD Oled (even the LCD) but they do have for ROG Ally. I tried the Ally in store and did not suffer any symptoms. I still wanted to get a SD Oled so I got one, got home, first minutes of gaming - I go a headache and felt dizzy. Researched and it has to do with the screen. I suffer the same thing with CRT monitors back in the day - I had to buy CRT monitors with good refresh rate. Had to sell the SD Oled the next day on the 2nd hand market at a loss of course. I may just buy the Rog Ally X. I do not understand why locally, there are no demo units of the Steam Deck which would have help me with my purchase.
I played the first Valfaris and really liked it. It kinda felt like a modern day NES game. Not graphically, but the gameplay and difficulty, just more generous with the continues.
i think the problem with rog ally x is the $800 price tag. the steam deck for $550 is still a better sell. but i rather have the oled blacks than a higher resolution and i dont play anything that is big as i rather play them on my pc. that 800 price tag puts it into a niche product
GPD still does the best dpad for me. Look forward to the next generation of handhelds and see if they also pickup on the battery trend. Not a fan of bringing massive powerbanks with me for the winmini
400 dollar steam deck lcd (64gb) vs 930 dollar rog ally x ? bear in mind im from south africa and valve has not released the deck in our region and the cheapest model oled is the same price as the ally x. we can also get the z1 extreme at approx 680 dollars
You guys rock. Love your videos.
I prefer the Ally because I have a lot of games on different platforms, especially on Game Pass. For only AU$11 per month, I get access to many games, and I can also play my games on Epic and Steam. As long as I can play all my games, whether on Steam, Game Pass, or Epic, I'm happy to deal with Windows. It just depends on your needs, and for me, the Ally with Windows suits my needs better. My gaming laptop is already 7 years old and can no longer handle modern games. I don't want to replace my laptop since it still works well for productivity tasks, and my Ally is the perfect companion to handle gaming. I use my Ally for pure gaming and my old laptop for productivity.
So for My ROG Ally I should use Battery Saver Not Power in the windows settings. Gonna have to try this. It would be awesome to have a little better performance I almost always play plugged in. So mind blown. Thought I was doing what made sense.
Steam Deck fails for me because when you put it in sleep mode and start it back up to play your game, the sound gets messed up and you have to restart the game. I wish Valve would fix this.
Speaking on back buttons, if you try them for a little while they become second nature. Makes shooters next level when you can Jump and Pickup Items without taking your finger off the joystick.
It'd be interesting to see sales figures for the "refreshed" handhelds compared to the initial releases, I'd hazard a guess and say the later models will have much low numbers, as at the time of the initial releases there were no (mainstream) PC gaming handhelds (at a reasonable price) and I for one was on straight on the waitlist when the deck became available as it would fit my gaming needs perfectly. Also an indicator was that the deck was a huge waitlist even after they started shipping, whereas with the OLED deck you could just buy one on the day of release, so either valve got their production much improved or the numbers weren't as much as they expected. Now that I have a handheld, it's going to take a big jump in the experience (most likely performance) for me to spend money on another one, and I would guess that's the same for the majority of handheld gamers out there while their Gen 1 Decks, Ally Xs etc are able to play the current releases at a reasonable playing experience. BTW great show again and loving the longer runtime to allow some in depth discussion. Also not sure if you were aware the audio podcast was available a day before the video, I know you mentioned you held back the RUclips version but didn't know if you meant to delay the audio version as well
The contra test has become a benchmark for testing dpads because of russ.
This would be perfect except the screen is too small for me. I don't need an 8.8 inch screen like the Legion Go but an 8inch screen on thebally sure would have been nice. Even going to 7.4 on SD OLED makes a difference
I got the Ally X and the comfort is stop on. I don’t find myself tucking my pinkies underneath the device and the placement for the macro buttons is ergonomically placed and is really easy to press unlike the steam deck were I find myself changing my grip style trying to accommodate the back buttons and I haven’t used them since owing the deck. The only adjustment to be made is the smaller screen size compared to the steam deck oled but I wish Asus slimmed down the bezels a bit so it looks more sleeker. I probably use windows for a while before making the jump to bazzite other than that Asus has made a really great product and moving forward hopefully they learn from there bs practices and arrogant attitude towards loyal customers.
Agree, expensive but not overpriced.
Hey Bill, could you in a future video show the sleep/quick resume option if the Ally X even has one compared to the Steam Deck? I don’t want to dual boot with Bazzite but would like to see how the Windows Hibernate fares with the upgraded Ally X.
The moment I put bazzite on the rog ally 2023 never even thought of windows. With a 2 TB drive now this is my PC on the couch. And my steamdeck is more hybrid. Wife enjoys it and we don’t have to play for PS+ 😂
Wasnt going to, but daaaaaamn, i may have to buy the ally x now.
Love the channel ❤
I plan to get one and use the Best Buy return period to see if it can replace my desktop and steam deck oled. Really hoping to minimise.
Can you let me know how it went ? Did you stick to sd or switched to ax ?
The thing that bugs me about button layouts is that Nintendo set it up first. Sony initially copied that setup with Circle being used as the confirm button. In fact, up until the PS5, Japanese Playstation games still used Circle as the confirm button.
It's everyone else who switched it up just to be "special" I guess. There was zero reason to do so. Confirm on the right button will always feel like the "correct" layout to me.
always chuckle at the controller "contra" test, when i want to test a controller i boot up the PS1 game "Street Fighter EX2 Plus" or the "EX Plus Alpha" version, in practice mode all your inputs are shown in sequence at the bottom of the screen so you get to see exactly what the controller/dpad is doing when you try certain movement sets.
Lots of fighting games have that in training mode. It's pretty standard.
I'm always shocked people even play games like Contra in 2024. I played that when I was five years old in 1987. The fact that it's used to critique a d-pad in 2024 seems a little crazy.
For me, what I expect is not Valve following in and slapping an 80 watt/hr battery in it. What I as a consumer expect, is for them to wow me (Ritch had a hot take on this as well some time ago), and for every other manufacturer to chase after Valve. That's what they did with both LCD and Oled models. Asus just showed their experience in hardware manufacturing with the Ally X and its genius. Ultimately my expectations are that Valve will still lead in innovation, if they don't, I might look elsewhere for the best product.
Emulation is gonna be fun on this bad boy!!
So just got my ally. Left trigger was not working. Opened it up and the magnet was stuck under the fan. Had to get it out now gonna try super gluing it back in place
So far superglue has worked to hold magnet in place
Not including the PS Vita which isn't a PC handheld, best D-pad I've tried goes to Ayaneo 2/2S
Please make a powkiddy v10 video. I think its the handheld to pick for the price.
SD OLED vs. ROG Ally X, Which is the better screen purely for emulation, both are powerful enough for emulating the games i want to play, but is one screen better than other to a noticible degree? Am i right in thinking that a 16:10 800p is a better aspect ratio for scaling 16bit era games than a 16:9 screen.
Man, I hoped you guys would compare it to something other than the Steam Deck OLED (primarily the Legion Go). Bummerrrrrrrrrrr
I compared it to the Legion Go in this video.
@@NerdNest I'm almost at 1/3 so I guess it's yet to come. Comment was based on the timestamps, so I'm glad!
Oh, the time stamps are autogenerated, we didn't talk about the Legion Go for long.
It's like 10%-15 faster and double the battery
But hey if you're enjoying the bigger screen and don't need more battery stick with the go. You already have usb 4 so 🤷 your really only missing the battery. You can get a basus 65watt 30k mAh battery. That's basically a 30Wh battery so you're only missing 10.👌
If next Ally screen is 8"+ I'm sold
I actually prefer the Ally screen over the steam deck 800p oled display
800p does not look great in all games. Not even OLED can fix having a low res in very detailed games.
I knew it was only time before you guys came together. WAITED :).
Also, on the SSD storage, are you guys using a heat sink along with it?
Asus said it’s not required.
@@527bmanzella Didn't use one for my install also. Thanks.
And for those wanting to upgrade, I would highly recommend you copy the SSD drive using a PCie adapter and recommended software. My copy was super fast taking only about 20 minutes.
Incase of organismic as my personal preference control and range aiming on center is completely comfortable..unlike steamdeck specialy those joystick.. still i don't have one yet😂😂
Valfaris is a great game series!
Why would someone write an awful comment?
I try to watch all the nerd nest videos I can. Most of the discussions are very interesting.
Because some people are horrible.
The release of the Ally X is why I'm not intrested in buying an Ally. I can't trust that they won't abbandon it and create a Ally 2.
There is a problem with releasing devices too soon.
I mean why on earth would I spend that much money for something to be obsolete within 1 year???
You could say the same with almost every other device, even the Steam Deck. This is considered a refresh though, not a complete upgrade.
@@silentmat2029 I greatly disagree releasing replacement too soon kills the brand and innovation.
I mean why buy something when I know it's gonna be obsolete the next year?
This is way GPU have been terrible for us consumers.
@@AntonioCunningham That’s not what I was saying, but how do you know for sure that this device will be obsolete within the next year?
So far, the team at ASUS has not abandoned the OG Ally. They are still receiving armory crate updates and have updated their warranty system. It’s not the best, but there is no way it’s obsolete yet.
@@silentmat2029 The fact that they made another Ally is enough to kill any trust from that company. If I had a Ally, I would stop using it and avoid this company from then on. I feel stupid for buying something that they will replace the following year. (which is why most people stick to consoles even though PC does so many things better)
I mean they started talking about a Ally 2 8 months after the release of the first Ally. If this is the path of PC portable consoles plan on taking, then *I want it to fail*
Give people time to enjoy their device. Give developers time to target the hardware.
And no, just updating old hardware doesn't remove the fact that you're using inferior hardware
@@AntonioCunningham Bro, what are you smoking?
They made this a refresh because there were too many problems with the first one. The Steam Deck got its refresh with the OLED within 1-2 years. We are advancing, but not there yet with the tech in the PC Handheld space to completely go overboard with the upgrades. If it happened, people would call them out for it already like with Ayaneo.
People stick with consoles because they are affordable and targeted towards casuals. Casuals don’t care about inferior hardware and features. But we gotta look at what’s the standard performance and features for these handhelds. The Ally most of those marks compared to its other competitors.
There were mentions about the Ally 2, but they stated that there were no plans for it in the coming few years. This is because the mobile processors we have right now are the best there is. There were talks about the Ally 2 in conjunction with the Ally X concerning why certain upgrades were near impossible.
The fact that Asus is still supporting the OG Ally is amazing. Credit should be given there and it shows that they’re committed to the Ally series. Matters not if it’s inferior hardware, it just needs to work properly.
Released at the same price as previous model like most refresh of this kind : huge win. More expensive : huge failure. Usually the point of a half life refresh it to get more for the same cost. You can price it more with a real costly upgrade.
Plus Steam Deck might be less powerful but they created an almost handled console experience, it has an OLED display and (minor but not for me) it has trackpads. I also tried the Ally in store and the ergonomics/buttons feel a bit worse.
Probably a good niche product but even for this market I feel like launch price is just too much for this kind of thing. The main appeal is for AAA but I usually play them on big screen not on handled.
Should I wait for an open box for the rog ally x and not pay fall price
@thephawx I wonder if it'd be possible to use both type c ports and create an adapter to still use the xgmobile? Would that bandwidth be sufficient?
@ThePhawx gonna be Duo-ing for greener pastures!
i want a ROG ally X shell and battery, with the SD oled display (800P is just fine for 7.4" ) and HX 370 APU :P ( steamOS will be a nice bonus )
is that too much to ask ?
that should do well in UE5 games over 360P finely :)
I call NAY on not needing more CPU
some of us do use that cpu grunt in games, and it would suck to go backwards on that front just for a bit more GPU power. Yes i would agree most probably dont, but would suck to go backwards
Did you still have the squeaking dpad on your new unit? I purchased mine on Sunday and had the same issue. Accidentally ordered two so I’m wondering if I should open second one or just wait for it to get worked in.
You can easly shut the booting sound of on the ally. In Bios. "animation sound" or something like this
How do you have a combined 8TB of space on your Ally X? 3.7 TB on the internal drive and 3.7 TB on another SSD?? Maybe that display is referencing a disconnected external SSD?
The main issue I have with windows rn is the sleep/resume and if Bazzite also has that probelm rn personaly don't wanna switch to it.
Has anyone been happy with windows sleep/resume on Ally? I dual boot on SD and in windows it is a hit and miss.
Another issue I have the display on Ally is the size. It has HUGE bezels I would have loved to see something bigger.
Will there be a video on how to do emulation once bizite is installed?
I really want to see a head to head with the Legion Go
1:04:20 While this would get you on Windows via a VM am I right in thinking this still wouldn't let you play games that use kernel level anticheat and there would be other games that would work but you would get banned for using a VM
There's a bit of audio popping in this episode, sounds like mouth popping noises.
Do you think they will ever make a pc handheld that is a budget price...
I still cannot find a way to swap the armory crate button and start select buttons in armory crate T.T
I used to think Bill was such a Steam Deck homer when the Ally first came out. 😆
I have gone full circle from the OG Steam Deck, to several windows handhelds, and finally back to the OLED Steam Deck. Until Steam OS is available on these windows devices, I will not be buying another. Steam OS is just that good and I play on Steam Deck way more than I did any of the others. In large part because of the sleep and resume function. Being able to pick up and play for a few minutes is my primary use case for a handheld. I'm also a sucker for anything OLED.
This has become one of my go to podcasts every week. Keep up the great work fellas!
i'm going to wait to see a 3 month later on this. if the sd card reports are very low in terms of killing. i may consider it again.
the real dream team !
I don't see how anyone can say the
ergonomics weren't good on the OG ally and only slightly better on the X. This definitely is a case by case basis. Maybe you just have giant hands or something. But both Ally's feel great in the hand. It snot perfect but it's on par with the deck for me anyway. If anything I prefer the ally X weight distribution compared to the giant deck size
1:50 I feel you kerry 😂😂 i do that daily .