i think it boils down what else you own. ally pairs well with xbox and has windows. steam deck has steamOS. both pair well with a PC and Xbox but the ally pairs with xbox better. personally I love my steam deck and rather linux and steamOS over handheld windows. the deck is tried and true thats why i got it over the ally. to each their own you cant loose with either imo. i also dont own a xbox and has my steam account for like 12 years so it just made sense to get the deck im also 32 with kids
I went the other way with my Legion Go and put Bazzite (SteamOS fork) on it. Get the power of the Legion Go/Ally with the UI of the Steam Deck. Love it. My gaming desktop runs Linux so you go with what you know/like.
As a 24 year old husband and a father I gotta get a rog ally I had a Nintendo switch but my son took over it and now it’s his and then I got a steam deck and my wife uses that the most and now I’m planning on getting the rog ally z1 non extreme to save money
I’m in the mix of getting one. I really want one but I don’t need it since I have the steam deck. And at that, the OLED version. I only want it to play COD and Fortnite. Spending another wholesome amount is what is keeping me from getting it for those 2 games. I don’t want to put windows on my steam deck neither 🤔🤔
I see you've picked up This Way Madness Lies and Cosmic Star Heroine on there, noice! Those two were definitely some of my favorites during their release years. Other than that I already have a Deck thanks to my family so I don't need a Rog but this was a nice thoughts vid to put in the background nonetheless. Also have to say the gameplay did look impressive fersure as I saw no hiccups.
Deck is great too! Did have the OLED or LCD? Either way think it's a really nifty device as well. And yeah gotta try Cosmic Star Heroine but looks really fun.
I had both the Steam Deck since Q1'22 and a Windows Handheld (GPD Win 4) since Q1'24. The Deck is definitely better suited for dads. With Windows you tinker more than you play. As a dad I have little time for tinkering.
@@UltimateChance maybe the Ally has some better software. I found that GPD was very lacking in this regard. While the main sw did give a lot of control over the hardware, per game settings was a pain to set up. Also the power consumption was much higher than the Deck resulting in worse battery life. It did offer much power tho. I could play Elden Ring at 60fps while docked at 28W, while the Deck cannot do more than 40 with tweaked settings and lower resolution. I ended up selling my Win 4 shortly after tho. I was spending more time tweaking rather than playing. That's a shame. I also tried ChimeraOS, which did work great, but still had issues with some games, gyro support was a mess and the controls were not always recognized correctly. I imagine I could switch in the future, but for now it's a no for me. I am happy it works out for you and other dads tho. Having so much choice will give us better products as we go. 😁
As someone who is going to be a dad soon I've definitely kept my eyes on the Ally/Deck lol. I got my wife the oled deck for Christmas last year and she absolutely loves it, for me so far I got a 4090M laptop around that time that I definitely will keep till it stops working, and been using it to do co-op with her too. But I know once our child is born I won't have much time to sit down at that big laptop to game 😂😂 Great review boss! You definitely got me thinking more to get the Ally. I see the extreme alot at best buy for $503 open box. I'm more of a windows guy anyway and like the versatility still to do some windows stuff easily on there vs trying to mess with steamos
That's an awesome gift you got your wife, glad she's loving it. I do like my deck but windows has made modding much easier. If mostly shooting to play indies and older games, especially 2D you still can get bout 3 hours before charge. But if plug it in anyway with the little one sitting on the lap watching the show or sleeping it'll be fine! Congrats on being a dad. It's wonderful, tiring, scary, and fun all at once haha.
@@UltimateChance the reason I stuck with the Steam Deck is only because there is no thinking..... they take care of everything control wise and there are many other people behind it...... I have thought to upgrade to the ally many times but I decided to let that go for the steam deck exclusively..... for the price point it's still worth holding on to
Yeah since becoming a dad it is the only thing I game on. For like two years I hardly gamed at ALL. My PS5 basically just sat in the shelf. Bought the Ally last August and since then I have played and finished Armored Core 6, Elden Ring, Hogwarts Legacy, Remnant 2, Sekiro. Put many hours into Palworld and BG 3.
Both units are some what comparable, but the Ally has newer CPU and video chipset. It one of the main differences. Battery, the Ally has a smaller one. So regardless of which unit is preferred, the Ally is superior.
Def the stronger one. And some people enjoy Windows more, me included. But saying that battery can be a huge factor for people traveling. And Deck has double if not more life on most games.
The Ally seems more up my alley for the games id use it for and i prefer the look of it too. You mentioned that for the xbox and playstation apps you can download the games on there but do you need to do that for the general steam games as well?
I've picked up the ROG Z1E Ally and now I switched to the Steam Deck Oled.... Somehow the Ally just doesn't last, in windows there are most of the time popups, updates which need to be done, .net framework updates which seem to never end and so on... The SD is more like a console, you update the system it updates everything ... The Ally has more performance ofc but at the cost of portability and also the comfort... After using the Ally for almost a month and switching to the SD just feels like a breeze... It is much more comfortable, the battery lasts way longer and the screen is just gorgeous, also support and ASUS as they will bring out the Ally 2 sometimes this year this most probably will drop support... usually they do that on laptops as well... Sad but true.
There's def cons and pros to both. Battery big plus for OLED. But for updates I don't get them very often for my Ally. But I only do a little modding here or there.
@@UltimateChanceThat was one of my problems as well. They don't seem to update the Ally is like the development stopped or at least slowed down... Which is sad... I just hope they won't try to make it an yearly thing like a laptop and just drop them there with the pretext that this form factors sells as well and then just leave the community to find solutions...
I believe we'll be getting an updated version of ally probably with a better battery if I were to guess. Maybe even a OLED screen. I'm excited for the future. I don't mind upgrading every 3-5 years.
I'm 48 yrs old and luv my Ally
Def for us getting older haha
i am 50 yrs old and sold mine steamdeck the way to game not perfect , less bugs
@@jurgenbussche yeah unfortunately the games I like simply won't run on the SD..
I'm still playing Call of Duty, Destiny 2 and newer AAA
Me too im 58 yrs old. I love ally too. I hope theres ally 2
@@lalamove8712 yep it's been confirmed..hoping they do a slightly bigger Oled display like the Steam deck oled
I went with the Steam Deck, and I’ve been happy with it. But I can’t lie that I’ve been tempted to pick up an Ally as well.
I've been switching between the two now for three weeks and I'm loving it. It's been a blast.
i sold the ally only played steamdeck windows not ok for handheld
Seems fine to me. Infact usually easier to play on windows vs Linux for me. I have more loopholes I gotta go through to run some steam deck games.
i think it boils down what else you own. ally pairs well with xbox and has windows. steam deck has steamOS. both pair well with a PC and Xbox but the ally pairs with xbox better. personally I love my steam deck and rather linux and steamOS over handheld windows. the deck is tried and true thats why i got it over the ally. to each their own you cant loose with either imo. i also dont own a xbox and has my steam account for like 12 years so it just made sense to get the deck
im also 32 with kids
Hell yeah, fathers unite! Haha. I do love steam. If wanna ever add me shoot me friends request! My username should be under King Whity
I went the other way with my Legion Go and put Bazzite (SteamOS fork) on it. Get the power of the Legion Go/Ally with the UI of the Steam Deck. Love it. My gaming desktop runs Linux so you go with what you know/like.
That's fucking cool! Bet that big ass screen is nice. The one thing envious of is legion go screen size haha
This video is really tempting me...haha, awesome review!
It's awesome device and welcome back to the land of RUclips! Haha
As a 24 year old husband and a father I gotta get a rog ally I had a Nintendo switch but my son took over it and now it’s his and then I got a steam deck and my wife uses that the most and now I’m planning on getting the rog ally z1 non extreme to save money
The family took over the devices and I love it haha. Ally is def nice I hope ya enjoy!
I’m in the mix of getting one. I really want one but I don’t need it since I have the steam deck. And at that, the OLED version. I only want it to play COD and Fortnite. Spending another wholesome amount is what is keeping me from getting it for those 2 games. I don’t want to put windows on my steam deck neither 🤔🤔
Rumors have it that we're getting an upgraded Ally at the end of this year. Maybe save for that one instead!
I see you've picked up This Way Madness Lies and Cosmic Star Heroine on there, noice! Those two were definitely some of my favorites during their release years. Other than that I already have a Deck thanks to my family so I don't need a Rog but this was a nice thoughts vid to put in the background nonetheless. Also have to say the gameplay did look impressive fersure as I saw no hiccups.
Deck is great too! Did have the OLED or LCD? Either way think it's a really nifty device as well. And yeah gotta try Cosmic Star Heroine but looks really fun.
@@UltimateChance I think I got the original, my brother in law got the better one so I'm assuming I got the LCD one?
Yeah probably LCD in that case
I had both the Steam Deck since Q1'22 and a Windows Handheld (GPD Win 4) since Q1'24. The Deck is definitely better suited for dads. With Windows you tinker more than you play. As a dad I have little time for tinkering.
Deck is def way easier out the box. But once get Ally running pretty simple too. The initial setup is rough.
@@UltimateChance maybe the Ally has some better software. I found that GPD was very lacking in this regard. While the main sw did give a lot of control over the hardware, per game settings was a pain to set up. Also the power consumption was much higher than the Deck resulting in worse battery life. It did offer much power tho. I could play Elden Ring at 60fps while docked at 28W, while the Deck cannot do more than 40 with tweaked settings and lower resolution. I ended up selling my Win 4 shortly after tho. I was spending more time tweaking rather than playing. That's a shame. I also tried ChimeraOS, which did work great, but still had issues with some games, gyro support was a mess and the controls were not always recognized correctly. I imagine I could switch in the future, but for now it's a no for me. I am happy it works out for you and other dads tho. Having so much choice will give us better products as we go. 😁
For sure! The more options the better and it'll keep pushing these companies to give us better systems. I'm down for that!
As someone who is going to be a dad soon I've definitely kept my eyes on the Ally/Deck lol. I got my wife the oled deck for Christmas last year and she absolutely loves it, for me so far I got a 4090M laptop around that time that I definitely will keep till it stops working, and been using it to do co-op with her too.
But I know once our child is born I won't have much time to sit down at that big laptop to game 😂😂
Great review boss! You definitely got me thinking more to get the Ally. I see the extreme alot at best buy for $503 open box. I'm more of a windows guy anyway and like the versatility still to do some windows stuff easily on there vs trying to mess with steamos
That's an awesome gift you got your wife, glad she's loving it. I do like my deck but windows has made modding much easier. If mostly shooting to play indies and older games, especially 2D you still can get bout 3 hours before charge. But if plug it in anyway with the little one sitting on the lap watching the show or sleeping it'll be fine!
Congrats on being a dad. It's wonderful, tiring, scary, and fun all at once haha.
Steam deck oled is my cup of tea 🍵
It is pretty! 🤩
i am 43 yrs old..... and the steam deck did that for me as well
Think us old gamers finally got system for us as a rebirth for gaming 😄😂
@@UltimateChance the reason I stuck with the Steam Deck is only because there is no thinking..... they take care of everything control wise and there are many other people behind it...... I have thought to upgrade to the ally many times but I decided to let that go for the steam deck exclusively..... for the price point it's still worth holding on to
For sure..I honestly think you can't go wrong with either. Both are great!
Yeah since becoming a dad it is the only thing I game on. For like two years I hardly gamed at ALL. My PS5 basically just sat in the shelf.
Bought the Ally last August and since then I have played and finished Armored Core 6, Elden Ring, Hogwarts Legacy, Remnant 2, Sekiro.
Put many hours into Palworld and BG 3.
Exactly was in same boat. Barely was playing anything. Now I game almost everyday. Been awesome.
Both units are some what comparable, but the Ally has newer CPU and video chipset. It one of the main differences. Battery, the Ally has a smaller one. So regardless of which unit is preferred, the Ally is superior.
Def the stronger one. And some people enjoy Windows more, me included. But saying that battery can be a huge factor for people traveling. And Deck has double if not more life on most games.
I agree. I'm a dad too. 👍
It really is the way to go if want to game while they watch their stuff haha
The Ally seems more up my alley for the games id use it for and i prefer the look of it too. You mentioned that for the xbox and playstation apps you can download the games on there but do you need to do that for the general steam games as well?
Yes, steam download games, as well as those, but usually with xbox or ps5 can just stream/remote it which is really nice.
best title definitely a dad device I love it take it everywhere z1 extreme
Dad's need love too haha
I've picked up the ROG Z1E Ally and now I switched to the Steam Deck Oled.... Somehow the Ally just doesn't last, in windows there are most of the time popups, updates which need to be done, .net framework updates which seem to never end and so on... The SD is more like a console, you update the system it updates everything ... The Ally has more performance ofc but at the cost of portability and also the comfort... After using the Ally for almost a month and switching to the SD just feels like a breeze... It is much more comfortable, the battery lasts way longer and the screen is just gorgeous, also support and ASUS as they will bring out the Ally 2 sometimes this year this most probably will drop support... usually they do that on laptops as well... Sad but true.
There's def cons and pros to both. Battery big plus for OLED. But for updates I don't get them very often for my Ally. But I only do a little modding here or there.
@@UltimateChanceThat was one of my problems as well. They don't seem to update the Ally is like the development stopped or at least slowed down... Which is sad... I just hope they won't try to make it an yearly thing like a laptop and just drop them there with the pretext that this form factors sells as well and then just leave the community to find solutions...
@@UltimateChancealso thanks for your reply. Keep up the good work!!
I believe we'll be getting an updated version of ally probably with a better battery if I were to guess. Maybe even a OLED screen. I'm excited for the future. I don't mind upgrading every 3-5 years.
Did he forget if a game is keyboard and mouse just connect those and problem solved
I didn't forget it just defeats the purpose of being on the go for me haha.