Steam Deck OLED vs ROG Ally vs Legion Go - BEST Gaming Handheld in 2024!?
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- Опубликовано: 20 май 2024
- The ULTIMATE Steam Deck OLED vs Asus ROG Ally vs Lenovo Legion Go test - which is the best gaming handheld in 2024?
00:00 Handheld Gaming!
00:55 Design
04:35 Display
06:23 Software
08:45 Performance
09:54 Benchmarks
11:41 Battery Life
12:30 Wrap Up
#SteamDeck #ROGAlly #Gaming #GamingPC #Handheld
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Hey chaps! Which would you pick?
(also BONUS points to Ally for supporting VRR. -smoothing our frame rates. I just. wishthe battery was better)
Steam Deck
I want the deck, but what ear buds you using
Ally!
Steam Deck OLED
1st Ally - Portable, light weight, good screen, performance
2nd SD Oled - Easy to use and longer battery life, Screen Oled
3rd GO - For me this one is not a handheld since I have to constantly set it down on a table to play for longer than thirty minutes because it is too hefty for me. If you prefer this I suggest just buy a gaming desktop since you will just stock on your computer table and chair most of the time or a gaming laptop instead as you can purchase a good one for $700.
This era of proper portable gaming devices is what i've wanted for a long time. I've had my steamdeck for well over a year and it's brilliant.
in the 80s and 90s (Steam Deck = Gameboy), (ROG Ally = Sega Game Gear) and (Legion Go = Atari Lynx). History repeats
it was hard for me to go back to Gameboy when the Game Gear was discontinued and no new games were made for it :(@@lastxp
@@lastxpall of those are from the 90s lol just fyi
This. Handhelds are so convenient and when devs accommodate for them, it's definitely something magical that consoles and a PC just don't have.
@@14CODFTWThe MSI Claw is also coming out. I like the competition.
Watch like 30 of these videos, still can't decide.
Believe me go with Ally. Run anything you want with high end performance. Currently owning now from about a month . And it’s a beast
Me too I sold my steam deck to ally mainly because I can play pretty much any games compared to steam deck.
@@kimbo9643 what games are missing on steam deck?
I’m a console guy (so I don’t have a clue about pc games) and also must choose between these 3 devices
Ally 2 seems to be on course for release this year
@@kaimmjattzz what games you play on the ally that you can't on the deck
Got a 64gb Steam Deck last year, put a 1tb ssd in it as soon as I pulled it out of the box. I love it. Unbelievably I played it more then my pc over the last year.
fellow 64gb to 1tb steam deck user here had mine for 9 months now been great absolutely 0 interest in rog ally lenovo go or anything else valve did such a solid job with the steam deck that if i buy another handheld it will be the steam deck 2 i skipped the oled because i couldnt justify spending 600 euros when my current steam deck is perfectly fine for now
Love that!
I have a 64gb lcd on the way. I’m considering doing the same and other upgrades to “deck” it out but I want to wait and see how I like it first. I was tempted to go for the higher end handhelds but $282 with a dock was too good a bargain. The money saved seemed worth the sacrifice in performance.
@@pastiesandagstringWhere did you get it for that price brother?
@@wolveslands6701 eBay. Sent a guy an offer, expecting him to decline and surprisingly he accepted. You’ll likely have to hunt around a bit but you should be able to get a good price on a used lcd version.
I grabbed a Legion Go-performance and battery life works well for my use case. And the screen is amazing, couldn’t go to the smaller lower resolution options. Your conclusion is well balanced. I think in 6-12 months, a comparison would be good, especially as the Go matures. Great video, thank you!
Yep definitely worth a revisit in a few months - also hoping or Rog Ally 2 in the summer!
I think the real benefit of the Legion Go is that you can dock it like a Switch with an eGPU to have a home PC / console like experience.
Are you worried about lenovo not supporting it with updates like steam does for steam deck?
@@Thetechchapally 2 in the summer. I doubt it
Can u watch movie on the legion go?
I love my Steam Deck, I got the 64GB at launch Q1, and got the Limited Edition when it was announced. I am a long time PC gamer, and I am someone who does value performance but man the stuff the Deck can run never ceases to amaze me. But I am also not trying to play my really competitive games on it like Apex. It is really my casual gaming COOP machine or story mode box. I go to my desktop to sweat.
I was always a console gamer but last year I decided I wanted to experience PC gaming. I didn't want a full on gaming PC for my lack of space in house but a handheld was such a good decision. Plus the game prices on PC damn did I ever miss out...aha. I ended up buying a Steam Deck as my only gaming option and I LOVE it! Best thing I bought for gaming in a long time. Maybe later down the line I wouldn't mond upgrading to a higher end handheld bit for now this will do
I have the Legion go and Lenovo is really pushing some good updates on it, they fixed the dead zone issue on mid December update, and they have improved their app a lot for just two months, and it becomes even better as I set up Steam big picture as my main launcher for games, really improved the experience
I agree, I absolutely love mine. The christmas eve updates were especially fantastic. I snagged my 1tb legion go for $636. If people want to return them, so be it. It just means huge discounts for people like me who are ok with an open box device. Mine is flawless too. Absolutely no dings or scratches whatsoever. Just be sure to check the rating of the box before buying. If you are shopping at best buy look for open boxes marked "excellent". Don't settle for a box marked "fair".
The only minor issues ive had with mine would be that i sometimes have to re-open a game window for blutooth headphones to work. If they arent connected before i start playing, the sound reverts back to using the speakers when i go back to the game window. Kind of odd but not a dealbreaker at all. I'm sure a software update can fix it. Also, one time, my touch screen stopped working. I simply restarted the device and it worked again. Its never happened since. I honestly had more issues with the series x at launch than ive had with this device. People just have unrealistic expectations for brand new devices. Give it 3-6 more months and people will be raving over the Legion Go. On paper its over 5 times more powerful than a steamdeck. The legion go is closer in specs to a PS5 than a steamdeck. Its actually right between the Series S and Series X in benchmarks. This thing is a BEAST!
Does the Legion work off windows?
@@weakbruteforce Yes Legion is a Windows 11 device.
I've been waiting for a handheld PC since the Newton and Axim.
I bet it can run Linux pretty easily as well. For example Batocera for emulation.
Excellent video! It's exciting that we're getting closer to the day where I could swap my gaming laptop (my main PC) for a handheld PC and feel good about it. As it stands, I don't think we're quite there yet. Maybe if the Deck OLED played nicer with Windows.
I sold my original Steam Deck last year I picked up an Ally before Christmas mega cheap off eBay for just over £200 because it had a faulty SD card and although its a great device I just preferred the Steam Deck especially for emulation and ease of use. I ended up selling it and going for a Steam Deck OLED just before Christmas and I love it! Well worth it over the LCD model due to loads of upgrades such as the OLED screen and 90hz refresh rate not to mention all the other upgrades.
For me personally...the deck just feels like a more polished & premium device over the ROG ALLY. I can't speak for the Legion Go as I have never owned one but I have actually been very surprised on how well most games perform on the Steam Deck & for me the battery life is a huge factor and the SD-OLED blows the others out of the water in terms of battery life and usability. All this is subjective though as I see the Steam Deck OLED as a Handheld console rather than a Handheld PC/Laptop like the the ROG ALLY and GO.
It would be very interesting to see how well the ROG ALLY and Legion GO perform and last for in terms of battery life with the official Steam OS installed although I can't see Steam doing that anytime soon!
I love the Steam Deck due to linux and the beautiful oled screen. The functionality of the track pads and the interface is an A+ for me. You cant beat its customization.
I have both the ally extreme and the steam oled and i only play handheld most of the time since the Nintendo switch release, And let me tell you something, you cant go wrong with the ally neither the steam deck oled , If you dont mind limited memory and a little tweak and work before you start most of the games the ally is a better option if the 10% performance worth it with the high battery consumption otherwise the steam deck with the oled display is more easy to use and more convenient specially if you are someone who is not much into gaming pcs and just want to play and jump directly to the games and spend much time on.right now i see myself more with the steam deck side.
If you're sensitive to framdrops, the VRR on the Ally can be a huge factor. The others can work around that by setting an appropriate fps cap, but the fact it's not a concern on the Ally is a huge bonus
sold today the legion go, awful display without vrr..
VRR is for removing tearing. It also reduce input lag.
It does not stop framedrops.
Just opposite. It allows fluctuating framepacing.
This is good thing if fps is high enough.
+90fps...
On lower frames ~ 30-60 it is useless because frametime differences are too big.
I stream from my pc 4k 144hz, the tearing on legion go Is very bad compared RoG ally with overlclocked display at 144 hz.. if you are used to play with gsync or freesync Is difficult to pass over
@@retro_ed746 I didn't say VRR stops framedrops. What I mean is that VRR makes them a lot less noticeable compared to vsync. Even at lower framerates (compared to the refresh rate) some people notice the frametime fluctuations.
You guys have to understand that the Go has a portrait display so tearing isn't so noticeable. This is why Lenovo just dropped having VRR in the first place. They just hope people will use vsync and call it a day. This might be great if your games can run at a constant 60, 72, or 144fps. If your games are running around 45fps then vsync can't help you to smooth out that drop in framerate. This is where VRR is needed for games that don't perform that well on lower end specs. This is very important for a chip like the Z1E and it's unfortunate that the Go doesn't have it. This is what makes the Ally a better product overall even tho it has the smaller screen which some people don't mind or prefer.
If you're ok with using vsync and want a larger screen then go with the Go. It's a similar experience minus the VRR screen. Remember you could always use an external monitor and get VRR so it shouldn't be deal breaker imo. As for the SD OLED, it's for people that don't mind playing games at 30, 45, 60, and now 90fps. If you're ok with that and want a console like experience then go with that. If you're into high frame gaming on older titles you will need a Z1E chip, it's just a matter if you want to go with the Ally or Go.
Edit. I meant to say portrait display.
I loved my OG Steam Deck! I’d happily recommend the Steam Deck to most people coming from a console just purely for its pick up and play ability. It’s not quite console level easy but it’s as close as a PC will get I recon.
I moved to the Legion Go, and agree the screen is beautiful! The only thing missing although niche, the Go does work with eGPU’s. Adding a 3070 into an eGPU over Thunderbolt 3/USB4 boosts this thing no end. I also love the ability to swap between tablet and handheld mode, then add a lapdock and essentially you have a decent allrounder that’s a handheld/desktop/laptop/tablet combo
Im coming from console and just ordered the 1TB OLED version
Do you have advice on how to get MW3 running on the Steam Deck?
I’m a total noob when it comes to PC and heard I need windows 11, buy the game on Steam and then possibly more steps to play it ?
@@nils0603 From what i've heard if you want to primarily play call of duty you are better off with the ally or go because of windows os. Sure you can install windows on the steam deck and dual boot it but that takes away one of the big advantages of the steam deck which is its streamlined os.
@@draecath5953 thanks for the reply
Seems like this really would be the better decision for me
Do you know the process/steps on how it works with the Ally or the Go in terms of playing MW3
So what I mean is, would it literally just be, downloading Steam on the device , purchasing the game on Steam, download it and start playing or are there multiple more steps even on a windows device like the Ally/Go?
@@nils0603 Since its windows it should work like it would on any pc. I haven't played call of duty in several years because I hate slamming my face into the brick wall that is extreme sbmm but as far as I know it should be pretty straight forward.
@@draecath5953 haha, I can feel you on that reason
Thanks man, appreciated
I've had all 3 and prefer the Legion Go. The screen is just amazing in person and if you have a beefy desktop/laptop you could use moonlight and really push the screen to its full potential
Hey could you explain a bit about what is moonlight?
Moonlight basically let's you stream from your PC if it is Gamestream/Nvidia GPU-enabled.
I have the steam deck and sometimes I feel like I gotta get my face really close to the screen cus I can't see a damn thing lol
@@oOoZilverwarrioroOo 😂😂😂😂😂😂🤣😭😭😭🤣🤣😂😂😂
legion go is too heavy and seems clumsy i choose rog ally
I have the LCD 512GB steam deck and have had it since launch, loved it for what it is. But I play a lot of non-steam games and wasn't happy with the performance on newer or AAA titles on the deck so I just picked up the legion go a week or two ago and am absolutely loving it. Windows 11 certainly has its problems as it's not made to be a console-like experience like the deck, but the initial hoops you have to jump through for the setup is far worth it for how amazing the gaming experience is on this device. I could not recommend it enough for those who are already familiar with PC gaming and Windows 11
How do you feel about the comfort level compared to the Deck? I love how the Deck feels.
After watching countless videos and reading so many articles comparing the 3 devices, I went ahead and ordered the SD OLED 512. Honestly, I was very tempted to get the OG SD 256 or the RA Z1, both available now for $400. But, in the end I forked-out the extra $150 and got what I believe is the most refined and proven device. I get it in a few days and am super excited!
good choice as what I got the SD 512 oled slapped it with a 1tb sd card also thinking of changing the SSD to 1tb endless games bro lol
But the steam deck is very limited to games while the other too can play all games that's not???
I have the steam deck oled and the rog ally and the one thing i despite about the ally is its battery life. At 15 watts its okay i guess. But at 25watts the battery life drains so quickly. Also now having the oled with 90hz the thing just looks fantastic and 90hz makes everything more fluid. Ally has its 120hz but most games wont take advantage of it. On top of that its 1080p screen will eat the battery life quickly. At this point im just considering selling my rog ally. The steam deck is superior imo.
@@hollowprincegaming7547 valid . Dunno Why is it called a handheld when it can’t even last as a handheld game
I honestly think that's the right move!
I'll wait for the gen 2 versions. But I have to say the bigger screen on the Legion Go would make it my pick right now.
I feel like Gen 2's will add a bit better perf, bit longer battery - but probably won't be a wholly different experience. If you want to get into handheld PC gaming I think now is a good time (especially if you can pick one up on a deal)
I’m waiting for Gen 2 too 👍🏻
Just buy now. Later sell it to buy the gen 2.
@@zerolifez if they had 32GB so we could get 8GB-12GB vram then yes, as it is now no way. Gen 2 it is.
I’ll wait for gen 2. Battery life is abysmal
Don't forget the steam deck design includes a track pad with tactile feedback and great customizability for hybrid joystick/mouse control. There are games which would be unplayable with just a controller but run beautifully on stream deck with hybrid controller/mouse control.
He mentioned this as a pro for steam deck.
Can you give me an example game that is true for this? Been playing on my OLED for a while and basically never use the trackpad
And the legion go has a whole freaking mouse 🤷
@@inbracedefeatone of the first games that I've played once I got my original model about a year ago were Torchlight 1 and 2 - trackpads are really useful there, since you can customize it by separating the surface area to support up to 9 additional inputs. This is basically 9 additional buttons for a single trackpad, which you can bind for spell or potion usage in these or similar kinds of games. I also quite enjoy Point&Click adventure games which also play great using the trackpad inputs. For example, I have also completed entire Broken Sword series between the two Torchlight games. So yeah, I do find them extremely useful
@@celestial_froggy genuinely never heard of any of those games till that comment haha. I love my deck but I don’t think the trackpads are useful for my gaming library.
Thanks for the insight tho!
I have the Ally extreme and I love this little beast! No issues so far! Even have fruity loops on it for producing and recording on the go
What do you think of the battery, has it given u any issues
@@coolcat9624 i don't think the battery is amazing especially when using high TDPs. If battery is an issue get a fast charging power bank
im trying to decide out of the 3. its so difficult 😳
@@Dboss74 Me too. Yet I've taken the Ally off my list of choices, since I heard it breaks SD cards.
They fixed it@@Dirt_heart
I went with oled steam deck 1tb very nice but still learning …game play is really addictive This puppy is hard to put down makes you want to play all your games Again ❤
Great video! I personally prefer the Legion go, the performance is impressive, you can actually play any game, great battery life and the screen is amazing!
I got the Z1 ROG Ally for 400 bucks and I'm very happy with it. Everyone always says to avoid this one, but its 200 bucks less, and honestly for any big AAA games, I'd rather just play them on my desktop gaming PC to take advantage of all the graphics instead of a small screen. As mostly an emulation/indie/jrpg device, the Z1 is great.
I got a ROG ALLY Extreme Open box at Best Buy for about $500 (price was $491 but with tax ended up being a little over $500).
The previous owner had a vanilla Windows 11 install on it so setup didn't see the ROG's wifi card. Had to boot the ROG into the bios and do a Asus Cloud recovery.
Ended up putting a 2Tb drive in it. System is an absolute beast. Have 0 regrets and would do it again.
The ROG Ally is especially awesome with the RayNeo AR glasses I have.... a personal virtual 200 inch screen projected in front of you through the glasses.
I've also been considering a open box. For $450
U buy it used?
The base Z1 actually sports comparable performance in silent mode. And I always use my handheld in silent mode. So, I could've gotten a base Z1 rather than Z1E, but the price difference was very small, so I ended up with the senior model.
Granted I’m an it chap, but tweaking and smoothing out the Lenovo has made it my primary go to device for gaming. It’s awesome for quick MP CoD MWIII matches for the grind, a quick run of Horizon Zero Dawn or a quick race in Grind at 1200p (not 1080p). With a portable battery I already carry for my camera, laptop, or phones on the go, it goes for long enough. 20w on the Go is the butter zone for batt and perf. Not doubting my purchase. Had a steam deck, but the screen in comparison is a blurry mess to me. Text is near unreadable and it locked me into only steam. I have Game Pass…which wasn’t even mentioned in depth. While you CAN Microsoft your deck, it’s not native or easy. With the Go it’s just…awesome…and super light on the battery. I think the expandability on the Go (who wants to bet that there’s going to be premium controllers offered with Hall effect everything and different stick layouts) is also very overlooked. I mean, what’s stopping them from making a battery pack pass through? Remember the controllers are powered from the device so the ports are already there…
There’s a lot to love…now if Microsoft would just relent and basically make a stripped version of Windows for gaming mode…then we’d have something. I don’t need Office to run CoD…
How much fps on cod? Debating purchasing one
@@eddieking_gaming.4790 solid 60 after tweaking settings but latency is a thing….
Steam deck all the way. I don't want my handheld to have to be plugged in all the time in order to fully utilize the thing. Steam/proton are really good at optimizing games for the deck too. Maybe if this was my only gaming device I would prefer the Ally. But as a handheld sidekick to my main rig this is exactly what i want. Plus oled hdr is pretty great when implemented properly
Have fun playing AAA games on low settings
@@NinersOwnPhilly have my 4090 for that
@@NinersOwnPhillyAs opposed to what? Medium?
rather have legion go for low settings WITH smooth experience instead choppy and laggy compare to steam deck.@@grantmitchel2810
what a douche @@NinersOwnPhilly
First of all I can't stress how nice it is to see larger screens popping up.
Second, it's also really nice that the answer to which is best is pretty much a "well, that depends". The coming years are going to be wild with what each maker will help push out from the other.
Very excited to see what we get in 2024!
what's the point of big screens if no matter how big battery you put into a device it always will be not enough. 720p always will be the best option for a HANDHELD. I hope SD2 will stick to it.
I got an OG Steam Deck and it is great for what it is but I'm currently enjoying the Ally. Battery is crap on both devices, bought and returned the legion go. Really liked the dual thunderbolt ports but the controls didn't do it for me. The legion is only worth it if you're really into FPS mode. Really looking forward to a proper sequel to the steam deck.
I have a Steam Deck. I have had it before the Ally or the Go came out, and I love it. Admittedly I've been tempted by the other devices, but I don't get to use my Deck as much as I would like so I'm not going to look at getting another anything till that changes. Also, I would like the devices to get a little smaller. The size of the Go and the Ally don't do much to convince me to give up the Deck. We're probably a ways off, but I look forward to having something as light and comfortable as the Switch. In the meantime the Deck plays everything I need to. I've upgraded mine with a 2TB SSD and put a 1TB MicroSD in it, and I have a dock for it I use regularly, so I should be good for quite some time. But videos like this make me really, really excited for the future of these devices.
Ally for me. Loved my LCD SD but can’t play titles unless you add windows then you lose the efficiency. The Ally blew through games like I couldn’t believe. The Go is beautiful and more useful but it’s too huge to use as a handheld IMO.
SD can play almost all games with proton what issues you had with it?
@@yourkingorginal3286 Anything outside purchased on Steam was jumping through hoops. I switched to a Go recently and have no issues with Windows again.
I very recently sold my original LCD 512GB Steam Deck in favour of the ASUS ROG Ally now it’s gone down in price in the UK. I don’t regret the decision at all and the Ally feels clearly the best for me personally… but I do agree with this review. For most people, the Deck really is going to be the best choice. SteamOS is fantastic now compared to how it was at launch and there’s very little that won’t run well on it. Windows is a pain on the Ally. But I do like the flexibility of using other launchers (especially MS Game Pass) and the extra power it has. Plus the screen is incredible compared to the LCD. The battery life is much worse though - worse even than my old launch LCD Deck.
Tell me how bad it really is cause I'm leaning heavily to the rog ally
I love my ROG Ally. I swapped the SSD out for a 2TB almost right out of the box. I’ve been using ROG gaming laptops for the last few years and I think that helped with some of the Ally’s quirks associated with Armory Crate and MyAsus specific updates and settings. Better battery life, the space wasted on the proprietary external gpu connector that very few people will ever use, and better rear paddle button design more similar to the Xbox elite controller would be my only complaints/improvements I would like to have. Give us those and I will definitely buy the next iteration as well.
I got myself a 512 GB steam deck LCD with the etched glass for 350€ brand new just 3 weeks ago . That thing is amazing and soooo comfortable… i use it to play Battlefield 4 multiplayer and offers 3,5 hours of online goodness !
I bought Lenovo Go because it's a combination of a Laptop and a Switch.
I have seen a lot of people using the Legion go as desktop PC, doing video editing and other non gaming things as a bonus.
This ^ being able to remove the controllers + the bigger screen is a deal for someone who wants to game just as much as they want a computer. (and the kickstand 🙏)
Is it comfortable to actually use handheld though?
How’s ur user experience?I was planning to buy one too
Its like a PC? Like see movies and stuff like that?? Have USB in? Or what in for connect other advices have??
@@andreguerreiro44 yes it literally is a pc. it runs windows 11
I have the Steam Deck for some time now but since I got the Legion Go i hardly came back to the Steam Deck. I still love it but it is much more limited performance wise and with multiplayer games than the Legion Go. And the Legion Go screen is just amazing.
For it's price point I would hope so, out of the windows handhelds it's definitely the best, it atleast makes using windows more bearable
I got the Steam Deck OG, Steam Deck OLED and the ROG Ally with a 3080 *and* 4090 XG Mobile Dock. I’ve sold my desktop pc. This new era is my dream of decades coming true in 2023
I have the ROG Ally and it would be a perfect device except for the issue with the SD card reader, mine just broke and there is alot of complaints about it online. I have been having a good time using it and it runs AAA games good enough and emulation is great. I know there are alot of people that would say to just upgrade the internal memory, but there are also many people going into this space that would prefer to just pop in the SD card and call it a day, especially at the price point of these devices. This is something that people need to keep in mind when picking one of these up.
The Asus is crap. It’s like a Range Rover. Nice until the hardware fails, which is super common. Had mine less that a year and my ssd drive went out in a month and I got he the black screen of death a few months after that. The ROG Alley is the most unreliable piece of tech I’ve ever owned.
Great video. I feel the video needs to stress the VRR capability of the Ally screen. It's a HUGE game changer. I had the Steam Deck for almost a year. Just bought the ROG Ally Xtreme for $600 and I can't go back to the Deck. I hate screen tearing and I hate PWM (Steam Deck OLED). I haven't played the Legion GO but, with that high resolution screen, there's no way its frame rate is consistent without screen tearing. Very happy with the Ally, even with its "Windows" quirks sometimes.
Hey man, my bad for the late reply. But how to turn on VRR on a Ally? Thanks.
I'm a boomer and I'm still in love with the PS Vita
Thanks for the video. I wonder on get a hand help computer someday as a PC replacement. Did you test the three in docked mode ?
From day one of launch, I have owned the LCD version of the Steam Deck, and I thought it was the coolest thing that I could play AAA games while on the go. However, I just bought the Asus Rog Ally and have been downloading games and its been dead silent compared to the Steam deck. However I have not played anything yet, but I am in the middle of downloading my last game of the night and we will see :)
After watching a lot of videos and comparing different option, I got myself a steam deck oled. Power is not everything, and in the end of the day it is the best device for the games I want to play.
Damn isnt lubricant a better choice?
Steam oiled. 🥰🥰🥰
Ally has huge hardware issues, the sd card reader stops working in few months, due to the heat generated in the device. My friend had his card slot replaced twice in 6 months😢, he is concerned what will happen after the warrenty period.
Good video. But I still havent made my mind up on which one.
If the battery life was better id go for the rog ally.
But i like the steam decks design and the ease of use but the resolution is poor in comparison and some games i play wont launch due to needing windows for anti cheat.
And the legion well.... i have a legion gaming laptop and quite honestly its brilliant. I use it as my main pc and play all triple a games no issue. So me personally i think the legion go is definitely going to be the best by miles within months
got the oled one but i had the lcd deck too. love this device half the time i play on this more than my 3090 gaming pc or ps5 or xbox series x. which ever deck you buy they are well worth the money
As an ex-Windows gaming handheld owner (original Ayaneo Air) - Windows really needs to come out with a handheld optimized OS, rather than rely on third party (ASUS, Ayaneo, Lenovo, etc.) SteamOS shines for this and I like its implementation where it has a dedicated gaming front end and then you have the option to load into a dedicated Linux desktop OS mode. For the price of the Lenovo, you're probably better off getting a entry level gaming laptop and get better performance and versatility there.
People like you really need to stop comparing a handheld to a laptop (for the price of this, you can get bla bla bla).
They both have two different target audiences.
SteamOS is the difference for me. It's so optimised and has pretty much made me ditch my PC/Laptop. Laptop comparison is fair enough seeing as you can plug the SD into a dock and it's a PC. Brillant.
Have you actually looked up laptops that are the price of these three handhelds? The performance gains will be very slight, and you'll have to always have a place to set it.
Here in the Philippines, Ally Z1 Extreme is currently around $700 while SD oled is at $800 thats why i ordered the ROG Ally. Hoping to receeve it before new year
Here in Thailand ...
ROG Ally is 599$full / 549 on sell
SD oled 256 is 729$ and 528 799$
It was on sale at Gamextreme for P34,750 or around $630
I just bought the asus rog ally z1 Extreme and i absolutely love it! Now of course i had to deal with some headaches tweaking settings and everything but when i played call of duty modern warfare 3 with 1080 resolution at 100 to 110 fps, i fell in love! Yes it drains the battery fast but thats why i bought a 65w 50000mAh power bank. If you buy one, make sure you change the fan speeds to 100 percent at 80C and above cause at around 90 and up, mw3 shows packet loss and gpu overheating but with 100 percent fan speed youre good to go. By the way, if youre gunna play mw3 on the ally, change the settings to reset to recommended and performance and that will get you the best fps
Thx for this great video!
If you’re a person who prefers First Person Shooters, the Lenovo Legion GO is the way to go. The visibility and high refresh rate with the bigger screen is a great combo. You will regret not getting the GO The moment you open up your Tac Map on the Ally or Steam Deck in games like WarZone, Pub G, Fortnight etc. Nothing is legible, even when you zoom.
ye, this is the only case why you should buy GO - if you play fps shooters more. Otherwise it's just bad
Imagine playing fps games with a controller attached to a small screen.
@@danielring8060 as opposed to the other two with even smaller screens
@@danielring8060imagine hating on someone else's preferences
@@NarutoUzumaki71069true that
I like the ROG ALLY, hopefully new ROG ALLY 2 or OLED editions with improved battery life is out in near future. I saved my money
it's unlikely you have to look at and for better efficiency for AAA performance, if you want to play lower TDP games then Steam Deck has tit beat thanks to bespoke soc and the os.
@@NoradNoxtusthey could easily manage a 25% bigger battery from 40 to 50 WH. That alone would help. They didn't really push the boundaries with first iteration, no one does. That's why it's always a bad idea to purchase first gen products (SD card dying)
@@ij6708Funny thing is I got the Ally on day 1 and my SD card is still good.
@@ij6708yup ima wait for an oled version
O man im trying to figure out which one to get im a handheld switch gamer who is wanting a better triple a gaming experience. Im not much of a tech guy but witch one would you guys recommend for strictly gaming I mainly like MMOs or action Open world games and few first person shooters like destiny 2
I have a massive gaming collection with 7 TVs hooked up in my game room. Even with all that stuff, the OLED Steam Deck is my favorite gaming device ever.
You can get more fps out of the deck with a little bit of tweaking by using cryo tools and looking up settings the community tested to be the best balanced.
I've never heard about it. I'm googling it now, I'm waiting for my 1TB Oled to arrive. Cryo Utilities, right? Any sample on how much it improves?
I game on series x at home. I work nights with a lot of down time so I got a steam deck a few months ago and enjoyed the console simplicity feel. Then sold it and bought the Legion Go 2 weeks ago and loving that. I was bit wary due to not playing on PC and having to mess around with settings, driver updates etc but it's a lot less hassle than i thought.
Edit: Also, the 8.8 inch screen makes a big difference.
Can you just pick up and play the legion? You think that's the best portable gaming right now?
@jfez1206 Yeah. For the most part. Watch any of the "set up" guide videos and you'll be good to go. Not too much messing about. I thought it would be worse.
I was thinking of getting the Oled steam deck, but I think it's going to be the Ally for me. I like the fact it will allow me to access my other games libraries and I will mainly be playing it plugged in when I'm away with work (which will be quite often).
I went with Switch! And sold it after 2 years since I played like 6 hours total 😂
Today I'd pick between legion go and steam deck, leaning towards deck because I want plug and play experience (I do enough troubleshooting in my line of work).
I have both the steam deck and recently bought LeGo. Honestly LeGo is a pain in the ass to set up, but boy once you set it up the performance is amazing. You would also need to do graphics adjustment for every game you play for the first time like your PC. But Steam Deck however is also good for lighter and more casual gaming and the time to boot up and play immediately on the go is instantaneous, whereas LeGo you need to put it into hibernation/sleep.
what kinda set up that you need for LeGo for the best performance? i have a gaming laptop, when i bought it i just need to go to windows update and geforce experience to update those drivers to the latest. genuinely asking because I'm considering to buy LeGo
When the gaming performance is so close between devices, the most important thing is battery life. Steam Deck OLED literally destroys the other two in that regard, unless you have tiny commutes or use the handheld plugged in, there’s really no question which is best.
Wdym the gaming performance is so close ? Rog ally and legion go blow steam deck out of the water in terms of performance, especially in newer games like alan wake 2 / baldur's gate 3
@@barozzbaro3283 enjoy playing both those games for an hour before needing an outlet ;)
The most important thing is the compatibility with games, cause you buy this devices in order to play, not to cook
@@simoneritucci5928 haven’t had a game on my deck I wanted to play that couldn’t. I agree though that you should buy the device that plays the games you want, that’s exactly why you buy a handheld gaming device. My point about battery life still stands though imho, because what’s the point of being able to play a game you want if it lasts 1 hour, vs playing the same game at lower settings for 3-4
@@inmypaants your point was that the performance was effectively the same so battey was the only deciding factor, but performance isn’t the same. You can make the argument that battery is more important than performance, but that isn’t your original point.
I do a bit of music production and video editing as hobbies along with gaming on my PC so I'd love to see how these would perform in those regards... I'd love to have something I can take along to a friends place, hook up a mic and just jam and mix on the go but currently I either have to use a phone with a crappy mic to do that or have them come to my place (which isn't always an option, especially for late night jamming).
Also, what do you think of the MSI claw? I think it got released like RIGHT after you made this video!
I have the rog ally works like a beast been using it for 3-4 months no issues at all but battery is the only problem but it doesn't matter much to me since i have powerbank
Surprised no one is talking about the VRR of the Ally. For me this has been the biggest deciding factor. WoW on it has been amazing. Especially the VRR.
What is VRR?
@@Brelicity Variable refresh rate. You don't have to worry about tearing or keeping a locked FPS. It's a huge feature.
The Ally really needs to fix three things to be the best one out there:
1) Burnt SD cards
2) horrible battery life
3) typical windows related jank
yep fair
Which is best to dock to tv and connect 4 or more controllers to it and play 4or more local multiplayer games?
Any updates on Preference? Been over a month since this vid and the Legion looks incredible, have the fixed any/some of the bugs yet?
I never tried the SD OLED, but the original didn't have the best performance. I bought the Legion go, but besides the beautiful screen it fell short of my expectations. I bought an open Box Ally and have had an awesome time gaming on it. Just finished playing horizon zero dawn 50+ hours and it was an extremely enjoyable/comfortable experience.
So ally is the best way to go?
I bought the SD OLED. But, yes... Horizon Zero Dawn is one of my favorites. I recently finished Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores in PS5....It's fantastic. I put 160 into it. I imagine it's coming to PC soon.
Did you play Days Gone yet? It's also amazing.
I added Forbiden West to my steam wishlist, I don't think it's got an actual release date. I haven't played days gone. I need to finish RDR2 before i start a new game.@@bigbri4090
Honestly there is no wrong answer here. They're all fantastic, but I tried all three and the Ally works best for me. It's too easy to pick up and play the games I Play.@@victoriagomez9009
@@bigbri4090in february actually
Bought Ally last week. Very happy with it. And I really do feel it’s coming down to personal choice at this point. What extra features do you want and what will you be happy not having?
The Asus is crap. It’s like a Range Rover. Nice until the hardware fails, which is super common. Had mine less that a year and my ssd drive went out in a month and I got he the black screen of death a few months after that. The ROG Alley is the most unreliable piece of tech I’ve ever owned.
I got a steam deck at the beginning of 2023 and I fell in love with the ease and vast amount of games to play. I just recently bought a ROG Ally extreme this week and while it was a little harder to get running, playing Persona 3 Reloaded ROG’s beautiful 1080p on the go, with game pass, was eye opening!
So you would have bought the ally from the beginning if you had to do it over?
@@LoneSch0larX probably not, the steam deck was so easy to use that I felt comfortable in modding and discovering different ways to mess around with the system, while the Ally would probably spit in my face if I even dared to change some things around.
@@takskid lol i hear you
Im thing about getting one for gaming while at work..Question tho do they all support xbox game pass or its that just the legion go ????
I'd recommend the Steam Deck to most people hands down. Unbeatable for the price. I have the non-oled Steam Deck and it's just great. The Ally's battery is a real bummer for me (I can't say anything about the overheating micro sd card slot) and the legion didn't convince me either at it's price point. The Legion and Ally have advantages over the Deck but at a "much" higher price point.
How's the battery life?
What if my gaming library is on GOG Galaxy, Epic Games Store, Ubisoft Connect, EA Origins, and Xbox PC. And I have fewer games on Steam.
Do you still recommend the steam Deck?
@@Respectfully10 I very much disagree. ROG ally is far better in almost every aspect. The only one letting it down is the battery life, I would say. It hasn't been a problem for me though.
I tried SD and I never liked the OS. Windows is much better imo. Much more choices, supports every game pretty much. Not to speak of the "original" SDs screen. It is quite bad. Blurry image and very low resolution.
@MaxDrougge I was being rhetorical with my question. Your statements also show: owner bias / buyers' remorse.
Legion Go is the best for someone who doesn't have a steam library because it has no hardware issues, better battery life, and recent updates are actually doing the rounds. Price point wise; for $699 CAD, I'd take the ROG Ally instead of the Steam Deck for obvious reasons (my library). No matter the device you take. You need a $30 USD, 100W power brick to run turbo mode on the go. I like to use it on the train/subway to work & back. That's a good session for the day.
@@Respectfully10 If anything, owners bias. But my comment is pretty objective if you have looked at some reviews of the 2. I wouldn't say the LG doesn't have any hardware problems. Also, having removable joycons is asking for trouble in the longer run.
With the Ally you get a power brick sufficient for turbo in the box.
I have the rog ally Z1X and it’s a great device. I love the 120hz freesync display. Never seen a PC this small run games this buttery smooth before.
I made a custom 18 watt profile, since 18 watts seems to be the best FPS per Watt efficiency
How long does it last at @18W? Did you try to disable CPU boost? and how much battery life does that add.
Still debating the Ally
@@ij6708 yep CPU boost is disabled, I’d say it lasts about an hour and 40 minutes at 18 watts. But I have it set to only charge to 80% for battery longevity health reasons. If you disable Dolby atmos (which works shockingly well btw) you can also get some extra battery life and 1-2 extra FPS. But I leave it on since it turns good speakers into great speakers, at least for gaming.
For a portable device, battery life is extremely important for me, so Steam Deck OLED hands down. I just got one a couple weeks ago and I am in love with the thing. EmuDeck was so easy to set up, I can stream from my PS5 using chiaki, and it runs Steam games mostly well. I don't really care to play current AAA games on it, I have a PC and a PS5 for that. But it's great for indie games, older games, and all that. It's just awesome.
One thing I would like, and I know this is mostly out of Valve's control, is native Linux versions of Epic and GOG launchers. There are various workarounds and open source tools, but a native launcher for Linux would be preferable.
How long would you recommend waiting for the legion to price drop? And what bugs and improvements should i be looking out for being fixed?
I just got my LLG 2 days ago, let me tell u, i had the sd and rog before. The LLG is by far the best, been running my AAA games on high settings all the time with frame rates about 60-70 fps. This device is a beast and im so happy
Cap 😂
@@kysierkevinnaa i aint joking, but forget to mention only when plugged in, when not the fps will drop about 20fps approximately.
Truth is u got non of them, and ure coping hard cuz u broke af
Are you confused by the soap in games on the big screen and the lack of vrr?
Concerning the Steam Deck Oled: I would *not* go for the 1tb version. The anti-glare coating dulls the OLED screen quite a bit.
Yo tengo la de 1TB y se ve perfectamente brillante la pantalla, con el extra de que no se ven reflejos
Good to know @@StevenSite I've just bought one and comments like this worry me
I have the 1tb version and the screen protector overrides the antiglare screen.
I have SD 512 oled and I don’t regret it knowing fully well that ROG ally is a beast.but why is it called a handheld when the ba3 can’t even last 2hrs. Also why I chose SD was becos of the community easy to repair and parts etc. compared to ally consider all this before getting ROG.both are great machines IMO
9:49 "Where as the Deck OLED's performance (at 15w) is fixed, so games will run the same no matter what."
Incorrect, you can customize the GPU's frequency independent of the max TDP you set on the Steam Deck, which can run much lower than that in games that are less demanding. I presume these are similar to the options in the other machines, but I don't have one to test. You can also limit the FPS of games and refresh rate of the Deck's display, which also impacts performance and battery life.
The Legion is big and powerful, but way too expensive and the battery life is terrible.
The Steam Deck has great software, great support and battery life, but it's the least powerful by a big margin.
The ROG Ally is the middle ground, not stupidly expensive, decent internals, but bad battery life.
I ordered an OLED Steam Deck and sadly ended up sending it back because it just couldn't do what I wanted it to... such a shame because it was a lovely piece of design, those trackpads were so cool.
Got an Ally and what I wanted the SD to do, it just did, no messing around with coding or faffing, just install a program and away you go.
The thing that kept me away from ally is the battery life, heat issue, scared of deffect unit. I bought rog laptop before. When brand new it works fine. But after a long gaming session its to heat up and turn off. Do u think ally will suffered the same issue?
ally is too small
@@endrancemackenzie6168 it has been reported that it did suffer from that, but I believe there's been a slight tweaking and the newer models seem OK.
@@endrancemackenzie6168 If you are concern about the battery life, get a Power Bank. If you're concern of the heat issue, stop using Turbo mode, you can run any triple A games on performance. (there are tons of tweaks online that you can do it have better gameplay while keeping it cool).
There is no defect unit and if there is, that's 1 out of 100 and you can return it to get it fix or replaced.
@@endrancemackenzie6168i havent heard of Ally overheating causing the board to burn but I do heard a lot of Ally unit overheating at the SD card slot area melting the SD card
The oled panel is a game changer, Steam Deck all the way!
As a long haul truck driver these things are fantastic, I've been using a switch but played through all the games on switch i was interested in, finally got a steam deck recently, definitely nice to be able to play the 200+ steam games I've accumulated over the years.
I adored my OG steam deck. But i manually took off linux and put windows 11 because I had no access to a lot of the games i wanted to play without wines, protons etc. after that i really did like it but having rog ally and legion go come with windows and have better screens and power was a no brainer for me. i tend to stay plugged in to maximize performance anyway. I waited for the rog Ally to drop price and glad i did. My only complaint is the sd card reader. its a massive issue right now for many and im surprised it wasn't addressed here. Not a deal breaker since i have a 5 terabyte external hard drive with all my games anyway but still something to be brought up
I have all three and the ally is the one I use the most, if not all the time. Without VRR, the legion go just doesn't run as smoothly as the ally and it becomes very noticeable switching between them. The steam oled is just not powerful to run the games I want.. maybe if I want to play some third party game then I'll use the steam oled. I've already added a 4TB on the ally and got a power bank so storage, sd card, or the battery life is not even a concern for me anymore.
Any sd card issues?
And wondering what AAA games were you playing on both Ally and SD? Im still considering between these two (non OLED SD)
@@agumon1605 i have an R9 (date from manufacturer in September) and runs like heaven. Also put on it a 2TB NVME. Put BatoGo with a lot of roms and customized for ally and legion go and is just amazing. The design and everything for the ally and the most important the screen for me is the best right now on the market and VRR is a must!
@@agumon1605 I've never used a SD card since I've installed a 4TB SSD on my ally. I believe as long as you run your system on performance mode instead of turbo and reduce the resolution to 720p or 800p, the temp should run around 40 to 60C, the SD card should be fine.
I've been playing Baldur's Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, and Horizon Zero Dawn. The games ran much smoother on the ally than the legion go because of VRR. Both the legion go and ally have a higher frame rate than the steam deck. For baldur's gate 3, I would get around 30ish fps on the steam deck oled and around 50fps on the ally, cyberpunk is about 50ish fps on steam deck and 60ish fps on the ally. I also play dozen of emulators and they are all much faster and have a higher FPS on the ally since my ally's cpu is the Z1 extreme. My ally runs at 720p in performance mode, highest temp I got was 62C.
@@DamnitMan88 damn thats a lot of perf difference for AAA games, been wanting to play cyberpunk on SD because of the supposedly longer battery life but idk anymore if i would sacrifice my eyes for a bit longer juice to play it lol... anyways thanks for the info 🙌
Legion Go for me, I been enjoying the Go like a child with a new toy!
Does the Ally still have the heat issue
'cos the Go is over 40% more than the Ally ATM here.
I think He forget to mention that the Ally is the only one that has a native VRR screen. That alone is one of the biggest reason to choose the Ally, because it will make all your games will feel buttery smooth, even at lower fps. I think steam deck now have VRR if you use a external screen that supports VRR.
He's also forgotten to mention the ally completely fries SD cards! Quite a big over sight don't u think?
@@kalista37 I dont use sd card and I got my ally 5 months ago. I mean it is bad I agree but 512gb is enough to have like 8 games installed and play. you can avoid this problem.
Yea the ally also last 35 mins
Great point
@@peacefulmindFFXVyou shouldn’t have to “avoid” something on a device that costs $700, get off the copium!
Great review of all three, I have the first Steam Deck and the Legion GO. Windows has its issues, but I'm all for the Legion Go for the screen size and the fact that I'm not restricted by Linux.
How's Linux restricted ?
One question. It was probably said but I'll ask again - what about different game launchers. It is compatible and works fine or it is difficult to play your games from other launchers like GOG or Epic?
great and really informative videos
Super tempted by the Legion Go. If only the steam deck would have also upgraded to the Z1 extreme along with the Oled screen.
We prolly gonna see the upgrade next year or this winter I guess, finger crossed. Plus, Im hoping they re-invent the steam deck same as Legion Go with portable mouse option.
Would the community be OK with them releasing another upgraded version in a few months?
@@jerredhammonds nah, 10 month or 1 year at least should be fine
Dead zone issues as well as other issues have been fixed in most recent legion space updates
Finally!
A tip for the windows machines. You can configure windows to boot into steam big picture mode. This gives you a very similar experience as steam os on the steam deck.
use my Ally mostly in Desktop mode (Dock with 3 Monitors, keyboard, mouse & Lan network) Packed my desktop away. both at home and at the Office. So its mostly running at 30 Watts, seems to be handling it well. it's just a bonus that I get to use it on the road I guess.
512gb Steam Deck OLED, mainly because the etched glass kind of ruins the whole point of the oled aspect since the colours will look muted on the 1TB model vs the 512gb model which has a glossy screen.
Tengo la version de 1TB y los colores se ven increiblemente bien, lo de que se ven mas apagados, es un mito, te lo aseguro
I just bought a legion go 2 days ago and I absolutely love it. Coming from a steam deck I thought it was going to be a waste of money but it's far and away a better handheld for me use
is it nice as a computer as well?
@deepstrokes it's amazing, it's more of a computer than a console
Why did you spend almost a thousand dollars on something you thought would be a "waste of money"?
@Draegon86 because there's a magical thing called returns, where if you don't like a product you can return it and get a refund ✨️
@natehughey6432 so it had nothing to do with wasting anything. You went in with the intention of renting it until you decided it WASN'T wasted money. Sorry, your choice of wording was weird.
Can we mix all the good stuff from each handheld into one? Make it like "The one" handheld? Back then I had the psp and that was enough know you can not decide. Does any of them get a version 2? So, in order to wait for the newer version, instead of buying the old version. I must say the accumulators are weak
Does going with steam deck and then streaming from pc make sense? And Or does the rog ally have the same battery life as steam deck when set to a power where it gets the same performance as the steam deck.
I ended up sticking with the Ally. I want to like the Legion Go, but the fans are way to loud and after going through 4 of them, they all had a whine noise.
Ally is GOD, i have also the SD but the design and performance that Ally brings is just incredible, the legion go is also great but that size man, is not portable at al is horrible from my point of view. Nice video and review
Great video and I’m seriously tempted with the steam deck as it looks great 👍
Currently getting my partner into gaming (she has never touched a video game) and we plan on turning it into a mobile desktop set up (I travel a lot) so while im traveling she can use it since its main purpose is desktop which out of the 3 should be my best bet (keep in mind she never has played a video game)
Steam Deck 2 needs a huge performance bump without sacrificing battery of course
True - but you can play the Ally/Go on lower settings/lower resolutions (matching the steam deck's perf) and get similarly long battery
Steam Deck 2 needs performance bump (at same TDP) but more importantly the USB5 port for an eGPU. So you can take it on the go and then dock it when you get home.