Asus ROG Ally vs Steam Deck | Which Handheld is the Best?

[@TakiUdon]

Team Ally or Team Deck?

[@Opebin]

Team Deck

[@Tekgnome.]

Team Ally

[@mavvynne444]

Team GPD Win 4👊🏼😎

[@mrsnippysnoopa8300]

team gpd (the keyboard wins ;) )

[@Visual_Ghoul]

Team ZOE

[@skycloud4802]

As a Steam Deck owner, I like good competition. Keeps Valve on their toes.

[@nosirrahx]

Uhhh, no. Valve wins no matter what because all of us are installing Steam on all of our handhelds. Valve is in the unique position where they started a game that they simply cannot lose. All other handheld consoles could sell 10 times more combined units over the next 2 years and Valve still wins. Valve could literally never create another console and simply sit back and count the $ coming in. Hats off to one of the best business decisions I have ever see. I'm not a Steam deck fan or owner BTW, I'm in team OXP2 and guess what. I have Steam on it.

[@kllrbeas]

@@nosirrahx I agree totally, they dont even have to come out with a steam deck 2 and still rake in the money

[@nosirrahx]

@@kllrbeas Yep, master class on setting up a business based on creating something people will emulate but still pay you.

[@thesuperzfamilyvlog6607]

Agreed, I've really enjoyed my deck and competition always pushes companies to surpass themselves and each other.

[@hardcoregammer1964]

You’re right. I was surprised to see the new Steam Deck AD suddenly. 🤣 I love my Deck man.

[@smileandlaughs]

Thank you for this Taki. think software support is an important factor in this because I can see valve continually support the Deck until it completely dies and the user base drastically drops. Whereas Asus will probably only support the ally for two years at most with only minimal support after the first year.

[@chrislaustin]

Honestly, it's all about choices, as the Ally is just another option for consumers. I'm personally still planning to buy a Deck, as it's more in tune to what I'm looking for and need in a handheld PC. That being said, if my son had an option between the two, he would easily go for the Ally, as that device has more features he would prefer. And while the Ally has some things I would like to see on the SD, they come at a higher price with that device. I personally don't have any high end screens on any devices, so while I'm sure the Ally has the better screen, I'm sure the SD's won't be an issue for me. Now with these two devices offering such great value, it only means others in this space will have to improve to even stand a chance, and once again, that's great for consumers.

[@DrakeHerder]

Just came here to thank you for the extensive and clear video. It really answered a lot of questions I had as a Deck user. For what it's worth, you've won a subscriber.

[@jfangx]

I would love to see the Ally running steam os with cryo utilities it makes a pretty noticeable difference on the steam deck. Im very excited to see more contenders on the market even if the Ally is considerably more expensive.

[@miggyspain3218]

If I'm not mistaken, I believe ETA Prime has a video on that he put steam os on the ally

[@OldTownKiller]

@@miggyspain3218 it's not the real steam OS tho

[@chrisc2252]

He was getting the same performance as windoes rendering steam OS pointless as if it doesnt oit perform windows why use linux and habe less games

[@mechanicalmonk2020]

Cryo does some things that aren't needed on Windows. Windows manages a page file automatically for example and trim is already on as well. It's a different take on some Linux specific decisions Valve made.

[@mechanicalmonk2020]

​@@chrisc2252 not enough laugh emojis

[@LeJimster]

Seems like they both have their strengths. I've seen some people who already have the Steam Deck claim they're gonna buy the Ally instead. For me I don't really see a need to upgrade. I will be interested to see where the Ally is 6 months after release, what customer support and updates are like.. Because in all honesty it's going to be hard to beat Valve in that area.

[@g33k_Tech]

and steam OS

[@eddieos]

I use windows primarily on my Steam deck, making the switch to Ally is definitely a plus for me since I know new drivers will be up for the Z1 extreme from time to time.

[@JDabz96]

The battery life is my only gripe with the ally, some software issues too but all in all its a sick device, but I have a steam deck and I'm more than happy with it, it honestly come down to preference, and I prefer better and easier software on the deck over great hardware and buggy software that's harder to use.

[@powercheif]

Personally, i like using the touch pads on my steam deck. They make playing WoW and FF14 easier, even though i use controller.

[@eddieos]

@@JDabz96 Well in my use case, I just play games indoors on my steam deck for an hour or two then get back to having an interesting day. Everyone's usecase is different and its all choice, that is why I just enjoy the SteamDeck as is but I do not like the limitations with the games I can play, this increases the room of games to play.

[@polionstage-personaltraini653]

Me too! I Love the local Game pass Games on the Deck with windows!

[@zomg346]

Same here I sold my steam deck since most of my games are on battlenet and gamepass.the only thing I play on steam is lost ark.Can’t wait till 13th

[@duckyishappy]

I'm surprised you failed to mention the Ally's complete lack of suspend mode. This is a must have for a lot of folks. Being able to quickly just hit the power button and suspend the game then come back later is basically a requirement for me.

[@duckyishappy]

@nicholas Pretty sure its a limitation of the OS. Unless windows allows suspend like states it won't happen.

[@OldTownKiller]

@nicholas i love when you nerds get sassy

[@duckyishappy]

@nicholas The Xbox OS is loosely "based" (a fork of) on the kernel of windows 10 fundamentally, its a very custom OS with special features. As for the surface, that is literally just windows sleep, which is painfully slow compared to suspend states on the steam deck or Nintendo switch, and will not keep a large game running in the background.

[@genshinsemif2p732]

Umm.. I always suspend my games on GPD Win Max and it's still play my games after i leave it for several hours (small amount of game have some problem with it but majority of my game workd well) Dude even my steam deck always runs a problem doing this suspend thingy like crackling audio on some games after i turn it on. I need to restart the game to fix it but it kinda defeat the purpose.

[@chrisc2252]

​@@genshinsemif2p732the fan boys will be like na there are no bugs on the steam deck and its just perfect 😂😂😂 literally there are loads of bugs still on steam OS but you only find out that when you buy one 😂😂

[@CuriousTinkering]

Great points in looking at total system power instead of the just the TDP.

[@greatwolf.]

I think you mentioned in the video that the Ally can also run SteamOS. Can you do a video on that and speak to what the experience was like with that? Did everything work out of the box or were there any compatibility issues? Did the gamescope and mango-hud work properly? Any improvements on battery life?

[@tenchijin8491]

ROG ally can run steamos no problem

[@animationmann]

Taki Udon youre one of the very few who really done a GOOD Battery Comparsion between these Devices

[@oneway23]

This video is S tier. Awesome job, Taki...thanks! Went for an Ally, personally. Very much looking forward to getting it in my grubby little mitts!

[@kazirasostudio9660]

This is the video i’ve been waiting for 👏🏻

[@seeibe]

Yeah, one thing I noticed when comparing my AyaNeo 2 to my Steam Deck is that most of my games run at 10W TDP or lower on the SD, and I don't really feel the need to push them higher than that. So any 15W comparisons will feel inherently flawed to me, as that's just not what I consider a real world use of the device. Games have gotten way more optimized on the Deck over the last year, so even playing a newer release like Hogwarts Legacy, I will be more around 10W not 15W. I feel the fairest comparison would be Steam Deck 10W to Ally at 22W or so, as those are the instances you'll actually be using these devices at to get the maximum value out of them.

[@apersonontheinternet8006]

I’ll have to check but I pretty much run 7-10w.

[@rsorry]

What third party tool do you use to manually change the TDP?

[@akmalamni]

Very well-put conclusion at the end 👍🏻

[@GeoChad71]

Wow man fantastic video! I went with the steam deck and cancelled my ROG Ally. The deck falls more in line with what I want and need right now.

[@idkanymore3382]

Yikes, thats like taking a turd over a piece of silver. Steam Deck has the worst screen you can even imagine. Have fun with screen bleeding, black bars, and analog sticks that peel due to bad plastics construction. Oh, and of course that terrible linux experience

[@loanswashere.]

I mean probably if you dont like a powerful device Altho its choice so W

[@benkelleher4638]

@@idkanymore3382have you ever even owned one?

[@GeoChad71]

Dang why do people feel like their opinions are required? It’s what I want and it fits my budget at the moment. You do you my man.

[@idkanymore3382]

@@benkelleher4638 I own both. I am a reviewer so I got mine early.

[@arcaderacer586]

The ROG doesnt seem to be the game changer that the taki had initially predicted. Good video

[@mattmab25]

been ignoring most other comparison videos waiting for your opinions 🤞🏻🙏🏻

[@10-42outdooradventures]

I’m a steam deck owner and it has flaws compared to the ally. However the OS is user friendly on the steam deck compared to the ally. The window OS on the ally will have crazy bugs as to the steam OS will always be updated due to high steam community feed back. I’m happy with my steam deck and I wish the best for the ally.

[@AmorBuffer]

Trackpads are definitely a game changer, if Valve released a Steam Controller V2 with the Deck layout I would legit never go back to any of the current gen console controllers.

[@TheRealFrankWizza]

I like the large round trackpads on the Steam Controller. I use it to play games that don't support controller on pc. I would rather see a more modern version of the Steam Controller, with its original layout, no right stick. For games that already have controller support, there are already good controllers.

[@shodanargie1574]

The Battery comparison is misleading. The deck can run plenty of older games up to 7th generation at about 6 watts which the ally absolutely cannot do, as digital foundry showed. Unless the deck is being pushed to its limit or the game is so simple like freedom planet, careful setting dialing on the deck will beat the allys battery life at anything in between. I finished bioshock 1 and 2 on deck at max settings, 40 fps (also saving battery) at 5/6 watts getting 4 hours 15 mins of bat life . How do older aaa games run at that low wattage on the ally?

[@FaerieDust]

In Sweden, the Ally costs just over €820 (9490 SEK) - it's significantly more expensive than even the 512 GB Deck, and I certainly don't think the Ally is that much better at that price compared to my 64 GB Deck. The Ally definitely benefits from 1) being made by a better known brand, and 2) being sold in regular electronics stores. Ideally, I'd want to see the Deck in stores too. Personally, my Deck suits me just fine. I might get the next gen whenever that launches, but I can't imagine there being a big enough performance improvement in anything a comparatively low pricepoint to be worth it for me anytime soon. (And, honestly, for me it's a point in its favor that the Deck doesn't use Windows - I'm sticking with Linux based Steam OS for as long as I possibly can!)

[@IzzoG]

It’s also 6000 danish krones here in Denmark (805 euro) i don’t own any handheld console, so Ally will be my first one, even tho Steam Deck is a great value for money too, which I also considered

[@IamThatChris]

Sjuka priser ja!

[@Herr.Mitternacht]

Not worth my money still. I can wait for the SD2

[@Leynad778]

The Ally comes with 1080p and can handle it. IMO everything below seems a bit too retro why I never bought the SD.

[@FaerieDust]

@@Leynad778 Honestly, I don't notice the relatively low resolution of the Deck when I'm playing. For €419, I think the display is perfectly fine (even better with a matte screen protector). If it had cost €820 it would've given me pause, but personally I don't think the Ally is worth the huge price difference. A fairer comparison would be the €619 Deck vs the €820 Ally, 512 GB version vs 512 GB version so to speak, and I can understand if the Ally perks is worth €200 for someone... But since I'm coming from a €419 perspective (and that's the Deck I'd buy today too, tbh), the Ally is far too expensive at the Swedish price for me compared to the relatively small upgrades in power etc. The US price of $699 is equivalent to €650, which changes things quite dramatically imo - it puts the two devices in the same price bracket. The ability to output higher res would've been especially interesting for me, for playing on the TV, but I'm so into device repairability that I probably would've picked the Deck anyway just for that tbh. But they're definitely more evenly matched at the US pricing compared to the Swedish one.

[@DavidFilskov]

Great to-the-point comparison. Well done!

[@Anna_Rae]

Digital foundry did some more realistic tests on battery life that I think you should consider. Getting the deck and the ally to run at the same total system power is of course going to be about the same battery life. The have the same sized battery battery after all. A more realistic scenario is capping your framerate at 30, 40, or whatever to reduce power consumption. God of War capped at 30 fps has a much better battery life on the deck than the ally, over half an hour. Same performance, same visual settings, worse battery life on the Ally.

[@ItsMeFranz01]

thanks for the comparison. I might end up getting the Steam Deck instead. I'm not paying extra for a 120hz screen that i can't even utilize when the Ally can only push 60 fps on turbo and 45 - 50 fps on average on majority of the games except indies.

[@DizzyDJW]

As far as the Ergonomics are concerned other reviewers on YT have stated that, if you're used to the Steam Deck, you MUST change the way you hold the ROG Ally, it isn't designed to be held in the same manner, otherwise the edges will dig into your palms and your thumbs can't reach as easily. For the Steam Deck you must hold it like any typical ergonomic controller, wrapping your fingers around the large bumps on the back, but with the ROG Ally it is designed to be held with most of your palm on the face of the device and your fingers aren't gripping it, rather, they're resting on the back.

[@Thornskade]

As I said many times, the trackpads and gyro allow me to play many games I couldn't play on the Ally. I'd have gotten the Ally as a sort of enthusiast purchase, but this makes it very hard to justify

[@dumkopf]

What games can't you play?

[@Thornskade]

@@dumkopf Mouse-centric games like builders and RTS. I'm 20 hours into Dwarf Fortress at the moment and I played all of it on the Steam Deck, never touched it on my desktop. But with an analog stick that would be way too fiddly, and I appreciate that I can use the left touchpad for rows and rows of hotkeys Additionally, there's games that I could play on the Ally in theory but I would have such significantly less fun doing so that I'd play them on the Deck anyways. That includes first person shooters. I know many people are fine playing them with analog sticks and aim assist but to me that is just not feasible. Even simpler games like Terraria, Minecraft and Necesse I would continue playing on the Deck because they're far more comfortable and precise with touchpads

[@donniedarko4497]

XCOM 2, for a good example. It's controller profile isn't very good, but with trackpads and hybrid controls, it's awesome 😋

[@CJTheTokay]

i thought the ally has gyro why is everyone saying it doesnt

[@CJTheTokay]

i just looked it up the ally does have gyro

[@thesuperzfamilyvlog6607]

I can always depend on taki to bring us the most realistic comparison. Thank you! I suffer from rheumatoid arthritis and using the steam deck doesnt affect my RA, where the Switch kills and has been making totk very hard to play. Id wonder how the ally would fair. I know its not common, especially as a 37 year old, but ergonomics is extremely important for me.

[@okaniokani]

Great comparison. I like Steam Deck better because of its look, support from Valve and because it has a Touchpad, I'm curious that Asus doesn't have a Touchpad or something similar, it looks great for strategy or point click games. I also prefer a 720p-800p screen, since it's kind of the limit in general for these devices and for a 6-7 inch screen it's very good, so there's no reason to increase the resolution if it's to reduce performance, who wants it above 720 -800p puts on a Monitor/TV and that's it. In any case, I am happy with the arrival of the Asus ROG Ally, it will increase competition, make Steam focus more on the system and new competitors will appear, it will be a beautiful future where there will only be laptops with the possibility of plugging into a TV/Monitor. It would be good for Xbox to make a laptop with support for Windows or SteamOS, I thought it was great that Steam is also open, as well as Asus, that is, we are not tied to a system or store.

[@ninjason57]

Seems like once software and drivers are updated over time the Ally will basically be eventually better than the deck but only at high tdp gaming. Although by then who knows how the software and drivers for the deck will be. In the end I lean towards windows over linux for ease of use.

[@jj_mccarron]

this form factor is really intriguing and i loved my psp with gran turismo, now i work at an electronics store i can get the ally for 20% off so i think im gonna go for that! although the steam deck looks more of a complete device, i would appreciate the extra power of the ally.

[@ModernMan23]

I dont have a lot of time to game nowadays, it's rather spontaneous. So the handheld is the move. I pre-ordered the ROG Ally, but absolutely adore the Steam Deck too. Give me 1080p 120hz rich colors maxed out settings for an hour or so. ROG can run Ray Tracing too at respectable levels (see Bluntys Cyberpunk vid). Plus i use Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and Epic stores. All this picking a side tribalism is crazy to me. Do you guys realize how lucky we are to have these 2 powerful HANDHELD devices? When i was a kid playing NES and SNES i could never imagine playing a game like Cyberpunk with Ray Tracing and live shadowing in my hands. Just have fun y'all. Great content btw - your attention to details is admirable thanks man.

[@bipbop3121]

Where did you see someone getting 60fps 1080p Ray Tracing on RoG Ally? Or even a 7840U? A 4090 can only get 60 fps at 1440p with full Ray tracing and requires DLSS 3.0 to pretend to do 4k

[@donniedarko4497]

I'm been using the deck to relive my retro days with emulation. Was playing game cube tonight and was like this is amazing, I have a GameCube in my hands 😆

[@ModernMan23]

@@bipbop3121 do you really think I believe a handheld is running 1080p @ 60 + Ray Tracing at the same time? Or are you comment farming trying to dunk on people? Point is that it's great the field is getting healthy competition and it's us the gamers that win.

[@bipbop3121]

@@ModernMan23 quoting you "playing a game like Cyberpunk with Ray Tracing and live shadowing in my hands.". You wrote it. I was just legitimately curious where that idea came from. Was that your understanding of the featured pc handheld? Ought one temper disappointment, before reality sets in? OK, so that's on your wish list, got it. Like a $300 4k 120fps gpu is on my wish list.

[@ModernMan23]

@@bipbop3121friend, I don't understand the condescension. I'm specifically talking a video where a KZbinr named "Blunty" literally has a whole video showing off Ray Tracing and shadowing on the ROG Ally here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pqmbhpqeqLmdeck I said it can run it at "respectable levels with Ray Tracing." Where is the lie?

[@HandheldScene]

One thing that never gets mentioned is the I/O Both devices suffer a single Type-C port which to me is mega lousy, both should have x2 Type-C ports, this allows a mass storage SSD device to be connected whilst you can still charge the device. GPD , AyaNeo and Onexplayer use a second Type-C port and some devices also have a Type A port.

[@TakiUdon]

Talked about this in my first look video. You need a USB type C attachment for this device. Having only one port sucks.

[@cheater00]

Hi Taki, I'm an audio engineer. I really liked your video and I like most of them. Your audio tests are deeply flawed and I would like to explain to you how, and encourage you to perform them again. First of all, often you test the devices while they're laid down flat on a table. That's not how you play them - I wager most people who want to play at a table will play on their PCs. You usually sit in a couch or chair and hold the device in mid air. The difference is that if the device is on a table, that table becomes a sounding board, drastically changing how devices sound. Next up, you measure the audio from the wrong location and distance. Speakers like these are highly directional and the directionality is compounded even more by your hands being near the speakers, acting as reflectors or waveguides. Really the only realistic way for you to compare how these speakers sound is to sit in a chair holding the device like you'd be playing it, and have a mic a little above your right shoulder, while you also move the device a little to the right so it's not centered in front of you, and instead it's centered in front of the mic. The mic should be angled so that its transducer faces the sound source. Anything else will lie. The same things go for your fan noise tests, but there's a few other issues. First of all, the vents fire away from you. So it's unrealistic to position the mic on-axis of the vents, because you never play the device in such a way that the vents are firing at you. Additionally, you shouldn't be testing the fan noise increasingly close to the vent. Not only are you getting false readings due to the proximity of the table, which creates a deep comb filter. You also start running into the so called proximity effect, which boosts the low frequencies picked up by your mic or loudness sensor. Then there's a couple things about the audio meter you're using. Make sure to point out if you're measuring using A weighting or C weighting. To test fan noise, you want to test using A weighting, which emphasises annoying frequencies. Meanwhile C weighting can be used to test loudness of the speakers, which will include low frequencies in the result. So that will give a good representation of the loudness of audio. In addition, when testing speakers, it's super important to use a cold device (even put it in a fridge for a while) and use a low-power audio player so that you don't spin up the fans, because that will modify the perceived audio quality of either speaker as well as will influence the loudness measurement. It's a lot to get into but I hope this outlines some easy ways for you to improve our audio testing. If you have any questions you can reply and I'll be happy to answer. I hope this will help you perform better tests and I hope you will re-test these two devices.

[@xw8462]

wow

[@Szala89r]

Can you make a benchmark/performance comparison between SD (800p) and Ally (1080p) on native resolution? To avoid the scaling which can look very bad on lcd screens.

[@Roger-bs5tc]

I dont know why everyone is benchmarking the rog ally at 720p if the native resolution is 1080p. If they were to run the benchmarks at the device native resolution, i think there will be no performance benefits or even perform worse on the rog ally

[@apersonontheinternet8006]

Anyone running 1080p on that small of a screen has more money than brain cells, that is for sure.

[@Szala89r]

@@apersonontheinternet8006 so tell this to Asus. The reasons to use 1080p: - sometimes scaling looks horrible on lcd screens, especially in movement - producent (Asus) is making a selling point with claims that they are having a better resolution and refresh rate so why users should not use it?

[@magik97]

​@@apersonontheinternet8006 you can tell the difference on smaller screens, lol Have you seen 720p vs 1080p phone screens? It's not a huge difference, but it's noticeable if u pay a little bit of attention

[@Slicingmango95]

Does anyone know the game he is playing at 7:20 when testing the ergonomics? Really like the art style!

[@TakiUdon]

Wind Waker HD

[@Murasenki]

tbh I have never used the trackpads on the deck outside for the mouse in desktop mode. Nice feature, I can live without it

[@Zandaia]

I live in a country where valve didnt bother selling the deck, ROG Ally was heavily marketed with official warranty support. Would love the touchpads on the Deck, but Ally it is

[@bobbymcsteels]

The problem is with all of these comparison videos we're seeing is that you're comparing a probably fully up-to-date Steamdeck vs a marketing ROG Ally. During the Asus Live stream the other day, they addressed a handful of the issues you've pointed out that will be fixed in the final production Ally units. Right now, you're comparisons don't count.

[@luis51785]

I recently had a steam deck for about a week and a half and when I first heard that the Ally got announced it will be coming out in one month you already know I had to come through with that quick return on the deck, although the time I did have the deck, it was absolutely amazing it’s just knowing that something much better is around the corner really got to me. so I pre-ordered the ally, and saw a bunch of reviews online and gameplay, and this thing looks like it will not disappoint whatsoever. For me, I would shell out the extra cash and just go all out with the Z1 extreme.

[@greekmanx]

Aokzoe A1 Pro vs Steam Deck vs ROG Ally? I would love to see that because they each have benefits on paper and I wonder which you would lean towards.

[@rushmore3927]

Main apparent advantage for the Deck is the ability to hot swap microsd cards with installed games. Windows does not play well with installed games like that. Windows Steam as well.

[@oladipupodurotimi4754]

This. I have like 3 512gb plus 1tb sd card for my deck and I hotswap them all depending on the games I wanna play 😂

[@Moskeeto]

Steam on Windows added the ability to hotswap drives some time before the release of the Steam Deck. I remember testing the feature and seeing my available library update automatically.

[@rushmore3927]

@@Moskeeto Really?

[@conza1989]

Hi Taki, I'm trying to research the Ayn Odin vs the Odin Lite contrasting their higher end emulation performance. Right now the Odin Lite is $199 while the Odin Base is $239, I did watch your Odin Lite review but I want to know what I'm sacrificing, a head to head would be amazing please 🙏

[@theblitz1687]

Blown textures on SD was because you increased saturation, which blows (clips) the bright sections of image. But you said it looks dull otherwise. Gotta choose the poison 😁

[@tucker12435]

i was all for the ally when i first bought mine to months ago. but since then the sd card slot stopped working and the command center button stopped working so i cant adjust the tdp or anything else

[@MrMagicAmmo]

I really enjoyed this you were very unbiased

[@Smallville19751980]

So I’m curious because every review between these two handhelds no one talks about the haptics? Are they any good because the only game I noticed that the haptics work and work well on the steam deck is Outrider’s. How are the haptics on the ROG and do they work well?

[@bipbop3121]

I think retro game corps mentioned the haptics and said the Steam Deck was more refined and used an adjectiv, I don't recall for the feel on the Ally.

[@LuccaRPG]

You could be like me between choosing either the ROG or Steam Deck - Have absolutely no self control and get both! Taki Udo, Retro Game Corps, and ETA Prime are making me so, so poor. Again, my own choices but dang man. Temptation.

[@Varangian_af_Scaniae]

It's a better addiction than drugs. You have to see the positive aspect of things haha.

[@magnolia5817]

4:40 where can you find one of these?

[@Waknoodle]

I love my Steam Deck. The battery is my only gripe but what it's running and what I can take with me on the go I fully understand. I'm sure the Ally is a great system and will have it's base but for me it's the Deck.

[@TheGreenday240]

Definitely going with the Ally. I plan on playing AAA games on the go for at least the next 2-3 years and I fear that the Deck won’t be able to keep up in terms of power.

[@muhammadidzhamrusmi5305]

Every year will always have new handheld with new chip

[@CiNiSTa]

I have both and aaa means 45 mins of playin time

[@shuttzi9878]

@@muhammadidzhamrusmi5305 Every 2-3 years. The cpu doesnt mean much with those resolutions, the GPU does and the new Architecture in the PC world usually comes every 3 years.

[@CJTheTokay]

@@CiNiSTa ok i wanna say your capping right now how do you have the rog ally it isn't out yet

[@rushmore3927]

Catch being battery life goes the opposite direction.

[@xMRxLAMAx]

Depending on where you live, valve still doesn’t have distribution for steam decks everywhere. With asus being a bigger company at least they’re able to get the rog ally around faster. $900 for a 64GB steam deck and $850 for a Z1 extreme ally. The price of the steam deck is usually the biggest advantage it has but which would you pick if they were basically the same price?

[@SynoTaco-]

Just pre ordered mine

[@pcwizard7Tech]

how would the power/performance usages compare if you match the core/threads count enabled to match the steam deck?

[@nohemoglibin8677]

great vid. cheers.

[@connorsavugot1672]

What are the custom tools used to limit TPD for the ROG ALLY? I would really like to learn more about how you did it.

[@TakiUdon]

I used AMD engineering tools, but there will be GUI solutions from the open source community that can run on this platform soon.

[@kachakstore3262]

For me ally wins on specs..and i want it just to play ps3 games.. But steamdeck is another experience that it's easier to use and have a lot of support from the community.. Im sure Steamdeck 2 will be miles better than current handhelds when it comes out. What a bright future for handheld gaming..

[@rawdiggitydog]

Ally has a bigger community. It's not even close

[@Jaxv3r]

@@rawdiggitydog bro the product hasn't been released yet.

[@SaimSelim]

​@@rawdiggitydog 😂😂😂are you even serious

[@jollyrancherchick]

@@SaimSelim It uses windows so it wouldn’t be too far to say it has a large community

[@SaimSelim]

@@jollyrancherchick the deck runs on a community based OS and Windows is backed by one of the largest enterprise

[@AngelCopout]

I don't remember if you shared where you got that Gundam skin, but if not, where's it from? I don't mind if it can't ship outside of CN just in case.

[@TakiUdon]

Local shop in China. I'm going to give a bunch away soon.

[@NothingHereForYou]

I have the steam deck now, but I'm thinking I probably should have waited for the ROG ally. With windows I would much easier be able to you GOG and EPIC and I feel I would get more use out of it for pc use. Im moving abroad and thought about using my steam deck as an all in one for gaming and pc use, but the ROG would have it beat. Im excited to see what that Legion handheld will be.

[@CrisRios]

The ROG Ally handheld is a 8 cores 16 threads cpu while the Steam Deck is a 4 cores 8 threads. A fair comparison would be setting both on 4 cores 8 threads.

[@reaperreaper5098]

That less of a fair comparison. It’s not ASUS’ fault that Valve went with a quad core CPU, nor is it Valve’s fault ASUS went with an octocore.

[@beace4436]

can someone help me. i got my Steam Deck a few days ago and the shoulder buttons feel mushy, especially my left one, it clicks as i push it down before I reach the click that registers a press. is this normal?

[@ReKapRaps]

Not normal, but this is a common defect with the Steam Deck. Get it RMA'd.

[@Punmaster9001]

I question if the rog ally has the longevity the Steam Deck has

[@Whatsup_Abroad]

it definitely doesn't. It will be outpowered within 6 months by something else, and it has no truly unique selling points.

[@MattWiles]

Why would Windows games not be playable on the Ally in say 3 years? Of course they will be, so therefore it has longevity. It’s a Windows computer.

[@Punmaster9001]

@@Whatsup_Abroad I heard one reviewer say that unless asus plans to support the device, it'll most likely go the same way as other handhelds that try to make a quick cash grab and move on to the next thing. I also don't see it doing well after a while simply because it's got the generic win 11 install. It's not optimized to work on the device. I honestly see the rog ally being a blip on the radar over the Steam Decks life, and I suspect we'll see a Steam Deck 2 long after the ally is forgotten. But that's my view anyway

[@genshinsemif2p732]

@@Whatsup_Abroad the "unique" selling point are The price, VRR, and the availability (released globally) which is a big deal for me because no handheld are officially released in my country yet accept Ally. But everything will be outperformed every year, that's technology for ya.

[@Punmaster9001]

@@MattWiles 🤣🤣🤣🤣 If the hardware and software don't receive support from asus or microsoft, the device will become defunt. microsoft likes to bloat their software with unnecessary garbage, slowing down any computer it's put on, eventually needing to be reinstalled. It also causes problems for game playing. Value actually cares about their customers and keeping them around, microsoft just throws shit at the wall and hopes it sticks. So when the ally goes the way of other worthless handhelds, the Steam Deck will stay relevant

[@SPISheste]

Good, let the competition flow.

[@watsyurdeal]

Team Deck for sure, can't consider anything else because I love the control layout so damn much.

[@lordrahl7033]

I would have never thought that it would take more watts to power an 8 core CPU over a 4 core cpu to get the same performance.... In all honesty, I think 4 or 6 core CPU along with a more robust GPU is a better option for these handhelds than higher core count processors.

[@jayinhd4296]

The performance is solely because of the updates needed for the Ally. Once the updates continue to drop, the performance will increase. Also, there lost if things these reviewers don’t know to do in windows to increase the performs in a huge way. Remember, windows already comes with default video and gaming settings.

[@sneakybobinson3252]

Ill be keeping both...Neither feels like a huge win over the other IMO

[@jollyrancherchick]

The main difference between the 2 devices is that one has been released and has had a year of beta testing and updates while the other hasn’t been released yet.

[@TrowGundam]

I'll be putting SteamOS on my Ally as soon as the community gets all the kinks ironed out and have things like RGB Control (Hopefully OpenRGB can be of use), TDP Control and mapping support for the back buttons, I'll be putting SteamOS on my Ally immediately. Windows is just way too heavy for a handheld imo.

[@MrRaxodine]

Weird no mention about all of the issues which come with Linux, like Rockstar Social club cloud saving having issues like losing game saves, or how games on steam will say “great on the deck” and not work. Sorry but I gave steam deck a chance and it dropped the ball one too many times. People keep saying it provides a console like experience. On what console will a game be verified and not work?

[@jimmymyers]

I have the Steam Deck and using the right stick for acceleration/braking in PS2 games really cramps my hands after a while because of how far apart it is, the layout of the Ally looks better suited for that use case.

[@TakiUdon]

GT?

[@jimmymyers]

​@TakiUdon I play a lot of NASCAR games, specifically Thunder 2004. I can play that game for hours on end and on Deck it gets uncomfortable after an hour or two. Also it's right on the cusp of being at full speed on native, something that should be easy on the Ally.

[@Whatsup_Abroad]

how far apart what is

[@LeJimster]

Why don't you just remap some other keys to do accel/brake? Super easy to do with Steam Input no matter which handheld you are using? :)

[@jimmymyers]

@@LeJimster Right stick is the only way to have analog acceleration/brake on PS2 games. The Dualshock 2 didn't have analog triggers. A lot of games let you use Playstation X for gas and square for brake, but that isn't precise enough since the handhelds don't have pressure sensitive face buttons.

[@obblivionkr]

I might have gone with Ally if it had the same kind of sleep mode that SteamOS has... but being a windows device, I guess that's not happening anytime soon.

[@archie7288]

The steam deck skin are beautifull, is that dbrand?

[@donniedarko4497]

17:30 Super mario RPG!!! If you knew that already, you're my friend 😀

[@Hunter_RQ]

A good video, thank you

[@ragetobe]

What is the game he is playing, the little guy with yellow hair? And then there is one with a little dragon (spyro?)?

[@DovahRex]

Great video! What charging cord are you using in this video?

[@TakiUdon]

Shargeek Phantom C

[@RealDalaiKarma]

How easy is the steam deck actually though? I was looking to get one and it seems like every game needs tweaking to play. Changing the proton version and other things like that from a massive list. Looking up a guide on how to get every game to run isn't exactly easier than on Windows just installing and maybe you need a workaround for older titles.

[@TakiUdon]

Even with annoying stuff like that, it's easier. Generally, you won't be changing protons versions per game unless they have some wonky crap that runs better on a specific version. I just use and keep GE up-to-date.

[@stnilus3294]

Anything rated "great on deck" is going to be a console like experience, in the sense that it will "just work." Everything else will require some basic configuration or, at worst-case, a couple tweaks. I will say if you want to use Windows, Game Pass, or EGS, just go ahead and get the Ally. The Steam Deck relies very heavily on Linux and trying to force windows onto it, strips it of a lot of its unique qualities. It does three things really well. Steam games, emulation (up to PS3/360), and remote play. Anything else is not going to be intuitive.

[@reaperreaper5098]

Tweaking games is something almost required on all handhelds, just because that’s the nature of low spec gaming. You don’t have the hardware to brute force performance, and letting Windows handle battery conservation is asking for a wildly inconsistent and bad experience ling term.

[@jollyrancherchick]

It’s not easy if you’re used to being able to open a game a just play. My experience has been more than simply changing proton. I’ve had to wait for a month for even geproton to update enough to play some games in my steam library. I’ve had problems like running a game from my steam library and my steam deck lost all sound even outside the game. In the settings it said the sound was being output to a device that doesn’t exists lol. The only thing I could do was restart the device. There’s lots of bugs, it just depends on how much you can put up with them. I think it also depends on how many of the more popular games you play. If you play the normal stuff, you’re likely to have a good experience but as someone who doesn’t play those games, it was a nightmare. Mine has been on the shelf for the last several months…

[@DeanSmith84]

​@@jollyrancherchick This. SD can be frustrating at times

[@emerald85]

If I wanna go down ally route , why wouldn’t I pick ayeneo 2 , gpd win4, aokzoe pro etc there are so many .

[@genio5311]

Can you make a performance comparison between Ally and a 6800u handheld like Ayaneo, GPD or whatever?

[@sicktreex1858]

Buen video 🎉

[@eliranbenami2125]

Where i can buy a good fan for steam deck?

[@bits2646]

Not gonna be long until someone or even valve itself comes with replacement board (if 1200p lcd upgrade is to be believed and real) with 7640/7840 U/HS

[@Jaxv3r]

You lose fps with a 1920x1200 display

[@bits2646]

@@Jaxv3r Yeah but hopefully it's at least landscape native... Also, FSR/RSR is getting better and better in general but especially on RDNA2/3 GPUs, so....

[@Brandonhatesmayo]

I found the track pads on the SD to be near useless/pain most of the time.

[@TakiUdon]

If you play retro games (DOS/etc), they are OP.

[@DoubleDragon5180]

Same here. All I hear is how great the trackpad is and it’s definitely not lol. From my time using the Steam Deck, the trackpads where in the way when playing fighting games or platformers. It makes me appreciate the PS4 controller a lot more because they included a trackpad but it’s out of the way in gaming and there if needed which I rarely use

[@downtempo9263]

i felt the same way until i cranked the sensitivity all the way up on them

[@Lucidexplore]

Love your steam deck skin. Where did you get it?

[@HARDESTBOOM]

Where to get the skin for the deck?

[@rafaelpinhaosantos]

honestly i dont know why the frametime on the deck is perfect and on rog ally is all heart beated.

[@TakiUdon]

Alien technology

[@travishamiltontattoos4635]

Can some explain to me what changing the watts do? What TDP is, and why it's significant?

[@CJTheTokay]

the higher the tdp the more power u get the lower tdp the less power and battery life you use

[@travishamiltontattoos4635]

@Void_Raven so wouldn't be ideal to run the games on the lowest tdp possible for handheld games?

[@CJTheTokay]

@@travishamiltontattoos4635 well I mean its pc games and a lot of pc games are incredibly hard to run at low tdp so for indie 2d games like platformers and stuff you can get away with lower tdp but stuff like ark survival evovled, cyberpunk, and red dead redemption your gonna need high tdp for those

[@travishamiltontattoos4635]

@Void_Raven okay, I understand that, it seems to me that the handheld would determine that itself... how much power draw it needed to run a game smoothly.. thats not the case present day?

[@CJTheTokay]

@@travishamiltontattoos4635 I mean usually if your game isn't running smoothly on a pc or like a console you would just turn the settings down but with this if your at a low tdp and your game is barely running you can just raise the tdp, but if your at the highest tdp already and the game isn't running well your gonna have to turn down the settings

[@PlasmaSnake369]

I just built a gaming PC and I can do a lot with my phone so I'm not going to get either. But knowing what I know now good chance I just would have bought one of these instead of building the PC for about $1100. The high-resolution, high FPS gaming and large storage space I have with it isn't really as important as I thought it would be. 1080p generally looks pretty good as an output resolution as long as it's not a 1440p monitor.

[@ulmwurttemberg1682]

Is the Aya Neo 2 any better now than when it was released?

[@revmaillet]

can you repair and upgrade the ally? I cant find that anywhere

[@TakiUdon]

Repair isn't possible at this point. You can upgrade the storage though.

[@wrathtard1428]

What is the yellow cable plugged into your deck in the video?

[@TakiUdon]

Shargeek Phantom C to C Cable

[@wrathtard1428]

@@TakiUdon I have a thing for yellow. Thanks 💛

[@Kevin-du5vf]

Those ally speakers slappp wot wasnt expecting that.

[@HariKrishnan-yw3gw]

Both are great devices! However for a device costing a minimum of more than twice the base model steam deck, the Ally is just slightly better than the deck in terms of performance and slightly worse in terms of software, ui (Asus's Armory crate is not that great compared to the steam big picture ui) and ergonomics. Also, the sleep and resume feature is fundamental for any "handheld" device that the Ally lacks.

[@creaturecore13]

The Asus should be closer to the 7840u in performance once Asus irons out the bios and there are better drivers. Which means they wont even close in performance at 12w and up. At 10w the 7840u is very close to the deck and blows it away at every other wattage. If you play AAA games the better system is going to be the Asus, if you dont play AAA games and everything you play is on steam, then a steam deck is fine. If you want to play non AAA games not on steam without having to watch a guide or even hope its an option get an Ally. Steam Deck is just too limiting. For the quick resume, just add hibernate to your start menu on the Ally. Sleep is broken on windows. That said if Asus cant get the x1 extreme chip running the way it should, should probably pick between the deck and one of the Chinese handhelds.

[@HariKrishnan-yw3gw]

@creaturecore13 Yes, I agree with you. It's just that AAA games don't make much sense for me personally on these devices as they have only a couple of hours of battery life ... besides, I am fine with 30 fps lock with 60Hz on the deck, which I think it can handle even for AAA games... the increased screen resolution and the higher refresh rate won't be that noticeable for me personally on such a small screen .. it's just personal preference, I guess.

[@Glopezane]

Wow. Nice vid. In the meantime, I just like to enjoy my devices without worrying about TDP and OMG 60fps ALL THE TIME or this game sux. 😂

[@theblitz1687]

Hello Taki, can you showcase some demanding games with ally for pcsx3? Im interested in gran turismo 5 specifically. Iron man 2 is another ps3 exclusive thatd id like to see its performance of. Its very demanding once you make it outside

[@amr-OH]

what's that accessory plugged into your headphone jack? and what's it for?

[@TakiUdon]

It's a long USB cable that is very flexible.

[@amr-OH]

@@TakiUdon oooh ok I gotcha now, that makes sense, thanks

[@christophergoad9854]

I think another comparison point that you didn't really cover here, and maybe this is my own lack of knowledge. Outside of Steam (the service), what PC games can I download and play on the Steamdeck out of the box? I know with the Ally, you're supposed to be able to play games from Epic, PC GamePass, as well as Steam. Does the Steamdeck offer that variety out of the box?

[@apersonontheinternet8006]

I play Game Pass all the time on my SD, and I also have Epic installed. SteamOS doesn’t play nice with BattleEye but I can dual boot Windows and do whatever I want.

[@christophergoad9854]

@@apersonontheinternet8006 Does the SteamDeck actually allow you to download the games to the system out of the box or do you have to do modifications to it? It's not the cloud gaming is it?

[@apersonontheinternet8006]

@@christophergoad9854 I do use the cloud gaming simply for storage reasons but am pretty sure you can download and run games, too. However, I'm not entirely certain so I very well could be wrong.

[@dubsmachine555]

Honestly I would not call Steam Deck novice friendly. There are many people all over various groups that expected a download and play experience and found it is not that easy with games that either don't play or need to change Proton versions and mess around with controller mapping. I had my Deck since day 1 and can handle it but looking forward to my Ally for stuff that just simply does not work on Deck.