The ASUS ROG Ally is one of the latest offering from the brand that brings in one focus, and that is mobile PC gaming slowly targeting masses that is seeking a gaming hardware one could possibly just bring in everywhere they want.
Today we will look at it in this review and see if it is on par with the rest of the competitions, especially Valve’s Steam Deck.
Unboxing & Overview
Who is this for ?
Those who love games into a single device that works, mainly using it at home or out, airport, travelling around but still be able to grind a few sessions out of it in a comfortable area, be it in a couch, sofa, sitting down playing your favorite genre anywhere you could imagine. If you are a fan of emulation, this is also a great companion to keep a list of library of retro gaming.
Design
Like most handheld gaming PC, the ergonomic is there, with curves that actually there where it should be. The RGB LED surrounding the directional controller can be customizable too, we will talk about Armory Crate later.
So it’s weighted at 608 grams only, this makes the ROG Ally lighter than its popular competitor, the Steam Deck which is over 660 grams and this makes the Ally lighter to be carry on a case or on your favorite bag pack. Besides that, the Ally also has some good ventilation with two wide air exhausts located on the top of the device. The buttons are well arranged and ergonomically comfortable too with action buttons, spring style sensitive triggers and seamless XBOX layout buttons that is familiar with most users who is used with the standard controller layout.
The rest of it includes a stereo speakers that faces in front of the user, dual microphone, 3.5mm headphone jack, XG Mobile port (for dedicated GPU expansion when docked), power button with fingerprint scanner, MicroSD card slot, USB C for data, external display, storage and charging and two LED light dedicated for charging and power on indicators.
Display & Audio
The ROG Ally houses a 7 inch touch screen 120Hz Dynamic display which can display a maximum resolution of 1920 x 1080 at 16:9 aspect ratio. While the response rate is around 7ms as based on the tech specs, using it on a daily basis is no problem as you wont feel much of the delay over the display, in fact because of the pixel packed in over the 7 inch display, all you get is good color display with its SRGB color space rated at 100%. Alternatively you can also adjust the resolution, frames by pressing the action button located on the left of the screen, this makes things easy to adjust your screen on the fly and more will be explained in the next section via the software. If you wanted to plug it to the external screen, you can do that by plugging in a USB C hub with HDMI support, which supports resolutions up to 4K.
Now abit about the Command Center for the display, it does allows you to lock your FPS directly on the fly, enable AMD RSR and also enable real time monitor for all your stats including FPS and voltage live.
Alternatively you can also expand things further with the XG Mobile, which allows you to use with a discreet graphics card option up to an RTX 4090, however it is pricey.
Lets get on to the audio, the ROG Ally dual speakers located at the front is powered by Dolby Atmos along with HiRes Audio support, and besides that, there is an included dual smart amp that further enhances the sound quality. Experience wise I am amazed with the quality of the audio that is much cater for gaming, also it has a pair of microphone as well which works well along with two way noise cancellation technology built into it.
Performance
The ROG Ally is powered by an AMD custom Processor, the 8 core, 16 threads Z1 Extreme which can peak up to 5.1Ghz along with Radeon Graphics which shares up to 4GB from the RAM. Speaking of RAM, it has 16GB of soldered LPDDR5 RAM which is still plenty for a handheld PC. Internal storage wise, it houses a 512GB NVME 2230 SSD, but one can easily upgrade it with any branded 2230 SSD, the only challenge is the price and availability, but since the Steam Deck is around, which uses the same form factor of SSD, you can get it via most online channels and install it yourself. I will just put in a video guide below on how to install the SSD.
Software & Apps
As we all know the Steam Deck is powered by the SteamOS, ASUS took a more traditional approach by using Windows 11 along with Armory Crate SE and a few more ASUS software embedded as part of the OS package.
The Armory Crate SE is the main software and act as the main gaming front end, all of the games installed will be populated in there , whether you are using Steam, GoG or battle.net, it will have the games over there easily for you to run it. Besides that it also serves as the point for your drivers, firmware updates, RGB configuration, thumbstick calibration as well as promos related to games.
Next you have the Command Centre, which is the quick toggle of selected most needed changes you can do especially in game. It hosts several options such as limiting frames, enabling AMD RSR, switching over to gamepad mode, change resolution and switching framerate modes.
Experience & Benchmarks Test
We have put together a test of a few games and benchmark suites that we have installed all in variable in game settings and modes are set to 30w turbo on all Benchmarks and test.
During our test and experience, we find that the ROG Ally may be facing some minor issues in the beginning but over time, with new software, firmware and drivers updated from Asus and AMD, things are just getting better with better frame pacing and newer games such as Starfield are recently supported as well. Battery life while playing with Genshin Impact with 15w performance mode will last you about 2 hours while less intensive emulation and games will last you about 4 to 5 hours in average. The battery life can be stretch longer so long you can adjust it to the games comfortable limits. Recharging it back with the included 65w power adaptor will get it filled up around 2 hours. Temps usually hover around 75 Celsius when gaming in average, while idle, usually around 30 Celsius.
Verdict & Conclusion
The ASUS ROG Ally is a handheld PC that is putting a more accessible way of playing most of your favorite games anywhere you want, ready to roll out carrying your favorite titles while back home ,you still can play it on your monitor with peripherals and still acts as a working fully functional desktop and plus without worrying about third party DRM compatibility since it runs on Windows. Overall the Ally will just keep getting better improvements and with game publishers joining in to support the AMD Z1 Processor platform, we would slowly see more interest in PC Handheld gaming for Windows and ASUS is leading the pack now with its gaming power in your hands.