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It's awesome that the handheld market is having a comeback, I might pick up one of these instead of a gaming laptop when I decide to upgrade.
this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2023
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It's a good alternative to a laptop.
Personally I use my steam deck as a portable console. For laptops, I opted for a Mac. If someone wants windows, it's really hard to beat this.
I use my Steam Deck as a portable console too. My laptop is a super ultra light thing (XPS 13) that can't run games very well to begin with, but that's fine since I have it for work anyway. In the end, the two of those together still cost less than a competent (and new) gaming laptop. And I don't even have to put up with Nvidia's terrible Linux drivers!
Looks like a good deal. Does it come with a docking station? Might get one for my gf so she can play all the new games.
Good question, never saw any mentions of a docking station with it.
No dock, but you can buy one seperately (or a dongle)
Mine arrives in the mail today. It does not come with a dock.
Can you plug an HDMI directly into it, or would you need a dock for that?
Can't plug an HDMI in directly, but if you already have a USB-C dongle it should work just fine.
Right? I love handhelds, I'm so glad they're coming back.
While the hardware seems impressive for a handheld, with ASUS’s support record and issues recently I think I’ll stick with a Steam Deck.
The Rog software alone. 😂
plus:
- screen's fantastic
- speakers're fantastic
- cpu's fantastic
- feels nice to hold
- only 2 back triggers to learn to avoid and/or deal with
minus:
- single usb-c
- it's on the top
- no nifty touchpads
- battery is definitely a bit stressed
- cloud restore only works if your warranty is active apparently which i promise will be annoying
nightmare:
- the windows 11 and asus trashware startup experience; i mean my god, i had to do the cloud reinstall to even login to the thing reliably
on first boot OOBE i tried to just login with my existing personal ms account which i guess was my first mistake, but it worked fine. i added a fingerprint and it also worked fine. i then added a PIN and it also worked fine. windows downloaded updates and demanded a reboot which is fine. it rebooted and i logged in with a thumbprint just fine. then armoury crate said HEY FIRMWARE UPDATE DEMANDS REBOOT so ok fine reboot and down the spiral we go. fingerprint doesn't work. PIN fails, "something went wrong" with a side of 0xd0000225 over and over. check bios, v317. event viewer says something about some exe with "biometric" in its title failing repeatedly. looks like i have to update through armory crate again? oh, the asus app? does that require me to sign up? it sure looks like it does... ok no, just dark patterns. more updates. more failed login attempts and the most alerts from MS authenticator i've ever had in one afternoon. bios v319, windows and my asus and armoire box all claim everything's as up to date as one can get, but you're sure gonna have to get a notification and cancel a request to reset your PIN on each login
i genuinely thought it might be headed for a refund, but shift+f10 and OOBE\BYPASSNRO after cloud restore let me make a local account and it's been smooth since, but i've barely installed we <3 katamari reroll on it
The more I hear about Windows these last few years, the more it feels like I got out just in time.
Gaming on Linux just keeps getting better, and doing anything on Windows just keeps getting worse.
the steam deck OOBE was genuinely fifty times smoother than this :|
This is the main reason I won't be getting rid of my Steam Deck for the Ally. Setup was super smooth, and for the most part everything just works. Barring a few issues with proton here and there, but I haven't had many with the games I play. Windows on a handheld sounds like a craptastic idea to me.
It's complicated. I work for a FOSS company and I like what the WINE team and Valve have accomplished with proton. However, a lot of games struggle with cut scenes even with GE proton. A couple examples are Call of Juarez Gunslinger (the cut scene audio is crackly) and Persona 5 strikers (the cutscenes are missing the dialog). Games that will not enable the anticheat are also, obviously, a no go. Not the fault of Linux or Valve, but still a consideration.
One other feature that Windows offers is cloud syncing for games that store their saves in the user's Documents folder if they enable onedrive. For games without Steam cloud saves, it's simpler than setting up syncthing or copying the saves manually.
I picked up a ROG Ally yesterday and I also own a Steamdeck. The Ally definitely has rougher edges in software. I'm still debating if I am going to keep it, but some of the Windows pros are a strong consideration. I think what is unsung is how flawless the Switch is with it's docking and undocking experience. IMO neither the Deck or the Ally come close in that regard.
see like just as a personal anecdote to praise the magic that is proton, jet set radio HD works infinitely better on steam deck than ANY win10 machine i've tried, simply because save games work again lol
How did you manage to launch CMD from the Ally? Is it possible using the built-in touch keyboard during setup? I don't have a USB-C keyboard to connect, unfortunately.
EDIT: I found a workaround: if you enter nonsense during the Microsoft sign-in it will fail and prompt to create a local account.
yeah, i was using an external usb-c dock/hub to get a keyboard working on that :/ fingerprint/PIN woes actually resurfaced, but i've read that it's "expected" with how win11 uses the TPM to manage that kind of data, so any firmware/BIOS updates will generally ruin those i guess, and you have to essentially remove and re-setup any biometrics on any update like that?? idunno, if that's the case you'd really think there'd be a more reliable or at least sensible error message than "something went wrong, we've tried nothing"
haha, sorry to hear, but i'm not even surprised at that all failed login and almost-but-not-quite-refund debacle, that's why i only ever set up local accounts on windows nowadays.
i'd be interested to get your opinion on the Ally once you've had a chance to play a bit more with it, especially compared to the Deck.
oh god very likewise; i simply didn't realize there was even a way to setup win11 with a purely local account on a home edition... haven't gotten around to putting win11 on anything else yet :/
so far, it's definitely far superior hardware (i mean the screen resolution alone is one thing, but dat refresh rate... let's not talk about the thumbsticks please) but a significantly weaker software experience; valve knocked the UI/UX for deck out of the park
Hardware side is really impressive, but i prefer the steamdeck for now For 2 reasons mainly : Steam os Touchpad
i play several games on the go where i use some type of mouse input and will not able to play them on the ally on the go, also i don't have gamepass and do not play competitive games where is necessary a kernel level anticheat (except vermintide sigh) so i'm really fine with proton and gaming with it. I mainly play on linux even on a desktop so probably i'm really biased
It‘s really great to see more companies making mobile gaming PCs. The overall quality of these devices has really improved tremendously over the past few years.
Although the Ally doesn‘t appeal to me personally, as I‘d really miss the Steam Deck‘s touch pads, its great OS and all the mods the community has already built for it, I‘m really glad to see more companies throwing their hat in the ring. Mobile PC gaming seems to no longer be just a niche market, and that‘s great!
Agreed, and the competition from steam forced them to release a firmware update to be more efficient.
I wish Valve would release a community version of SteamOS 3.X so we could load it on 3rd party hardware
ChimaeraOS and HoloISO are pretty good options for 3rd party handhelds, but I agree, it would be so much better/easier if Valve did that and ultimately it would probably be a win-win for them.
I preordered one and got it on Monday after having the Steam Deck for almost a year now and being pretty much exclusively a Linux user (at home) for more than that. The hardware is impressive but I was less than happy with it shipping with Windows 11. I mainly got it to reverse engineer the RGB and add it to OpenRGB, after that my plan is to run some flavor of Linux exclusively on it.
Out of the box, the Windows 11 setup experience is absolute garbage as usual. Want to avoid logging in with a spyware account? You need to break out an external keyboard and USB dock, look up the key code to open a terminal online, then enter some cryptic command to reboot the system with the shitty Internet requirement disabled. Basically just to be able to bypass the Microsoft account bullshit like you could in Windows 10. Upon logging in, ROG software pops up and immediately starts making you agree to TOS nonsense. The OOBE is atrociously bad here.
That said, installed Steam to test and even in Windows the Big Picture experience is pretty solid. Can't do the fancy stuff like TDP control through Steam like you can with the Deck, but it's definitely a better interface than the ROG nonsense. Played some Risk of Rain 2 to test, ran quite smoothly, smoother than on the Deck for sure.
Then I tried installing ChimeraOS to a micro SD card using a USB flash drive for the installer. I was able to get into BIOS rather easily (hold Volume Down while the start animation plays) and disabled Secure Boot. Then I installed ChimeraOS to the SD card with an Ethernet connection for network. Unfortunately, after it installed I discovered the Ally can't boot from micro SD cards, so dual booting is going to be difficult. I was able to boot the card in an external USB reader, so the card was fine. No WiFi in ChimeraOS but maybe I needed to install updates/firmware, haven't had time to experiment.
Mostly have been working on reverse engineering the RGB. There are some built in modes and the ability to sync with other Aura devices. This can be controlled through the Armoury Crate software. I was able to get basic per-LED control working in OpenRGB but need to figure out how to control the built in modes before I'm done and ready to push it.
Other main gripes - no touchpads. Controlling a mouse pointer with a joystick is pretty terrible in comparison. Only one rear button per side rather than two. Not a 16:10 screen. The rainbow looking strip on the back is not RGB as I thought from pictures, it's just a holographic strip. The only RGB is around the sticks.
Interested in your experience with ChimeraOS (if you experiment with games, that is). I believe it's very basic atm, as there's no TDP control or anything?
Just wanted to say thanks for both the review AND your work reverse engineering the RGB. As a constant user of OpenRGB, I love the fact that there are just passionate people out there who decide to reverse engineer this stuff for fun.
Apu twice as power hungry as steam deck's, but battery capacity is the same. You can maybe play for an hour at 1080p 120fps and 500nits.
That's not entirely true. The APU is more efficient, and is on a newer node.
It may not be as efficient, but it's definitely not the same power usage.
Not sure what you're trying to say but
Van gogh's tdp range is 4-15W
Z1e's tdp is 9-30W
Since these are amd's marketing tdp numbers, the actual limit would be 35% higher at 20W for van gogh and 40W for Z1e. Both handhelds have 40000Wh batteries and steam deck already dips below 1.5 hours with some games, meaning the screen, cooling and conversion losses add up to 6W.
If people continue to play their games at 800x1280x60 on the rog ally it will last longer but if they try utilizing the better screen and faster apu it will have much worse battery life. It needs stronger cooling or it will inevitably ruin hotter reducing battery efficiency, and it has a brighter&faster screen too.
You hit the nail. The screen difference realistically is what's taking the most amount of energy, it's the same thing on phones too. In this situation, the screen, while looks nicer, is a negative add for a console experience unless you're always plugged in.
I have a Ayaneo 2 otherwise I would be ALL OVER the Ally. It just seems like such a great buy if you're looking for an alternative to the steamdeck. The biggest + for me with these windows handhelds is Xbox Game Pass. I love Steam to death, but native Game Pass support is a really nice perk for the windows handhelds.
Hope it encourages more companies to try the market.
I’m picking mine up in a few hours. The screen on the demo unit looked so good.
You're gonna have to post when you get it, and a review!
Yes, please!
Will these beat a steam deck do you think?
Performance wise yes, user experience wise no.
I think no, so much of what makes the Steam Deck great is SteamOS. Plus my understanding is that this things battery life isn't very good.
That being said, still appears to be a competent competitor and I'm here for that.
The lack of touch controls was a red flag for me, too. Having a trackpad as a backup input device for menus and things seems like it'd be pretty important, but I don't have a Steam Deck so maybe I'm wrong.
It isn't just for menus, having good mouse input allows you to play significantly more games than with just joysticks.
The touchpads also can act as extra buttons or touch menus, giving you way more input options for games where you don't need one to be a mouse.
Exactly this - I play a lot of old PC games on my Steamdeck that assume you have a keyboard attached. A simple touch menu can easily give you 10 more buttons to bind!
Trackpads are nice for desktop navigation so you don't have to be tapping on the tiny screen.
There’s definitely a fair few Steam games that are 90% controller compatible but have some little launcher, and trying to get through it without some simple pointer is an annoying challenge.
Define "beat"
Performance numbers alone, yes. It's a newer CPU on a newer node. Absolutely. The screen is also 120hz, and 1080p.
User experience wise, I don't think so. Windows 11 is barely functioning for me on a desktop, how is it going to handle on a console device? Rog software has been pretty crappy on desktop too, it's similar here. The videos I've seen show a wonky experience.
Its not all bad, but it isn't a direct competition. I think the Steam Deck delivers a tailored experience, while this delivers a laptop in a small package.
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