ROG Ally 7" 120Hz FHD 1080p Gaming Handheld - AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme Processor - 512GB - Open Box - Fair

Since my first review was taken down for some reason I have decided to update it with a few more observations and have deducted a star. I will be comparing the Ally with my Steam Deck that I've had for 8 months. First, the positives. The hardware! The 1080p 120hz with VRR (variable refresh rate) is way better than I'm used to with my steam deck. Color accuracy, text clarity, motion performance are all way better. It's hard to go back to using the deck after using the Ally. The Zen 4 APU is in a different class of performance (more on this later). The Ally is smaller and lighter and feels more premium in hand. Armoury Crate works quite well - better than I anticipated. Lots of functionality that's needed to provide a great user experience. Having the ability to customize power profiles/fan curves and the ability to set the VRAM to 8gb is a huge plus for more demanding games. The game launcher works great, the performance overlay is neat, and there's a ton of other customizability I could mention that would make this review even longer than it is. Buttons and analog sticks are good. The front facing speakers sound fantastic, and get quite loud. Thermals are also very good under normal use. Fans are quiet. The things that are more "neutral"- The rgb. There's not much of it and I just turned mine off. I like how having the Ally white makes it stand out, but I feel like over time it will stain with skin oil/etc. It takes some time to almost "re-learn" how to hold the Ally compared to the Deck. You have to sorta shift your hands higher and rest the rounded bottom corners in your palm. It is comfortable to use once you figure out the right way to hold it. The Negatives- 512gb isn't enough storage. I can't find the toggle in Armoury Crate to disable the startup sound. Armoury crate is good, but seems to get in the way often. The performance overlay is in the top right corner, which makes it impossible to just click on the X to close something. Sometimes when I bring up the quick menu in a game I get "you are using x Controller mode" messages. That's not necessary. There's a bit of lag in game when altering quick settings. FPS limiter seems broken. It doesn't limit frame rates when adjusted in game. The included 'stand' is painful. If it was this cheap stand or nothing I would prefer the nothing option. Official accessories appear to be overpriced. (a soft case for $40???) Yeah. The battery. There's more to it, though. It's tied to what I'm going to discuss next- The Ally does a TERRIBLE job at power/frequency management. All around. It's why my review says "needs time to bake". At idle on the desktop, APU power doesn't go below 4 watts. For context, the Steam Deck is able to clock/power down at idle down to less than 1 watt. I've found often that in quiet and performance modes the GPU gets 'stuck' at 800mhz. It seems like only the CPU is allocated any power and performance TANKS when this happens. In The Witcher 3 when the GPU is at 1200-1400mhz I can get ~45 fps and at 800mhz it slows to a painful 20 fps. This is something the Steam Deck is way better at. If the CPU isn't really needed with a game running on the Deck, it will give the GPU more power and higher clock frequencies - again depending on the workload which allows for more performance at lower power targets. AMD and ASUS need to get this fixed as it seems to me that it's a BIOS/firmware/driver issue. There needs to be a better algorithm (optimization?) to determine how to allocate power available to the CPU/GPU, better idle power consumption (of sub 1 watt), and if necessary a way to 'turn off' some of the CPU cores to boost performance at lower power targets. This is why this device has such poor battery life. Further optimization is sorely needed. Lastly, the left side of the Ally on the back where you might rest your fingers if not using the triggers tends to get hot. I guess that's the price to pay for having a smaller device? This will be a highly recommended handheld if AMD and ASUS can get some of this optimization done.

The ROG Ally was my first introduction to the handheld gaming pc space. When it comes to performance, there are few that come close to it within its class, especially with the Z1 Extreme processor. The majority of games, with the exception of some AAA titles, run as good as you can get for a handheld. The 120hz LCD screen is also a nice plus. HOWEVER, the blessing and curse of this device is the software, namely Windows, in my opinion. If you like tweaking settings, installing mods, and are okay with typical Windows quirks, then this device is perfect for you. However, if you want a machine that boots up and just plays games with little hassle, you may want to look towards a Steam Deck or even look into installing a Linux-based OS designed for handhelds. Armory Crate SE certainly does a great job of hiding certain Windows issues, but you will still encounter a bug here and there. Typically, the bugs are quick fixes, though. Battery life is okay, with my top end at around 3 hours and bottom at around 1 hour. It really depends on the games/tasks you’re using and the TDP you set it to. For example, I was able to play Halo 2 on this device at 1080p normal graphics for close to 2 hours at 12-15W before the battery started getting somewhat low. Honestly, that’s plenty of time for me, but if battery life is a concern for you, a power bank would most likely cover those issues. Now for the other parts: The speakers were great for what they are, and the joysticks were a little loose for my tastes. The weight of the actual device is light but not cheap feeling. I have a case on mine, but I don’t think you’ll really need it unless you’re carrying it around in your backpack all day with a bunch of other items. The screen is a great LCD panel, but sometimes the slightly raised black level as compared to an OLED screen did cause minor issues in terms of visibility on same games. Usually this is easily remedied by changing gamma settings in game. All in all, as a first generation product, the ROG Ally Z1X is a great all rounder, with the main issues really coming from typical Windows bugs you see every once in a while. If you are okay and/or used to that, then this device is for you.

There are a few ways you can look at reviewing the Rog Ally. First perspective is from the owners of the Steam Deck. While the Ally isn't a dive in console like experience like you have on the Deck, if you can navigate windows there won't be issues. The initial setup is a little slow because of touch controls, but once through that its like riding a bike. As for performance, its like a Steam Deck, but at a higher resolution. So whatever performance you were getting on the Deck, you'll get about the same, just at a much better looking 1080p and 120hz. Oh and another added bonus is it plays everything. Those games that you had to mess with Proton? Not a thing anymore. EZ AntiCheat? Works just fine. From the perspective of someone who doesn't own a Steam Deck, for the majority of your games its going to play pretty well. Older titles and even some newer ones play just fine. For instance I am able to play Ratchet and Clank at 30fps at medium settings, 1080p with FSR, or low settings 60fps. And because of the high refresh rate screen it feels very smooth the entire time. The only game I haven't been able to play smoothly on the Ally is Immortals of Aveum. This game played at 20fps low settings and 1080p. It might have worked better at 720p, but it simply wouldn't look good and wouldn't fix the crashes that were happening regardless. Now, on to the cons. My unit the SD Card reader didn't work at all out of the box. Given the feedback in the Ally discord, it doesn't look like Asus has figured out the issue and RMA units coming back are having the same issue. Its so bad that its actually ruining peoples SD cards. So I wouldn't get it with the expectation that you're going to use an SD card with it. The next issue with it is drivers. As I said most games work fine, but there are a few instances where games will crash (Immortals), and the browser will act funny. AMD has yet to update the drivers for these things so we're kinda just stuck with the default drivers which aren't perfect. In addition to that Windows Update isn't aware that AMDs newer drivers don't work for this, so it downloads them, installs them, and you have to manually revert. And lastly there is the battery life. Due to this not being a tailored operating system for gaming Windows is going to chew away at your battery life in the background. Normally when playing games at the 15w profile I can get 2 hours out of the thing. But if you push it higher it dwindles much faster. So be mindful of that. On the plus side, the charger they give you comes with a long cord and enables a higher 30w Turbo mode that adds a little more performance over the 25w mode. Overall its a pretty good product that I would recommend for someone who just wants to sit on the couch or in bed and play games. For someone that wants to use it on long commutes without access to power, you'd probably be better served with a Steam Deck

This handheld is great for on the go gaming. The main issue I have with it is the battery, but there are accessories that give you quality of life improvements that will be included in the pictures with this review. These accessories have made the experience much more enjoyable as the default grips are uncomfortable in my hands, but I know that this is different for everybody. The other accessory that I have been using is the joystick extensions. The joysticks are the only other problem with this device, as the joysticks are a little loose and have some drift. However, the new update that they released does help alleviate some of those issues. I would also recommend getting joystick locks that will prevent the joysticks from getting caught on anything when being taken out of a case or bag, the battery accessory with a clip that carries a portable battery pack on the back of the Ally has been a great addition to this as well. In terms of performance, I’ve thrown a few AAA games at it such as cyberpunk, Need For Speed, Overwatch, and was able to download an app to play World of Warcraft successfully, with the controller setup. The oppurtunities are endless with this device…. even emulated games as it is basically just a full Windows 11 PC. If you’re looking to get into PC gaming or even being able to play those PC games on a big screen with the dock, then this is the device for you. Be sure to get the accessories and maybe even a screen protector. Do not bother with an SD card as it may get cooked, unless you are not using it for long periods. Volume can be pretty loud, but can get a little distorted at higher volumes. It is awesome to be able to just move the usb-c cord from my work laptop to this and kill some time on a mid range gaming PC. Get an open-box one as they are typically barely touched, because people did not like the fact that you had to go through a Windows serup and configuring software etc. Overall 7/10, excited for the second iteration and the start of high end PC gaming at your fingertips.

The good: - Incredibly fast and snappy plugged in - Beautiful high refresh rate screen - Excellent sticks and buttons - Feels lighter than its peers - Somewhat more portable than some of its peers - Fairly quiet fans when they do idle - Excellent looks - Plays anything that runs on Windows - Fun RGB accents - Standby/Hibernate works in many games - Armoury Crate is, for once, not terrible The bad: - Unexpectedly slow and only just comparable in speed with its peers when unplugged - Stick mouse controls fairly annoying to use - Difficult to navigate Windows with the touchscreen - Fans ramp up often even at idle making it louder than its peers at idle - Tons and tons of updates spread across three different places (Windows Update, Armoury Crate, myASUS) - Chunky bezels - Some apps think it’s a 1080x1920 device and freak out - Modern standby is garbage The ugly: - WiFi busted out of the box and would constantly only connect to 2.4GHz that runs at awful speeds (fixed by preferring 5GHz band in Device Manager) - Difficult to get more than 2 hours of battery life, let alone 1 hour - Performance can be worse than 2 generation old hardware when unplugged - Only the packed USB-C charger works well with Turbo mode; other chargers will show a warning and sometimes charging will just suddenly stop Recommendation: If you already have another handheld, this is one to miss this generation. To get the most out of it, you will be tethered to a wall outlet. Unless you absolutely need this form factor, you should be looking at the G14 or something similar. However, given it’s price, this is the best Windows handheld all around. But ask yourself, do you really need it?