Customer Ratings & Reviews

I have a GPD Win 3, which is a similar PC from China. The Ally is a huge step up by comparison. It is bigger, has a beautiful display, is very comfortable, and is shockingly quiet even in the 30w turbo mode. The screen is amazing. While many newer games won't run at 120fps, older games definitely will, so it's nice to have that option. it's 1080p IPS. I wish it were an OLED, though. Controls are comfortable too. everything is laid out pretty well, buttons feel good and the sticks feel great. However, the sticks are not hall effect sticks so joystick drift is a possibility. Also worth mentioning is that both early review units, as well as the demo unit at my store had an issue where the X button got stuck if pressed at an angle. However, my retail unit does not have this issue. Performance is great. The Z1 Extreme has 8 Zen 4 cores and an RDNA 3 GPU paired with 16GB of DDR5 at 6400MT/s. CPU performance is excellent. for gaming it is plenty. IF you want to do some productivity work too, this will handle it fine. GPU performance is not as impressive as the CPU performance, but it is still excellent for a handheld device. I tested both Cyberpunk and Hogwarts Legacy with great performance. about 35-50FPS on both games at 1080p low settings with AMD FSR. I also tested Okami, which unfortunately had some performance issues and glitches at 10w. At 15w it ran just fine. My GPD Win 3 (i7 1165G7) ran Okami at 11w with no issues, so it's definitely an issue with the ROG Ally. Hogwarts Legacy had some stuttering, but after a BIOS update and setting the GPU memory from 4GB to Auto, it runs great now I did have some weird software issues, most of which were solved by a clean install. Armoury Crate is still a bit buggy and temperamental. Sometimes it freezes, sometimes it doesn't switch between mouse mode and gamepad mode. The Ally is also quite picky when it comes to chargers. You need a 5A cable and a >65w charger with USB PD 3.0 or newer to take advantage of the 30w turbo mode. Otherwise it will stay at 25w even if you charger can supply more power. Aside from that, I wish we had the option to chose between the XGm port and a second USB C port. I have no interest in the XGm external graphics, so I wish I could use the XGm port for something else, as a signle USB C port is quite limiting. If you don't mind tinkering a bit with your device, the ROG Ally is awesome. But it is still rough around the edges and needs work on Asus's part. Hopefully they don't just abandon this awesome little PC

So I’ve always wanted one of these, even before they were an actual thing. I love my pc games but much prefer to play on a handheld system and this has finally made it possible! It’s a pretty straightforward setup just like a pc and it’s easy to use between the onboard controller and the touch screen ability. The battery life isn’t great so if you intend on taking it out with you make sure to bring a decent sized battery bank or try to scope out spots that have outlets near you so you can plug it in. If you dont want to deal with upgrading the ssd or paying the $ for a micro sd card (the ones that work the best with this device are pricey and kind of hard to find) then I suggest getting the 1tb option. I haven’t had any issues with games running on this but I mostly play stuff like Fallout, ( Doom Dark Ages will play but it’s not a good experience). All in all I wanted something I could sit on the couch and play while my husband sits next to me and games on the xbox, and something I could take to work with me to play in between clients, this does that! I’m no longer strapped to my desk in my office at home trying to balance time with my family and gaming, or trying to adapt my work schedule to have time to game!

Had a few years with a lot of travel and this handheld was awesome. I was narrowing down between this and the steam deck and chose the ROG ally for a few reasons: - I needed easy windows integration because I play games across different platforms and didn’t want to be limited to steam. I know you can bootload windows on the steam deck but honestly I bought this for convenience and if I have to reconfigure it to work for me and constantly mess with the system. - the device is the perfect size for travel, its light, super comfortable to use on planes, and fits easily in my bag. - the screen is vibrant and bright. The colors pop and the lines are so crisp. - the way ASUS baked in controls for touch and controller are well thought out. Out of the gate, it auto-configs how the buttons and joysticks behave but you can dial it in the way you like. Most of the time I just use the default, it is good at recognizing what you’ll want unless it’s a one off emulator program. All in all, it’s a solid well built and super convenient travel companion that surprises me with how well it can run modern games.

The ROG Ally makes for a very solid option when it comes to portable PC gaming. Based on my experience with the device, I can tell you that if you want the next best step above the Steam Deck this is your option; but with some things to consider. Those are: - The battery life is not in good supply so if you buy this, you'll also want a power bank to accompany it. - Getting used to Windows on a handheld takes a little bit but pretty straightforward after that. Outside of those things, you get a really solid portable option with 120 Hz display and Variable Refresh Rate, a feature missing in many alternatives. You get a pretty comfortable and light handheld that is also pretty simple to improve as far as storage is concerned. I can say that the unit I received had no issues with the MicroSD slot as well, but whether the problem has been fully solved I cannot say one way or the other. Regardless, this is a good choice for an option after experiencing the Steam Deck. If you are coming into the portable PC gaming experience, I would say you should experience the Steam Deck first but if you want an option that gives you the compatibility of Windows in your hands; this is what you should consider, especially on the sales you can get it at a lower price.

The device is powerful with a great screen, and the dual fans really keep the noise down relative to other handheld gaming PCs. Fingerprint login is a nice touch, and custom power profiles can be setup. Can be used as a mini desktop PC with custom 43 Watt profile for the APU providing great performance. Sound quality is great, and ergonomics are great (you will want to pick this up more than bulky devices like the Steam Deck, as it’s just lighter and way smaller). Only downside I believe is the SD card reader malfunctioning if the device is run at very high wattages for long periods of time…but if you are installing your steam games to an SD card I question your sanity in doing so. Buy a bigger nvme drive and only use the SD card sparingly and you will be golden.

This is a great handheld gaming PC for the price. Open Box can get as low as $350, which is a fantastic value and I think up to $500 could be a fair price. Biggest drawback is battery life 40 wH battery is underwhelming especially in peformance mode. Used ROG Ally X Z1 is a better choice if you want to play for over 2 hours consistently without a backup battery pack. Another caveat is stick drift but this applies to both consoles mentioned since they use potentiometer based joysticks. Had to replace with Hall effects after a few months.

The Ally is a very good handheld gaming console. My biggest problem and why I returned it came down to the screen size. I've used larger handhelds like the onexplayer with its 8.4 inch screen and it makes a huge difference and its hard to go back to anything with a smaller sized screen. Gaming screen size was almost passable but anything to do with windows 11 was frustrating for me. My eyes arent perfect but they arent that bad either. Just too much of a compromise for me with the ally on the 7 inch screen and as of now, I'd probably need go for the legion go and wait for a good deal as the discount on the Ally for the holidays made it a huge impulse buy. Either that or spend over the top money for something like the 8.4 inch ayaneo kun. As far as gaming performance, the ally was great. Really happy with the FPS on all of my games and its now a very polished device. Battery performance I also felt was a bit of a compromise coming from a 53mah battery on the onexplayer and even running at the native 2560x1600 for older games like the dead space trio or older modded games in the need for speed category, I still saw an extra hour of gaming vs the ally. Only other concern was the ongoing issue with microsd cards, but if i had held on to it id have just upgraded the ssd, which looks really easy to do on the ally. Bottom line, if it wasnt for the screen size, i'd have held on to it, because the quality of the screen, the performance, the weight, and the controls were all top notch and now i find myself just waiting to see what comes out in 2024 as an alternative. Either that or wait for a deal on the legion go and hope they improve their software over time as I'm afraid with my current eyesight, anything less than a 7 inch screen is a non starter for me.

The saying that good things come in small packages has never been more true when it comes to gaming experience than it is now. Between the Steam Deck and a host of ther portable gaming computers, on the go gamers are spoiled for choice. Among all the competitors, the ROG Ally stands out - it's made by a major and familiar name - ASUS, long known for great PCs and components - and it has a LOT of power with the Z1 Extreme chip in a small form factor. And for a reasonable (ish) price to boot! It's not perfect, but it's pretty close. First, the goods. The POWER - the Z1 provides plenty of power to play older games and even some modern AAA games REALLY smoothly. You might not be able to max out the modern AAA games, but on 7" screen, they still look great. And speaking of that screen - it's a great one. It makes the Steam Deck's screen look really not great by comparison (I've had both side by side). Audio is also a strong point - and while Armory Crate was rough at first, it's really improved and the shortcuts/control mappings and other features like the overlay are great. Windows is great for compatibility with nearly any game and if you plug in a docking station / external monitor, this really can fill in for a laptop / desktop and you won't feel you're losing much. I upgraded mine to a 2TB SSD which was easy though a little pricey and have whatever I want on the go with me. I do have one of the XG Mobile docks (as I had a prior ASUS laptop that supported it) and this works great with that - with the 3080 dock, it really is like a super gaming desktop. On the so so front are the controls - the sticks are good but the buttons could be better (they feel a bit cheap/third party controller ish to be honest) - the Xbox layout is familiar and the triggers feel good. The d-pad is so so but functional enough and the option to map the controls/turn the joystick into a mouse is helpful in Windows to be sure. The overall shape is very compact but could be a bit more contoured for comfort. Battery life is good - particularly if you use the silent setting or set a custom low TDP - but not outstanding and you can WATCH the battery drain in performance or Turbo modes. Windows is serviceable but while it helps with game compatibility, it's not really meant for a handheld device. The Ally does generate some heat if you use it docked in Turbo mode or even in performance or Turbo on the go though it never gets loud. As to the bads...well, the boot up sound is annoying but can be turned off. There's an admitted problem that if you use the Ally in one of the higher performance settings frequently even docked, because of the proximity of the microSD card to the cooling, it can cook your SD card (newer updates have a custom fan profile to help, but it just cranks the fans...). But that's not many bads for a new device all told. So on the whole, there are a LOT more goods than bads. If ASUS can fix the microSD card problem, further driver development should unlock more performance and battery life (AMD is great at this, historically). Then (particularly if ASUS ALSO upgrades the face buttons a bit), this would be the perfect on the go gaming PC. As is, it's outstanding and well worth a look over its competitors.

I like that I can play Xbox games through game pass and steam games and can pretty much play whatever game I own. I do have some issues with ease of use. I tend to have some tech issues sometimes that gets annoying. But otherwise it works well and I like that it’s more like an android system and not only limited to steam games. I do wish storage was better and that the mini sd reader wasn’t in the area where it can tend to overhead. It’s okay to hold for a while but kind of wish it was more ergonomic. The battery also could be better. But I’m usually around a plug while playing it anyways.

What can I say about the ROG ally that you haven't heard by now? It's got bugs galore. We've got windows 11 and it's shenanigans, updates that exist in three different places, and SD card readers that stop working and freeze the system when a card is installed. If by some miracle, Asus fixed every single bug, the only real complaint would be battery life. This thing chews through battery very quickly. Have a battery bank or charger ready to go. This isn't. a huge issue for me as I mainly play in bed or on my lunch break. If you're taking this on a road trip, make sure you have a means of charging it. All of this begs the question Why, oh why did I give it 5 stars then? Because when it works it is glorious and I love it. The screen is sharp and smooth with a 120hz refresh rate at 1080p. My unit does not have backlight bleed. Contrast is decent in a dark room and good in a bright room. It has variable refresh rate which makes frame rate fluctuations smooth and tear free. This is great because you don't have to lock it to 40fps using a frame cap. you can just let the game run wild and it will feel smooth. of course you can still cap the frame rate to achieve a consistent lowest common denominator frame time, but you don't have to because of vrr. This alone is what sold me on the Ally. I was tired of playing with individual refresh rate settings on the Steam Deck. The software on the Ally allows you to Change the color temperature saturation contrast and other settings via the Radeon control panel. I wish these tweaks were all on one place as armoury crate allows you to change temperature and modes like vivid etc. but nothing else. Once I discovered Radeon settings I did my visual tweaks there. Now the screen is even more vibrant. A beautiful mess. My only real complaint about the screen is the chunky bezel on the top and bottom. When it's off it looks like a massive screen, then you turn it on to realize you have almost a letter box feel despite being 16:9 aspect ratio. The z1 extreme chip delivers excellent performance at 15 and 25 watt settings. And it does this while staying quiet. The only issue here is that it boosts way higher than those wattages which can spike temperatures. I say create a manual tdp to boost no higher than 25 watts and you shouldn't see temps above 80C. if you're plugged in I've seen it go as high as 50 watts! temperatures soared to 95C. I hate noise so I lowered the power rather than crank the fans. All is good, but it requires user input. again, a beautiful mess. The controls feel responsive, the face buttons have a nice candy feel to them. Even the Dpad has been working well for me in street fighter 6. Although I only use it for training not online matches. That's what my arcade stick is for. I'm not good at the game anyway so I guess it doesn't matter in that sense, but it does matter in the sense that the d pad doesn't feel like it's hindering my gameplay. My right bumper occasionally makes a ticking sound when I haven't pressed it in a while. I tried lubing the button but to no avail. I dont know why it does it but it's not a big deal. The triggers feel responsive. They are hall effect triggers. You can adjust the throw of the switch so you can get 100% actuation at almost any point in the travel. I leave it on stock. The analog sticks feel comfortable. They're somewhere between the steam deck and dualshock as far as tension. They lean toward the lighter side which I grew to like in the first few days of using. The led rings are a nice touch but I would have preferred an anti friction ring for a super smooth feel when using the sticks. The finger print sensor works quite well and it buffers the input so when you turn it on it logs in if you did so with the correct finger despite pulling the finger away and going through the splash screens. Playing games on this is downright fun once you get all the updates sorted out. I've been playing Death's Door on gamepass as well as Diablo 4 on Blizzard. Diablo has been especially cool because the Ally has a built in microphone. I was chatting with my party and they had no idea I had gone mobile and wasn't using a headset. Streaming games with moonlight from my powerful PC has been the best experience. It feels native and runs at 120hz flawlessly. Basically any game that the Ally can't handle natively I stream from my PC to the Ally. It looks amazingly cris and with 120hz feels ridiculously smooth. General software use is a mixed bag. Armoury Crate is really good. It's a central hub for your games despite what launcher they use. You can launch your games and even add programs to it. I added moonlight and chiaki. One is to stream my PC games to the Ally, the other to stream PS5 remote play. Windows is windows. It will throw up a random notification while I'm in a game. You have to configure windows to shut up and leave you alone as you play. This is on all windows pcs, but when battery life is at a premium you don't want to spend any time messing with stuff like that. The Myasus software is a bit tricky to navigate as update are under customer support live support settings instead of just having a dedicated update section. I turn automatic updates off as sometimes updates can break things. My rule is to not change a working system. when things are running smoothly I leave them alone. So the big question is do I recommend the Ally? Yes, as long as you're prepared for he PC like experience rather than a console like experience. Windows is annoying, Asus needs to streamline the settings and updates into one place, and figure out why SD card readers are dying. My reader is fine but time will tell. I give this 5 stars because I really do love it once I got everything customized to my standards. But it's not a blind love, I see all the flaws and issues hoping Asus addresses them. I want them to succeed so we keep getting support for the Ally and eventually get future iterations.

Yes. All the things you heard about this handheld is true... Cons first: the battery life is incredibly short. You can only get 1h to 2h of total playtime of you want to play AAA title. And the amoury crate software is not nearly as good as steam one. You can only get 30w power with ASUS OEM charger (really really really sucks) Pros: the screen is miles ahead of steam deck. You cannot go back to 720p. And performance is wonderful. You can also dock it to a full PC experience. You can have Xbox app, steam os, gog on the ally. And it is slightly smaller than Steam deck, and it feels much much more portable

Hey, this thing is amazing. It is literally just a laptop in the palm your hands. The portability is great, its powerful and can run games with 40-60 fps no problem depending on the settings. Confusing to set up at first, but thats what Youtube is for. I will say, the battery life is absolutely atrocious. Even if playing or using it with low wattage, It will die within the hour. You'll most likely need to keep it plugged in or docked. Or, buy yourself a new battery, or a portable battery of some sort. All in all, if you like using Windows, and you're also a gamer, this thing is a beast.

The ROG Ally Z1 Extreme was a really good experience for me, but I ended up selling it because I didn't find myself using handheld gaming devices as much as I thought I might. It was great for a vacation or two, but I found myself either at home where I preferred my desktop gaming PC or out places with other tasks in mind, and so didn't use it. Cool features to know: it's Windows 11 based, and pretty much any program that runs on Windows runs on this, including all the major DRMs (I used Steam, EA, and GOG). It will also run screen accountability software if your children are using it and you want to monitor what is coming across the screen. The screen was superior to the 1st gen Steam Decks, and the processor was faster. The audio quality of the built in speakers was amazing as well. Opportunities for growth. Not as many control options as a Steam Deck, the battery life was shockingly short, and the device got hot in the hands regularly with basic games. Overall, it was a good experience.

The specifications for this product are easy to find and performance comparisons against ASUS primary competitor in this realm are plenty. My review will focus primarily on user experience; though, before we start, I do really need to emphasize that the ASUS ROG Ally does what it's supposed to do incredibly well - it is an incredibly powerful piece of hardware that can handle high-performance games very well. Battery life is also decent for being able to play games that are typically played on wall-powered gaming systems. The most I could push this machine to was somewhere around 4-5 hours, which isn't much but definitely in line with standard expectations. My bar for battery life requirement is simple- will it get me through most domestic flights? Yes. Form factor is decent but feels somewhat antiquated, aesthetically. Devices marketed to the gamer community tend to be over-designed with unnecessary LEDs and funky shapes angles and this continues on that "trend." However, this is still sleeker than ASUS' primary competitors so that says something. That being said, holy cow the operating system(s) are clunky and, honestly, inappropriate for a portable gaming system like this. For one, a full Windows OS as the base is wholly unnecessary for a system with a 7" screen. It's very clear this device is intended for a very niche market but that doesn't mean that user experience should be ignored. In other words, the clunkiness of the OS limits the usability by "standard" users, which is a bit limiting from a marketability standpoint. Let's be honest here, nobody's using this device to make edits to MS Word files or browsing the internet- why are we utilizing Windows as the base this way? Maybe this is more of a Microsoft issue in that they haven't created a reasonable platform for a small, portable device like this. Overall, the ASUS ROG Ally is a fast, handheld device with good performance. The screen is gorgeous and with its variable refresh rate, games look and feel very smooth. Performance is good even after running a while, which is enhanced by the super quiet fan for cooling (I was fully expecting this to burn my hands!). If ASUS can improve the battery life a bit and maybe figure out a better OS situation, this device would be GREAT!! I have some gripes about this machine but if you're looking for a portable handheld to play high-graphics, performance games, this works perfectly well.

Although my SD card reader stopped working (common problem and I bought open box) the device itself is exceptional. I came from a Steam Deck and although the battery on the Ally is far worse, I'd rather have the performance and Windows to play more games. I have yet to run into a game that doesn't run well if you put the settings on low or medium. The screen is great, even below 60 FPS you don't feel any stutters or dips in framerate. Great device, aside from default storage. Purchasing a 2280 SSD adapter and swapping in a larger driver was the only thing I needed to do for this to become my main gaming device.

The Rog Ally has been a very fun device to play with and use since I have been on disability from work it's comfortable to hold it's lightweight it plays all my games no problem the screen quality is amazing the buttons feel very comfortable the battery life is fair for what it is

I've been on the fence between the Ally and a Steam Deck (Legion Go is just too dang big). The recent sale plus an even deeper discount on an open-box unit made the Ally just too good to pass up. Man am I glad I took the chance. In short, this thing is amazing. I've been an Xbox gamer for a long time and I always wanted something portable. The add-on controllers to my smartphone had been "fine" but the fact that my gaming was always letterboxed was annoying. This is such a better experience - big, beautiful screen, controls that don't feel like a compromise, good weight, and next to no heat or fan noise. I have both loaded games on there (Destiny 2 and Starfield most recently) as well as streamed from XCloud and the Ally handles both options with ease. Frame rates are almost always solid with default settings though I'm sure I could make things even better if I spent the time to tweak settings for each game, something you CAN do if you're so inclined. XCloud can be run on Silent mode no problem, saving battery life in the process. Speaking of battery, if you've done your research, what you're reading is correct - I can get around 60-90 minutes for games loaded on the SSD with the Ally set to Performance mode. Turbo likely drops it to just 60 min but honestly I have yet to feel compelled to leverage it since the quality at Performance is rock solid. XCloud streaming gets me easily closer to the 90 minute mark but I haven't played long enough in one go to really drain the battery. Finally, the hard drive is a little lacking at 512GB. It's enough to put a few AAA titles on the SSD but it was clearly a cost-reduction decision. Thankfully, upgrading to 1TB or 2TB is pretty easy. The chips are readily available for $100-220 depending on capacity and where you buy. I went with 1TB and it was super easy to complete the upgrade. Asus even has a support page that walks through the process. There are three areas I think the next gen should improve on, one that's out of Asus' hands: 1) Windows needs a proper gaming mode - this is one area where Steam OS is just flatout better. Yes, you can use this thing as a fully-fledged PC via a dock and monitor. However, that's not why I bought this. Microsoft is hopefully already working on this but a streamlined Windows OS for handhelds with finger-friendly icons would be welcome here. 2) A bigger battery or tweaks to Windows to reduce the battery drain 3) Assuming costs continue to drop, make the default storage 1TB. Bottom line, this is a great handheld and I would HIGHLY recommend purchasing it over the Steam Deck. While both (particularly the OLED Deck) are great devices, to me what breaks the tie is that everything outside of the Steam OS (other game stores, XCloud) just work with next to no effort.

Absolutely love this. I bought it because I didn't always want to be upstairs in my computer room so I could move around the house with it. That being said the battery is pretty bad it can die in 2 hours if not plugged in. Plays basically any game that I want. The controls are actually pretty nice and the placement doesn't hamper anything. The screen is great. It performs fast. The storage is the biggest issue on this device

My beautiful wife bought me one for Christmas, and I love my ROG Ally! I have had it for about six months now and I have to say the performance is surprisingly good in every game I have tried and I generally do not use the highest performance mode. Currently playing Diablo 4 and it looks great and game play is nice and smooth. Which has also been the case with other games I have played on it. Can get a bit warm, particularly if you don’t give it room to breathe, but this hasn’t been a problem for me. Battery life isn’t great, so don’t expect to play more than an hour or two on a charge. But other than that, it feels good in my hands, the controls are comfortable and responsive, and the Asus user interface makes accessing your games easy with virtually no advanced configuration needed to play games from Steam, PC game pass, EAPlay, Blizzard, or any other source. You can also connect it to just about any USB C laptop dock and play games with a keyboard and mouse, or just use it like a regular computer. I use mine with Dell dock and dual monitors occasionally and haven’t had an issue. I highly recommend it for gamers like myself that love PC gaming but can’t sit at the desktop and zone out because we don’t want a divorce or kids with daddy issues. No keyboard and mouse sucks, but sacrifices must be made for the greater good. *Echo from the background* “The greater good.”

Had ROG Ally for about a week now. Been eying it for a year, waiting. I was thinking about returning it to try the Legion GO, but think I'll just stick with the ROG Ally :D. Mainly to try the bigger hand grips, cos I have big hands. Very satisfied with the Ally though. Pros: 1. Excellent design 2. Sturdy build 3. Light weight 4. Button layout pretty straightforward (classic controller button mapping) 5. Can comfortably play all my PC games whether standing, sitting, shnitting, or laying down 6. Sides don't get too hot, so can hold device comfortably 7. Armory Crate layout for game library similar to Steam's Big Pic mode. Games all in one place. Click and play if AC up. Have it on auto start for convenience. 8. Quick on the Go AC options menu convenient for adjusting settings when plugged in or on battery. 9. Good specs and decent pricing. Cons: 1. Hand grips small. Takes getting used to for my hands/wrists. Hands tire out after a while, mainly when laying down. 2. AC a bit wonky. Had to uninstall and reinstall once already. Battery would drain while plugged in while gaming. Everything fully updated too. Would slowly drain and then recharge when not in intense gaming sessions or environments/actions. Heard it's an issue for some others. Reinstalling did the trick. Also, games wouldn't always load from AC game library. Clicking on some options would do other things. This is an AC developer issue, not the ROG Ally itself. 3. Battery runs short at times even on low settings (720p, rgb off, 60hz, frame limiter, brightness 0-30%). Mileage does vary though. Expected, but still annoying. 4. Not every game syncs with ROG Ally 100%. Not ROG Ally issue, but most likely a game dev issue. 5. Price. Just the Ally and charger? At least include the case, instead of purchasing separate. Lenovo Legion GO includes that and couple other accessories for the price. 6. More and larger storage options.