Customer Ratings & Reviews

I dont know. Is it better than the steam deck? Not really. The SD was really so thought out. Is it more powerful than the deck? Heck yeah. But power doesnt always translate to a good user experience. Lets start out with the good...screen is beautiful and 120hz is monumentially smoother than the 60hz panel you get on the deck. Weight is nice. Thermals are darn good for what power its churning out. The RGB is also nice looking. Loud, clear speakers. A lot to like. Now for the bad. The battery life is as awful as they say. One hour and it's done. Armory crate is glitchy. But my biggest complaint is these analog sticks, which basically make the machine pointless to me. Theres so much deadzone that cant be tuned out of these sticks. Ive been getting whipped in COD matches. Theres just no adjusting them. In armory crate it already says they're at 0% but it just cant sense sharp movements well. If single player games are your jam, this wont be your issue but if you play competitive like me, its not worth it. It's not a steam deck killer. Its a lovely PC handheld, but that's as far as I'd take it. Not impressed. I'll be returning it shortly.

It’s a 4 star when purchasing at a discounted price. I got mine for $450, which for the price is great. Yes you don’t get good battery life, but if you stay away from turbo and stay at silent or performance mode, you can get 1-2 hours of battery life. If you are going to play a lot of indie or old titles, this will be a good device for it. Great at emulation as well. Big reason why I picked it up. Can do all the way up to ps3/xbox 360.although if you are going to take advantage of the microSD slot, don’t get this. Huge chance of your ss card getting fried, like I have with my original ally. If it does have a problem, ASUS will not fix it. They are ignoring my emails, almost a week after emailing them twice. Triggers can also get squeaky, but in my experience the more you use it, the faster it goes away. No need to open it up. Definitely get a case as well the white will get dirty fast. Overall if you care of customer support don’t get it. But if you want a capable device at a great price, and don’t plan on using the microSD slot, buy it. Might return because ASUS support has left a sour taste in my mouth.

Got this open box for over 200 dollars off retail price, in excellent condition. Works great, but would recommend getting it on a sale or discount in 2025 or wait for the next generation to come out. Needs a storage upgrade and battery life is poor.

The ROG Ally is an amazing device, powerful and tiny it runs full PC games with ease. Battery life could be better, even at 15W I feel the steam deck gets better battery life. That said when plugged in this tiny device can handle games incredibly well. Ergonomics, build quality, performance, versatility and portability are on point. Best handheld on the market right now.

I really like my ROG Ally. I had a steam deck before this and I found that I didn't end up using it very much due to the limitations of Linux as well as not being able to play some of my favorite games due to anti cheat. When I realized that the Ally runs Windows, I was very excited. I can now play any game that I would play on my gaming PC, but now from the couch! This has been a huge Improvement and it allows me to play games with my wife while in the same room and also stay out of my game room when it gets very warm during the summer. Definitely be aware that there are some quirks with the Ally and that you'll want to make sure you're comfortable with tweaking settings to make games run correctly. When you first start up the Ally there's going to be a lot of updates and - windows being windows - these updates are going to be in four or five different locations. I would recommend looking up a video so that way you can understand what things to update and where. The nature of this device will make you want to tweak the settings to get the best performance or the best quality graphics depending on the game that you're playing. I find this very rewarding and I love being able to play any of these games on the go.

This product is great at what it’s meant to do: Play PC games completely from a mobile standpoint. However, what it has in flair and features, it lacks in practicality and the shortcomings do show. Pros: - Well built chassis with a premium feel - Analog sticks are good quality - Screen is vibrant with a nice glossy finish to make colors pop - Nice resolution at 1080p - Excellent speakers and sound quality - Ability to play any PC game on the go - The Z extreme AMD chip delivers great performance for what it try’s to do Cons: - Poor optimization for Windows 11. This will hopefully be fixed in future windows updates (as they expand their mobile UI capabilities. - Confusing update cycles. You need to go to multiple different spots for updates. - Poor battery life makes you wish you were always connected to a battery. This is even on a custom 17W mode. - SD card issues that still persist make using the slot a risk, essentially hampering your storage space significantly. - Game performance varies a lot on this device. I do recommend 720p for more games to be acceptable at 60+ frames. You will likely never fully utilize the 120hz refresh rate. 720p with AMDs super resolution upscaling actually keeps 1080p fidelity. Would I recommend it? If you absolutely need a handheld now.. sure. If you CAN wait for the next generation, do yourself a favor and hang on before buying it.

Pros This has rejuvenated my interest in gaming. For awhile i have been just so tired of sitting at my desk all day (work in technology) this has given me the freedom to move around and play games not tied to my desk. So far it has played everything perfectly fine, with no issues. My only conplaijt is the joy sticks feel a little loose for a controller, very sinilar to the nintendo switch, not my cup of tea but i got used to it. I have logged around 50 or 60 hours on it throguh multiple games and have really enjoyed the freedom of untying myself from my computer desk. Highly recommend if you are in the fence. Cons Since it is windows based you have to do some initial set up and uninstalling of the normal bloatware and updates. The wifi takes alittle extra time to connect, im finding my apps load before my wireless turns on which is kind of annoying but not a deal breaker. Its white so it gets quite dirty easily. Had to buy a new carry case because its bugger than my switch. 512gb storage. It sounds like alot but two triple A games basically takes up over half the space. It does have sd card slot though.

serves its purpose as a low-end portable gaming PC plays an decent amount of games some i honestly wasn't expecting it to be able to play which was a nice surprise battery life is non existent so long plays are always plugged into the wall which is understandable for a portable gaming pc. screen gets hot fast and is loud like a jet engine. downgraded to windows 10 because i hate windows 11 upgraded to 1tb ssd because it really sucks having to reinstall games in general. i got it on sale and at $100 off it felt like an okay buy its just not great outta the box. i would only recommend this to people who want a low-end gaming pc for traveling.

Best handheld on the market. The Z1 Extreme is where it is at! there are many aftermarket things for this such as a 7 port dock station. You can easily upgrade it to a 4TB with a 90 degree and an SSD. Windows works smooth on this and there isnt one AAA game I have not been able to play on this. Expect about an hour of play off battery on 30 watt mode but again they have aftermarket battery packs. Gaming on the go has never been better. I am currently using it as my main desktop PC as we speak. With the dock I have a CAT8 hardwired with bluetooth mouse and keyboard, HDMI 2.1 cables. This thing runs FAST and the picture quality is amazing for what it is. The future looks bright for the Ally. Highly anticipating the Ally 2 to drop in the near future!

There's a lot to love in this little package. First, full disclaimer, I have a steam deck, I use a Mac regularly and am fully ingrained in the Apple ecosystem, and finally I primarily game on consoles. With that in mind, I purchased my steam deck for the purposes of on the go gaming. Let me tell you, it is fantastic. I do now have a pretty good steam library, and verified games work out of the box pretty well. Non-verified games take tweaking, sometimes a lot, sometimes a little. But, this isn't a review of the steam deck, it's a review of the Ally and why it's become my daily driver and finally some tips. The Ally is a great product externally. It is built great, and compared to the Deck it's got everything you want in a lighter package. The speakers on the Ally are fantastic, Dolby Atmos sorta works, but the device sounds great. It does not get hot where you hold it. And you do have to hold it a certain way. It is natural, but the bottoms of your palms should slightly curve around the both of the Ally. I've spent 2 plus hour gaming sessions doing this without discomfort. The buttons and joysticks are a bit mushier than the deck, but it's hardly noticeable. It does feel as though the sticks are a bit taller, maybe that's because of how it's held, but I did have to adjust deadzones to accommodate that. The shoulder buttons and triggers feel great. The back buttons are worthless. In fact I've removed their function entirely because they just get in the way. I am working on 3D printing new buttons that are shallower that may work better. Now, here's the controversial part. Asus chose windows. This gives us a lot of benefits like wide compatibility, easy trouble shooting, but it also gives us bloat, and a less than perfect experience. Setup of the Ally involved updating windows, updating MyAsus, and updating Armoury Crate. Unlike the steam deck and every other device I own, the update process is arduous. Luckily, no issues at all with the updates. You also need to make sure you set the power settings in windows properly, you also need to make sure you remove useless programs like Teams, and Office. I have no idea why those are included here. But, once you do all that, and let me tell you it's easily a couple hours - you're good to go. Install your games like you would, or use armoury crate to install launchers for you and then install the games that way. Armoury Crate is ok for settings and stuff, but I wouldn't use it as a launcher. It's just too clunky. Speaking of settings here are some that will help: Don't use the stock operating modes. Instead create a "plugged" and "unplugged" mode. Plugged is set at 25 watts with fan curve 3, and unplugged is set at 15 watts with the same curve. The fan on this device shines! The steam deck fan is loud, even at 15 watts. The Ally's fan at 15 watts is barely noticeable. With the "unplugged" manual operating mode, I get almost 2 hours with Diablo 4. Which is exactly the same as I get with the Steam Deck. Here's the thing - I can play D4 with high settings and get well over 70fps on the ally for those 2 hours. The deck gives me 40fps on average. So my experience is better on the Ally. "Plugged" mode is night and day different. Again, the fans are very quiet, but I'm routinely getting 80-90 FPS in D4 on high+ settings. I use this if I'm by an outlet. All in all - Asus and Microsoft have to work on the software a bit. Get rid of the bloat. But, the device is in much better shape than the Deck was at this point at its launch. I highly recommend the Ally for PC and console gamers. If you're not used to tweaking things and using windows, get the deck.

My Opinion. Pros: • Works Great • Speakers Sound Great On YouTube And In Games • Good Battery Life • Steam "Full & Partial Controller Support Games Only" (Have Not Tried EA, Epic Games, GOG, etc.) • Able To Sign Out of MS account Into Local Account • Basically A "Phone" But Without Service & Cameras • Would Recommend? Eh, Yeah, Why Not. • Screen Can Be Flipped To Easily Watch TikTok or YouTube Shorts (See Pictures) Cons: • Not As Fast/Powerful As I Thought It Would Be • Screen Can Heat Up Also While Under Heavy Gaming • Games Won't Play In Full Graphics, Will Have To Lower Them For Performance • Screen Sometimes Doesn't Respond To Finger Touches • Should Have Added A Pen For Easier Touches • Can't Transfer Files From ROG Ally To PC (Doesn't Show Up) • Keyboad Doesn't Show Up At Times When Needed Typing

Hey all, ROG Ally is going back to Best Buy. Decided to write up a final thoughts review for anyone wondering or on the edge of purchasing/returning. TLDR, I give this device overall a 7/10. Performance - 10/10 As far as handhelds go, I don't think you can do much better than the Ally at the moment. It runs Starfield beautifully with the driver update, and has excelled at any AAA game l've thrown at it. If all you care about is the ability to play games, then get the Ally. Ergonimics - 7/10 It's a bit on the thin side and there aren't very many options out there as far as grip attachments. I bought a grip attachment on Etsy and they were a bit big for my hands, and there weren't any options outside of that. The device itself is light and perfect size IMO. The button placements and button feel were great. The joysticks were a little on the loose side, but I got used to it. I just wish the grip was better. The Steam Deck and upcoming Legion Go are huge in comparison. Battery - 5/10 l usually just game at home, but we all know the battery sucks. I found myself having to tote my charger around with me wherever I went, and finding a spot next to an outlet. That's just not fun. If you're looking for a device that you can pop out while waiting in the queue at Disneyland, this aint it. Windows Experience/ASUS Software - 5/10 I'm fully aware of how to use Windows as l've been building and configuring windows desktops all my life Microsoft needs to make a handheld version of their os Plain and simple. It's not horrible if you know how to use windows, but it's not the greatest if you're not somewhat technical sound I'm willing to het 90% of those open box Allys at Best Buy are due to the windows experience on a handheld. The upside is you can run whatever you want on the device, including anti-cheat games, video editors, sound editors, etc. It's literally a handheld desktop machine. Also, can ASUS please combine MyAsus and Armory Crate into one app? Why do I need to open two apps to check on updates? Bugs/Hardware Failures - 1/10 This is what did it for me. For $750 after tax, I expect to be able to use the device and all of the features within reason. The fact that much of the community has to accept that the SD Card slot is just non-existent, is disappointing, and ASUS' response to it is less than desirable. I also started to have issues with my battery draining while on the charger. This was while playing Starfield with a custom 20w profile and fan curve that kept temps in the 60s. The game was totally playable, but the battery shouldn't drain while on the charger. Also, sleep/hibernate is kinda bad, and I understand this is a Windows issue. Sometimes I'd have to force shut the whole thing down to wake it from sleep. Trying to hibernate in the middle of gameplay would sometimes result in me coming back to a hot device and battery nearly drained. So again, l'd have to be mindful of keeping it on the charger while walking away. When I was playing games, I was happy. But I just couldn't accept the fact that the hardware (SD Card Slot) was faulty, and there was likely no recourse for it. Hopefully they iron things out with the Ally 2. Enjoy!

The ROG Ally is priced very competitively in the market space against handhelds like the Steam Deck & Ayaneo 2. However it’s held back by hardware flaws and software bugs. For raw performance the turbo mode (30w) is absolutely fantastic, there isn’t a single game you can’t easily play. On the flip side the Zen 4/RDNA3 SoC used in the Ally is horrible at lower power setting (which is kind of important for a handheld). At 10w the Ally is considerably slower than the older Zen3 6800U in the Ayaneo 2. The last photo in my review show the Ally running roughly 35% slower at 10w. This same performance disparity at lower wattage can be seen between the Ally & Steam Deck as well. As in most cases the Steam Deck ties or beats the Ally at anything below 15w. Maybe this is a just immature drivers but this makes the $700 a hard sell compared to the $350 Deck. The other elephant in the room is the widely reported SD card issue. My Ally ran my SD card fine until about the 5 week, just outside of the return window my SD card reader died. At this time it’s hard to say if this is a driver issue, or hardware issue but regardless it’s been 3 weeks+ without an actual update from Asus on a fix for the issue. My last gripes with the Ally is the small storage & ram (given the issue with the SD cards this is a big deal). Flash memory is insanely cheap now, with 1tb drives costing $40-60, Asus could have put a 1tb drive in the Ally for another $20-25. They also should have included 20gb instead of 16gb of ram, since the Z1 SoC is an APU so it uses your ram for VRAM. Now with games like Last of Us using 8gb+ of VRAM and Windows consuming 2-3gb, it only leaves you 4-5gb for the games. Again another 4gb ram module would cost $20. My last hardware complaint is the lack of Hall Effect sensors. At this point they cost basically the same as regular joysticks. Bad: 1. 16gb of ram can easily become a bottleneck when playing games that require 8gb of VRAM 2. No Hall Effect Sensors (very noticeable deadzone issues) 3. Small 512GB storage for a $700 device 4. Weak performance at lower wattage modes 5. SD Card reader failure 6. Sticky buttons & D-pad The Good: 1. Fantastic 20w+ performance 2. More affordable then devices like the Ayaneo 3. 120hz screen is amazing 4. Easy to upgrade (joysticks and NVME are easily accessible) 5. Windows OS adds so much flexibility 6. Armory Crate is surprisingly polished

ROG ALLY Review My my experience with the Rog Ally was different and considering we are in a new time where technology is moving quickly and we now have handheld Pc’s there’s will be allot of new people experiencing this new Tech.Its not just a gaming device like it’s promoted mainly as and what I took it for Butttt!!! ...It’s a pc!! It’s not just a handheld.Thats was my mistake when I got mines.I use mac and apple products and I do music for a living with all Apple computers.I was lost for 2 days with this thing lol..but thanks to YouTube and learning and seeing how cool this thing is I’m really enjoying it.For someone like me who plays games allot and does music and into tech as well as just wanting a windows device to be different it fits me well.Emulators and much more.Remote play is also great and way better then my iPhone was.Remote play and cloud play is really good.Im playing The Witcher at 75-80fps and forza 60-100fps depending on which settings I use.Honestly the Rog Ally shouldn’t just be in the floor for kids and whoever to touch it.If someone just switched it to turbo mode and it’s been on 10 hrs and 1000 others touched it I’m sure the system is gonna play like that.See* I learned all this from YouTube tutorials lol.I was lost at first but I got the z1 extreme for extra power and I got lucky with a excellent one at best buy for 580 and it was mint with not a spec of dust and a year warranty at Best Buy and it wasn’t even registered on the ASUS site so I got the manufacturer warranty also.I would of bought a new one but hey I saved allot for accessories and it was mint..I got a later model and SD card is fine and glad I waited cause all the latest updates helped this thing allot.These things arnt for everyone but if your tech savvy and like me were you like to game and work at home and travel as well as have kids and a fam so being in the bedroom gaming with peace and quiet is a must lol go ahead and get it.Youll enjoy it but just know it’s a learning process if your not use to windows and all the extras.. But!! If you wanna just play your Xbox games you have at home and play cloud and remote play just get you a G cloud handheld..The ally is a computer so you’ll have to buy separate Xbox games to download unless there “Play Anywhere titles” .. Yes you can remote play and cloud but if you wanna turn it on and download call of duty MW3 cause you have it on your Xbox that’s not that gonna happen lol.You would have to buy MW3 for the computer.But they give you 3 months gamepass with the Rog and it adds on to your current subscription so there’s plenty of games to download and i recommend COG to buy games from cause there cheaper and there’s already a COG app installed on the Rog as well as Steam and Xbox ..I should have made my own review on YouTube of this cause my experience was cool and I still might.. I just feel like this thing was thrown out there with not much knowledge to new users.. the steam deck as well but we knew what we was getting with the steam deck,it played steam games and was promoted for steam games.The Rog is just built different.I have a series X and Ps5 and a Switch and the next gen gaming tech was great but I just didn’t get a wow factor much.The Rog gave a wow Factor and at time of feeling overwhelmed it just took some patience and as I go im learning new things.I definitely recommend the Rog Ally and look forward to the future of handhelds.

This mini pc rocks! Not just as a gaming device. This has the ability to replace an entire tower desktop when docked into a monitor, mouse & keyboard. Even if you plan to play absolutely no games on this device, it's an absolute steal for a computer with this kind of specs. It has one of, if not the best mobile processor you can get paired with gtx 1650 comparable graphics. I'd recommend this to anyone in need of a pc. As far as gaming is concerned, i've been having a blast so far. Games are smooth, even at lower frame rates thanks to adaptive sync. This is the only handheld on the market with this technology and it makes a huge difference. The device is lightweight and feels nice in the hand. My only gripe is with the Asus Armoury Crate software but software can be improved and I believe it will. Asus has a real winner here as long as the price remains at $699. If Asus could make a xg mobile graphics adapter with a longer cable, it would make a perfect companion for the Ally.

The ROG Ally feels like a turbo-charged gaming laptop in your hands. The performance? Running games with no problems. I played 100+ hours on Elden Ring and it's DLC with no problems. With the different power settings, you can crank this bad boy to Ultra and it runs games super-fast. Want to set it to save battery? Lower the power settings and it'll run the battery longer. The only set back is the battery life but I have this hook with the charger most of the time. Plus, you can use this as a mini PC. Running Excel like speed runner. Well, you can do that. Or, stream your favorite movies on it. The controls are smooth. I have relatively medium size hands and I have no issues holding the device. With the back buttons and nice cooling the device rarely gets hot. The sticks are buttery smooth and the buttons are nice! A, B, Y, X, L2, R2, R2D2. It's all here. Overall, the ROG Ally is a powerful little beast that makes you feel like the gaming overlord of all dimensions—just make sure to bring a charger. Better yet. It's upgradable. You need that in a device like this.

This is a solid handheld PC. I have owned this for a year now and I haven’t had any issues personally. But if you’re looking at this because it’s cheaper than the Ally X then let’s weigh out your options. If you plan on just doing light gaming on the go that isn’t going to be to demanding on your battery and take up too much storage then this may be the device for you. But if you plan to download a few AAA games and do some heavy gaming, then I would definitely spend the extra money and get the Ally X. I play AAA games on this and even though it’s a portable device, I can’t stray too far from an outlet. I already had a good portable charger but if you don’t and plan to play more games away from an outlet you’ll need to buy one. Also, the storage was full after I downloaded three or four games so I upgraded the SSD to a 1tb which was even more money I had to spend. Granted it wasn’t to hard to do especially since I’m new to the PC world. So if I had the chance to buy the Ally X when I bought this. I would have definitely done that. Because you’ll have to spend that extra money upgrading the device and buying accessories anyway. But I’ll reiterate if you’re just planning on playing light indie games then you can adjust the performance and get a solid couple of hours of gameplay with the right settings. So get what works best for you and your situation. It’s still a good device and I have enjoyed playing on it. It is comfortable in the hand and I don’t feel fatigued after long gaming sessions. I hope this review helps.

Despite the back and forth battle between this and the steam deck I pulled the trigger and went with the ROG. 1 month in and this thing is awesome. It’s light, nimble, and a complete power house. I’m a pc gamer but having a windows pc in a hand held allows me to play from the couch and hang with the wife more! Also enabling gaming from anywhere is a huge plus if you don’t own a gaming laptop. All together I think it is worth it. I’m able to play on the go and when I travel and that is a big plus for me personally. I do recommend modding it if you want more SSD space. There are some inexpensive boards that fit like a glove and are easy to install. Also a docking station and wireless controller is a must if you want to get this puppy on your TV. Only con is the battery life but if you’re doing a long gaming session you will be plugged in anyways.

The Rog Ally Extreme Processor proves to be a gaming marvel, delivering exceptional performance and crisp graphics. Its cutting-edge capabilities elevate the gaming experience, making it a strong contender in the next-gen console arena. However, the device is not without its drawbacks. The limited storage, underwhelming battery life, and MicroSD overheating issues cast a shadow on an otherwise stellar performance. Despite these downsides, the Rog Ally Extreme Processor stands out as a formidable gaming companion, showcasing its worth at the specified price point.

Been looking for a mobile pc gaming console and this is what I’ve been searching for I travel for work so it’s good to have something to play and game the performance is amazing the graphics are crisp the only thing that needs upgrade is the battery life.