Customer Ratings & Reviews

Pros and cons: ROG Ally Z1 Extreme — The best handheld gaming PC with Windows. Pros: One of the most powerful handhelds on the market thanks to its AMD Z1 Extreme processor, this is a stellar gaming experience for AAA or even indie titles — and rivals some gaming laptops. Its 7-inch full HD touch screen with a 120 Hz refresh rate Wow! is gorgeous, crisp and buttery-fluent experience, for even the stutter-bug, butter glob game. The ROG Ally is different because of its adaptability. It runs Windows 11, natively supporting a wide variety of gaming platforms, from Steam and Xbox Game Pass to Epic Games (and beyond). When paired with its ergonomic design and light weight, this is a joy to use in long bouts of gaming. One of the most impressive features of the cooling system is that it is able to maintain a consistent performance without overheating. Battery life is decent for a device this powerful, and the option to hook up the ROG XG Mobile external GPU future-proofs it for even more demanding gaming. ASUS has built a handheld beast that sets a new standard for portable gaming. The ROG Ally Z1 Extreme is worth every penny if you're a casual gamer or a hardcore enthusiast.

Never even knew about this device until I saw it on youtube. I was thinking about getting the steam deck but this works better for me since I have xbox game pass and other pc games. Easy to set up. I have no problems with the SD card or overheating, it has not let me down so far, the screen is nice and sharp and the speakers are great. The only problem is the battery last for about an hour so to play longer you will have to keep it plug in. If you take it somewhere you'll need a power bank. One hour is just not enough to play on this device. Specially those hard to put down games.

great piece of hardware that isn't without it's problems. First off, I really enjoy using this hand held pc. the controls are intuitive and responsive. it's a windows pc so you get all the pros and cons that go with that. the main issues i've had: 1. windows disables the gpu and you need to manually reenable 2. battery life isn't great, but for what it is it's respectable. get a battery bank if you're traveling a while. 3. some hardware issues like the sd card problem and stick drift aren't fixed yet months after launch. It's not a huge problem for me but definitely a larger complaint from others.

Got my first Ally in the mail, delivered to me but the LB was squishy and weird(even had a squeaky spring or something going on beneath the shell that felt like it was making it mushy), nothing at all like the RB. Returned it, but when I did so, it was on the 11th, device wouldn't be properly released til the 13th so had to wait some more. Picked up the new device and LB feels *better* but still kind of feels a little off(I'm just not sure why on two separate devices the LB feels off compared to the RB, it doesn't make sense) but still after a few presses it goes to feeling normal. So I can deal with it. But the B button... it presses down and if you're not that sensitive to the buttons you're pressing, it'll feel normal. I'm hyper sensitive to good controllers and pressing buttons and such(have mechanical keyboards and 100+ dollar controllers, I'm really picky). The B button specifically feels like there's just some slight misaligning of the button itself so the left side of the button doesn't press all the way down. If you roll your thumb over the face buttons and all around the edges of each, A, X, and Y feel as flat and unobtrusive as they should but the B feels like something's preventing it from going all the way flat on just the left side of it. It's very odd... but regardless, I had already set it up so much and downloaded so much that I don't even care anymore at this point. I bought the accidental in case one day the buttons decide to completely break apart or the analog sticks die from not being hall-based sensors. Besides THOSE issues, this device is honestly insane. If it's not able to handle 60 at medium or high at 1080p, it'll most definitely handle it on 720 with punchier colors that blow the steam deck's washed out colors out of the water. The speed and silence of the machine is super nice as well, I didn't think I'd care that much but they're great in comparison. Windows 11 is... windows 11, it doesn't surprise me as a long time user of the operating system but I like how it's slowly attempting to realize that it's being used on a touch screen handheld device(by making touch based gestures and such more user friendly and what have you, you'll see what I mean when you first turn it on compared to something like the OneXplayer or Ayoneo). Emudeck runs perfectly on it and it plays switch games even better than the actual switch so that's a major plus for me honestly(along with PS3 classics). Battery life is abysmal but for playing less intensive games, you could easily run it on "silent" profile and still get a solid 40-60fps on most 2d titles(bastion, disco elysium, etc) and preserve your battery life. I was already prepared to play this thing constantly connected to a power supply of some sort but yeah. All in all, it's an amazing device and I can't wait for the predecessors to blow it out of the water in the future. I could easily see this device(assuming the bottons and sticks don't start dying on me) lasting a good 2-3 years with more and more optimizations and updates to the system.

I played Jedi Survivor almost entirely on this handheld. It is an absolute beast. I played it directly from the handheld as well as streaming it from my primary gaming desktop. This device is intended to play most AAA games at 720p with low settings so don't be expecting to run things any higher. If you stream from your powerful gaming PC, you can use the 1080p and 120hz mode which is phenomenal. The only bad thing about this is the battery life. It is horrible when playing demanding titles. I would highly recommend having a case and large battery bank with it when you travel.

Overall a really good device, performance is better than the steam deck a lot. The window 11 isn't that bad especially with Asus own unique way to having the device to navigate relatively easier. Only issue, I have my microsd card reading isn't detecting microsd correctly. It would want to format them but doesn't see them anymore after formatting it, but the micro sd card works fine on other devices. Other than that! I love it! They are times you will encounter issue, but if you are in IT or have a good understanding of technology. You will be able to resolve most issue, if not google is your friend.

I love this product, but you do have to be somewhat familiar with Windows to enjoy it. As others have mentioned, budget about 1-3 hours (depending on your internet speed) for updates/setup when you first turn it on. Once that's done, it's a great little PC and the controls were awesome. I know battery life isn't great but I haven't really been using this outside my home so it's not a complaint at this time. The screen is very sharp and the speakers are surprisingly loud and clear. I am currently playing Diablo 4 and am very happy with the performance. I am going to try this in dock mode next connected to PC monitor! I highly recommend this little gaming PC, but yeah be forewarned that this is not a Nintendo Switch, you should ideally be familiar with how Windows PC works!

Best gaming device ever and handheld pc perfect for travel

It was the Ally or Steamdeck. I chose the Ally because it ran Windows natively and I was looking for something that could replace my now seldomly used Gaming PC. As an adult with typical “adult problems” I never had much time to sit and game, I was always needed or something needed my attention. Since owning my Ally I can now game on the fly and still be productive. The Ally wasn’t meant to be used as a workstation but it can definitely handle simple to mild demanding tasks. It has been less than a month since release and there are plenty of resources out there to fix any issues that you may be seeing reviewers talk about. I would recommend to any adult that still games but has little time to game! Life gets busy but that doesn’t mean we don’t deserve time to break away from reality.

Handheld Pcs have been around a long time, but a mass market option was never fully embraced until the Steam Deck. While the SD was great, the form factor and additional effort to run games outside the Steam ecosystem made me excited to see what the competition would come up with. So we have the ROG Ally. Looks like a SD and Zephyrus had a baby. More comfortable to hold, flashier build, better screen, Xbox style controller layout, Windows 11, more power - pretty much everything you could want in a portable PC handheld. It’s amazing. After a couple of hours of updates it runs everything. Diablo 4 runs great, MWII is smooth, Steam games are perfect for the most part. Overall this is a very impressive first attempt from Asus, and I can’t wait to see how Valve responds with their next iteration.

This thing has given me the chance to not be stuck at my desk. I enjoy gaming on the go as well as streaming to my PC. Battery life is meh when hardcore gaming but I’m usually next to a plug or play plugged in. Haven’t had issues with the buttons getting stuck like some other people. I travel a lot for work and this thing has saved my sanity during downtime. No sd card to comment on but I also have this hooked up to my storage server at home so I have my entire game library at the ready. Do plan to upgrade storage on it anyways. If you go into the knowing it’s a handheld gaming PC that can deliver a good time but not crazy with graphics, you’ll enjoy this as much as I have. Haven’t put it down since I got it.

Extremely reliable and fast handheld. Easy to setup & able to run games you wouldn't expect. Elden Ring on the road? Yes. WoW on the road? Yes. LoL on the road? Yes. Outside of that, can be plugged into a display, with a mouse and keyboard. Now you have a PC with power I would compare to something between a PS4 and a PS5, a PS4.5. Easy to upgrade storage by just putting an SD card in the slot. Really nice purchase in my experience.

I have had this device for up to 7 months and I mostly play Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 3 and it can handle it well and I always take my device with me to work and road trips and the best part of this device is that you can use it as your personal computer and even plug in a monitor and play with a bigger screen and I recommend the Asus ROG Ally if you are someone who wants to play on the go and even if you are deciding on switching to a new console the ROG Ally can run Xbox cloud gaming, Steam, PlayStation games on the go.

Currently own the 3 major branded PC handhelds on the market at the moment and I always end up reaching for my Ally as I enjoy it the most. The VRR 120hz display is great for multiplayer games that fluctuate fps around 50fps, the speakers blow everything else out the water, and the power on battery and even when plugged in is great for such a small device. My only downside is the ergonomics, which could be changed with a case; and the inevitable SD card reader issue, which I just avoided completely and upgraded to 2tb nvme. This device has been such a brilliant way to take my steam/ gog library on the go with me.

This IS the one to get! Got mine on December 2023 so never experienced any of the initial software glitches. It is Fantastic! 1. 3 months of GamePass. Sooo many games included, just amazing value. Plus ALL Steam games work here. Plus Epic/Fortnite, Plus, Plus 2. Screen is beautiful, on a handheld 1080P is like 4K! great contrast, nice size. 3. Everything is fast, NVME SSD is super fast 4K+ reads 2K writes. 4. Looks great and light to hold. Battery life is less than STEAM DECK OLED. But you have a lot of flexibility on how you use your battery life. Plus you can just get a $50.00 battery to carry around with you if needed (most are close to a 110 outlet most of the time)

I have been very happy with my Asus ROG ally, from streaming games from my desktop to playing games on GeForce now to playing games installed on device the experience has been very consistent and very enjoyable. I had been concerned that it might take a lot of tweaking of have settings to get things to run smoothly, but it really doesn't take much at all. The only negatives I've had so far is with armory crate, it is a little finicky, but it works most of the time, or Windows 11 it self. I have noticed the WiFi card sometimes had trouble with my network and switching between mesh nodes. The best part of this device is, in my opinion, streaming games, be it via moonlight, or GeForce now. This is because you get a bit better battery life and can play games at 1080p.

So happy I got this, has lived up to all my expectations and then some. The hard drive is pretty small but I bought a 2 TB drive knowing this and first thing I did was swap the 500 gig one out. I've been kind of staying away from best buy, had purchased something for $299 years ago and found out I couldn't use it but when I went to return it (still unopened) they said they can't because it was past 30 days, told the employee I'm going to exchange it and spend another $800 but still wouldn't do it for me, that was the last time I used Best Buy but I'm very happy I recently went back. The best buy employee took the time to get it for me and was very helpful. Seen a couple other products I'll probably be returning for in the near future.

Overall, great device. It just came out a little too quickly. I have this, a steam deck, and a legion go. Between the three, I use the go more then the steam deck. Screen is great looking just small for me. I do dock mine a lot to the tv and it pretty much stays there. Nice little mini pc that if I wanted to I could pick up and go. Battery life on a graphically hardened game was avg maybe 2 hours. Buttons feel too mushy for my liking. In the end, its a great budget friendly mini pc/portable gaming device.

The ROG Ally is a great handheld gaming PC! It launched rough but got better later. It's not a seamless of an experience as a Steam Deck, there is a lot of tinkering you have to do with controller settings, especially if the game isn't already controller-supported. That said, it can run more games than a Steam Deck since it uses Windows as its OS; the drawback is that it's a desktop version, and it's kind of a pain to navigate with the UI as a result-- thankfully I spend most of my time in Steam's Big Picture Mode. If you're on the fence, wait for a sale, or look for an open box/used one, but if you can deal with the caveats it's 100% worth it!

My boyfriend has been in need of a handheld gaming system for a while, and we almost went with a steamdeck untill this caought our eye. Its amazing! Its a pc in a handheld device! No more nights with the tv on! He plugs his headphones in and can play for hours, and i can get a great nights sleep. Even better is we went on a road trip for a week and it still worked smoothly and had no issues, its literally the best gift i think i couldve gotten for him. He rants and raves about it to everyone that will listen, and is constantly running to tell me some new thing he found out it could do. Best purchase for sure