Customer Ratings & Reviews

I wanted to like the ROG Ally -- I really did. After spending about 9 months with a Steam Deck, and having a Nintendo Switch since launch, handheld gaming has grown on me. So the idea of a Windows-based handheld with lots of power under the hood, where I could play any PC game from any publisher was appealing. The reality, though, was far from great. From the moment I unboxed my ROG Ally, red flags started popping up. The packaging was poorly designed, with the plastic protective film practically falling off the Ally before I took it out of the box. There was dirt and dust on the inside of the box. If I hadn't known any better, I would have thought this was a used model, but it was definitely new and in factory-sealed packaging, and Best Buy shipped it to me the day before launch day. Taking it out of the box, I noticed that it is almost impossible to pick up the Ally without pressing the volume buttons on the top. Unlike the Steam Deck, whose buttons are recessed, the Ally's buttons stick up and are easy to press with very little pressure. Upon startup, I noticed the 4 buttons in the upper right would stick under the frame/case. This was a known issue during the prototype and development stage, so it was disappointing that Asus didn't address this before shipping the final product. Also, the right stick was considerably looser than the left, which, after speaking with other Ally owners, seems to not be a desirable thing because it introduces drift into the controls. Other users reported their right stick was decently tight and had no issues, so just like with the buttons, this felt like a defect in materials or design. Even then, I was still willing to overlook these issues in the hopes that the Ally would "wow" me. But the user experience was the straw that broke the camel's back. It's poorly designed, sloppy, inconsistent, and just downright terrible. During the initial setup of my Ally, even something as simple as connecting to my wifi network was a chore, because the keyboard would disappear after every keypress. The same thing happened when trying to log in to my Microsoft account. Valve has done a fantastic job tweaking and tuning the user experience on the Steam Deck, making it nearly flawless, easy to navigate, and simple to learn. The ROG Ally is the exact opposite of that. Asus has clearly learned nothing from the Steam Deck, nor from the years and years of user complaints about Asus Armory Crate and how terrible the UX is. It's clunky, requires navigating multiple menus to perform simple tasks, and in many cases doesn't make logical sense in the way it is laid out. This is supposed to be a device for gamers. You should be able to pick it up and play games instantly. Navigating menus should be simple and smooth. It's not. It's cumbersome to the point of being obnoxious. And then there's the performance. It's wildly inconsistent. Some games ran great. Others, not so much. But none of the ones I tested performed significantly better than my Steam Deck. The screen on the Ally is nicer -- more vibrant, with good contrast. But a variety of software glitches continued to plague the experience. Again, I wanted to like the Ally. But this feels like a prototype product. From the poor quality buttons and sticks, to the silly design choices with the placement of the volume buttons, to the absolutely awful user experience, Asus has a long way to go -- and a lot to learn -- before the Ally is a worthy contender against the Steam Deck or Switch. Right now, it just feels like a pretender.

This Ally is incredible. It is literally a PC in my hand. I've played games on it that run less than great on a laptop and it was smooth as butter. My only complaint is that it could use a little more battery life, bit it's not a terrible thing. It lasted approximately 2 hrs running a game in performance mode before it hit 10%. All in all, it's well worth the purchase.

Feels great in the hand. I like the design. Good performance. However, it kept not reading my sd-cards. And Window's explorer would often completely freeze. In addition, the Armory Crate software, while having good features and shortcuts, wouldn't always respond. I read around and tried a couple other alternative software, like Handheld Companion, and G-helper. These seemed good but not as easy and then some of the physical shortcut keys (for example, launching software, or bringing up the keyboard) weren't working. I like the idea of these devices, but at this time I think a laptop with a controller is 100x a better choice. Sadly there don't seem to be any laptops with new AMD chips in this price range.

So I bought this I’d say a month or so ago and ran into a lot of lagging random blue screens and I had to return my original one because it had a password on it but after getting a newer one still ran into a couple of issues and ran into performance issues as well, but on certain games, it ran great and just wished it had more battery life

I love this thing. It is not the most powerful gaming device but for a handheld pc it is pretty incredible. Definitely better than the steamdeck in everything except maybe the battery life. But it charges super fast so not too big of a deal. I enjoy using this to connect to my main windows pc and then I am not always stuck at my desk. Sound quality and volume is also pretty incredible.

Best game handled in market by far in performance and quality In game , but somtimes when you run a game you need to close it again or restart the device. I think update will solve that issue. Also the 512g space its for just 4-5 games only, last thing the battery in high performance can empty in 1 hour.

I already owned one and needed a second one for my brother. These things are awesome, and now they're cheaper than ever. I would definitely recommend for a portable PC that's even more powerful than most laptops

Wish it had track pads so that you wouldnt have to move move the cursor with the right analog stick. Still wonderfull performance at the expense of battery life but still worth it! Especially if your already a pc gamer you can just your entire library of games since its a windows machine!

I grabbed this for being away from my main machine. It has been so much fun and resolves some issues I had with the Steam Deck and other handhelds. I wanted a bit more oomph/headroom, better screen, and FreeSync. It’s easy to get some emus going and play older titles in my back catalog in Windows. After you trudge through cleaning the Windows system up and changing some AMD GPU settings, it’s been perfect for me. If you’re not into tweaking Windows, you might consider the Steam Deck. Playing games with Super Resolution at 720p opens up a lot of 60+ fps. Some older games play well at 120hz! :-D The speakers are amazing. Some major cons worth considering are the quirky software from Asus. It’s not the worst, but needs improvement. The quick menu button options are great when they work. It doesn’t come with the HDMI dock, but at the price point I can deal with that. It just would have been a great addition for local coop fun with my wife! I had to wait for the dock to be shipped after a trip. I wish this came with 32GB of RAM, but it’s fine with 16GB. The D pad likes to squeak at a certain angle of pressure on mine. I might need to lube it? The vibe motors are very noisy when cranked all the way! It’s best to keep them dialed down. The included cardboard stank works, but come on. A cardboard stand? Overall, it’s the dream machine I’ve been waiting for.

Ive had this and the steam deck and i must say this is way better and stronger. The screen looks great and feels very smooth with the 120hz refresh rate. My only complaint is the battery life isnt too great

It's a good product to use on the go, with the capability of having your games that you own to play without internet. There is a issue that it has not enough storage, but it does has a micro sd card for more storage and it can accept external storage.

I ordered online and received it today via UPS. The device looks amazing and is surprisingly light weight. The armor crate software isn't the most intuitive but I like that it will combine my game libraries. I have this attached to a USB-C docking station and connected to my TV. So you can use it as a hand held or as a small gaming console. All looking promising but after I gave the device a brief spin I had to exchange it due to issues with the joysticks. Left stick would only scroll up and down and not right to left. I didn't realize this until later in the day because I did all my setup with keyboard and mouse. I launched Diablo 4 and realized I couldn't move my character. If I went to bios the mouse cursor in bios would immediately scroll off screen and I couldn't control the cursor. Luckily I was able to get to best buy before they closed for the day and was able to do an exchange. Working on setup again, but did verify that the joysticks are working. I'm hoping the bios update i installed earlier in the day wasn't the culprit

I play Rider of Icarus, Star wars old republic, Diablo immortal on the Ally and it always runs above 60 fps at 720p. The temperature is around 70-80 c. It's also great for clound gaming if you subcribe gamepass, the latency is not terrible. $699 for this handheld is definately worth it. If you have Best Buy store card, they'll give you 0% interest financing for 12 months.

Performance is pretty good. I've been running any game I've wanted on medium for modern titles and higher with older ones. Only compaints are the limited storage space and battery life. To get the best performance it needs to be plugged in.

overheating issues 512 gigs is not enough storage for 5-10 games

This things an absolute beast, doesn't come ready to go out of the box but after some set up and experimenting with different settings it is a gaming monster. The main complaint I have is the battery life is very very low for most games

This handeld pc is a beast. All of the games that i played ran smoothly: COD, fifa, gears 5 etc. you just have to tweak certain settings to get the best out of it. Definitely recommend if you don’t get a lot of time to play console games, since you can play whatever you want, anywhere. Battery life sucks on it but i mainly play plugged in, so always near an outlet.

A couple months in and so far no complaints other than battery life, but as long as you have a power source nearby, which most vehicles and anywhere you travel do it works great! One thing I wish it had was a front facing camera for facial recognition login but that's not a necessity. Great quality mic if you are using discord while playing as well as great speakers.

Best gaming console with light weight and easy to use

Love my mobile gaming and the fact I can take my games that are more offline based with me and not have to lug around a big laptop for less. Also cool it plays COD without much issues. No issues even after many updates. Definitely recommend getting an sad card or expanding the storage when you can.