Customer Ratings & Reviews

The steam deck “killer” has been out for almost a month and overall it gives PC enthusiast access to some great specs at a very reasonable price. My rating for this device may seem low but it takes into account the pains of handling windows on a small handheld device and my very own underwhelming and questionable unboxing experience. Overall the set up is far from turn on and play. It will require you to update windows, armory crate, and check bios updates through another asus app to ensure everything is up to date and this whole process will take up to an hour. Asus has been working on updates to improve performance just be aware that at lower wattage (10 watt) you’ll be on par with a steam deck performance. The ally will have better frame rates and better resolution options at higher wattages but at the cost of battery life. I personally use my Ally on its 15 watt mode and I usually average a good 90 minutes of play time. Hasn’t been a deal breaker but I’m definitely more aware about the battery limitations when I’m not near a power source. Build quality is decent on my unit. Screen is plenty bright and the colors are fantastic. The 120hz refresh rate is very nice and one of the primary reasons for options for the ally than the steam deck. The unboxing experience was very underwhelming and questionable. First of all my ally came in completely discharged. I was worried I had received a dead unit but windows showed the battery had been depleted for a while once I booted it up. My unboxing experience also included hair underneath the peel away plastic and it was not just one or two but numerous which made me question if I received a repackaged review unit. ASUS definitely needs to improve on that front. The ROG brand typically signifies a quality item and the unboxing experience should also reflect that. I am hopeful that ASUS will take into account all of these criticisms from reviewers and costumers to improve this device and deliver a much better product when their second gen device is designed, built, and shipped in the future.

Fantastic gaming handheld! I deeply enjoyed playing on the go with the Ally. It's a fantastic gaming handheld with a much more useful profile for Game Pass games, and a wide rangs of multiplayer titles that get locked out of playing on Linux based handhelds (e.g. BF6/COD). Even AAA shooters run solidly on this delightful handheld. If you had told me 20 years ago I'd be playing *THESE* games on something this small, I'd have never believed it. The fact BG3 runs smoothly at medium settings for hours is such a marvel of engineering. highlights below: Pros: -Performance. HD2, COD, Diablo IV, BG3, etc. You name it, the Ally can play it. This is a screamingly fast handheld with the ability to play 98% of games very well and anywhere. outside of the absolute bleeding edge of AAAA games on high resolution, this will handle anything with apolomb in a tiny, compact package. =Superb value, especially given the Z1E CPU which handles nearly every game easily. Very responsive and buttery smooth 120hz screen with some of the best motion I've ever seen, frankly better than some entry level 4k60 tvs i've played on given the sheer pixel density and instant response time (resolution is nice, but jumping without tearing is better). -FANTASTIC ergonomics. This is very light and comfortable in the hand and plays better than any other PC handheld for long gaming sessions. Others were much heavier. Cons: Navigation on Windows: I don't love the no-touchpad approach on a Windows device, though recent software updates have made this MUCH easier and in line with the newer trackpad-based ones. The touchscreen is solid, mitigating this a bit. -Tiny bit of fan noise at Turbo settings but this can be mitigated by adjusting fan curves in the software or playing with the power profiles. -battery. This is the key difference relative to the Ally X--40 w is a bit small and the 2 hours of gaming is much shorter, need ready acess to power cables/banks. -512 gb is smallish if you have a big library--but it's VERY easy to upgrade (2 minutes) and unneccessary for most users. TL:DR. This is a great alternative to far more expensive devices, especially given the (minor) hassles of battery and fans can be dealt with in the software.

I needed something to play PC games while I'm out of town, but didn't want to be carrying around a large laptop. And then I came upon this majestic beauty. I was skeptical at first about its performance being a handheld full fledge computer. I decided to give it a shot and glad I did, it's the gift that keeps on giving, It just kept surprising me with its performance game after game, it dominated my expectations. Highly recommend for anyone trying to play their favorite desktop games on the go.

This device doesn’t hold up to titles that are coming out in the middle of 2024. Consider what you’re purchasing. I originally bought this device full price and I would not have purchased this item if I had known what the “power” of this device actually is. You can absolutely buy a dock or use the power cable with display capability for use of another monitor alongside the rog ally. If you’re looking into emulation, or games on 720p low-medium settings then you’ll have fun. Portably the device lacks extremely, I suppose with a game with RDR2 you’ll get 2-3 hours on 720p low-medium with the wattage cranked up. I couldn’t even imagine many scenarios besides web browsing or ps1 or older emulation. The 512gb the device has in the NVME is okay for someone that has 3 games. It’s a PC so sort of ridiculous they limit you. Personally I have a external HDD I’ll put games I don’t care to play on the go… not that I bring this on the go that much because of the battery life, this does not at all replace my Nintendo switch. For someone who enjoys windows and wants a portable experience, explore the steam deck more, look into laptops or just look at the Legion Go as that device seems similar with a nicer screen.

Impressive little machine for the price. Comes with windows 11 so it can do just about what any other pc can do. I got the Z1 processor and its a powerhouse. Can run starfield at 50 fps with a mix of medium and high graphics settings with RSR turned on. Battery doesnt last very long, but its regularly using 15-20 watts of power on the regular setting so its understandable. If you want longer playtime i recommend playing while its plugged in with the provided charger, or buy a beefy powerbank that's capable of charging devices at 65w.

Overall it’s great I can play both my steam and xbox games on it. Does suck it has like a 3 hour battery life but for the performance you get I say it’s well worth it.

I absolutely love my ASUS ROG ALLY!! The screen is bright and sharp, beautiful graphics, you don’t need 2K or 4K at all! It runs Diablo 4, tomb raider, even emulation games are amazing! The ergonomics are amazing as well, I can easily hold and play this for hours on end compared to the switch. The battery life may turn people off! But!!! I have no issue at all, I play it at the airport easily plug it in and good, on the plane! Plug it in and I’m good! I don’t catch myself playing it on trains at all, but as a traveler it’s sooo convenient to pull out and start up, it did have a few bugs at launch with the armory crate which as of 7/5/23 they have ironed out and it’s much smoother and more responsive, again this hand held was sooo Worth it and I’m glad I snagged it!!!

I picked up an Open Box deal, (the person changed their minds after purchasing). Its been about a week and I’m loving the Ally. I have a gaming pc, but sometimes I want to lay in bed or play my games on s road trip etc, and this is the perfect device for it. I’m thoroughly enjouing so far. Battery life is about 1 or 1 1/2 hours depending on the game, but I find myself playing with it plugged in for the turbo mode to get the best FPS in certain games. The only gripe I had was the storage, but it was an wasy fix. Bought a 1tb ssd and swapped it out. Took less than 10 minutes to get it done.

Overall it’s a great device. Battery is the one downfall, but I tend to have the charger by me when using it. Plugged in this thing runs most AAA games decently. Windows can be a headache sometimes unfortunately. I also had a couple issues that required me to send to Asus to repair, but they repaired both times, no cost, and it’s working great. Even installed a 2TB SSD in it very easily.

Got mine instore. Out of the bat the system looks good. Solid and feels premium. - Pro - display is 120hz. - speaker sounds pretty good. - windows. so can install almost any game. - Con - Windows. its not a custom windows so it has all the windows bloatware and unessesary configuration windows offers. If you know your way around it its an easy fix. but if you dont know anything about it then you will lose a lot more battery faster due to unwanted apps or things running in the background. - Battery life. Might update my review as I havent use it that much. Will see how it goes.

Overall -Would absolutely recommend, though it has its quirks. The Good -This device is POWERFUL. Compared to the Switch OLED, the Rog Ally Z1E provides an experience with few compromises when it comes to performance. The 7-inch screen, paired with 120Hz at 1080p, delivers a crisp image. Additionally, it can run a range of AAA games like Monster Hunter World/Rise, Resident Evil, etc., making it a great companion to a dedicated gaming PC. It’s worth mentioning that this performance comes at a steep cost. When playing demanding games, expect very short battery life. Depending on your use case, this could be a non-factor, or it could be a big issue (e.g., long plane ride with power outlets, no worries; car ride, you may need a power bank). Fortunately, less demanding games can run much longer, so indies and emulated games work well when you don’t have backup power. This trade-off exists with all handheld gaming, though, so regardless of the device, you’ll eventually have to consider it. The Bad -The joysticks aren’t great. You can definitely get used to them, but if you’re jumping between consoles, you might notice they feel like lower quality. It may be best to consider the SD card slot DOA, as it seems to fry easily. I never bothered buying a card just to check. Which leads to general storage: 512GB is technically plenty, but you'll need to plan accordingly before a long trip. Lastly, Windows 11 seemed fine mostly, outside of poorly timed updates. If you'd prefer, you can always boot Steam OS instead. The Unfortunate After a night of playing, I left my device on the charger. The next day, it refused to turn on at all. After hours of troubleshooting, it completely bricked itself and didn’t respond to anything (charging cables, power button, etc.). I doubt you can expect this to happen, but it was frustrating when it occurred just 6 days after my warranty expired. Final Thoughts -Overall, despite a few inconvenient quirks, I think it’s a great device that offers above-average performance, so long as you’re willing to understand its shortcomings and plan around them.

I got the Asus Z1 Exreme portable gaming device from best buy and the experience was amazing!! It was pretty straightforward runs on windows 11 software so you can do pretty much anything a normal pc can do and it supports 120 hz so you can experience lower imput delay when compared to a device still running 60 fps or hz you can also pair it with a 120 hz monitor and buy a usbc to hdmi capable dock if you want to use a bigger screen to game on and still get the same performance! Overall this product has to be a 5 star review because of all of the features the device has in such a compact formfactor!!

Very good experience. Potential Buyers have to go into this as if they are purchasing a low - mid end gaming laptop. This isn't for the Plug and Play Console only user unless they are willing to tinker and Learn on how to optimize Windows OS to bring out the Ally's Full potential. If you are going into this thinking that everything just works correctly right out of the box you may not get that good first impression. This is not on Asus. Asus did a very good job with the Armory Crate which I personally use, Since this is WIndows 11 OS. you have a Plethora of options for Game Launchers. Once u get everything set up, most users will have a great Experience on this device. Battery Life is just as good as any Current Gaming laptop on the market battery Life depending on various Game Settings, Screen Brightness, Sound Volume, Haptic Feedback settings, in Game settings, Power Profile. Most WIndows OS Users, especially the PC Gaming community are aware of all of this when buying this device. I can go on and on about the Ally. I absolutely Love the Ally, Not just for current gaming. Despite not always being able to hit 60fps. 30 to 45 fps, actually feels really smooth thanks to VRR support and it's vibrant screen with colors that pop. without getting technical here. Thank you Asus and Thank you Best Buy.

Great product! There is some pros and cons. Pros: Powerfull, well made, feels like a “controller”, run windows (also con) Cons: Battery life, soon or later your sd card will stop working so is better to buy a large storage (1 or 2tb ssd or more), 512gb nowadays is kind of real problem, and windows (sometimes you get stuck with some minor issues), But still loving my ROG ally extreme.

Only giving four stars in terms of battery life and buying open box. They literally dropped the price by $100 3 hours after I had bought mine. However they were nice enough to return the difference. The system is amazing , the ease of use and button mapping. The led color changing lights are nice at night. The screen is amazing. I actually put this over the steam deck I have. I don’t mind always having it plugged in. But if you’re the one to have an outlet by you all the time. I’d get the steam deck.

Great competitor in the handheld gaming market for what it is, a mobile pc for gaming and work on the go. I've had mine for a few weeks now and gave it several games and scenarios to go through to see how it would perform and it did really well. The thermals will be the thing that I mention. This does run hot and ASUS is supposed to be sending a patch or update that will help in thermals for the safe use of SD cards. Some were having there's corrupted and becoming completely useless. I haven't had an SD in mine but I'm glad I don't really need one right now as I use it for mild to light evening and nightly gaming for an hour or two. running turbo mode with power plugged in you can barely hear the fans which in my opinion as a PC gamer, is amazing! Still, as much as I love all the power behind that mode, I don't want to shorten my battery just to have a few frames more. That's where the ability to create custom power profiles come in to also be able to select the amount of VRAM you can use. It helps in adding in thermals and longevity of the system but also allows you to get the most bang for your buck in this machine. I use mine at 23w across the board, and still run Stray at incredible frame rates on 1080p 120hz. Hogawarts Legacy 720 at 120 I can get between 52-110 depending on the area and what is happening on screen but to me, the frame drop is barely noticeable. Grand Theft Auto V looks great, HiFi Rush is killer, Rage 2 and Tomb Raider games are phenomenal. Again, it's how you adjust the settings to get max (preferred in this case) performance to quality ratio. Visually it's striking when you first light it up, the sweet ambiance of RGB and the blast off the speakers (which in my opinion are great for forward firing speakers. It's not the most comfortable to hold for a long time but you get used to it and find a groove to make the gaming sessions great. The sticks feel like console sticks, not loose but not tight, the ability to select deadzones and configure button mapping for several games its a plus in my book for full customization. Storage, well, I agree with most that it sucks. Truthfully, 1TB should be the minimum for a gaming console but for what this beast has inside it, I can forgive the small 512gb of space. I don't plan on adding a huge library to this, its for travel and gaming on the go. Heavy gaming with big libraries are for my gaming PC. But this thing can handle cloud gaming with my Xbox Game Pass like a champion, quick load times and no lag. Experience may differ on settings and internet speed. I run gig internet and have mine tuned for longevity of power and performance as I stated before and the games still look and run crisp. Bloatwear is a must tackle on this and there are plenty of videos on Youtube that will help in letting you know what and how to remove items, I do my own so it frees memory and allows for max storage. Docking, well, I don't need to do that because again of my PC, this is for chill time and on the go gaming. Running Steam in big window mode is super chill. Epic is great. EA app never works at all, not ROG issue, EA. We all know them, smh. Xbox is seamless and emulators. This can do so much and handle so much I'm still experimenting with different setups as I watch what others do to help aid in performance and quality. So yes, I recommend this to those that don't have a steam deck, to those that do and those that just want a mild to mid tier editing machine. It's a windows PC for your hands, do what you will. I definitely haven't regretted a second in buying this little monster. 1-2 hrs heavy gameplay battery life. 2+ for my 23w settings and unlimited POWER when I plug it in. There is just so much you can customize and do in the Armoury Crate app that I won't put here but I will say you will have a lot to explore as you go and learn with this. The macros are the best for how to use the M1 and M2 buttons on back that you find what they all do in armoury crate in settings. So yes, I love what this does and what it does for me in performance, just the battery needs a little help in surviving haha.

Can play AAA games on the go, just connect to your phone hotspot for better wifi connection. The only downside of this great machine is the battery life. Currently playing a AAA game, from 100% battery down to atleast 20% in an hour of playing without the charger plugged in. It's either you'll need to plug it in the wall charger or grab a powerbank that has atleast 65w power output for more juice when you're outside. You might wanna consider getting a screen prtoector, and a case for added protection of your device when travelling.

Couch gaming has never been so good. The only problem is the lackluster battery life and how cumbersome windows is on a handheld. Other than that fantastic system and fantastic speakers.

The only issue with the unit, and i mean only is the battery when playing games. All other points this is the APEX of all handhelds rn. Steam deck is amazing 100% but its got a couple snags, gotta order it threw them and its not great for emulators or Roms. The Ally is great at everything your desktop can do. Windows 11 runs beautifully and buying the charger dock makes it whatever you want it to be in everyway. Touch screen helps you 60% and the anolog can help the other 40. I recommend it if you want your pc with you and games when you leave the house. Worse case try it and return it in 15 days. You wont but aye thats what i did. Thanks best buy for being customer friendly

The ASUS ROG Ally 7" Gaming Handheld boasts an impressive set of features, including a high refresh rate, powerful AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme Processor, and ample storage capacity. However, a critical flaw in the form of a faulty MicroSD slot significantly hampers the overall user experience. Pros: Powerful Performance: The AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme Processor delivers on its promise, providing a smooth and responsive gaming experience. The 120Hz FHD display adds to the immersive gaming visuals. Ample Storage: With a spacious 512GB storage capacity, the ASUS ROG Ally ensures that gamers have sufficient space for their favorite titles, apps, and media. Sleek Aesthetics: The white color variant adds a touch of sophistication to the device, making it visually appealing for gaming enthusiasts. Cons: Faulty MicroSD Slot: Perhaps the most significant drawback of the ASUS ROG Ally is its unreliable MicroSD slot. Users have reported issues, rendering it virtually unusable within the first month of usage. This flaw not only limits the expandable storage options but also raises concerns about the device's overall durability and reliability. Initial Usability Concerns: The reported issues with the MicroSD slot contribute to a frustrating user experience, especially for those who rely on additional storage for their gaming libraries. This flaw can be a deal-breaker for potential buyers seeking a reliable and fully functional gaming handheld. In conclusion, the ASUS ROG Ally 7" Gaming Handheld offers a compelling package for gaming enthusiasts, combining powerful hardware and an attractive design. However, the serious issues with the MicroSD slot undermine the overall quality and reliability of the device. Prospective buyers should be cautious and consider alternative options until ASUS addresses and resolves this critical flaw.