ROG Ally
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At the moment, the only place you can buy the ROG Ally is at Best Buy, and that has not been a good experience for me. While I am happy that I am getting the device a few days earlier, I would have just preferred to get it from Amazon. Speaking of which, there is a strange “Pre-Order” page for the ROG Ally on Amazon, so eventually I am assuming you can get it from any retailers.
There seems to be a lot of hate for the ROG Ally from the Steam Deck community, which I honestly don’t understand. I own both devices, and while I have previously praised the Steam Deck, there are some short comings on a Linux (SteamOS) system. My Steam Deck, at this moment, is just limited to Steam games… while my ROG Ally will be used for everything else, such as GOG, Epic Games, Battle Net, Bethesda, playing videos, playing YouTube, using MicroSoft Office, using PhotoShop, and Steam games too.
Look, if you already own a Steam Deck, and is happy with it, there is no reason for you to get the ROG Ally.
For me, I think the Steam Deck is ugly, I think it’s too big and heavy. I don’t really like Linux. There are certain games that just won’t run on the Steam Deck… I’m not entirely sure that the ROG Ally will answer all my problems… but being a Windows device (with Xbox Gamepass), it’s certainly a step in the right direction for me.
Windows is both a curse and a blessing. While I love the Windows compatibility of it all, it wasn’t really designed to be run on a handheld gaming device. You start to notice these things really quickly, as text can be unreadable or unable to pull up the on-screen keyboard can be really frustrating. Asus tried its best to make it usable with their Armory Crate software, but that’s also not a great solution either. What MicroSoft need to do is release their own gaming handheld, call it the Xbox Deck or something. Then they can finetune their operating system to suite the need of a tiny 7” inch screen. Still, despite all of Windows’ problems, the good outweighs the bad.
So far, I’ve had the ROG Ally for a few hours, and all that time, it is spent updating and downloading some games to try out. The first game that I will run is Diablo IV… but it’s a big game and will take a few hours to load up.
The next step is to buy another 1TB Micro SD card to install more games… and a screen protector. Unfortunately, since Asus did not release their files or mock models to third party manufacturers, there are really no cases or accessories designed for the ROG Ally. Give it a month or two when companies get their hands on the device - they will start making all sorts of accessories for it, such as a good dock or some skins, etc. At the moment, the only things available are officially from Asus… and it’s limited to just a cheap carrying case and a charging brick with HDMI out.
P.S. It’s confirmed that the battery life on the ROG Ally is not great. I dropped to 50% just doing normal Windows things, like updating and downloading software. On the bright side is that the 65-Watt charger can quickly charge the ROG Ally to 90% in ten minutes. It’s pretty amazing to see this.
Yours,
vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com |
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