SFF.Network ETA Prime Reviews Asus ROG ALLY Hand-Held PC

Image Credit – Asus
 
ETA Prime has gotten his hands on the new $699 (US) Asus ROG ALLY. This handheld PC is meant to compete directly with the SteamDeck, but has a lot more power. The system uses the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme APU featuring eight Zen 4 cores with 16 threads, a 12CU RDNA3 Radeon iGPU, and 16GB of LPDDR5 at 6400MT. Storage is handled by a 2230 sized M.2 drive, and the system features a 7-inch 120Hz 1080P IPS display with FreeSync variable refresh rate. It uses Windows 11 as its OS of choice.
Aside from the increased processing power, the major advantage that the ROG ALLY has over the SteamDeck is the FreeSync display. SteamDeck has a fixed refresh rate...

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[alexep7]

Its biggest drawbacks are Windows and the fact that it looks like it was designed by a 10 year old

 

[Phuncz]

Its biggest drawbacks are Windows and the fact that it looks like it was designed by a 10 year old

A 100% this.

 

[Elaman]

I don't have a dog in this fight because I'm mainly a keyboard player.

What I do have, is a freaking Asus laptop, and a lot of playtime in it. Which I don't think would have been possible in the ROG Ally.

From my point of view, in this kind of device, below 2h of battery is not worth it. If the chip is really so performant, we should be able to set it to max. 15W or even below, while still be able to play most games.

 

[Revenant]

I'm not upset about Windows nor would I be upset about Steam OS. System neutral on that one.

@Elaman I think there is a market for it. My wife likes to game on handhelds more than her PC. She likes being able to lie down and relax. She really wants either a SteamDeck or one of these.

 

[Elaman]

Oh don't get me wrong, there is market indeed: AYA Neo 2, GPD Win Max 2 coming out almost at the same time as the ROG Ally, the various OneXPlayers...

 

[Skripka]

Its biggest drawbacks are Windows and the fact that it looks like it was designed by a 10 year old

It is mind blowing to me exactly how bad Windows touch compatibility still is even after their attempts like w8