Power at a great price - ROG Ally early impressions
I haven't been quiet in my excitement for the ROG Ally since it was announced back in April. A powerful and feature-packed Windows handheld at a price that actually stands a chance at pulling people away from the Steam Deck? What's not to like? With the device having released just yesterday, we now have it in our hands. Does it live up to the hype?
To just be up front, this isn't going to be a full breakdown or a review; I've only had the Ally for a day after all. What I did want to do though is get a few quick impressions onto paper, and also ask exactly what you as a member of the community would be interested in knowing for the full review when it's written in the next week or two.
But with that out of the way, first impressions? Very good, but not quite perfect. The unboxing experience is about what you'd expect from a premium ASUS product. It's clean, and there's really no frills. You get your device, you get a 65W charger, and you get a paper stand for the system. The charger is fine, though it is a little bulky compared to offerings from other competitors in the space. The Steam Deck's charger was a hard-wired USB C plug running at 45W, and the AYANEO 2 I have on hand came with a really compact 65W GaN plug that could be adapted to any region. The ASUS charger isn't huge, but the fact it's got a charging brick at all makes it inferior. The paper stand is surprisingly sturdy, and I do like its inclusion a lot. It's not going to last forever, but it's a great way to prop the device up while docked while you figure out the accessories you'll buy for the long run. It being made of paper makes it entirely recyclable, so when you do upgrade you don't have to feel so bad getting rid. A good move.
The star of the show is obviously going to be the device itself, and boy does it shine. In terms of size, you're looking at a slightly smaller footprint than the Steam Deck with a very different ergonomic feel. The plastic used for the Ally feels incredibly nice in-hand, and reminds me of an Xbox Series controller with the dotted-textured back. I won't go into too much detail on every component, but a real standout to me was the D-Pad, and I really wasn't expecting it to be. From the images I really do think it looks awful. It looks glossy, cheap, and plasticky, and it looks like it'd be a mushy mess. It's just really nice. While it doesn't have the click I'm fond of in the Xbox Series controllers (I know not everybody enjoys this though!), you get a decent bump for each direction and it does feel satisfying.
There's not much I really want to fault on the hardware side of things, but even after a plethora of updates leading up to launch, the software could still use a little work. Now at its core, this is a Windows 11 PC with a nice controller strapped to it. This might be a controversial opinion, but I really do think Windows 11 is fine on this kind of handheld. I enjoyed it on the AYANEO 2 and thus far, I really have enjoyed it here. It lacks the instant accessibility of something like SteamOS, and I can certainly understand people being turned off by the additional steps that might be required to get things going. To me though it's just familiar and I know exactly what it can do and how to do it, having used Windows for the majority of my life. To me it's in ASUS' own software, Armoury Crate SE, where I want to see some improvement.
At the moment I would say it's functional, but it's not of a standard I would expect from a company like ASUS. I like that it provides a simple and unified interface for people to quickly get to games, bringing Windows closer to that simple gaming experience people do genuinely want. I like that it gives you easy access to the settings most important to gaming. I like that it can be pulled up quickly and seamlessly using dedicated buttons. On paper it has all the trademarks of good software, but it just feels a little half-baked. You have small issues that add up. You can't save the order of your games, the controller will sometimes decide to jump multiple tiles at a time, it doesn't have any kind of dock-optimised mode. It's fine, and feature-wise, it really isn't all that different to AYA Space that's loaded onto AYANEO systems. I just have higher standards of ASUS, and I hope in time the software develops to a point where it meets them. Nothing it does makes the device unusable, but it certainly could be better.
Quirks aside though, can the Ally really play all your games as the promotional materials advertise? Well it'll certainly have a good crack at it. With me unfortunately having a job to attend to I've not been able to throw a lot of time into trying games just yet, but I was incredibly happy to see Monster Hunter Rise running at 1080p Medium settings at around 90fps while plugged in on Turbo mode. The game looked glorious and felt incredible to play, and I pushed that further to around 70fps at 4K High settings when plugged into the 3080 XG Mobile unit I have handy. The only other game I've put time into so far is MapleStory, and it should be no surprise that a 2D MMO runs well. Having said that, it's a game that doesn't work on SteamOS likely due to its anti-cheat, so it's something I'm really going to enjoy.
I'm really happy with the Ally so far, but there's an incredible amount yet to try. Our full review will be looking at battery, performance modes, long-term comfort, compatibility, emulation, SSD upgrading, and various other things I feel are notable as they come up. You can feel secure in knowing I'll be looking at some of the more demanding Switch titles amongst other things, but if there's something you really want me to look at, I'll try my best to include it where possible.
You can look forward to a separate post about this particular pairing in the near future...
Did you pick up the ROG Ally? Are you on the fence, a proud Steam Deck owner, or just not interested in the handheld space? Let us know your thoughts.
