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I’m calling myself out.
I have to admit, bare-facedly, I was wrong.
The ASUS ROG Ally saved me on transatlantic flights this week.
It’s far more powerful than the Steam Deck and will be available this summer.
you’ve got the option to preorder it right now.
The back buttons are also very sensitive, and I suspect many will simply disable them as a result.
The ASUS ROG Ally saved me on transatlantic flights this week.
This is ideally what you’d run while playing a 2D game or heavily optimized 3D title.
Running a game in this state will give you around 3 hours of battery life, which is respectable.
It’s here you could change the wattage up to Performance mode, which is around 15 watts.
But there were many games that simply wouldn’t run well.
In more optimized games like Diablo 4, the ASUS ROG Ally absolutely shines.
The oddly named “Armory Crate” is ASUS' central software for managing the ROG Ally.
The ASUS ROG Ally saved me on transatlantic flights this week.
ASUS acknowledged that it has caused some issues, however, and that more fixes are coming.
Microsoft has, however, been a little more coy about it.
Roanne is a Microsoft veteran who led the OEM experience for Windows hardware partners for many years.
Diablo IV runs flawlessly on the ASUS ROG Ally.
That more “polished” vision could be years away, perhaps even arriving as part ofWindows 12.
Here and today, the experience leaves a lot to be desired.
Windows scaling was the first issue I encountered on this gear.
THE ASUS ROG Ally Armory Crate software helps offset Windows usability issues.
The PC Game Pass app is also not particularly great to navigate.
It incorporates all installed games into a single interface that is also easy to navigate with a controller.
Armory Crate has a dedicated key, too, making it simple to get in and get gaming.
Windows is the ASUS ROG Ally’s biggest asset, and biggest annoyance.
Therein lies why I ended up just preferring this unit to the Steam Deck, though.
My Windows-ified Steam Deck relies on third-party tools, developed by independent developers either self-funded or via donations.
If you plan to stick within the Steam ecosystem, the Steam Deck is obviously an ideal choice.
Steam OS also has less overhead than Windows, being a dedicated system for gaming.
Steam’s OS is focused entirely for gaming, whereas Windows is very much not.
ConclusionFor me, I just prefer the ASUS ROG Ally.
Right now, the ASUS ROG Ally is a dream of a handheld gaming PC.
This shit works, and it works damn well.
Microsoft Windows is an aging behemoth that represents arguably the most backward-compatible OS in the history of man.
