The Official ROG Ally Thread (SteamDeck too)

[jehurey 3,299]

people on slickdeals are posting threads immediately when it goes back in stock at best buy

 

looks like some people are hunting for one.

[Remij 4,717]

Seems like it's doing quite well.  

 

One thing that I've noticed is that, likely thanks to the Steam Deck, the pricing of these devices has come down a ton.  When it was just the Ayaneo devices and the GDP Win, prices were $1000+...  Now with the Deck out, and Asus getting in the mix, you're getting much more competitive prices and the hardware is much better. 

 

Hopefully Asus really competes and does well and forces prices all around to come down.. because as the prices come down, then you're really going to see these devices take off.

[Twinblade★ 3,986]

2 minutes ago, Remij said:

Seems like it's doing quite well.  

 

One thing that I've noticed is that, likely thanks to the Steam Deck, the pricing of these devices has come down a ton.  When it was just the Ayaneo devices and the GDP Win, prices were $1000+...  Now with the Deck out, and Asus getting in the mix, you're getting much more competitive prices and the hardware is much better. 

 

Hopefully Asus really competes and does well and forces prices all around to come down.. because as the prices come down, then you're really going to see these devices take off.

 

Yeah, companies like Ayaneo are done for if they don't lower the prices of their products drastically. Looking back at my Air purchase, at $600 it now feels like such a rip off in comparison.

[Twinblade★ 3,986]

So I played through all of Planet of Lana on the Ally on battery power. It took me about 5 and a half hours according to the xbox app. very chill puzzle platformer, nothing too crazy but it was an enjoyable time and the presentation was great

 

But it also gave me a good idea of what to expect when it comes to the device's battery life. I was toggling back and forth between the 10w and 15w modes because despite the simpler art style there were some areas where the backgrounds were more detailed with more stuff going on and I wanted to avoid some obnoxious framerate dips.

 

Anyway throughout my play through I had to charge the device 3 times. When I started the game the battery was already partially drained, so realistically it was maybe 2.5 charges, and when I finished the game I had about half of the battery remaining after the last charge.

 

So with a mix of the 10w/15w modes I was basically getting just over 2 hours of playtime and I didn't even touch the turbo 25w mode. Honestly, thats really not good especially considering that its a 2D game.

 

I did notice that in 10w mode the brightness is maxed out by default. I wonder if that may be causing excessive battery drain. Ill have to play around with the brightness levels for each of the modes.

 

On a more positive note, I maxed out the volume for just a few moments and man the tiny internal speakers are actually REALLY good. Not only do they get surprisingly loud but the audio quality manages to remain pretty crisp and clear. Was not expecting that especially after the Ayaneo Air, which had some pretty underwhelming speakers with tinny audio quality.

[Remij 4,717]

47 minutes ago, Twinblade said:

So I played through all of Planet of Lana on the Ally on battery power. It took me about 5 and a half hours according to the xbox app. very chill puzzle platformer, nothing too crazy but it was an enjoyable time and the presentation was great

 

But it also gave me a good idea of what to expect when it comes to the device's battery life. I was toggling back and forth between the 10w and 15w modes because despite the simpler art style there were some areas where the backgrounds were more detailed with more stuff going on and I wanted to avoid some obnoxious framerate dips.

 

Anyway throughout my play through I had to charge the device 3 times. When I started the game the battery was already partially drained, so realistically it was maybe 2.5 charges, and when I finished the game I had about half of the battery remaining after the last charge.

 

So with a mix of the 10w/15w modes I was basically getting just over 2 hours of playtime and I didn't even touch the turbo 25w mode. Honestly, thats really not good especially considering that its a 2D game.

 

I did notice that in 10w mode the brightness is maxed out by default. I wonder if that may be causing excessive battery drain. Ill have to play around with the brightness levels for each of the modes.

 

On a more positive note, I maxed out the volume for just a few moments and man the tiny internal speakers are actually REALLY good. Not only do they get surprisingly loud but the audio quality manages to remain pretty crisp and clear. Was not expecting that especially after the Ayaneo Air, which had some pretty underwhelming speakers with tinny audio quality.

Should get more than 2 hours at 10/15w with a 2D game, but I dunno, I guess it depends what it is doing though.  And yea, I never have my Deck at full brightness... it's not needed and just wastes battery.  Remember too that the new firmware is probably messing up the performance/power profile by quite a bit.

 

And remember... if you're not doing it.. you have to limit the framerate as well.  Just limit it to 60.  If you're running it at 120 or whatever it supports, that's going to be pushing the CPU/GPU a lot more than it needs to be.

 

This is one thing I really like about the Deck.  Each and every game can have it's own performance profile, and I simply limit the FPS to 60 or 30 depending on what game it is, and drop the wattage until I see performance start to dip.  Find the sweet spot and get the best batt life.  

[Twinblade★ 3,986]

19 minutes ago, Remij said:

Should get more than 2 hours at 10/15w with a 2D game, but I dunno, I guess it depends what it is doing though.  And yea, I never have my Deck at full brightness... it's not needed and just wastes battery.  Remember too that the new firmware is probably messing up the performance/power profile by quite a bit.

 

And remember... if you're not doing it.. you have to limit the framerate as well.  Just limit it to 60.  If you're running it at 120 or whatever it supports, that's going to be pushing the CPU/GPU a lot more than it needs to be.

 

This is one thing I really like about the Deck.  Each and every game can have it's own performance profile, and I simply limit the FPS to 60 or 30 depending on what game it is, and drop the wattage until I see performance start to dip.  Find the sweet spot and get the best batt life.  

 

Ah that makes sense. I wasn't limiting the framerate and sometimes It would spike up all the way into the 140s. I guess that was definitely using up more battery.

 

And yeah you can set up profiles for individual games on the Ally too. I haven't messed with any of that yet, as it does seem a bit overwhelming and I'd rather not put too much time into tinkering with that kind of thing.

[-GD-X★ 7,814]

2 hours ago, Twinblade said:

So I played through all of Planet of Lana on the Ally on battery power. It took me about 5 and a half hours according to the xbox app. very chill puzzle platformer, nothing too crazy but it was an enjoyable time and the presentation was great

 

But it also gave me a good idea of what to expect when it comes to the device's battery life. I was toggling back and forth between the 10w and 15w modes because despite the simpler art style there were some areas where the backgrounds were more detailed with more stuff going on and I wanted to avoid some obnoxious framerate dips.

 

Anyway throughout my play through I had to charge the device 3 times. When I started the game the battery was already partially drained, so realistically it was maybe 2.5 charges, and when I finished the game I had about half of the battery remaining after the last charge.

 

So with a mix of the 10w/15w modes I was basically getting just over 2 hours of playtime and I didn't even touch the turbo 25w mode. Honestly, thats really not good especially considering that its a 2D game.

 

I did notice that in 10w mode the brightness is maxed out by default. I wonder if that may be causing excessive battery drain. Ill have to play around with the brightness levels for each of the modes.

 

On a more positive note, I maxed out the volume for just a few moments and man the tiny internal speakers are actually REALLY good. Not only do they get surprisingly loud but the audio quality manages to remain pretty crisp and clear. Was not expecting that especially after the Ayaneo Air, which had some pretty underwhelming speakers with tinny audio quality.

I’m loving your updates

[-GD-X★ 7,814]

@Twinblade

 

https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/i-was-wrong-about-the-asus-rog-ally

[-GD-X★ 7,814]

cyberpunk with ray tracing on the ROG. insane.

 

[Remij 4,717]

I know a couple people who have sold their Decks and bought Ally's instead.  It's just a better device.. however the interface and UI is still the sticking point.  If Asus can work on fixing that... then they have a real winner on their hands.

 

@-GD-X crazy stuff  

Edited June 20, 2023 by Remij

[-GD-X★ 7,814]

9 minutes ago, Remij said:

I know a couple people who have sold their Decks and bought Ally's instead.  It's just a better device.. however the interface and UI is still the sticking point.  If Asus can work on fixing that... then they have a real winner on their hands.

 

@-GD-X crazy stuff  

it's such an amazing device. i really think this market is going to blow up.

[Twinblade★ 3,986]

2 hours ago, -GD-X said:

@Twinblade

 

https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/i-was-wrong-about-the-asus-rog-ally

 

Yeah, there's a learning curve and initial hurdle like with any other device, but once you get things set up and get the games you want to play installed, its super quick and intuitive. 

 

For example, you boot up the device and sign in (quick thx to the fingerprint reader) then it immediately loads the armory crate with a list of your installed/recently played games, and you just pick the game and hit A to launch it. I actually just timed it and even though the steam game I launched had to open the client and then install a daily steam update, the whole process still took only 40 seconds from boot > playing. If not for the update it probably would have taken 30. Its that quick and I didn't even have to touch anything related to the Windows GUI.

[-GD-X★ 7,814]

14 minutes ago, Twinblade said:

 

Yeah, there's a learning curve and initial hurdle like with any other device, but once you get things set up and get the games you want to play installed, its super quick and intuitive. 

 

For example, you boot up the device and sign in (quick thx to the fingerprint reader) then it immediately loads the armory crate with a list of your installed/recently played games, and you just pick the game and hit A to launch it. I actually just timed it and even though the steam game I launched had to open the client and then install a daily steam update, the whole process still took only 40 seconds from boot > playing. If not for the update it probably would have taken 30. Its that quick and I didn't even have to touch anything related to the Windows GUI.

That’s amazing!

[Twinblade★ 3,986]

2 hours ago, -GD-X said:

cyberpunk with ray tracing on the ROG. insane.

 

 

Dammmn. Im gonna copy this guy's settings and give this a whirl.

 

[Twinblade★ 3,986]

1 hour ago, Remij said:

I know a couple people who have sold their Decks and bought Ally's instead.  It's just a better device.. however the interface and UI is still the sticking point.  If Asus can work on fixing that... then they have a real winner on their hands.

 

@-GD-X crazy stuff  

 

Im not sure if you still post on gaf but I noticed in the Ally thread everyone who has both devices pretty much agrees that the Ally shits on the Deck  

[-GD-X★ 7,814]

8 minutes ago, Twinblade said:

 

Im not sure if you still post on gaf but I noticed in the Ally thread everyone who has both devices pretty much agrees that the Ally shits on the Deck  

Nah, I don’t go on Gaf or Reset. I can see why, though. It may lack the Deck’s UI, but the power bump is pretty massive. 

[Remij 4,717]

2 hours ago, Twinblade said:

 

Im not sure if you still post on gaf but I noticed in the Ally thread everyone who has both devices pretty much agrees that the Ally shits on the Deck  

It's obviously way better in most ways.  Still though, the Deck does have a couple advantages that I can't see Asus really ever solving to the same level that Valve has.  Mainly the usability of the device.

 

[TLHBO 2,170]

6 hours ago, Twinblade said:

 

Im not sure if you still post on gaf but I noticed in the Ally thread everyone who has both devices pretty much agrees that the Ally shits on the Deck  

You've been hating on the deck since day one.

 

Then you went out of your way to find a steamdeck killer even though you hated everything about handheld pcs. Wasted hundreds on an ayaneo only to have buyers remorse

 

Now you waste hundreds more on this. Sure its more powerful with a higher res screen, but you said yourself windows on a handheld is a bit shit, and the battery life is also shit, and there are some bugs in the software.

 

But congrats after 2 years of searching you finally found a device you prefer over the steamdeck.....which is weird because you always sound like a jilted lover when discussing this console.

 

You should have just got the steamdeck Its pretty obvious you have feelings for it.

[Twinblade★ 3,986]

6 hours ago, TLHBO said:

You've been hating on the deck since day one.

 

Then you went out of your way to find a steamdeck killer even though you hated everything about handheld pcs. Wasted hundreds on an ayaneo only to have buyers remorse

 

Now you waste hundreds more on this. Sure its more powerful with a higher res screen, but you said yourself windows on a handheld is a bit shit, and the battery life is also shit, and there are some bugs in the software.

 

But congrats after 2 years of searching you finally found a device you prefer over the steamdeck.....which is weird because you always sound like a jilted lover when discussing this console.

 

You should have just got the steamdeck Its pretty obvious you have feelings for it.

 
I’ll admit some of my steam deck hate was unwarranted. But I think the Ally is the most well executed of this type of system based one what I’ve seen and experienced, eventhough it suffers from some of the same issues in regards to battery life. And as I’ve already said, once you get things set up on the Ally you can pretty much forget that its even a windows based device since most of your navigation and inputs while be through ASUS’ front end tools like armory crate and the command center.

 
Also, it’s pretty unfair how biased many game journalists have been towards the Ally. For example, GB was constantly creaming themselves over the Deck when it released but they’ve been silent on the Ally and have had 0 coverage on it. Just completely unreasonable and feels like an attempt for steam fanboys to limit the Ally’s sales potential.

[TLHBO 2,170]

4 hours ago, Twinblade said:

 
I’ll admit some of my steam deck hate was unwarranted. But I think the Ally is the most well executed of this type of system based one what I’ve seen and experienced, eventhough it suffers from some of the same issues in regards to battery life. And as I’ve already said, once you get things set up on the Ally you can pretty much forget that its even a windows based device since most of your navigation and inputs while be through ASUS’ front end tools like armory crate and the command center.

 
Also, it’s pretty unfair how biased many game journalists have been towards the Ally. For example, GB was constantly creaming themselves over the Deck when it released but they’ve been silent on the Ally and have had 0 coverage on it. Just completely unreasonable and feels like an attempt for steam fanboys to limit the Ally’s sales potential.

Well at least you concede they all have the same downsides.

 

I wouldnt look too into the lack of attention. Steamdeck is niche, and the Ally even far more niche. Also Steamdeck came first and was from Valve, it was always going to get more attention than the Ally. I don't think anybody is ignoring the Ally on purpose  it's fine for what it is it's probably just not getting the clicks they want.

 

The fanboying over all these devices is ridiculous imo.