ASUS rog alloy
Discussion
I’m after a portable handheld, I’m not really all that into Nintendo games which rules the switch out, seriously considering a PlayStation portable, however with none currently in stock I’ve come across the asus
I’ll solely be using the device away from home, mostly connected to my phones hotspot, I realise this isn’t optimal for the PS portable so I’m thinking the ASUS may be best as I can download the games straight onto the device can’t I?
Only issue is I’m not a pc gamer, I do however have an Xbox with gamepass ultimate, so am I correct in thinking I can play my Xbox games on the device, is it all my Xbox games or just the ones I have on gamepass?
Also I’ve read you can only play games at certain graphics levels whilst connected to power, would using a 12v car charger count or does it need to be 24v?
I’ll solely be using the device away from home, mostly connected to my phones hotspot, I realise this isn’t optimal for the PS portable so I’m thinking the ASUS may be best as I can download the games straight onto the device can’t I?
Only issue is I’m not a pc gamer, I do however have an Xbox with gamepass ultimate, so am I correct in thinking I can play my Xbox games on the device, is it all my Xbox games or just the ones I have on gamepass?
Also I’ve read you can only play games at certain graphics levels whilst connected to power, would using a 12v car charger count or does it need to be 24v?
Perhaps have a look at the Steam Deck as well? Its definitely more "console-like" in terms of approach whereas the Ally is literally a windows device, warts and all.
The thing to consider with these devices is the battery life. The Deck is really well done in this regard. You're going to get a solid 2 hours out of the new OLED version as a minimum really and if you're playing less demanding games, much more. Its a legit "away from the plug" device.
The Asus IS more powerful and stands a better chance of playing the newest games or playing at higher-res or higher settings. BUT! if you want to access that extra performance, you're generally looking at having to run the thing at 20W or higher and that makes a big dent on the battery. At full chat you're looking at less than 1 hour! The Deck, considering its limited to 15W and has half as many CPU cores and a weaker GPU, works extremely well and seems to be able to play things that you'd think "no chance!". Its well balanced and well optimised. The problem with the Asus (and the Legion Go etc) is whilst they have beefier processors, they can struggle balancing the power demands when running at the lower wattages (15W and under) and so often, any supposed performance benefit isn't realised. They are refining this all the time though.
But if you are leaning towards playing GamePass stuff or maybe thinking of keeping the thing docked/plugged in and playing via external monitor, then it swings back to the Asus. It is the one that is going to work with the XBOX stuff out of the box as its a windows device and if its going to be plugged in majority of the time, you can happily run at the full 30W max TDP and play games at 1080p on an external screen much better than the Deck could. (P.S. You can get GamePass to work on the deck if you are happy with streaming only, does need a little bit of a tinker though to get it to work.)
Final foods for thought:
Lenovo Legion Go: Same internals as the Asus Rog Ally (I think maybe they gave it faster RAM) but in a bigger, higher res screen. Also got some funky detachable controllers and a kickstand. Its IMO a really nicely resolved piece of hardware, but its definitely behind the Asus when it comes to Software. The Deck really wins on the software front, but credit to Asus, their Asus Armoury Crate developers have really knuckled down on it and bring decent, regular updates and improvements.
MSI Claw - One to watch, its going to be a fully Intel Based offering. Remains to be seen just how good it will be though. Interestingly, the design of the body looks almost identical to the Asus save for the black colour and a few choice improvements. They also were able to shoe-horn a much bigger battery inside it. But the performance of the Intel kit remains to be seen.
ASUS ROG Ally 2: Not seen any details on this but it has been mooted for this year. It might sound too early for a second model, but Asus really do like to churn out new models for a lot of their devices (laptops, computers etc) yearly. I am unsure what we'd actually see in terms of improvements and I haven't seen any details. But I would perhaps expect some tweaks like more RAM or faster RAM, an OLED display and a larger battery. It might be worth a wait, if only so you can bag the original for cheaper.
The thing to consider with these devices is the battery life. The Deck is really well done in this regard. You're going to get a solid 2 hours out of the new OLED version as a minimum really and if you're playing less demanding games, much more. Its a legit "away from the plug" device.
The Asus IS more powerful and stands a better chance of playing the newest games or playing at higher-res or higher settings. BUT! if you want to access that extra performance, you're generally looking at having to run the thing at 20W or higher and that makes a big dent on the battery. At full chat you're looking at less than 1 hour! The Deck, considering its limited to 15W and has half as many CPU cores and a weaker GPU, works extremely well and seems to be able to play things that you'd think "no chance!". Its well balanced and well optimised. The problem with the Asus (and the Legion Go etc) is whilst they have beefier processors, they can struggle balancing the power demands when running at the lower wattages (15W and under) and so often, any supposed performance benefit isn't realised. They are refining this all the time though.
But if you are leaning towards playing GamePass stuff or maybe thinking of keeping the thing docked/plugged in and playing via external monitor, then it swings back to the Asus. It is the one that is going to work with the XBOX stuff out of the box as its a windows device and if its going to be plugged in majority of the time, you can happily run at the full 30W max TDP and play games at 1080p on an external screen much better than the Deck could. (P.S. You can get GamePass to work on the deck if you are happy with streaming only, does need a little bit of a tinker though to get it to work.)
Final foods for thought:
Lenovo Legion Go: Same internals as the Asus Rog Ally (I think maybe they gave it faster RAM) but in a bigger, higher res screen. Also got some funky detachable controllers and a kickstand. Its IMO a really nicely resolved piece of hardware, but its definitely behind the Asus when it comes to Software. The Deck really wins on the software front, but credit to Asus, their Asus Armoury Crate developers have really knuckled down on it and bring decent, regular updates and improvements.
MSI Claw - One to watch, its going to be a fully Intel Based offering. Remains to be seen just how good it will be though. Interestingly, the design of the body looks almost identical to the Asus save for the black colour and a few choice improvements. They also were able to shoe-horn a much bigger battery inside it. But the performance of the Intel kit remains to be seen.
ASUS ROG Ally 2: Not seen any details on this but it has been mooted for this year. It might sound too early for a second model, but Asus really do like to churn out new models for a lot of their devices (laptops, computers etc) yearly. I am unsure what we'd actually see in terms of improvements and I haven't seen any details. But I would perhaps expect some tweaks like more RAM or faster RAM, an OLED display and a larger battery. It might be worth a wait, if only so you can bag the original for cheaper.
Thanks for taking the time for that info
I will only be using one out of the house, so won’t be connecting external monitors etc.
Battery life isn’t a huge issue as I’ll always be able to charge via the cars cig lighter, unless of course the asus will draw more power then the 12v charger can provide whilst in use, in that case it will be a issue!
My sweet spot would be a modern day psp as I’m mainly invested in the ps eco system, however I do have a series x with gamepass so I have games to play there.
I’ve tried remote play while on my phone, and whilst it’s ok on 5G it can be hit and miss in most other places, and not only that, if I bought the PS portal it would be tethering of my phones signal so would be even worse than just using the phone, so I’d prefer to have a device I wouldn’t have to stream on.
I will only be using one out of the house, so won’t be connecting external monitors etc.
Battery life isn’t a huge issue as I’ll always be able to charge via the cars cig lighter, unless of course the asus will draw more power then the 12v charger can provide whilst in use, in that case it will be a issue!
My sweet spot would be a modern day psp as I’m mainly invested in the ps eco system, however I do have a series x with gamepass so I have games to play there.
I’ve tried remote play while on my phone, and whilst it’s ok on 5G it can be hit and miss in most other places, and not only that, if I bought the PS portal it would be tethering of my phones signal so would be even worse than just using the phone, so I’d prefer to have a device I wouldn’t have to stream on.
usn90 said:
Thanks for taking the time for that info
I will only be using one out of the house, so won’t be connecting external monitors etc.
Battery life isn’t a huge issue as I’ll always be able to charge via the cars cig lighter, unless of course the asus will draw more power then the 12v charger can provide whilst in use, in that case it will be a issue!
My sweet spot would be a modern day psp as I’m mainly invested in the ps eco system, however I do have a series x with gamepass so I have games to play there.
I’ve tried remote play while on my phone, and whilst it’s ok on 5G it can be hit and miss in most other places, and not only that, if I bought the PS portal it would be tethering of my phones signal so would be even worse than just using the phone, so I’d prefer to have a device I wouldn’t have to stream on.
Reading about it seems you probably wanna get a charger capable of 65W. You can get Power Delivery (PD) powerbanks from amazon that will deliver 65W or yeah, a 12V lighter version (just be careful as many will advertise the combined output of all the ports, whereas you need to pick one where 1 port will give you the 65W)I will only be using one out of the house, so won’t be connecting external monitors etc.
Battery life isn’t a huge issue as I’ll always be able to charge via the cars cig lighter, unless of course the asus will draw more power then the 12v charger can provide whilst in use, in that case it will be a issue!
My sweet spot would be a modern day psp as I’m mainly invested in the ps eco system, however I do have a series x with gamepass so I have games to play there.
I’ve tried remote play while on my phone, and whilst it’s ok on 5G it can be hit and miss in most other places, and not only that, if I bought the PS portal it would be tethering of my phones signal so would be even worse than just using the phone, so I’d prefer to have a device I wouldn’t have to stream on.
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