The Asus Steam Deck Ally Review: A Comprehensive Look at the Upcoming Handheld Gaming Console

The Asus Steam Deck Ally is a handheld gaming console that promises to deliver a powerful and portable gaming experience. The device features a unique design with capacitive "mouse replacements" on the left and right, which some may argue will never replace traditional mice in certain games. However, these inputs add a lot of utility to the overall experience. The device also lacks a hump on the back, similar to its competitor, the Steam Deck, but instead has a flatter design.

The speakers are decent, but it's early software that makes this observation, and I'm not going to comment too much on the product at this stage. The software, however, is an exciting development in itself. It appears to be a custom version of Valve's Armory Crate, offering features like a game launcher, FPS counter, FPS limiter, performance mode, controls, RGB lighting, and more. This software has the potential to revolutionize the way we experience games on our handheld devices.

The Asus Steam Deck Ally is powered by Windows 11, which provides customizability and freedom to play all types of games, regardless of platform. However, this also means that users will have access to a wide range of features and options, some of which may be unfamiliar to those who are used to the more streamlined experience offered by Steam OS. The device includes a headphone jack, fast microSD card slot, volume controls, fingerprint sensor, and USB-C port for charging or display output.

Inside the device, I was impressed by the thermal system, which seems well-designed and efficient. The SSD is also easy to replace, as are the joysticks. These design features make the device feel very user-friendly and accessible. Perhaps the most significant advantage of the Asus Steam Deck Ally, however, is its global release strategy. Unlike many other high-end gaming handhelds that require importation or crowdfunding, this device will be widely available at major retailers like Best Buy.

The success of the Asus Steam Deck Ally will depend heavily on its price tag, and I believe that if it can hit a competitive price point, it has a good chance of being a huge success. The device is expected to offer all the features of a high-end gaming console, but with the added convenience of portability. At $600-$650, I think this could be a winning combination for Asus. With Valve's 30% cut of every game sale, the revenue potential is clear, and if the device can deliver on its promises at this price point, it has the potential to revolutionize the gaming industry.

Overall, the Asus Steam Deck Ally is an exciting development in the world of handheld gaming consoles. Its unique design, powerful performance, and competitive pricing strategy make it a compelling option for gamers who want to experience their favorite games on the go. As the device nears its release date, I'm eager to see how it performs in the market and whether it can live up to its promises.

Asus's decision to launch the Steam Deck Ally at Best Buy is also noteworthy. The company has stated that the device will be widely available, which could make it easier for consumers to get their hands on one of these devices. However, it's worth noting that Best Buy does not typically handle volume purchases, so Asus may need to find other ways to ensure that this device meets demand.

The price of the Asus Steam Deck Ally is still unknown, but I'm told that competitive pricing will be a key factor in its success. With Valve's 30% cut of every game sale, the revenue potential is clear, and if the device can deliver on its promises at this price point, it has the potential to revolutionize the gaming industry.

In terms of battery life, Asus has not provided any official information, but I imagine that it will be similar to the Steam Deck. The thermal system seems well-designed and efficient, which could help extend battery life. However, more testing is needed to confirm this.

The device's SSD and joysticks are easy to replace, which makes it a convenient option for those who may need to upgrade or repair their device over time. This design feature also makes the device feel very user-friendly and accessible.

One of the most significant advantages of the Asus Steam Deck Ally is its global release strategy. Unlike many other high-end gaming handhelds that require importation or crowdfunding, this device will be widely available at major retailers like Best Buy. This could make it easier for consumers to get their hands on one of these devices and could help drive sales.

In conclusion, the Asus Steam Deck Ally is an exciting development in the world of handheld gaming consoles. Its unique design, powerful performance, and competitive pricing strategy make it a compelling option for gamers who want to experience their favorite games on the go. As the device nears its release date, I'm eager to see how it performs in the market and whether it can live up to its promises.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enanyone who tries to make a device to compete against the steam deck has a very tough time because this is a handheld gaming PC and it only costs 400 and a bunch of companies have tried right they've come out with devices that have had better Hardware than the steam deck but they've never had a compelling price but recently Asus came into the studio and they said we understand that this is a very competitive segment we understand that everyone loves that 400 price point of the steam deck but we have something that's even better the Rog Ally asus's new handheld gaming PC so I've spent a little over a week with this device and it is still just an early engineering sample but I think they got a shot like I think this product does so much right it just makes for way better gaming experience than the steam deck let's start off with performance so Asus claims that this has doubled the performance of the steam deck like literally 2X and I can't divulge into frame rate and stuff like I just took a little peek around they told me I can't share it but this is a brand new trip from AMD it's hot off their press it's a custom four nanometer Apu Zen 4 rdna3 now I don't know the naming and the kind of clock rate on this thing but from what I've seen I think the claims are legit now arguably even more important than performance it well I guess it complements performance is the screen so this screen is a seven inch screen same size I guess as the screen on the steam deck but it's a way better screen so this is a higher res screen than the steam deck is 1080p instead of 800p it's significantly brighter has way better colors but the greatest thing the display on the RG Ally goes up to 120 hertz it is such a different gaming experience when you're playing stuff with fluid visuals see last year when I reviewed the steam deck like this was impressive to me at the time to be able to get 50 or 60 frames per second but to be able to get that you had to be in 800p and for a lot of games you have to be in low graphic settings but on the Rog Ally games will comfortably hit way higher frame rates while on higher graphic settings and for a lot of PC games it's a very different game experience with those higher frame rates I think this screen is awesome it's just that you need really good Hardware to be able to take advantage of it like you need a strong enough Apu to allow the screen to flex but there's one feature that legitimately blew me away about the Ally It's the fan noise so this has an incredibly quiet fan system it almost doesn't even make sense so on the steam deck not that this has like a crazy loud fan system but if you're playing a demanding game you can absolutely hear it going and when you have loud fans you have to crank up the speakers to be able to hear them over the fans right on the Ally I legitimately thought that there was something wrong with this device I had a fairly demanding game running and I couldn't hear the fans at all I had to stick my ears right up to the top of the device and I was like oh yeah they're running it's that quiet so I've measured the steam deck to be around 37 decibels on load on the Ally it's 20 decibels it's a huge drop and the thing to keep in mind is that decibels is a logarithmic measurement right it's not a linear one so if you drop by like if you lower it by 10 decibels that is a perceived reduction in volume by half it's half as loud when you go just 10 decibels this is 16 or 17 decibels lower it's a huge advantage on the Ally it's also smaller and lighter and flatter product compared to the steam deck it still has a seven inch screen but I like that it's the more standard 16x9 aspect ratio instead of the 16x10 like I think a lot of people that played Steam games uh on the steam deck like it would just be the black bars right not every game can do 16x10 so I see the complaints once in a while doesn't bother me too much but you won't have any of those issues with a 16x9 aspect ratio actually now that I think about it on the Ally you do get a slightly larger displayed image because of the aspect ratio on games now the controls feel noticeably different on the Ally than the steam deck like the buttons are nice and big I love the way they feel the sticks feel great they're responsive and accurate and the d-pad as well there's two shoulder buttons on each side but only one pair of back buttons and there's a series of UI controlling buttons closer towards the center of the screen now in terms of the layout and like the ergonomics of it I like the way that it feels in the Ally but I I don't think I've spent enough time on it to really tell if I have a reference like I've spent so much time on the steam deck that this just feels so familiar to me on the Ally the button and stick layout is kind of Xbox like but it sits very differently in your hands because it's so much flatter there's no touch pad like we've seen on the steam deck like on the left and right here they have those kind of uh capacitive almost Mouse Replacements I've always liked them I've seen the argument being made that they'll never replace a mouse like you can't play a mouse based game using just these very effectively there's Merit to that maybe but I just think they add a lot of utility to the inputs this doesn't have them and it's also missing the hump on the back like it is a flatter device on the Ally but these big humps on the back that give this kind of super ergonomic grip to the product to the steam deck and this does not have that the speakers are decent but it's early software so I'm not going to comment too much on the product there uh the software so again very early stages of their software but I like it like I like what I'm seeing so it's a kind of of custom version of their Armory crate it has a game launcher FPS counter FPS limiter performance mode controls RGB lighting controls they're definitely on the right track but this software is Clash like they have to nail this when it ships because this is running Windows 11 right this isn't running a custom OS like the steam deck is this is running Windows 11 which is great for customizability and freedom that can play all the games it doesn't matter if you're playing like Battlenet epic steam Xbox game pass like all of it is available on this device but you lose that kind of super intuitive UI that Steam OS delivers um up top you got a headphone jack a fast micro SD your volume controls fingerprint sensor as well as a connection port to asus's external GPU product the XG mobile so you can dock this and connect it up to their external GPU and you now have a super powerful console part of that Xtreme mobile connection is a USBC port and it's the only USBC port on this device you use it for charging or as a display out and they do include a 65 watt charging adapter battery size and battery life I don't know yet like they told me this was such early Hardware there's no point even testing that stuff but I imagine in terms of battery life it'd be very similar to a steam deck in terms of just like wattage consumption I did open it up and poked around and there's just so much cool stuff going on in there like I can't wait for the retail version of this to come out just so I can test it properly like the thermal system seems really well designed it sucks in air from the back like it just kind of cools your hand in the process and then it vents it out the top of the device the SSD looks very easy to replace and same with the sticks like the joysticks if you ever need to swap those out for whatever reason it seems very simple to get in there now there's one last thing I want to mention and I think it's like potentially the most important thing about this product so this it's Asus and it's a global release so unlike any other kind of high-end gaming handheld I've ever reviewed or seen this is gonna be around the world everywhere you don't need some like Kickstarter to get it or Indiegogo or like have to import it like it's just going to be available everywhere including Best Buy now here's the thing about this Best Buy availability so Best Buy they don't do volume purchases like this unless they think that this thing is going to sell now I asked Asus multiple times about the price of this product and they wouldn't give it to me and I think this product like the success of the Ally hinges so heavily on its price tag because if this thing is super expensive No One's Gonna buy it right and I think if it's priced well it's it's such a massive success like the way I see it is this like if this thing can hit I don't think it's gonna be 400 bucks it can't like you can't match the price of the steam deck I wouldn't be surprised if valve loses money on each team next still at that 400 price point because they're making they're making the revenue back on their on their sales right did you know that valve gets 30 of every game they sell I never realized that until like a couple years ago it was like 30 so much um obviously Asus can't do that but I think if this thing hits like 600 650 all the features you get for this thing I think that'd be a winner I think that'd be a huge W for it I I don't know I don't know the price but they told me they think the one thing they told me very competitive pricing is what I've been told okay uh I hope this thing is well priced because this is super cool there you have it The Ally foreignanyone who tries to make a device to compete against the steam deck has a very tough time because this is a handheld gaming PC and it only costs 400 and a bunch of companies have tried right they've come out with devices that have had better Hardware than the steam deck but they've never had a compelling price but recently Asus came into the studio and they said we understand that this is a very competitive segment we understand that everyone loves that 400 price point of the steam deck but we have something that's even better the Rog Ally asus's new handheld gaming PC so I've spent a little over a week with this device and it is still just an early engineering sample but I think they got a shot like I think this product does so much right it just makes for way better gaming experience than the steam deck let's start off with performance so Asus claims that this has doubled the performance of the steam deck like literally 2X and I can't divulge into frame rate and stuff like I just took a little peek around they told me I can't share it but this is a brand new trip from AMD it's hot off their press it's a custom four nanometer Apu Zen 4 rdna3 now I don't know the naming and the kind of clock rate on this thing but from what I've seen I think the claims are legit now arguably even more important than performance it well I guess it complements performance is the screen so this screen is a seven inch screen same size I guess as the screen on the steam deck but it's a way better screen so this is a higher res screen than the steam deck is 1080p instead of 800p it's significantly brighter has way better colors but the greatest thing the display on the RG Ally goes up to 120 hertz it is such a different gaming experience when you're playing stuff with fluid visuals see last year when I reviewed the steam deck like this was impressive to me at the time to be able to get 50 or 60 frames per second but to be able to get that you had to be in 800p and for a lot of games you have to be in low graphic settings but on the Rog Ally games will comfortably hit way higher frame rates while on higher graphic settings and for a lot of PC games it's a very different game experience with those higher frame rates I think this screen is awesome it's just that you need really good Hardware to be able to take advantage of it like you need a strong enough Apu to allow the screen to flex but there's one feature that legitimately blew me away about the Ally It's the fan noise so this has an incredibly quiet fan system it almost doesn't even make sense so on the steam deck not that this has like a crazy loud fan system but if you're playing a demanding game you can absolutely hear it going and when you have loud fans you have to crank up the speakers to be able to hear them over the fans right on the Ally I legitimately thought that there was something wrong with this device I had a fairly demanding game running and I couldn't hear the fans at all I had to stick my ears right up to the top of the device and I was like oh yeah they're running it's that quiet so I've measured the steam deck to be around 37 decibels on load on the Ally it's 20 decibels it's a huge drop and the thing to keep in mind is that decibels is a logarithmic measurement right it's not a linear one so if you drop by like if you lower it by 10 decibels that is a perceived reduction in volume by half it's half as loud when you go just 10 decibels this is 16 or 17 decibels lower it's a huge advantage on the Ally it's also smaller and lighter and flatter product compared to the steam deck it still has a seven inch screen but I like that it's the more standard 16x9 aspect ratio instead of the 16x10 like I think a lot of people that played Steam games uh on the steam deck like it would just be the black bars right not every game can do 16x10 so I see the complaints once in a while doesn't bother me too much but you won't have any of those issues with a 16x9 aspect ratio actually now that I think about it on the Ally you do get a slightly larger displayed image because of the aspect ratio on games now the controls feel noticeably different on the Ally than the steam deck like the buttons are nice and big I love the way they feel the sticks feel great they're responsive and accurate and the d-pad as well there's two shoulder buttons on each side but only one pair of back buttons and there's a series of UI controlling buttons closer towards the center of the screen now in terms of the layout and like the ergonomics of it I like the way that it feels in the Ally but I I don't think I've spent enough time on it to really tell if I have a reference like I've spent so much time on the steam deck that this just feels so familiar to me on the Ally the button and stick layout is kind of Xbox like but it sits very differently in your hands because it's so much flatter there's no touch pad like we've seen on the steam deck like on the left and right here they have those kind of uh capacitive almost Mouse Replacements I've always liked them I've seen the argument being made that they'll never replace a mouse like you can't play a mouse based game using just these very effectively there's Merit to that maybe but I just think they add a lot of utility to the inputs this doesn't have them and it's also missing the hump on the back like it is a flatter device on the Ally but these big humps on the back that give this kind of super ergonomic grip to the product to the steam deck and this does not have that the speakers are decent but it's early software so I'm not going to comment too much on the product there uh the software so again very early stages of their software but I like it like I like what I'm seeing so it's a kind of of custom version of their Armory crate it has a game launcher FPS counter FPS limiter performance mode controls RGB lighting controls they're definitely on the right track but this software is Clash like they have to nail this when it ships because this is running Windows 11 right this isn't running a custom OS like the steam deck is this is running Windows 11 which is great for customizability and freedom that can play all the games it doesn't matter if you're playing like Battlenet epic steam Xbox game pass like all of it is available on this device but you lose that kind of super intuitive UI that Steam OS delivers um up top you got a headphone jack a fast micro SD your volume controls fingerprint sensor as well as a connection port to asus's external GPU product the XG mobile so you can dock this and connect it up to their external GPU and you now have a super powerful console part of that Xtreme mobile connection is a USBC port and it's the only USBC port on this device you use it for charging or as a display out and they do include a 65 watt charging adapter battery size and battery life I don't know yet like they told me this was such early Hardware there's no point even testing that stuff but I imagine in terms of battery life it'd be very similar to a steam deck in terms of just like wattage consumption I did open it up and poked around and there's just so much cool stuff going on in there like I can't wait for the retail version of this to come out just so I can test it properly like the thermal system seems really well designed it sucks in air from the back like it just kind of cools your hand in the process and then it vents it out the top of the device the SSD looks very easy to replace and same with the sticks like the joysticks if you ever need to swap those out for whatever reason it seems very simple to get in there now there's one last thing I want to mention and I think it's like potentially the most important thing about this product so this it's Asus and it's a global release so unlike any other kind of high-end gaming handheld I've ever reviewed or seen this is gonna be around the world everywhere you don't need some like Kickstarter to get it or Indiegogo or like have to import it like it's just going to be available everywhere including Best Buy now here's the thing about this Best Buy availability so Best Buy they don't do volume purchases like this unless they think that this thing is going to sell now I asked Asus multiple times about the price of this product and they wouldn't give it to me and I think this product like the success of the Ally hinges so heavily on its price tag because if this thing is super expensive No One's Gonna buy it right and I think if it's priced well it's it's such a massive success like the way I see it is this like if this thing can hit I don't think it's gonna be 400 bucks it can't like you can't match the price of the steam deck I wouldn't be surprised if valve loses money on each team next still at that 400 price point because they're making they're making the revenue back on their on their sales right did you know that valve gets 30 of every game they sell I never realized that until like a couple years ago it was like 30 so much um obviously Asus can't do that but I think if this thing hits like 600 650 all the features you get for this thing I think that'd be a winner I think that'd be a huge W for it I I don't know I don't know the price but they told me they think the one thing they told me very competitive pricing is what I've been told okay uh I hope this thing is well priced because this is super cool there you have it The Ally foreign\n"