Goodbye, Steam Deck

The Steam Deck has undergone significant upgrades with its latest iteration, the Alx, and it's essential to consider these changes before making a decision.

For example, the Dual USBC ports on the Alx are incredibly useful if you need to charge as well as use a wired accessory. Not only will this device fast charge at up to 100 W, but one of the ports is also USB 4, allowing you to plug in fast devices like an external SSD or even an eGPU for more performance, especially if you plan on using this device at your desk plugged into a monitor.

However, there are some serious tradeoffs with the Alx that deck owners might want to consider. Asus has done an amazing job configuring Windows 11 from the factory as well as refining their Armory Crates software to make this whole thing not just palatable but actually pleasant to use, even down to tweaking performance modes and their screen overlay. However, even still, there is absolutely no work to be done here.

One thing that Windows 11 absolutely sucks at compared to Steam OS is power management. There is beefier hardware on the Alx, but imagine a similar loadout in the hands of Valve, and you get to figure that the next-generation deck could be an endurance champ with the amount of optimization that they've done. Additionally, Windows 11 is also higher maintenance to deal with on a daily basis, especially with it being a full-fledged desktop OS.

Fortunately, you can live inside of Armory Crate as well as Steam's Big Picture Mode for the most part in order to download and launch games, but inevitably, you will find yourself bouncing back to desktop mode in order to do things like Windows updates or troubleshoot issues, which can take the fun out of the handheld experience, especially when by comparison Steam OS is nearly console levels of easy to live with.

Another quality control thing that makes a lot of sense on the Steam Deck compared to something like the Alx is the deck verified system, which takes the guesswork out of figuring out what titles can actually run on the hardware based on simple standardized criteria. There are also cool things like controller presets that are uploaded by members of the community, which can be a lifeline for games that aren't designed for handhelds.

All of this makes for a quality user experience for both casual and enthusiast gamers alike, which is simply hard to get anywhere else. However, probably the biggest pill to swallow when it comes to this Alx really is the $800 price tag.

If you were already considering upgrading to the O G 2023 Ally, make no mistake that this is the best version that Asus has made yet, factoring in the upgrades such as extra battery life and RAM, as well as things that I didn't talk about like the 1 TB SSD and better cooling, which in defense of the Alx are a lot of things that people were actually going out of their way to mod on their OG Z1 Extreme Rog Ally, which already costs $650 at retail.

The bigger questions here, especially if you are coming from an OG Steam Deck and still love it a lot, are how much power do you actually need? I'd argue that the Alx for as cool as it is isn't necessarily 2 to 3 times the system that the Steam Deck is given the price delta between the two.

Another question is having Windows important to you, and most of all, are you patient can you wait because because even considering that the Steam Deck 2 might be at least a year or so out, and that a proper second-generation Rog Ally is likely on the horizon as well, I think it could be worth saving your money and just waiting a little bit more to see how things play out.

Let me know what you think about all of this in the comments below. Otherwise, thanks for watching this video on Dany Channel.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis is the valve steam deck Baron one of my favorite devices ever as the perfect companion to my dedicated gaming PC allowing me to play basically anywhere my desktop isn't especially as someone that's been loyal to the steam deck for so long I was curious about what a newer more premium handheld could offer by comparison so to find out I got my hands on this the brand new Rog allix let's talk about it before we continue on huge thanks to geology for sponsoring this video when it comes to Skin Care people especially us guys might not know the importance of building a routine or even where to begin but geology makes it simple since I'm on camera a lot my goal was to have clearer skin and to keep acne at Bay so I took a 60-second quiz on their website which matched me to a kit tailor made for my specific skincare needs and budget it shipped right to my doorstep and so far I'm very happy with the results geology Prides themselves in the efficacy of their products using dermatologist recommended ingredients that are proven to work plus their products don't just stop at your face they have a wide array of solutions for hair care as well as body care as well if you would like to work on healthier skin and support the content that we make here on Deni head over to geology.com by scanning the QR code on your screen or using the link in the description below take the quiz and use code Dany 70 to get 70% off your customized skincare trial set now admittedly I never had proper testing time with the original Ally but if we're talking about steam deck competitors this is probably the one that you hear about the most on the internet and the x is the latest mid generation refresh that being said I'm going to rip the Band-Aid off right away this guy retails for Hefty $800 here in the US without even getting into the gritty details obviously it would be insane to think that anyone would cross shop the Alli x with the steam deck especially when you can find one of these for as low as 279 bucks refurbished on a good day but again if you're like me and are coming from an OG deck on paper the allyx does offer tons of quality of life improvements that might make it a decent upgrade right off the bat one of the biggest game changers for me with the Alx is the operating system sure on the steam deck it's impressive to see just how good the proton compatibility layer is to let you play Windows games on the Linux based Steam OS but I got to admit having the real thing full windows 11 on the Lix means it has native support for basically everything in the steam Library plus it also takes a lot of the Jank out of downloading titles from other marketplaces such as Xbox or epic or if a game utilizes a special launcher or anti-che system I imagine this would run League of Legends totally fine but for me personally I'm pretty excited to have something that could actually run a few casual rounds of valerant while I'm out on say a business trip just the fact that Riot Vanguard has no issues running on this Hardware because of Windows 11 is a huge deal for me coming from the steam deck plus it's also nice being able to run normal Windows apps as well such as Spotify Netflix and because it's a gaming device Discord is also nice to have too that being said if running Windows is the only criteria a person had for buying a handheld there are plenty of options available for well under this $800 price point including the most basic version of the 2023 Rog Ally it might not be the best value in the world but it is an option something else that stood out to me with the Lix versus the tenure of my steam deck was just how sorted the hardware feels the ryzen Z1 extreme in this device outclasses the custom AMD Apu on the steam deck by a noticeable margin the extra performance Headroom is absolutely noticeable even considering the fact that the Ally has to deal with a screen with a higher native resolution and faster refresh rate sure the most demanding AAA games might not take full advantage of this display at 1080P and 120 HZ given the hardware that is in here but I was surprised Ur with just how much I was able to push on either side of performance and quality especially in a game like cyberpunk 2077 crudely set to medium at 1080p with Ray tracing on and AMD Fidelity effects the visuals look absolutely stunning while also averaging around 30 FPS in portable mode plug this bad boy into power and it'll push towards 40 FPS personally for me I'd still run the game with slightly lower settings to get even more frames and to use less power when I'm on the go but that's also one of the things with this Lix as well it now comes with an 80w hour battery up from 40 W hours in the 2023 Ally as well as the steam deck and even outclasses the 50w hour cell in the highest end steam deck OLED now speaking on loose observation alone I do think that the steam deck is better optimized for efficiency however the sheer capacity of the Alli ex's battery more or less makes up the difference I've been getting anywhere between 3 to 6 hours on a single charge but of course your mileage will vary depending on what games you are playing and also the TDP you are set at there are a few smaller Creature Comforts on the Lix that I wish that my steam deck had for example the Dual USBC ports are incredibly useful if you need to charge as well as use a wired accessory not only will this device fast charge at up to 100 W but one of the ports is also USB 4 allowing you to plug in fast devices like an external SSD or even an e GPU for more performance especially if you plan on using this guy at your desk plugged into a monitor so far I've only talked about the stuff that feel like upgrades compared to my steam deck however there there are some serious tradeoffs with the allix that deck owners might want to consider now I will say that from the ux perspective Asus have done an amazing job configuring Windows 11 from the factory as well as refining their Armory crates software to make this whole thing not just palatable but actually Pleasant to use even down to tweaking performance modes and their screen overlay but even still all things considered there is Absolut Ely work to be done here I mentioned it a bit earlier but one thing that Windows 11 absolutely sucks at compared to Steam OS is power management sure there is beefier Hardware on the allix but imagine a similar load out in the hands of valve and you got to figure that the Next Generation deck could be an endurance champ with the amount of optimization that they've done additionally Windows 11 is also higher maintenance to deal with on a daily basis especially with it being a full-fledged desktop OS now thankfully you can live inside of Armory crate as well as steam's Big Picture Mode for the most part in order to download and launch games but inevitably you will find yourself bouncing back to desktop mode in order to do things like Windows updates or troubleshoot issues which can take the fun out of the handheld experience ESP especially when by comparison Steam OS is nearly console levels of easy to live with on that note something you really lose out on moving from the steam deck over to the allix is the immense amount of support by virtue of steam being the most popular platform for PC games not only is the deck heavily backed by the industry at large but it also is by its loyal user base and of course course by Valve itself the most obvious tell is the sheer amount of games that can actually run on it considering that it's a Linux based device another quality control thing that makes a lot of sense on the steam deck compared to something like the Alx is the deck verified system which takes the guesswork out of figuring out what titles can actually run on the hardware based on simple standardized criteria there are also cool things like controller presets that are uploaded by members of the community which can be a Lifeline for games that aren't designed for handhelds all of this makes for a quality user experience for both casual and Enthusiast Gamers alike that is simply hard to get anywhere else however probably the biggest pill to swallow when it comes to this allix really is that $800 price tag I do think that if you were already considering upgrading to the o G 2023 Ally make no mistake that this is the best version that Asus have made yet factoring in the upgrades such as the extra battery life and RAM as well as things that I didn't talk about like the 1 tbte SSD and better cooling which in defense of the allix are a lot of things that people were actually going out of their way to mod on their OG Z1 extreme Rog Ally which already C cost 650 bucks at retail I guess the bigger questions here especially if you are coming from an OG steam deck and still love it a lot are how much power do you actually need I'd argue that the allyx for as cool as it is isn't necessarily 2 to 3x the system that the steam deck is given the price Delta between the two another question is having windows that important to you and most of all are you patient can you wait because because even considering that the steam deck 2 might be at least a year or so out and that a proper second generation Rog Ally is likely on the horizon as well I think it could be worth saving your money and just waiting a little bit more to see how things play out let me know what you think about all of this in the comments below otherwise thanks for watching this video on Dany Channelthis is the valve steam deck Baron one of my favorite devices ever as the perfect companion to my dedicated gaming PC allowing me to play basically anywhere my desktop isn't especially as someone that's been loyal to the steam deck for so long I was curious about what a newer more premium handheld could offer by comparison so to find out I got my hands on this the brand new Rog allix let's talk about it before we continue on huge thanks to geology for sponsoring this video when it comes to Skin Care people especially us guys might not know the importance of building a routine or even where to begin but geology makes it simple since I'm on camera a lot my goal was to have clearer skin and to keep acne at Bay so I took a 60-second quiz on their website which matched me to a kit tailor made for my specific skincare needs and budget it shipped right to my doorstep and so far I'm very happy with the results geology Prides themselves in the efficacy of their products using dermatologist recommended ingredients that are proven to work plus their products don't just stop at your face they have a wide array of solutions for hair care as well as body care as well if you would like to work on healthier skin and support the content that we make here on Deni head over to geology.com by scanning the QR code on your screen or using the link in the description below take the quiz and use code Dany 70 to get 70% off your customized skincare trial set now admittedly I never had proper testing time with the original Ally but if we're talking about steam deck competitors this is probably the one that you hear about the most on the internet and the x is the latest mid generation refresh that being said I'm going to rip the Band-Aid off right away this guy retails for Hefty $800 here in the US without even getting into the gritty details obviously it would be insane to think that anyone would cross shop the Alli x with the steam deck especially when you can find one of these for as low as 279 bucks refurbished on a good day but again if you're like me and are coming from an OG deck on paper the allyx does offer tons of quality of life improvements that might make it a decent upgrade right off the bat one of the biggest game changers for me with the Alx is the operating system sure on the steam deck it's impressive to see just how good the proton compatibility layer is to let you play Windows games on the Linux based Steam OS but I got to admit having the real thing full windows 11 on the Lix means it has native support for basically everything in the steam Library plus it also takes a lot of the Jank out of downloading titles from other marketplaces such as Xbox or epic or if a game utilizes a special launcher or anti-che system I imagine this would run League of Legends totally fine but for me personally I'm pretty excited to have something that could actually run a few casual rounds of valerant while I'm out on say a business trip just the fact that Riot Vanguard has no issues running on this Hardware because of Windows 11 is a huge deal for me coming from the steam deck plus it's also nice being able to run normal Windows apps as well such as Spotify Netflix and because it's a gaming device Discord is also nice to have too that being said if running Windows is the only criteria a person had for buying a handheld there are plenty of options available for well under this $800 price point including the most basic version of the 2023 Rog Ally it might not be the best value in the world but it is an option something else that stood out to me with the Lix versus the tenure of my steam deck was just how sorted the hardware feels the ryzen Z1 extreme in this device outclasses the custom AMD Apu on the steam deck by a noticeable margin the extra performance Headroom is absolutely noticeable even considering the fact that the Ally has to deal with a screen with a higher native resolution and faster refresh rate sure the most demanding AAA games might not take full advantage of this display at 1080P and 120 HZ given the hardware that is in here but I was surprised Ur with just how much I was able to push on either side of performance and quality especially in a game like cyberpunk 2077 crudely set to medium at 1080p with Ray tracing on and AMD Fidelity effects the visuals look absolutely stunning while also averaging around 30 FPS in portable mode plug this bad boy into power and it'll push towards 40 FPS personally for me I'd still run the game with slightly lower settings to get even more frames and to use less power when I'm on the go but that's also one of the things with this Lix as well it now comes with an 80w hour battery up from 40 W hours in the 2023 Ally as well as the steam deck and even outclasses the 50w hour cell in the highest end steam deck OLED now speaking on loose observation alone I do think that the steam deck is better optimized for efficiency however the sheer capacity of the Alli ex's battery more or less makes up the difference I've been getting anywhere between 3 to 6 hours on a single charge but of course your mileage will vary depending on what games you are playing and also the TDP you are set at there are a few smaller Creature Comforts on the Lix that I wish that my steam deck had for example the Dual USBC ports are incredibly useful if you need to charge as well as use a wired accessory not only will this device fast charge at up to 100 W but one of the ports is also USB 4 allowing you to plug in fast devices like an external SSD or even an e GPU for more performance especially if you plan on using this guy at your desk plugged into a monitor so far I've only talked about the stuff that feel like upgrades compared to my steam deck however there there are some serious tradeoffs with the allix that deck owners might want to consider now I will say that from the ux perspective Asus have done an amazing job configuring Windows 11 from the factory as well as refining their Armory crates software to make this whole thing not just palatable but actually Pleasant to use even down to tweaking performance modes and their screen overlay but even still all things considered there is Absolut Ely work to be done here I mentioned it a bit earlier but one thing that Windows 11 absolutely sucks at compared to Steam OS is power management sure there is beefier Hardware on the allix but imagine a similar load out in the hands of valve and you got to figure that the Next Generation deck could be an endurance champ with the amount of optimization that they've done additionally Windows 11 is also higher maintenance to deal with on a daily basis especially with it being a full-fledged desktop OS now thankfully you can live inside of Armory crate as well as steam's Big Picture Mode for the most part in order to download and launch games but inevitably you will find yourself bouncing back to desktop mode in order to do things like Windows updates or troubleshoot issues which can take the fun out of the handheld experience ESP especially when by comparison Steam OS is nearly console levels of easy to live with on that note something you really lose out on moving from the steam deck over to the allix is the immense amount of support by virtue of steam being the most popular platform for PC games not only is the deck heavily backed by the industry at large but it also is by its loyal user base and of course course by Valve itself the most obvious tell is the sheer amount of games that can actually run on it considering that it's a Linux based device another quality control thing that makes a lot of sense on the steam deck compared to something like the Alx is the deck verified system which takes the guesswork out of figuring out what titles can actually run on the hardware based on simple standardized criteria there are also cool things like controller presets that are uploaded by members of the community which can be a Lifeline for games that aren't designed for handhelds all of this makes for a quality user experience for both casual and Enthusiast Gamers alike that is simply hard to get anywhere else however probably the biggest pill to swallow when it comes to this allix really is that $800 price tag I do think that if you were already considering upgrading to the o G 2023 Ally make no mistake that this is the best version that Asus have made yet factoring in the upgrades such as the extra battery life and RAM as well as things that I didn't talk about like the 1 tbte SSD and better cooling which in defense of the allix are a lot of things that people were actually going out of their way to mod on their OG Z1 extreme Rog Ally which already C cost 650 bucks at retail I guess the bigger questions here especially if you are coming from an OG steam deck and still love it a lot are how much power do you actually need I'd argue that the allyx for as cool as it is isn't necessarily 2 to 3x the system that the steam deck is given the price Delta between the two another question is having windows that important to you and most of all are you patient can you wait because because even considering that the steam deck 2 might be at least a year or so out and that a proper second generation Rog Ally is likely on the horizon as well I think it could be worth saving your money and just waiting a little bit more to see how things play out let me know what you think about all of this in the comments below otherwise thanks for watching this video on Dany Channel