The ROG Ally X is a powerful Windows-powered handheld PC that offers a cohesive experience with touch and controller inputs. The device has undergone significant improvements since its predecessor, the original ROG Ally. The new Ally X boasts improved ergonomics, better cooling, and a more solid battery life.

One of the standout features of the Ally X is its performance. It is capable of running demanding games and applications with ease, making it an excellent choice for PC gamers. Additionally, the device has dual USB-C ports, allowing users to easily dock the Ally X with a monitor and use it as a laptop or desktop. This feature makes it an attractive option for those who want a portable PC that can also be used in a stationary setting.

Another advantage of the Ally X is its software. The ROG team has made significant efforts to improve the device's software, including the Armoury Crate platform. This platform provides users with access to various features and tools, such as customization options for the device's settings and hardware monitoring.

The ROG Ally X also has a number of other advantages that set it apart from its predecessor. These include improved battery life, additional RAM, and faster RAM, which can provide a slight performance boost. The device is also compatible with a full-size SSD, allowing users to expand their storage options.

In terms of value, the ROG Ally X may not be the most affordable option for those looking for a Windows-powered handheld PC. However, it is clear that the ROG team has put significant effort into improving the device's performance and features. The Ally X is a solid choice for those who want a powerful and feature-rich handheld PC.

Overall, the ROG Ally X is an excellent choice for anyone looking for a high-performance Windows-powered handheld PC. With its improved ergonomics, better cooling, and more robust software, it offers a cohesive experience that is hard to beat. Whether you're a gamer or just someone who wants a portable PC that can keep up with your needs, the ROG Ally X is definitely worth considering.

The question remains as to whether an ROG Ally 2 will make another leap forward when there's a new model released. While it's likely that future upgrades will continue to improve the device's performance and features, it's also important to note that not everyone can wait for next year's upgrade. The current ROG Ally X is still available for purchase, and it offers many of the same advantages as its predecessor at a lower price point.

In conclusion, the ROG Ally X is a powerful and feature-rich Windows-powered handheld PC that offers a cohesive experience with touch and controller inputs. While it may not be the most affordable option, it is clear that the ROG team has put significant effort into improving the device's performance and features.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- This is the brand new ROG Ally...X.This is meant to be thepremium Windows handheld.And while this video is sponsored by ASUS,I gotta be honest with you,I'm going into it beinga little bit skepticalbecause while I liked the original Ally,it did have some issues,but by far my biggest problemwith all of these handheldsis the fact that Windows11 just isn't greatand you really need to lean on,the Armoury Crate in this case,but the software to kind ofhelp hide the Windowsy bitsso you can enjoy your gamesand not have to deal withWindows 11 and touch screensand all the things that don't work wellon a seven inch screen.So let's see if the Ally X isactually worth it, shall we?Now, it's important tomention that the Ally Xis not replacing the original Ally.This is an improved, more expensive optionthat comes in at $800.So certainly not cheap,but you are getting a lot ofpretty major improvements.So this has double the battery capacity.It also has a tweaked design,it has better cooling.There's a lot of thingsthey've done to improve this,including it's got more RAM.but let's see what we've got.Oh, you have to actually plugit in to enable the battery.That's good to know.And then it just tells meto turn on Armoury Crate immediately.Yes, I will be doing that.So even though thebattery is twice as big,so where they went from a 40 watt hourto an 80 watt hour battery on the Ally X,I'll say it actually doesn'tfeel that much heavier.I mean I have to do 'em side by side,but I think the difference isonly like a few dozen grams.So like I immediately can telllike the thumb sticks feel likethey're may be slightlymore offset up and down.They've also removed the XG mobile portin favor of a second USB-C, which is nice,and it does have now anadditional bit of cooling.So you've got the vents here,but you also have a vent here.That's actually nice.Okay, we've got ourselvesa 65 watt power adapter.I will say the fact thatit comes with not onebut two of the little stands where you canjust kind of prop your Ally upif you wanna like connect to a controlleror something to it, that'sa nice little feature.Lemme get this thing fired up,download some updates and let's see,is the Ally X worth itor should I stick to the Steam Deck OLED?I'm not gonna compare this tothe Switch Lite, don't worry.As someone who's been fairlysick the last few days,it has been really niceto have some quality timewith the ROG Ally X.So first and foremost,by what this is not,this is not a revolutionarychange comparedto the original Ally.Now I say that, seems like a bad thing,but it's actually not.So the biggest advantage here hands down,is the battery life.Now, when the first ROGAlly came out last year,it was really the first of the sortof proper Windows handheld PCs.You know, it brought out the Z1 Extreme,which was a huge step up oversomething like the Steam Deckand pretty much anything else that hadexisted until that point.While it did have its fairshare of teething problems,my biggest issue with itwas really the battery,only a 40 watt hour batterywith such a powerful chip inside meantthat in some cases youcould get like an hourof battery life on the original Ally,which just was not enough in my opinion.However, the Ally X now hasan 80 watt hour battery.They've literally doubledthe size of the battery,meaning that none only does this have,as far as I know,the biggest battery of anyof the PC handhelds period.And they've done that withoutreally impacting the weight.Now, yes, technically theAlly X is slightly heavierthan the original Ally,largely because they've done a lotof very smart engineeringto sort of reconfigure the interior,shave off as much, sortof, space as possible.I know when I first got my handson of this back at Computex,ASUS actually showed mesome of the prototypesand some of the things they had doneto really just shave everylittle bit of weight possible.Even though it's slightly heavier,it actually feels morecomfortable in my handslargely because I thinkthey've done a lot ofsmall sort of like ergonomic tweakswhen it comes to the grips,when it comes to the weight balance,even when it comes to the small stufflike where the way that they've positionedthe buttons and the sticks and everything.Everything has been likeever so slightly tweaked,but it's been tweaked to kind of give youthat sort of slightly more ergonomic feel.Now of course this is a sponsored video,but if I'm being honest with you,this is the most comfortablePC handheld that I've used.If I was gonna just sum upthe whole Ally X experience,it very much feels likeASUS took the feedbackthat they got from the originalAlly and applied it here.Lemme go through some of the thingsthat have not changed on the Ally X.The screen is the exact same,quite decent but nothing spectacular.It's a 1080p 120 hertz IPS display.And because you've gotthe Z1 Extreme inside,you do actually have the performanceto play games at 1080p.Even like medium, high settings sometimes.On top of that, the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extremeon the inside is also unchanged.Now technically it isactually a little bit fasterthan on the original Ally,largely because they've outfitted itwith slightly faster RAM and importantly,it now has more RAM.So the original Ally had16 gigabytes, this has 24,which means that the AllyX can actually dedicatea full eight gigabytes ofRAM to the actual graphics,which can make a differencefor some more demanding game.So it's not a huge leap.I mean you're probably lookingat 10% or less improvementon most games as far as like FPSgoing from the Ally to the Ally X,but putting these things together,it does add up to aslightly nicer experience.The cooling has also been improved.Now ASUS have a bunch of specific statson like how they changed it and stuff,and look, if we're being honest,the Ally, the original wasmaybe a little bit under cooled.Now they have enhanced itwith adding an additional venton the top of the Ally X andI will say that the fan noiseis actually very reasonable.To get the most performance,you really need to throwsomething like 25, 30 watts,which is what the turbo mode in this does,and I will say that even whenyou're running in turbo mode,the fan noise is actually very reasonableas are the actual temperatures.So when you're actuallyholding it via the gripsand using the controller,it's not really all that warmto the touch, which again,just sort of to me feels likeASUS taking another steptoward trying to take care ofsome of the smaller issueswith the original Ally.So they've removed the XG Mobile port,which is their proprietary external GPU,in favor of just dual USB-Cs,which I'm a big fan of.It means it's easier for you to charge it,plug in dongles and whatnot.And one of these USB-Cs is a full USB 4,which means that you can plug insomething like a externalGPU via Thunderboltand it should perform relatively well.You also now do have afull size M.2 2280 SSD slot,unlike a lot of the other handheldsthat have those much, much smaller SSDs,which are a little bit harder to findand importantly kinda limit your capacity.You can load up an eightterabyte SSD in here, no problem.And while I don't think you're technicallysupposed to upgrade it yourself,you can upgrade it yourself.You know,this is kind of a hard thing to reviewif I'm honest with you,because it feels like a tired old tropeof like this is the Allythey should have shippedfrom the beginning.They obviously had to getsomething out the doorand ROG being ROG,they shipped somethingas quickly as they couldand they have now spent thelast year refining the design.And I think that there'ssomething to that, you know,it's not like every year youhave to throw everything outand start over from scratch.Now if you're looking atthis as like an upgradeto your existing Ally,it's not going to be arevolutionary change.I mean, yes, having the one terabyte SSD,having the higher RAM capacity,but the bigger battery is honestlythe main selling point.At $800, the Ally X, in my opinion,is the best PC gaminghandheld you can buy.Now, I don't think thatshould be a huge surprisebecause it's also oneof the most expensive.I mean, they really havepretty much thrown everythingand the kitchen sink at it.When it comes to actually gaming on it,there are a few main areas that stand out.Even running on turbo mode,playing like full AAA games,I'm still seeing two hoursplus, which is phenomenal.So two hours is probablyon the shorter end,if I'm honest with you.If you're not running it in turbo mode,if you're not tryingto max everything out,you actually can get closerto three hours pretty easily.And of course, as always,if you're running a more demanding game,if you wanna really enablesome of the settingslike limiting your frame rate and whatnot,four hours is actually probably doable.But for me, I'm running thisthing turbo mode maxed outand two hours is pretty decent for me.It really does rival somethinglike the Steam Deck OLED,which let's not forget, is amuch less powerful handheld.Now speaking of the Steam Deck,I don't think it should bemuch of a surprise to youthat's really what I'm comparing this tobecause in my opinion, theSteam Deck OLED is terrific.There are a couple ofmajor advantages here.First and foremost is the fact that it is,of course, running the Z1 Extreme,which is significantly more powerful.The Steam Deck in my opinion,typically runs games at 720p,like low, medium settings,based on how demandingthey are, and it's fine.Like that OLED display stilllooks terrific and you know,it runs cool and quiet andyada, yada yada, right?Like OLED, great,but the ROG Ally X is in another leaguewhen it comes to performance.You're not playing at 720p low,you're playing at 1080p medium, high.You can actually get closeto saturating the 120 frames per secondon this display based on the game,and that does make a big difference.When I think about the kind of AAA gamesthat I like to play suchas Baldur's Gate 3,it's totally playable on the Steam Deck,but it's like playing ona PS4 versus a PS5, right?I mean, it is a significant differencewhen you have the extra performanceto throw at it with the Ally.It's both a pro and a conthat it of course is running Windows.I will freely admitthat I have been a pretty negative personwhen it comes to Windowson these handheldsbecause Windows is not designedfor a handheld gaming PC.It is only thanks to the work of companiessuch as Valve with theirBig Picture Mode in Steam,and of course ROG,which have done a lot ofwork with Armoury Crateto make it a pretty good experiencewhere you don't really have todive into Windows that often,but you still do and it'sstill not a good experience.When I'm trying to installa game or do somethingand then suddenly a fullscreen command prompt shows upand I have to like freakingtab through to figure outwhere my window went and stuff.It just, there's a lot ofstuff that I feel like,if Microsoft had made a littlebit more of an investmentin actually makingWindows better for these,it would make a huge difference.Because with the Steam Deck, yes,SteamOS is certainly not perfect,but I feel like I never haveto go into regular Linux modeunless I want to, right?It's a very cohesive experience.Everything works well with touch,everything works well with the controller.And I would say the Ally is up there,certainly among one of the very bestwhen it comes to Windows handhelds,but you're still dealingwith Windows-y stuff.On the flip side, you do have advantageswhen it comes to running Windows.So you have essentially norestrictions on the kind of gamesthat you can play and thebiggest issue you're gonna haveis playing games thatneed a mouse and keyboard.Because you have dual USB-C ports,it's actually really easyto sort of dock this or evendock this with a monitorand use it as a little sortof laptop slash desktop.The Sun has come outto bless the ROG Ally.Whether or not the Ally X is for youreally comes down to one question.Do you want the best PCgaming handheld on the market?Because if so, this ispretty clearly the answer.You know, you've got the performance,you've got the cooling, importantly,you've got the battery life,which is the first timeI've ever really been ableto say that about aWindows gaming handheld.But it is not going to bethe value pick, you know.For that, you're probablygonna want actually stickwith the original ROG Allyor even something like a Steam Deck OLED,which while it'ssignificantly less powerful,is still going to be significantly cheaperand give you a very solid experience,especially if you don't wantto deal with theWindows-y-ness of a handheld.That being said, the ROGteam pretty clearly laid outthe plan for the Ally Xbeing a significantly improved versionof the original, and theyabsolutely delivered on that.When I first tried theoriginal ROG Ally last year,it didn't really click with me.It was not the fully fledgedpackage right out the gate.Now, to give ROG some credit,they have made some prettysignificant enhancementswhen it comes to stuff like the software,Armoury Crate, all these kind of things.Like it's a much better handheld nowthan it was when it first came out.To ROG's credit, they haveextended the warranty,even if you already hadpurchased an ROG Ally,they extended it from one to two years,which was absolutelythe right thing to do.As far as I can tell, they havemade some pretty significantsteps forward on theiractual warranty and support,but there's something about the Ally Xthat feels like it worksa lot better for me.It's not just the battery, Imean that's a big part of it,but like the ergonomicsare just so much better,even though it looks so similar.And all these littletweaks are just tweaks,but like between the nice little like sortof finish on the grip, which just says ROGlike a bajillion times, I mean,even the way that thesticks are positioned,it feels very natural in my hand.I can't just say a single oneof these makes the difference,but it's like when you put itall together, this really is,in my opinion, the best Windows powered,handheld PC period.Will an ROG Ally 2 make another leapwhen there's a Z2 Extreme or something?Yeah, probably, but like whatever.I mean, we can't all live our liveswaiting for next year's upgrade, right?Like you gotta jump on now.And I will say that the Ally Xis a far more complete packagethan the original Ally has ever been.Now that being said,you can still actuallypurchase the original ROG Ally,so that is still on salein addition to the Ally X.It is significantly less expensive.So depending on whereyou put your preferences,a lot of like the softwareand tweaks and stuffhave come across to that.There are a lot ofadvantages to the Ally X,between the additional RAM,between the faster RAM,which can give you a littlebit more performance.The vastly improved battery,the improved ergonomics,the better cooling.I mean there's just so much there.The ability to easily run a full-size SSD,if you wanna run up to two, four,or even eight terabytes, there'sa lot going for the Ally X.As always I'll have alink in the descriptionif you wanna check it out.And again, huge thank you to the ROG teamfor not only sponsoring this video,but for giving me such anearly look at the Ally X.I was able to try it at Computex,spend some quality time with this unit.And I will say that they have made a lotof very, very legit improvements.If only...I can say thesame thing about Windows.