Pre-ordered the Z1 Extreme ROG ALLY. Being a busy father and husband, blasting through a campaign or playing some 2K etc in quick bursts of around an hour at a time is my gaming life nowadays. Console time commitment isn't like it was when I was a kid where I could sit there for 4hrs at a clip. This device is exactly what I'm looking for

Cyberpunk runs great on Steamdeck, you should look a bit more on that.

I’ve put over 100 hours into cyberpunk on steam deck. I have never heard anyone having issues with it.

Matt: optimize and play. Don’t wanna touch anything Austin: power user, let’s get the max performance, touch all the settings.

This coming out has actually made me lean more towards finally getting a Steam Deck.

Cyberpunk absolutely runs in steamdeck. Currently playing it on the deck, having a good time.

You can run Cyber Punk on the steam deck. I've played it myself.

Great video! You guys were honest and didn’t hold back. Thank you.

I’ve played cyberpunk almost exclusively on the Steam Deck. Yeah there is no ray tracing but the game plays well

I agree with Matt on this one. We live in a world where conveniency is king and with all the little things a lot of people will not want it. I’ve lived this and that’s why I love my steam deck cause it’s easy to use and at work on breaks I can play for a bit but if I have to spend half my break fiddling I’m not gonna use it.

Lol I played 100hrs of cyberpunk on the steam deck. It absolutely runs

This was almost the perfect Pros vs Cons video. I wish you guys had more of a check list to discuses all the topics, like how long the Steam Deck lasts playing at 8-10 Watts with low to medium settings. I played dirt 4 and other AAA titles and it lasted longer than a 5 hour flight. The Steam Deck was designed to last. As Linus Tech Tips mentioned in that 10 Watts the Steam has higher fps for games by a large amount being the "Secret Sauce" of Valve and AMD custome chip. And, Just like was mentioned being the main idea for a portable, is that it lasts longer than 1-2 hours. Ill list some more Pros of the Steam Deck in another post. Another note slightly mentioned in this video but left out of all the reviews is the for those on a budget or who dont come from wealth who can not afford a $700 mobile device, at $399 (cheaper when on sale) Is not the Steam Deck a great choice and competitor being that the hardware is the same and all you need to do is purchase a $20 or-$40 SD card to have more storage. Its such an easy system to use and allows people to experience Linux and explore all the optomized apps ....etc. Just to note Windows will probably kill the ROG Ally simply because....Its Windows! with all the legal malware, telemetry collecting data collectors running in the back ground garbage. Are we not trying to get away from windows and welcome a new competitor? The question is not when Windows will update a mobile version for mobile devices, but rather, When will Valve release Steam OS as a competitor to Windows becasue it is a more optomized no nonsence OS for the mainstream. Think of the days when Intel controlled the market by pushing out AMD while releasing super expensive chips and adding a (+) at the end even though it wasnt really that much better than the last? until AMD came back swinging while the giant was sleeping. Valve has a chance to make a nice dent in the PC industry with Steam OS.

2:29 wtf are you talking about I literally played through the CP2077 campaign on my Deck it was literally a smoother experience than my first playthrough on my PC back during patch 1.1

People keep comparing it with the $650 model of the steam deck with all models have the same specs except for memory. You could just buy the $399 model and replace the ssd or buy an sd card. And honestly you are probably gonna need an sd card anyway. So it's not a $50 dollar difference but more like a $300 dollar difference

Actually, Matt cyberpunk does run on steam deck

Here in Germany the cheapest SD (420€) is almost half the price of the Ally (800€). And it already comes with a carrying case. I'll probably buy one if they drop the price under 400 during the summer sale. The ally is nice, but on 10-15W performance is really similar and I won't use it docked. The 1080p and 120hz won't really be used a lot on the go.

The Ally is is perfect for me. I have a series x. Ps5 and switch. But I don't have a decent computer. Just a very old laptop. But I have 2 monitors, a hub, a gaming mouse and keyboard that I use for my work from home set up. So I can use this in handheld then dock it after work and weekends. I'm mainly going to use it for emulation and old games.

If I didn’t already have a Steam Deck and Switch both with huge backlogs I’d definitely be onboard with the ROG ALLY, there’s simply no room in my gaming rotation for a new handheld but I hope it’s a contender because I’ll probably jump in later down the line.

Just got mine yesterday, and i feel most,if not all, the "problems" they are bringing up have been fixed. Prices have come down too since this vid came out. I got a practically new open box z1 extreme version from best buy for $499. Brand new sealed was $599. I think alot of em had an issue with a sticky bumper button, so ppl just returned em. Which mine did have that problem but it was such an easy 10 min fix. Im absolutely loving this thing!

Im having a hard time finding that video you made @austin on what exploits to use to make it a gaming pc. Any chance you could link it?

I think it will be more interesting when Valve releases a more general installer or imager for Steam OS (at least for OEMs), and we start seeing seeing manufacturers coming out with their own versions of a Steam Deck-like device. I think I heard OneXplayer wants to make one, and are just waiting for the day Valve releases that version of Steam OS.

Got the Ally (z1 extreme version) and the performance I get out of this is astonishing. Everything looks and plays so good at 900p (even Crapfield). I always play docked cause I want the max performance and I haven’t felt anything less that this being an equivalent to a good gaming laptop (cause everything looks great and crisp on this screen even on low-medium settings). VRR also plays a major role in the feeling of variable framerate!!!

You can 100% run Cyberpunk on the Steam deck... easily.

Something you didn't mention at all - the steam deck isn't available in many countries. The ROG ally is available pretty much everywhere, and can be bought at bricks and mortar retail stores. Add the fact that this can actually use your non steam launcher (gamepass/xbox, origin/ea, uplay/ubisoft connect, battlenet, unreal launcher, gog, etc), and can also be used as a regular windows computer.

I completely agree with Matt, the hardware looks great, the problem with it is Windows. I have my doubts that any amount of tweaking will solve the Windows problem. It needs a new version of Windows specifically designed from the ground up and optimized for handheld. Without that, the ROG Ally is just wasted potential.

You can absolutely run Cyber Punk on Steam Deck……

"Well running is a generous term for the switch" LMAO Subbed!

One question what about the touch pad did they added in or patent it or the value touch pad?

As a heavy Steam Deck user I really appreciate the Rog Ally it looks cool and it's great to see handhelds constantly getting better and more importantly cheaper which is great for us

I have cyberpunk on steam deck on steam os. Plays freaking awesome and looks awesome

Dude on the left sold me on Steam Deck, but damn, this ROG Ally does look REALLY nice. With the bangin' processor, I could also use it for SDR type stuff listening for aliens. There is no question that software will always improve, and major companies will start to optimize for stuff like it.

Honestly as someone who owns a Deck already…. The hardware on the Ally of course is great. You would hope that a system that came out 1-2 years after the Deck is more powerful and it is. That being said, I don’t think it’s enough of a jump to justify running out and buying one of these if you already have a deck. Yeah it’s a boost in performance but it’s not an enormous generational jump. The deck still plays the majority of games you would want to play on these devices just fine. If you need AC on deck that badly you can always dual boot, it might not be glamorous but it does work. My personal plan is to wait for the next generation of the deck. I think the real great value will be picking up cheap steam decks off of eBay that people are dumping to get this thing. Imagine picking up a steam deck for like $200 slightly used. That’s where the value is gonna be.

The ROG Ally meets my needs. I run an asus gaming laptop with a battery life of 1hr50mins and im plugged in a portable battery that drains 120-150watts an hour. Using the 35watt or 65 watt charger will give me more than twice the gaming time on my portable battery is what i need.

Re Rockstar launcher crashing: does that almost daily on my Steam deck. As far as standby on Steam Deck, I literally leave mine sleeping in my bag for a week to 10 days at a time sometimes and it’ll still have 35% battery. Standby on Steam Deck is epic at sleeping, it’s like the housecat of handhelds. Sleeps great, awake at a moments notice ready to roll.

Since I treat the SD as a console, I might wanna wait till there is an SD 2 or SD pro

I switched to GE proton on my Steam deck and it has made a WORLD of difference with game compatibility and playability

I’m gonna wait. I preordered it twice and cancelled. I have a Steam Deck and it’s nice. If they figure out the software, it would make sense to upgrade, but not before.

Considering you can still pre-order one and get it day one I don’t think they are selling as fast as ASUS thought they would be.

Can someone tell me the music that plays during the outro? Thank you.

Going to be traveling for work next year, this will be perfect! Save up later for a top end gaming laptop. But this works for now

I completely agree with Austin on this. This isn't a console. It's a PC. Its just like any PC. You will mess with the settings when you are setting up the game to either get the best graphics or the best performance. The best part is that you have those options and you have the power to give you what you want. This is very similar to a laptop. Except laptops die a lot faster than any of these handhelds. There are many advantages to using windows. The only thing that windows is really missing is a handheld mode. Like I mentioned before, a lot of people using these windows handhelds have not used them as their every day device. A lot of the issues they speak of already has fixes

so. I recently got the Deck. I would still get it. I use the trackpads in every game I have except Forza horizon 5. so therefore that's the only game I consider would be better for me on Ally. I just hate using joystick instead of mouse/trackpad for fps games. although I do mostly just use it plugged in. I bought a 10 foot cable and it beats wearing the battery down for when you may actually need it. I prefer to just have it charged and charging if I can. so that is a benefit of Ally. the extra performance with that. maybe steam will let you overclock or something with the deck plugged in.

I agree with Austin here, I thought about the idea of handhelds for myself and most of the time I found myself playing games MOSTLY INSIDE my home, I never had a time when I left home and wanted to keep playing video games lol might as well just stay home. I have a charger or an outlet in most places in my home so the battery issue is not annoying me in the slightest. In the rare cases of taking many flights I would still say it’s pretty useless which one you choose, most planes and airports and cafes and libraries even have an outlet for you to charge your stuff, so I just don’t see the appeal of bigger batteries unless you were always on the move, but then I wouldn’t even play games at that point… I still think the ROG Ally could do a better job with the ease of use, but even after the price reveal I still consider this device a gift for handheld lovers who want to tinker to get most out of the performance of the hardware but also those who don’t mind spending a lot of money. The egpu prices for the Ally is a dead giveaway this isn’t meant for those who want to save as much money as possible.

the cutt-offs are crazzyy lol like yall gotta match talk time left had so much he wanted to say lol

probably gonna get one since Valve won't sell me a deck, and probably going to end up throwing ChimeraOS on it once the drivers are sorted. Watched ETA Prime's video on it and it seemed to be running fairly well already, and I imagine it'll get better once devs get their hands on the devices. I absolutely do not want to mess around with windows on a handheld, I'd just get horrible windows CE flashbacks or something

I have windows on my steam deck, it was super easy to install. And I love windows, having all the games and gamepass, that's where the steam deck really shines, so the rog ally will be awesome to anyone getting it.

I want to buy an handheld gaming device and right now im tempted on getting a steam deck to game on the 10 watt mode to maximize battery

To get the convenience, you can boot right into the big picture mode? It'll behave almost like the stream deck then?

People will go and get it but then realise it’s to early and then sell it because is windows. I’m never getting rid of my steam deck. I love it. Plane, car, Motorhome the steam deck is awesome

Love your chat here. Just wanna say, Matt, it's not defeating the purpose of handheld device. Let's say if suddenly Switch gives you an option to tune the TDP, but you can still game as usual if you don't touch that, do you say it defeats the purpose of handheld? Both the Steam Deck and this Rog Ally can run games without tuning anything. But it's just that the vendors now give you open options to tune it the way you like, does not defect the purpose of handheld.

It is ASUS though, so how is the warranty and how big is the fireball when they explode?

My favorite thing about watching these this is videos is trying to figure out which is Matt and Austin, which one is mom and which one is dad 😄

I believe the pioneer in this space was GPD with their Win series

I can’t wait to get a Steam Deck.

The Steam Decks track pads makes me never want to switch. It's so useful. The Rog Ally not having them really is a shame.

This is really a tv show. Feels like I'm watching those ads that tried selling you on this product, on Satellite

14:00 That's such a great feature of the Steam Deck and the Nintendo Switch. Every console, handheld, gaming device needs this going forward.

the things i love about my steam deck are cokmpletely lost on this ally like quick resume and support im prolly going to cancel my preorder

Battery for gaming is over now, more than a decade. We must forgot that we played for around 6 or 7 hours with Nintendo DS. I will certainly use my Ally as a remote stream for my PS5.

I think Matt has great points about being simple and efficient to use. I don't see why one would try and use it hooked up to a monitor or something. When you pick up a device like this you just want to go and not fiddle with it. I want something to just work. The specs are deceptive for that reason because the grab and go experience is really really important for something like this. You have 10 mins, you pull it out and do something. You don't want to fight with it.

The problem with ally is the lack of track pads. Not just to use as a mouse but they have a range of options. As in mapping buttons to them. I use them as hotkeys for some shooters.

The Ally actually performs *worse* than the Deck at the lowest power profile. Being better than the Deck in docked mode is nice, I guess, but it would still very much perform like an entry-level PC, which is unsatisfying on a big screen or a 4K TV. I just think the Ally doesn't know what it wants to be. Consider that even Nintendo made the Switch Lite specifically without docking ability.

I use a GPD Win 4 in POP!_OS as well as in Win 11, and at a fairly similar price point to the ROG... having a hardware keyboard, three USB ports, and having up to 32GB RAM... it seems to blow it out of the water. I'm curious to see processor performance differences.

Can't wait to buy one of these barely used in a year

What's funny is most KZfaqrs say "ohh it's only $50 more than the deck" but no, it's not If you buy a $400 steam deck and upgrade it, the total cost to get it to be "maxed out" (basically same spec as the $650 one) it'll be like $550-600 at most for good quality products(aftermarket SSD and screen protector and microSD and other stuff)

I personally like the fact that it runs Windows and have already planned on getting a compact mouse and keyboard I can use with it when needed.

What kind of steam deck you using, one from Wish? I’ve been playing Cyberpunk on the deck without issues. The game even has Steamdeck specific settings.

Have a quick question its hard for me to install battlenet,xbox game pass,remote play,on Steam Deck,is it going to be the same on the Rog Ally or is it easier ?? Please help thanks. BECAUSE IF ITS EASIER THEN GOING TO SELL MY STEAM DECK AND BUY A ROG ALLY.

its only good for some console type games... its useless to me without trackpads. I use the trackpads on my Deck for everything, they are awesome... can't live without them.

3:32 If you don't want to fiddle with settings this devices aren't for you. Literally if you play everything at 20w or more then you only have 1 hour or less of gameplay. You need to cap fps, lower the best tdp for each game, lower video settings and resolution. At least Steam deck saves those settings per game. The Ally needs those updates.

5:15 I didn't have any problems setting it up unless someone doesn't have a XBOX/Microsoft account but other wise, no issues on my part and the online keyboard didn't have any problems at all

Living in a Camper where battery is limited. I got the Rog Ally because I can adjust power. I got the xg 3080 to plugin for more demanding games and at most 320 watts is like 3 amps. I got 400 amp hours of lithium batteries. So for my use case can play some games in ray tracing while on the road! try doing that with a 500 watt desktop. Being able to adjust the power is the best thing for us on the go. As long as you plug it in of course. Nostalgic rom gaming at 10 watts is pretty bad ass if you ask me and it can do that and low screen brightness do just as good as Steam Deck.

I think the Steam Deck is like the Game Boy from the old days. It's not the most powerful, it doesn't have the best display, but it's got the most value and that's what matters. I think the Ally will not be successful, or at least it will not outsell the Steam Deck.

1. For me ROG Ally cost almost 2x price of Steam Deck (i paid like ~400$) 2. I got Win 11 Pro on my Steam Deck with few plugins/addons and all work "almost" perfect(I mean it's great but whole devices have some issues). 3. Spare parts - I can find almost all parts for my Deck on iFixit, ASUS didn't said single word about it and im like 99% sure they will be not available in my country. 4. COLOUR - White? No jokes.

Lessss Go your guys are Great 👑

Getting it!! I get that there's a huge price difference between this and the entry level Steam deck but I'm happy to shell it out for windows 11. I'm travelling and to have access to office applications with a blue-tooth foldup keyboard with touch pad? This thing doubles as a laptop, I can play my Steam, Epic games, EA GOG, and Xbox library, has more or less comparable life and performance to more expensive laptops (at least in South Africa). Plus I can upgrade it to a full gaming PC system with external graphics cards when I'm home. I loved the Idea of the Steam Deck an God bless Gabe for making it. But This product is just right for me. Can't wait to drop a deuce and play Diablo IV at the same time!!

We're at the turning point where new games are so shit it's not even worth buying a new PC or new console for them. So these handhelds are able to perfectly run the best games already. I honestly hope these things get more popular and easier to use because it feels like it just makes more sense to have these things as your all-in-one device.

I have the Steam Deck and I absolutely love it. I upgraded my internal ssd to 2tbs and it was shockingly easy. Migrating everything over was way easier than anything Windows has ever come up with. I'm now looking into the DeckHD screen. I am curious as to which device will be a better purchase in the long term. Being able to upgrade is a huge bonus in my eyes.

Question. Can’t you just install a windows based Steam OS onto the Rog Ally? So you get the Ally speed but the nice handheld UI of the Steam Deck. Is that OS not a thing yet?

Steam deck still is more efficient at 10 watts and below. Also keep in mind, gaming on the Ally at 1080P and 120 hertz, you can expect about 45 minutes of Run time! The best case perfect scenario for batter life on Ally is about 4 hours, and steam deck is about 7. If you are wanting a decently long game sesh, you will need to drop settings down nearly identical to steam deck settings, and even then get considerably less battery time than SD since it's chip is less efficient. If you can only game 45 minutes, is it even considered a portable device? I can also game everything at ultra on my laptop with 144 hertz panel, but only for 45 minutes, and I DO NOT consider my laptop portable. Battery life is part of the equation that defines a devices portability!

I'm extremely happy with my Deck. If something comes along that absolutely unquestionably eclipses it and makes it obsolete then I will be first in line, but I don't think this is an enormous step forwards. If I didn't have either device then I would definitely have been tempted towards it, but as it is I'm not giving up my Deck.

I’ve also played a lot of games through the epic game store. You have to do a work around using heroic game launcher as a non steam but I have also had no issues with that either

I’m stuck I just want to run GameCube games perfectly and some games for ps1 and whatever else can be handled but which is better ?

Looks cool!

Cyberpunk even has a specific Steam Deck setting in the game? Tons of people play it on the deck completely fine. Please look things up before making a video saying it straight up doesn't work on the deck. It's even verified now.

I wonder how long, if possible, till some modder/hacker gets steam os running on this.

I agree with Matt and the settings issue.

You know what i like both arguments. And i have the steam deck and i pre-ordered the ROG ally day one and you know what ive found. That when i can game on a handheld my appetite for gaming has necer been stronger. I play on my ps5, xbox series x, switch, steam deck, and soon ROG ally. I have some games on each one. I think these devices have been good for me as a gamer

PlayStation needs to make a new handheld with an oled screen that can play any PlayStation 5 games at 720p

Yep, Windows has always been the problem for these type of devices. At first, I didn't agree with Valve's decision to go the Linux route and bake in their own software but after that released and after all the tweaks and optimization, I totally understand why they had to do it. You can't get what they've achieved simply by tweaking Windows. Asus wasn't the first to try this, and they won't be the last.

Next iteration of these handhelds is gonna be great i believe. Especially the Ally

The software improvement of the Ally will depends on the ROG and the community, which is both a question mark right now. How good and committed are ASUS on software side of thing and does the community exists, and does ASUS support the community. Also, with Steam Deck, you can have the power profile settings per game now. Is it already like that at the moment? If not, then you will have to fiddle with it everytime you change game.

Can't wait to load SteamOS on the Ally.

The biggest power play Valve could do, is to release SteamOS to the public before this release and support for the new chip. I'm going to buy this and intend on running steamOS(HoloISO) instead of windows besides a handful of games that can't run on SteamOS.

So like, what happens if you plug into a battery bank performance wise? Does it think it's 'powered' enough to get the 35w performance?

Matt gonna catch hell for that Cyberpunk 2077 take. Lol

I agree with "The hype is here, it will sell out for now but then it will die down". I like that steam deck is not getting a yearly refresh. More games will be optimized for steam deck compared to other handhelds.

From what most other reviewers have mentioned, while the Ally can overpower the Deck at max TDP, the Deck outperforms the Ally at low (sub-10W) TDP. So if you actually intend to use these as a mobile device, you’d be better off with a Deck. EDIT: According to Dave2D (5/29), even with the newest drivers that substantially improve 15+W performance this still holds true for sub-10W. Obviously Elden Ring or Cyberpunk at 3-5 W is a pretty bad idea, but plenty of games-for example, turn-based, indies, and puzzle-are going to do just fine and won’t benefit all that much from the higher end.

picked up one last week and diablo 4 runs a dream in medium/high but i play low for battery health and wow it still looks lush on that screen. solid 60fps

Can't get the SteamDeck in Norway... so already pre ordered the Rog Ally (Z1 Extreme).