Drumming up hype by teasing a new product, with its formal reveal to come next month is Asus, who just announced the latest revision to their ROG Ally handheld. Titled the ROG Ally X, it'll be a refresh to the original model, sporting improvement in various ways, such as better battery life, a new black color scheme, being more "repair friendly", swappable analog sticks, and support for larger M.2 drives. The Ally X will still feature the same screen and hardware internals as the original did, with an AMD Z1/Extreme CPU powering the device and its 1080p 7-inch LCD screen.

Asus teased more details to arrive on June 2nd, where we'll get to learn more about how Asus has improved the RAM, ports, and the "significant" upgrade to the upcoming device's battery.

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[Jayro]

They should just design these with a clip on the back to slide on a PD power bank.

 

[Scarlet]

They should just design these with a clip on the back to slide on a PD power bank.

I had an old iPhone case that was basically this. Stayed plugged into the phone with a battery you can instantly swap out for another one that’s charged. Great system.

I know Arctis have something similar for their Nova Pro headset but I really would love to see a PC handheld designed around this.

 

[The Catboy]

So long as it comes with Windows and a high price tag, I am keeping with my Steam Deck

 

[dragonblood9999]

Is that larger M.2 in terms of storage space or physical size?

 

[pustal]

I have to wonder whether this will put any sort of pressure on Valve to release a Steam Deck 2. Would love to see something with upgraded specs. I kinda doubt it though, I've been waiting for ages for Valve to release their next VR headset.

I very much doubt it. This is still LCD and still Windows, so Steam Deck OLED is still arguably the better portable, especially when considering the lower price point.

Valve won't likelly release a more powerful machine for a while. They aimed for the consolized experience that went through the process of re-cataloging their games with Deck certification. New hardware would make what was supposed to be simple as complex. It'll eventually happen, but not so soon. The Deck is only 2 years old and even if we should expect a shorter lifespawn than a traditional console, it just received its mid-life update.

swappable analog stick?? holyy shieettt

Post automatically merged: May 9, 2024

sorry to say this but the fact that it’s windows is actually better for some people. not everyone is a fan of linux os. you can run epic games, older windows game, any windows program for modding seamlessly.

also you do realize the lower price point also equal to lower raw performance right? since the steam deck is much older

There will be use cases where the Ally is preferable but you're understating what the Deck can do: https://github.com/moraroy/NonSteamLaunchers-On-Steam-Deck. Not to mention you can run Windows on Deck and dual boot it. The Ally advantage ends up being raw preformance alone. That and VRR.

 

[dragonmaster]

got the rog ally burned micro sd twice now i ve just replaced nvme and left it like this tired of the sd failure and 20 days of waiting to return from rma formatted as if they replaced my nvme too...
the legion currently is my champ , the screen is comparable to oled steam deck

 

[onibaku]

Is that larger M.2 in terms of storage space or physical size?

My understanding is that it is larger by physical size. It supports the 2280, which should make it more affordable to upgrade the drive. (I didn't watch the stream, but read it on verge)

 

[tech3475]

I hope with steam deck linux gaming is becoming more popular so that we don’t need to get chained down with wine/proton and company like epic/the modding community actually provides native support for linux

Funnily enough, just yesterday I saw this video about some of the problems native ports can have:

 

[ZeroFX]

And what will be the price?

That's already out dated now

Not for the price!! And if you compare to the legion, ally and even the claw there's not much performance difference while costing less, plus it has a better system/ecosystem and better human interface options which to me matters the most.

 

[titan_tim]

I've played around with a steam deck and I own an Ayaneo Geek 2S, and both feel like they're missing something.

The arguments are going to remain the same for a couple more years. Steam has the easier to use handheld OS. Windows machines have the best compatibility and most power. They're already coming out with AMD 8k chips, and they're not that much of a bump over the 7k chips. If you want to get one for your first device, they'll do the job, but they're not worth an upgrade.

The REAL jump in generation will be when they start implementing decent GPU's into these things (Without destroying the battery life). Hopefully we'll see Nvidia do something like that.

 

[Metoroid0]

i wish these companies test and spend time developing good system with long battery and better performance instead selling beta phase hardware for us to test and than be like
oh we released new system 3 month later, its way better than old one that you ALREADY BOUGHT!!!

I mean i get it when they develop a new revision of the system after 3-4 years, but this is just to early. it would be exuivalent of game release with day one patch.
I mean distribute the game that is pre patched without need to update day one. makes no sense.

 

[mituzora]

The OS itself is largely irrelevant because you can install Windows on a Steam Deck and HoloISO on an Ally. The biggest selling point on the Ally is the eGPU support. other than that, I would have to pick the Steam Deck every time. The lower resolution is actually a big plus in my opinion, and with the OLED supporting 90Hz, it's a great compromise between flashy screens and decent performance

 

[AlexMCS]

The Deck is still the king for a while in cost/benefit ratio and pure gaming performance, but I'd rather buy a GPD or Ayaneo products for the superior overall performance and usage as an actual PC when needed.

I'll be getting an used Ayaneo 2 pretty soon.

i wish these companies test and spend time developing good system with long battery and better performance instead selling beta phase hardware for us to test and than be like
oh we released new system 3 month later, its way better than old one that you ALREADY BOUGHT!!!

I mean i get it when they develop a new revision of the system after 3-4 years, but this is just to early. it would be exuivalent of game release with day one patch.
I mean distribute the game that is pre patched without need to update day one. makes no sense.

They (Chinese companies, at least) release new revision of portable PCs twice a year.
This is no surprise and should be the norm.
If you're happy with your current device, keep it.
If you can afford a new one, go for it.

It's no different than the cell phone market, which ALSO did not need a new revision every 6-12 months.
I have just accepted that I will keep skipping many revisions.

 

[Scarlet]

The OS itself is largely irrelevant because you can install Windows on a Steam Deck and HoloISO on an Ally. The biggest selling point on the Ally is the eGPU support. other than that, I would have to pick the Steam Deck every time. The lower resolution is actually a big plus in my opinion, and with the OLED supporting 90Hz, it's a great compromise between flashy screens and decent performance

The eGPU support was what sold me on the Ally in the first place as somebody who already had an XG Mobile. I'd be shocked if the next generation of Steam Deck didn't support Oculink though. Seems like every other handheld coming out has a port nowadays, and the eGPU docks are super cheap too. It's a good standard for companies to be moving towards if nothing else.

 

[mituzora]

The eGPU support was what sold me on the Ally in the first place as somebody who already had an XG Mobile. I'd be shocked if the next generation of Steam Deck didn't support Oculink though. Seems like every other handheld coming out has a port nowadays, and the eGPU docks are super cheap too. It's a good standard for companies to be moving towards if nothing else.

Either that, or USB 4/Thunderbolt support for eGPU enclosures. I doubt they'd go thunderbolt though because of the cost of getting thunderbolt certified.

 

[Scarlet]

Either that, or USB 4/Thunderbolt support for eGPU enclosures. I doubt they'd go thunderbolt though because of the cost of getting thunderbolt certified.

The larger issue with Thunderbolt is the fact it's an Intel-specific standard, and most of these handhelds are rocking AMD (the Claw aside). USB 4 generally does allow for eGPUs, but it's not actually a requirement of the standard annoyingly. There's also the fact that TB4/USB4 eGPUs are reaaaaaaaaally awkward to work with. I swear they used to work much better. Had a Core X Chroma for several years now and trying to use it with my various Mini PCs and systems never really results in anything good, even once I'm past the hellscape of drivers.

 

[mituzora]

The larger issue with Thunderbolt is the fact it's an Intel-specific standard, and most of these handhelds are rocking AMD (the Claw aside). USB 4 generally does allow for eGPUs, but it's not actually a requirement of the standard annoyingly. There's also the fact that TB4/USB4 eGPUs are reaaaaaaaaally awkward to work with. I swear they used to work much better. Had a Core X Chroma for several years now and trying to use it with my various Mini PCs and systems never really results in anything good, even once I'm past the hellscape of drivers.

That's totally fair. I just assumed that AMD powered machines didn't typically have them because of the licensing costs, because Apple Silicon can use thunderbolt no problem. I'm well aware it's an Intel standard, but again, because Apple Silicon uses thunderbolt, I just assumed it was more of the licensing cost more than a hard Intel CPU requirement.

 

[Prior22]

swappable analog stick?? holyy shieettt

Post automatically merged: May 9, 2024

sorry to say this but the fact that it’s windows is actually better for some people. not everyone is a fan of linux os. you can run epic games, older windows game, any windows program for modding seamlessly.

also you do realize the lower price point also equal to lower raw performance right? since the steam deck is much older

What’s the big deal with swappable analog sticks? Is there that much of a difference between what asus provides and what else is out there?

Swappable face buttons would be much better. Would love to use an ally with face buttons that have a GameCube feel to them

 

[mituzora]

What’s the big deal with swappable analog sticks? Is there that much of a difference between what asus provides and what else is out there?

Swappable face buttons would be much better. Would love to use an ally with face buttons that have a GameCube feel to them

a lot of people like to swap their analog sticks with taller sticks for some reason. if the entire module switches out, I could see this being good for switching to hall-effect sticks. I like the cross-pattern face buttons, but I agree that it would be nice to swap them out with something else. also some people are really aggressive with their sticks, so swapping out the modules easier would be a nice feature.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Give me touchpads. That's the one thing stopping me from considering the Ally over the Deck. If I'm going to buy a handheld gaming PC, I want it to actually be good for playing games made for PC, otherwise I might as well stick to the Switch. Analog sticks suck for camera control, and many games have a mouse only UI, traditional gamepad controls are just not a good experience in many games.