We've reported on Microsoft's development of a custom Xbox gaming handheld a number of times, with Microsoft Gaming head, Phil Spencer, recently confirming a foray into hardware was in the works. Now, though, it seems as though Microsoft has shelved the idea for the meantime, instead putting its wei...
What do you mean? The ROG Ally has been successful. It’s a great device.
It’s powerful, but the device isn’t “great.” It suffers from poor ASUS quality control and support. Let’s also not forget the notorious overheating SD card slot because they thought it was a good idea to put it next to the exhaust. It’s a poorly thought out design especially compared to the Steam Deck. Valve’s effort is still the best on the market.
So nothing Windows related
I bought mine used with the SD card slot busted and I still think it’s great. Maybe because I didn’t pay 600 bucks for it!Definitely my favorite handheld ever.
I think the Steam Deck is pretty neat and I love the design of the device itself (I am not enthusiastic about the Ally’s L337G4mer aesthetics, and even less so with the monstrosity above), but for me not having access to Gamepass is a deal breaker so I’d never consider it. Maybe when I fully jump into PC gaming sometime soon I’ll switch my tune. But I digress. Other than the SD issue I’ve found that the ROG Ally is a very capable device and I have seen no other issues with it to be honest. The software it comes with is actually pretty good and makes it so that you don’t have to deal with Windows almost at all. The coolest thing is that you can dock it and you basically have a mid end workstation too.
My fist handheld was the Gameboy Color so it just boggles my mind how far we’ve come.
Right? Handheld PCs are incredible. They’re the best thing about modern gaming, imo. I dock my steam deck to my TV with a wireless kb/m, and it’s my main PC setup. It’s the ultimate minimalist device for PC gamers.
Honestly, and I say that as a 98% Deck player (according to last year Steam Recap), it is starting to lack horsepower.
I really hope the Deck 2 will allow for external GPUs when docked, because E33 really did put it on his knees 😅. Even at “optimized” settings (which you cannot change on the Deck), I was at 20-30 FPS unless I enabled XeSS. And even then it looked like shit 😅.
That depends a lot on what you’re playing and what your expectations are. I use my Ally to play older games and indies and I feel like it’s great for that. AAA experiences I play on my Xbox Series X.
I have a friend who’s had every handheld and he says they all suck, but he’s expecting to play stuff like COD at high settings and 60fps. That’s just not realistic.
But again I’m coming from growing up with gameboys and Nintendo DS so I don’t have the expectations that someone who grew up in the HD generation might have.
I’m a gameboy era dude, I don’t have that high expectations from a portable console.
To this day I managed to play to most AAA game I throwed at the Deck at an OK quality (low to medium) with good fps (40-45 fps).
But E33 just didn’t want to, and some area looked a lot different than on my 5 year old computer.
The manor, as an example, looks washed out and overexposed, almost white and grey, while on the computer it looked oldish, but acceptable. And I was on low settings on the computer 😅. So either it is currently bugged, or there is an hidden “very low” setting specially made for the Deck.
I don’t know where your preferences lie, but by the numbers, far more games are coming in under the Steam Deck specifications in terms of system requirements than there are games that are stretching them or exceeding them. Very few companies can afford to make a game that runs poorly on it. If we look at the top 12 highest-reviewing games on OpenCritic for 2025 so far, I think only 1 of them (Monster Hunter Wilds) doesn’t meet the spec, and at least 3 or 4 of them are 2D with a retro aesthetic. All that to say, I think the horsepower ought to be enough for most people for a very long time, barring a minimal number of games.
I totally agree.
As for E33… Well, I’ll probably be able to play to it on the future Deck 2, with better graphics. An enhanced edition without needing an update 😆
It’s a great device once you get windows off it; which is a chore. It’s unusable with Windows.
It’s most definitely not. The ROG Crate app is pretty good. And if you spend a few minutes setting up shortcuts, everything becomes a whole lot easier. But I basically never touch the windows layer on my ally anyways.