For the final couple of years, PC gaming has sought to flee the inflexible confines of its electric-outlet sure, RGB-coated monolithic towers with quick framerates at large resolutions for one thing somewhat extra modest and moveable.
In 2023, PC maker Asus shipped its moveable gaming PC, the ROG Ally, to compete with Valve’s widespread Steam Deck. In contrast to the Steam Deck which runs Linux, Asus went with commonplace Home windows for its working system, which in idea permits for extra video games to run natively in addition to the choice to extra simply run a wide range of PC gaming storefronts. Now, in 2024, the Ally X offers a much-needed {hardware} refresh that improves the shape issue and performance of the gadget. And this time, Asus assures us the Ally X gained’t be frying SD playing cards (extra on that later).
The Ally X, notably, isn’t a full blown “sequel” to 2023’s Ally. At $799, it doesn’t improve the processor from the primary, greater tier mannequin. The AMD Ryzen Z1 Excessive, nevertheless, is greater than able to powering a overwhelming majority of contemporary video games, from tiny indie titles that gained’t ever bother it, to extra substantial graphical powerhouses like Cyberpunk 2077. The Ally X, nevertheless, did add extra (and quicker) reminiscence, with 24GB of ram and it has a really, very beneficiant 80Wh battery that made me nearly by no means take into consideration battery life throughout my time with it. And it does have the identical 7-inch, 1080p, 16:9 LCD display that, whereas clearly not as flashy as an OLED panel, by no means fails to look splendid (that’s, when my fingerprints weren’t throughout its shiny floor).
Whereas I’ve points with Home windows as an working system for handheld gaming, the Ally X has made it exhausting for me to return to my Steam Deck. That stated, I nonetheless discover Valve’s moveable PC to be a greater gaming expertise general. However oof, it’s gettin’ shut ya’ll.
My expertise with the Ally X
I’ll spit numbers and stats at you in a second, and I’ll extra totally deal with my complaints the place they exist. However there’s no mistaking it: The Ally X offered me with a beautiful moveable gaming expertise, and it’s prone to proceed doing so. It’s a substantial enchancment to the expertise of the unique Ally and is compact sufficient to make it price placing up with Home windows.
As a New Yorker, I made a decision to actually lean into the Ally X’s moveable potential as a lot as doable. Whereas that motivation was somewhat minimize brief by the truth that the Ally X doesn’t embody a case (forcing me to make use of the interior shell of my Steam Deck OLED case by which it…principally match), its smaller measurement in comparison with the Steam Deck was welcome as I traveled on trains and buses each day.
As soon as I acquired previous some frustrations with Home windows 11, I hardly ever considered {hardware} and software program, I simply gamed. My time was largely spent with Flintlock, Elden Ring, Future 2 (which I needed to be house for resulting from a required web connection), and No Man’s Sky. All ran with nearly zero flaws at an honest 40-60 frames per second relying on how I fiddled with the graphics settings. The display has a 120HZ refresh fee too, so you’ll be able to push to even greater framerates with the correct sport.
And since I used to be enjoying video games on my Steam account, I might come house and choose up proper the place I left off on my way more highly effective house laptop. Just like the Steam Deck, the Ally X flattens the boundary between PC gaming at house and on the go, however with fantastic battery life and a kind issue that’s extra like pulling my Swap out of my bag than it’s the mini battle tanks different moveable gaming PCs are usually.
The Ally X offers a incredible PC gaming expertise on the go for a value that’s a contact steep, however truthful in case you’re up for investing in a fantastic moveable expertise.
That stated, the selection of working system right here, which technically isn’t Asus’ fault, could make for some tough setup and quite a lot of irritating quirks.
Home windows %@*&ing sucks for this sort of gaming expertise
My first hour or so with the Ally X was spent, properly, organising Home windows. I needed to signal into my Microsoft account, flip down all of the affords for a free trial of OneDrive, Microsoft 365, and different stuff that isn’t a priority to me in anyway on a gaming machine. Then, for some cause, it wouldn’t acknowledge my pin to signal into the gadget. So I needed to reset that plenty of instances.
Given that you simply shouldn’t depart a conveyable Home windows machine simply open for anybody to choose up and signal into your private account, having a pin to unlock the gadget is important. And since Home windows doesn’t acknowledge controller enter on its lock display, I had to make use of the contact display as I tried and reset my pin two or thrice.
By the top of going by means of Home windows setup and continuously coming into my pin, I used to be exhausted and left with a tool with fingerprint smudges on it as a result of I can’t use the controller buttons to sign up.
And it didn’t finish there. Home windows would continuously do its bizarre Home windows issues. Whereas enjoying Elden Ring, I’d get spontaneously taken again to the desktop with no approach to get the sport again on the display simply. Bear in mind, there’s no keyboard, so I can’t Alt + Tab to it. I’d swipe up continuously to make the Home windows taskbar seem to maintain urgent the sport’s icon to no luck. That, after all, left extra fingerprint smudges on the gadget.
Suspending the gadget to toss it again in my bag whereas transferring between trains was additionally unpredictable. I’d hit the ability button to see it go black after which all of a sudden pop to life once more on the Home windows lock display. Why? I don’t know. Positive, there are methods to tailor Home windows to play nicer with this sort of kind issue, however the working system is an unideal answer for moveable gaming. It pales compared to SteamOS on the Steam Deck and doesn’t even come near the seamless expertise of utilizing one thing like a Nintendo Swap. I’d gladly take a gaming-specific working system which may technically run fewer video games (although the Proton compatibility layer for Linux OS is making Home windows much less and fewer important nowadays) over an working system that’s simply foundationally not meant for this sort of kind issue.
There’d be different points, like troubleshooting randomly disconnecting Bluetooth with a pair of Pixel Buds Professional that by no means has points on different units. Random Home windows prompts right here and there have been one other ache level, as was any time I seemingly activated Co-Pilot for causes unbeknownst to me.
Whereas Home windows has gotten higher with recognizing a gamepad as an enter gadget, it’s nonetheless greatest observe to arrange your Ally X with a keyboard and mouse related. I liked the {hardware} of the Ally X, however corporations like Asus desperately want to begin exploring options, or Microsoft must relent and supply some sort of extra light-weight model of its OS for these sorts of gaming units.
One thing’s gotta give as a result of this isn’t a fantastic answer.
However as soon as I acquired gaming, and Home windows left me alone, rattling, the Ally X rocks.
The Ally X simply feels proper
Upon first holding the gadget, the Ally X is straight away extra comfy than its predecessor and all the pieces simply feels extra premium this time round. The shell has been tweaked a bit so it’s a contact bigger than the unique Ally, however its grips are much less angular so it simply rests in your fingers extra naturally. To be trustworthy, I nonetheless discover the Steam Deck to be extra comfy even when it’s a bigger gadget in comparison with the Ally X.
The triggers and bumpers have been reshaped and really feel higher. The identical is true of the 4 face buttons, which, although nonetheless flat and fewer colourful as I’d like them to be, really feel higher to press than the unique gadget. The thumbsticks, specifically, are wonderful, with extra resistance than the earlier ones. The d-pad additionally acquired some love and feels extra dependable and fewer slippy than the shiny one on the unique. The twin rear buttons are additionally much less distinguished than the unique Ally, which on that gadget I had discovered to be too vulnerable to unintentional presses.
I nearly by no means considered battery life
The Ally X ships with a 65W charger that will get the Ally X as much as a full cost shortly (it’s appropriate with a 100W charger in order for you even quicker cost instances). I don’t keep in mind what number of instances I charged this gadget, however it wasn’t an on a regular basis requirement. You’ll get much less battery life in case you swap the gadget to its extra highly effective efficiency setting in Asus’ utility software program, however even whereas enjoying trendy video games, battery life was past beneficiant.
The Ally X is a contact heavier than the unique Ally, however in my view, this helps it really feel somewhat extra “premium” within the bizarre method that further weight typically does.
All of those kind issue adjustments imply that in case you’re contemplating an improve from the primary Ally, you’re gonna must go looking for a brand new case and/or pores and skin because it gained’t be appropriate with present equipment for the primary Ally.
Lastly, the selection to go along with a slick matte black isn’t simply aesthetically pleasing, it helped me focus a bit extra on the sport. Whereas I like a colourful object as a lot as anybody else, the black case makes it simpler to your eyes to give attention to the display extra so than the intense white of the unique Ally’s case.
What precisely did Asus improve?
Although it sports activities the identical processor and 120HZ display of the unique Z1 Excessive Ally, the Ally X comes with twice the battery capability, a further 8 GB of RAM (which runs at a quicker velocity than the unique), extra cooling vents and improved followers to push warmth out of the gadget. It additionally ships with 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe storage. Take a look at the one-to-one breakdown of each mannequin’s specs on Asus’ weblog.
Maybe the very best addition, nevertheless, is an additional USB-C port that may each cost the gadget and hook up with peripherals or any USB4 appropriate gadget. With the Ally X, Asus has made the case that these sorts of machines want two USB ports. You gained’t want an exterior hub, for instance, to cost the gadget whereas connecting it to a display or different gadget. With two ports, the Ally X simply feels extra moveable and fewer depending on carrying round a bag full of additional stuff to sprout extra connections into the gadget.
The Ally X is a wonderful, premium-feeling moveable PC gaming expertise with incredible battery life, a really fairly, color-rich display, and elevated utility with its further USB C port.
Probably the most minor of {hardware} complaints
I like the Ally X, as you would possibly’ve observed. However there have been a couple of issues I believe might’ve been higher (other than Home windows sucking the enjoyable out of the room).
Whereas the display appears to be like nice, it’s a fingerprint magnet. Given how a lot it’s worthwhile to use the contact display to function Home windows to make use of the machine, meaning a single session of gaming will see this factor smudged up fairly shortly. I discovered that I needed to carry round a microfiber fabric to constantly wipe away the marks. The Ally X additionally repositioned its proper thumbstick to be nearer to the display. This might typically lead me to by accident contact the display with my proper thumb. Not solely would that depart extra fingerprints, it will typically set off one thing in-game as many video games acknowledge a contact display as a mouse click on.
I additionally would’ve preferred to have seen a 16:10 1920×1200 display as a substitute of the cinematic, extra desktop commonplace 16:9 1920×1080 measurement. With 16:10, you get a taller picture which pairs properly with a smaller gadget. Such a ratio is commonplace on the Steam Deck and Swap for a cause. The 16:9 letterbox form simply feels somewhat too tight for me. That stated, some older video games don’t help that decision, so the additional actual property isn’t at all times getting used. Nonetheless, it will’ve been a pleasant inclusion.
Additionally, for 800 bucks, the Ally X ought to ship with a case.
Asus’ previous Ally troubles
A formidable machine in its personal proper, the primary Ally actually impressed with a fairly LCD display, a slim kind issue, and a few satisfyingly highly effective compute energy to run video games at 1080p, typically at nice framerates. However with nice energy comes nice warmth, and that warmth turned out to be an issue for the 2023 Ally mannequin as it will be recognized to fry SD playing cards.
To make issues worse, Asus wasn’t precisely swift to come clean with this drawback. Finally, the corporate would subject a further 12 months guarantee on the Ally to make up for any future issues customers could have with the SD card reader.
That wasn’t the top of it. As Players Nexus documented in its video on the Ally’s restore providers, Asus seemingly wasn’t probably the most trustworthy and clear when it got here to servicing a faulty gadget. It was an expertise many different Ally homeowners had as properly, which might lead Asus to vow to revamp its customer support expertise to keep away from additional points.
For some, the injury could have already been performed. And, to be trustworthy, that’s one thing to take into accounts after we’re speaking about throwing down $800 on the brand new Ally X.
Talking to Kotaku, an Asus consultant acknowledged that the SD card subject has “lengthy been recognized” and that the workforce “took all precautions doable to keep away from customers encountering related points with the Ally X.” Time will inform how true that’s. Asus additionally stated that will probably be providing a typical, one-year guarantee with the Ally X, because it doesn’t anticipate the brand new gadget working into the identical subject that triggered them to increase the guarantee on the unique Ally to 2 years.
The ROG Ally X is a incredible {hardware} refresh
The Ally X is well the very best model of the Ally. It feels nice to play. Has beyond-excellent battery life and is available in a kind issue that’s good for on-the-go gaming, regardless of a irritating working system.
All of that stated, Asus goes to must earn its belief again after earlier issues. I hesitate to say it’s price an improve when you’ve got already invested within the Ally Z1 Excessive from final 12 months, however in case you’ve been desirous about moveable PC gaming and want Home windows, the Ally X is greater than as much as the job.
.
