The Mobile Gaming Machine To Beat

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home January 31, 2025 7 Views 9 Min Read
The Mobile Gaming Machine To Beat



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Whenever I thought about the future as a kid, I always imagined there would be flying cars, ice cream for breakfast, and gaming computers that fit in the palms of our hands. I may have been a naive little boy, but hey, two out of three ain’t so bad.

Asus ROG vs Steam Deck

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Tracking the evolution of the handheld PC over the last few years has been an exciting journey. The console war of the 2020s isn’t between Playstation and Xbox, it’s between Asus and Valve and it’s amazing to see how quickly the hardware has been evolving. These devices are getting more sophisticated and powerful with each new iteration, but the current front-runner (and my current obsession) is undoubtedly the Asus ROG Ally X.

The second generation ROG Ally outpaces the competition with superior hardware, performance, and ergonomics, and since I started using it I haven’t once picked up my Steam Deck OLED. Though it’s not without its flaws, and the Steam Deck still has some benefits, what the Ally X offers is worth what little you’re giving up.

Inside The ROG Ally X

rog-ally-x

At first glance, it may be hard to tell the difference between the Ally and the Ally X. The Ally X is black instead of white, it has slightly more rounded grips and smaller back buttons, and it has an extra USB-C port, but otherwise it looks like the same device. But as soon as I picked it up and started playing, the improvements were unmistakable. Inside the Ally X is 1TB of solid state storage (twice that of the Ally), 24GB of DDR5 memory (twice that of the Ally), and a whopping 80Whr battery (the same- just kidding, twice that of the Ally). The Ally X is a faster, more powerful machine that lets you play more games and for a lot longer.

If you’re looking for the best specs, this is the handheld PC to get, but keep in mind that unlike the Steam Deck, this is a Windows machine. There are pros and cons here. The big advantage is that you have a more open platform for gaming that doesn’t limit you to just Steam games. Game Pass and Steam come pre-installed on the Ally X, but if you have Epic, Ubisoft, EA, or games on any other launcher, you can play those as well. I tested games on Steam, Game Pass, Epic, Battle.Net, and – as long as the game has good controller support – it runs on the Ally X just like a PC.

Having Windows Is The Best And Worst Thing About The Ally X

The major drawback of having Windows on the Ally X is that the operating system is absolutely not built for mobile devices. Once you’re actually in a game it’s a wonderful experience, but be prepared for some frustration while trying to navigate the desktop. The touch screen can help sidestep some of the issues, but I had a lot of problems just opening apps and selecting icons. There isn’t anything I couldn’t do, but it all felt a lot harder than it needed to be.

The Ally X comes preinstalled with an all-in-one launcher called Armoury Crate that’s meant to alleviate some of the pain of using Windows without a mouse and keyboard. There’s a button on the device that launches the app, and then you can see all your games and gaming apps in one place. From there you can go right to Steam or Game Pass. It took me a while to get used to having a launcher launcher, but it definitely helped me get into my games quicker and avoid Windows frustrations.

The Best Gaming On The Go

rog ally x on the go

Despite its many upgrades the Ally X isn’t significantly heavier than the Ally (about an eighth of a pound difference), which makes a huge difference when travelling or playing for longer sessions. The massive 80Whr battery does result in significantly longer uptime, but keep in mind that it has a 120Hz refresh rate, compared to the Steam Deck OLED 90Hz refresh rate, so even though the battery is nearly twice the size of the Steam Decks, that doesn’t mean it will last twice as long. The trade-off is a faster device, and if you’re playing a lot of twitchy games, it’s well worth it.

Of course, less demanding games don’t require as much oomf from the Ally X. You’ll get more play time out of something like Balatro versus a GPU melter like Marvel’s Spider-Man. I played Pepper Grinder all the way through in the Ally X. It took me about four hours and the battery was still at 20 percent. But playing Destiny 2, I got close to two hours total with the fans going full force (though not as loudly as I expected) the entire time.

Of course, with a beast like this you’re going to want to push it to its limits. The first game I tested was Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora – an underrated game that I expect will age like Crisis, becoming a popular benchmark for graphics performance for many years to come. I’m sorry to say Avatar is unplayable on the Ally X even with the lowest graphics settings and the most aggressive upscaling. Understandably, the tech still can’t compete with high-performance desktop PCs. You shouldn’t get the Ally X to play the latest and greatest on Ultra settings, but if you want the best handheld gaming experience possible, this is it.

Not The Cheapest, But The Best

rog ally x outdoors

That power comes with a price. The Ally X retails for $799, $150 more than the 1TB Steam Deck OLED. It’s fair to say these are different devices for different audiences. If you want a user-friendly device for your Steam Library that doesn’t take much fiddling, the cheaper Steam Deck will do. But if you want access to all your games and the best performance you can get in a handheld, the Ally X is well worth the premium price.

I was too in love with my Steam Deck when the first Ally launched to even consider making the switch, but now that I’ve spent a couple of months with the Ally X, I have no reason to go back. The handheld PCs are just going to keep getting better and better, but we’ve reached a point where they aren’t just for early adopters and tech enthusiasts. The Ally X fulfills a need I have for portable PC gaming in a totally satisfying way, and until the Switch 2 launches, I don’t expect I’ll be picking up any other handheld device.

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