Asus is killing it - ROG Ally 9 Months Later. 

I love mine! Basically I got it over the SteamDeck so I could run everything, and the better screen (at the time).

I love the ROG Ally because it enables me to play PC games when I don’t have space or money for an actual PC. I also prefer handheld

I Have a r8 Unit, manufactures 2023-08 and SD card slot has worked great and reliably since day 1

Just grabbed one, it’s awesome. I waited a little bit to not be a beta tester and the whole experience is polished. I’ll keep on using it until Ally 2 is year after its release, meaning all bugs are known and fixed ;P

the quality of this video on RU-vid its absolutely gorgeous even better than bigger media outlets. How can you upload a video in this perfect quality?

I just wanted to say thanks for the video. im a Mac guy and I just picked up an ally and I was strongly debating on returning it but you bring up some good points as to why its worth owning!

Found your video with the fractal terra build a few weeks or a month ago, Was looking into handheld consoles now and came across your channel again, top tier quality videos and earned my subscribe

Couldn't imagine if they released an OLED version, thats why i loved the original PS Vita so much. If they released a OLED version, NVME M.2, a better SD card reader, a bigger battery so you can run more wattage. I'd definitely buy it even for a premium price.

I put a 2tb SSD in mine now o feel like emperor palpatine, “UNLIMITED MEMORY!!!!”

wrapped my SD card reader in kapton tape and it's been going strong emulating switch games.

A quick tip. You can configure steam to immediately start up when you boot the device up. You can configure Steam to start in Big Picture Mode.

i would love to know the games you played during this video

Quality of your videos are top notch you deserve way more subscribers

Still have my launch day r4 model, zero sd issues but I’ve also heavily modded it for maximum cooling efficiency and I attribute that to saving my reader from the inevitable death lol. I just recently compared the claw to the ally and having both in hand it made me love the ally even more. The ally got most everything right and now the price makes it the clear winner 🏆

Really hope the Ally comes with an OLED version soon this year

Great review and nice production quality/editing as well! We ended up picking up one for ~$490 open-box from Best Buy a week ago.

Love my ally it’s insane after a few upgrades and tweaks

May I know what that game is in the first screen at 0:14 ?

the production quality of your videos is always so nice, kudos! hope you get the subscribers you actually deserve!

I'm dying to get one, but since they announced a new device allegedly this year... I think im gonna wait

I bought a $400 Z1, been loading from the MicroSD, with a usual playtime of 3-6hrs(PD) and MicroSD is still good. Only issue I've had was a Windows Update (OpenGL/Vulkan Compat) which after removing it, the Ally was back to it's expected performance. Coming from a LCD Steam Deck and loving it.

Have the exact same shirt, I've never gotten so many compliments on my life on pics taken while wearing it 😂❤

I'm on my 3rd ally. Took me fussing to territory geek squad management via emails to get an exchange and an r 8 unit. Never had the sd card issue but its definitely a thing. I rarely go over 18 watts becauase of it tho. Im very happy with this one and use it more everyday. Only fear is it will brick one day and be something out of my control. So i will be keeping my xbox and shield tv (i orginally wanted to sell and have ally replace) but also enjoying my ally. A few yrs from now windows handhelds will be a regular thing with LESS issues Edit: doesn't excuse SD card reader but external SD card readers via USBC or a dock or external storage for quick swapping on SSD is a thing. Upgrading internal SSD is pretty easy although I myself am not opening my device yet.

I ended up going with the Legion Go, and it was a great choice for me. I love the bigger screen and it's a tinkerers dream

5:40 whats that game???

Nice video. Very pro sounding and looking... But what games are those?! They look dope. 😅

That was fun to watch. What's in your game library? I'd like to try some of those games out.

Is this the extreme or normal model?

2:15 wish it was so fast for me. Do you use fingerprint? I always have to relog in Windows, when I resume from suspend/sleep. I have the login disabled when I turn the Ally on, but still it asks for password or pin when I resume.

00:19 what game is that?

Love my Ally with custom 2tb installed 😊

What is the indie game where he was shooting other boats ? It look like an arcade style game?

Do Game Pass games work good with this?

Great ownership review after all the changes and updates. I will just wait for #2 since I think they'll slap an OLED in there as well as many huge upgrades.

I just picked up one and thinking about giving up my Xbox lol. I wanted the Steam deck but was too impatient for shipping so I got the ROG instead. Great device.

Holy crap, a youtuber that actually talks about the SD card issue instead of ignoring or dodging it? You have my respect my good sir.

What is the name of the game in the begging on the ally

Heads up, ASUS did officially addressed the issue, in one of the bios updates they updated their thermal guidelines to help with heat dissipations and how the fan curves work out of the box, and the newer models fixed that issue. They released an official statement like 4 or 5 months ago. Also i have an R7 and have no issues as I keep good airflow, I think abunch of these readers were bad due to some people restricting airflow using crap cases, stands etc... Not everyone but maybe like 10 Percent

I currently own the Z1 version and am happy with it regardless of the negative reviews from other YTbers which recommend getting the extreme version instead.. It performs very well on the games I've installed on it compared to my old ASUS ROG Gaming Laptop with an Nvidia 960M. I got mine cheap on Best Buy for less than $400. I paired it with a 2 fan external cooling system from ebay, modified it with better fans and keeps my Ally 4 degree cooler on the highest performance settings.

Not sure if this has already been mentioned: could you include game titles on the screen when you first show gameplay?

Love my ROG Ally so so much. Really wish the SD card slot wasn't an issue. It's the only reason why I use my steam deck more..

I was going to buy an Asus Rog Ally but then just found out that there's a Rog Ally 2 coming out... Might as well wait for that! lol

The rog ally 2 with hall joysticks and/or oled screen would be insane

Oled, bugger battery and SD card fix please. Then I will buy it at a high price.

I've had bad Asus hardware experiences in the past which keeps me from considering this device, but still very excited to see what all of these PC handhelds can do.

Great video. I'm wondering what games you were showing throughout the video. If anyone knows please let me know. Currently looking for something new to play on the handheld and these looked like a great fit

Just picked one up at Best buy on sale for 400 bucks. I really didn't think I was going to grab any of these handheld gaming PCs because I have been rather content just playing on my switch. However as someone who is very enthusiastic about portable gaming, it has been harder and harder to ignore how underpowered the switch is amongst the current gaming ecosystem. I'm still always impressed by the kind of third party games people managed to port over to it, but it's starting to get to the point where some of those games really shouldn't exist on it at all. Stuff like gortal Kombat 1 is just embarrassing rather than impressive. I've been holding out however since in theory there should be a more powerful switch around the corner here but it was hard to pass up seeing this thing in front of me for this price. I'm sure it was on sale considering there is now a refresh of this particular machine available. I've been interested in these ever since the steam deck launched but the other reason I didn't really ever jump on it was because I didn't want to restart another game library from scratch. I have not been a PC gamer since like 2004. I do not have a single game in my steam library. But what's been nice about this is considering it is so closely tied to Microsoft, it's easy to link up my Game pass account and at the very least about 13 games that I own on Xbox are already available for install on this machine. I'm tempted to buy a couple of games that I don't already own, and maybe repurchase something like Red Dead Redemption 2. But if I really want, this thing can just be my portable game pass machine. Which still allows me access to a lot of titles that I wish were available on switch. And never mind being able to play those, but being able to play them in way better quality than I would have on that machine. I'll have to see exactly what Nintendo does next, and I'll have to see if owning this thing doesn't just make my switch start to collect dust. But it's pretty cool that handheld gaming has gotten to a point where we can utilize technology like this. It's a far cry from playing absolutely trash version of major releases on something like a Game boy😊

Eh yo... What's Sheldon Cooper doing here 😂

Love the video. I’ve been wanting to pick one up but I’m wondering if I should go with this one or wait for something new to come out this year? What would you recommend?

I always check reddit before i buy things.... I checked the ROG ally and it had soooo many issues .... I bought an ayn Odin 2 instead ... Never looked back ... Honestly i do want a x86 device

How much are you using the Ally vs the Steam Deck?

I had the same problem with the MicroSD card I was mad I wanted to get what I paid for it so what I did was I took it in for RMA they swapped out the motherboard put a new one fix the control chip which maintains the MicroSD card reader and that's it never had a problem ever since now I had my Ally already for 2 months using the micro SD card reader a lot and no problems 👍😎

What game were you playing in min @05:41? 🥲

If this Rog gets just a little spec bump in all areas it will be the best handheld. I liked the Steam Deck but the Rog Ally is just better with the ability to play anything you want. Also, we need a video of all the games you play on the Rog Ally lol I want all the games you showcase.

Whats the game at 5:18 that looks like helldivers 2 but from the top? :)

what is this game @1:53

The fact that it regularly goes on sale for around 550 USD is incredible

Pick one up for 300 z1 extreme. I hate it. I have a steam deck but damn this thing stutters/lags. I even tweaking all the settings and still issues. Gonna install steam os and hopefully fixes it. If not gonna sell it. You got to do to much to make it work. I have a gaming pc. So its nothing new to me messing with settings but this is ridiculous. Steamdeck is a way smoother experience. Steam os is the way to go for handheld.

Just got mine, what games are you playing top 10 lets go, I would like to see which games in order you are all playing.

What game is at 2:51 ?

I got the same wallpaper like your desktop :D

I love mine, i use it for everything:)

BLUETOOTH- Anyone else have the WORST LUCK trying to get wireless earbuds connected?? I've tried 5 different brands & pairs & after they supposedly connect, sound still plays out the speakers!! WTF is up??

i used AMD RIS ,this feature is really good on Ally.even on 720p games looks very sharp like 1080p

The game is called midnight fight express on steam

I still have the on/off sleep issue. You said it’s fixed. Is there a resource I can check out to tweak mine so it will work better?

Definitely my Right fan got killed, it started making a lawn mower sound. Sent to Asus RMA India. Hope it makes it back in one piece. Many fan issues are present too in the subreddit

Great video bro! can you tell me what game were you playing here 5:40 ?? Thanks!

what game was that? where it was shooting a robot?

I love this device I haven’t turned my desktop on in 2 weeks lol. I left my ally on the charger and left it powered on lastnight because i fell asleep,my ally was extremely hot and the card reader is still good.

Does it still kill sd cards?

They definitely need to fix the analog sticks grinding issue, with some sort of replaceable thumb stick mechanism, also sort out the SD card issue for the second generation of this device. I had to replace one of my LED modules and thumb stick because of the grinding issue. I also had to RMA my device which took over a month to get back. Getting past those issues, the device is great. But those are very serious issues and they need to be very serious on the second generation device fixing those issues.

What's the game in the opening?

Most of the issues I have experienced in the Ally were Windows-related bugs. Damn Windows.

I'll wait the Ally 2

well yeah although I don't use SD cards, this is a crime. Asus should be ashamed of this. But out of all the other handheld windows... this is the best one for my needs. The legion go is too big, Ayneo can't stop pumping and dumping and the claw... that's a blue no. this is gonna sound crazy but there's a lot of programs that works with the ally instead of win deck, so this to me it's a must. I don't game in 4k, so this won't be a problem. I have the deck, but .... the ally will replace my overkill laptop.

I liked my steam deck oled more because its just so much more simpler than this device, true console like experience and I'm a lazy sob, but the Ally is a sick device, just has its flaws like the rest of these windows handhelds, but it's definitely more flushed out then the rest of them.

Returned mine. Battery life is what matters to me the most in handhelds so I just make do with the Switch

It’s only $400 right now at Best Buy

Can someone tell me what is the name of the game on the beginning of the video

Can someone please tell me what game he is playing at 5:45

I'm thinking about it. The Steam deck looks cool but while I have a considerable Steam library any handheld I own needs to let me use my Xbox library as well. The Ally looks like the best option rn. I would like some more details on Xbox's handheld plans.

Heard from a lot of Best Buy employees this thing gets returned non stop

I love my ally. I just wish they would make a cheaper version of the XG mobile even if there wasn't a gpu in it to have something to work as a doc but when you talk about the Ally I game on it more then my desktop

Is it worth $540?

Such an amazing video wanted to ask but as an huge pc gamer do you think the ally could run final fantasy XIV when the newest expansion asking because that’s my main game and I want to have something that I can bring on the go but still play that game that I mentioned

what game are you playing top down fighter thing

nice video. you watch hardware canucks by any chance? I get a lot of their vibes in your videos

What is the first game??

It has been written off and seen others try and get beat it. I've had mine since day one never had a SD issue and got a 3080 to go with mine. Love it docked and in handheld mode and it's replaced my pc. I don't know how well it has sold but ide recommend it over the others on the market. To me sold my gaming pc and all consoles but the switch ( son now has that) and never looked back. The battery works well for what I need as I only game for an hour or so and it lasts me what I need. I hope Microsoft enter this space and help 3rd party's push devices like this in the future and the same as the Windows team.

What game is that 15 sec into the video

I preordered mine. Barely used it at all.

i have r8 enabled custom fan curves NO MICROSD ISSUES. Just use a custom curve. I dont think theres a fixed model.

My gaming system and psychologist. I'm glad

Meanwhile the steamdeck Oled had the black screen of death if you drain your steamdeck to zero than recharge it than it will no longer turn on.

Great video. Just subscribed!

I have always custom fan curves, temps on default fan curves are horrendous

I wonder if Asus still update this device after ROG Ally 2

What is the name of the game on the cover?

Do you have to pay for windows on the rog ally?