It just depends on what you're looking for .... If all you care about is specs and you're willing to spend the money for it, by all means buy an Ally. But there is so much more to these handhelds than just specs. Ergonomics, reliability/support from the company (Asus is notoriously terrible), operating system / ecosystems, community support, price point, and much more. For its price the steam deck offers a very compelling package imo. When deciding between the steam deck OLED, ROG Ally X, and Lenovo Legion Go, I picked the steam deck because of all the things external to just specs. I could have easily afforded the other two devices, but I just felt like to steam deck was the best overall package.
@TomsGuideUS Its really a tie it's down to what you like and which your comfortable with... For me it's whichever you get a deal on... As of this post Asus just dropped a 2tb version of the X rog and hits December so the 1tb X rog will come down a little... Steam has deals sometimes so whichever you can't really go wrong... It's a hard choice for sure myself👊👊
I gotta go with the Ally X for this one after playing on both. I play with Steam, Xbox Game Pass and other stores and launchers so I like being able to have them all at my fingertips without any extra work with the Ally!
@@TheMessenger34no you cannot download game pass games to steam deck at all. You have to stream it. MS tells you to get edge and use x cloud. Problem is you need game pass ultimate. You can’t just use game pass PC and play your games.
@@alecfagan9753 worse than windows. Something to do with the TDP sticking if that makes sense. You can set it to manual or silent but it still using 17W. Sometimes you have to exit the games and relaunch for the new settings to apply. I saw lest battery life while I was using Bazzite, plus I encountered other bugs that were deal breakers for me. So I went back to windows and it’s been working pretty good. I’ll wait a few months and then try Bazzite again after they have pushed more fixes.
I disagree I have great battery life on both bazzite and windows dual booting. I 70% run off bazzite on with the added fan curve and tdp controls I've seen more improvements. I use the micro sd to run my ps3 and ps3 games and it runs greta for ps3 emulation better than the og ally and far better than when I ran them on the steam deck. I do prefer the joystick on the steam deck and I do miss the track pad but I got used to the ally.
@@slapndbass💯 i do miss the trackpads and back buttonsfor sure. Yes no OLED, but feel like we can play with the colors to get close to it. VRR and higher performance feels nice with the Rog Ally X. *Edit: Yes especially for PS3 emulation. I struggled to run PS3 games like GOW, College Football, and other games”
I got to say, you guys missed some major factors on why each handheld is preferable over the other. Steam Deck benefits from it's custom fully mappable through steam controller with plenty of back paddles, capacitive analog sticks, and trackpads that offers a much wider control scheme when compared to the Ally X. On the other side of the fence, The Ally X hos a monstrous battery that's going to keep you away from a power socket for longer, and I can't beleive you failed to highlight the biggest reason the Ally's screen goes shot for shot with the Steam Decks OLED screen, Variable Refresh Rate. The Ally has the horses to power that 1080p screen, but when it struggles a little, it's a lot less noticeable when the VRR screen compensates for frame drops keeping your gameplay smooth. Both devices have great things going for them, and both of them have pain points. It's a lot easier to get non steam games up and running on the Ally, and since it runs windows no issues running anticheat games. The trade off being It can be a pain to get windows and everything setup if your not docking it and using a keyboard/mouse. On the other side of the fence, If your not already in know, it can be a nightmare getting non-steam games setup and running on the deck, and your missing out on a lot of games just because developers don't want to click a checkbox in EAC. And as far as a desktop replacement goes, Both of them can do this. Linux has everything you need to get a day of work done, weather it be Libre Office to work on documents and spreadsheets and presentations, GIMP has you covered for photoshop, Davinci Resolve has you covered for video editing. The Ally is going to handle some of these workloads better than the deck sure, thanks to it's more performant hardware, but dock the deck and you can get things done just the same. I love my Steam Decks, both my OG 512 LCD model, and my Limited Edition OLED model. But I also love My Ally and Ally X, both sides of the coin have their benefits. I say, if you have the money, and want the performance, go Ally X, if you want to save a few bucks, or want the more expansive control layout, go Deck. Or, if you want to save a buck, but want to play games that can't be played on the deck, the OG Ally can be caught on sale quite often. Or, the Legion GO could be your new handheld, it's on sale for $100 off for the 512GB model right now.
@@badomen8262 I don't personally like frame gen, the added input lag throws me off. Maybe AFMF2 will be enough of an improvement that It won't bother me, so I'll try it agian then.
@@RedMageGaming I can understand that. It depends on what I'm playing if the input lag is too much. Honestly it's a nice feature to have and it's nice to know it's being improved on for the future; something the SD won't be able to benefit from
Steam deck is number 1 because you can send it off for repairs or fix it yourself if anything happens to your gaming handheld . With the Ally good luck 🍀 lol
I have lcd steam deck and OG Ally. Now I have had my Ally x for a few weeks and I love this device. I’m selling both my SD and OG Ally now. Ally X is the best world from those two handhelds imo. Waiting for the SD2 and Ally 2. Gonna be amazing.
I bought the steam deck oled because I couldn’t wait for the ally to be announced but once it was I had to sell the steam deck and get the Ally you just can’t beat that performance and freedom.
I did the exact same thing 😂 I loved the Deck, but I couldn’t resist the temptation of having that new handheld experience. So far I’m not regretting buying the Ally X.
I have the OG SD and just got the AllyX... I love that I can play RDR2 on high settings and get the same FPS as the deck on my Ally but it looks way prettier. The screen is good enough on the Ally and the battery is night and day from the SD.
I think you comparing the wrong device since the original steam deck is budget handheld and rog ally x is highest level of handheld mean it's not cheap. Even rog ally x compare to steam deck oled with bigger battery and efficiency twice of OG SD can't win against rog ally x. So Rog ally x is twice of steam deck oled battery and sd oled battery twice of original steam deck
i think its simple, depending on circumstances you already have a high end gaming pc and want a handheld for some playing in bed or in the living room, without much headache and setting things up: 100% steam deck oled if you want an "alternative" to your pc or are actually planning to play high demanding games on your handheld or like to experiment with configurations/settings/etc. and if you actually plan to use the handheld outside of your house? 100% rog ally x and of course you could technically still set up your rog ally x to work exactly like a steam deck if you really want to but then it depends purely on, if you like to spend your time with stuff like this or not either way, both are great choices right now and if you know what you want to use it for, you truly cant make a bad choice between the 2 honestly but i also think, that for the next generation the rog will be superior to the steam deck unless valve is stacking up a lot of improvements (which they might)
Ally X all the way. Was contemplating the Steamdeck for months but happy I went with the Ally. The compatibility with all steam games is amazing, not perfect but constantly improving with updates Asus has been releasing.
well I think that of course the comparissons are obvious we are comparing two different kind of devices. Yes both are handhelds, but SteamDeck target audience is people that want things that just work out of the bat , style Switch. while Ally is a PC in a handheld factor, the audience is for the PC enthusiasts who know how (and like ) to thinker with the settings and make it more their own. I think both are great but they are different
I have the Original Ally and I’m sticking with it until the Ally 2. Reason being, yes I hate windows but everything I can do on the Steam deck I can do on the Ally including playing all of my Steam games. I love the 1080p VRR screen and I don’t mind playing plugged in to get the best performance so battery life is never an issue for me. I think the Steam Deck is GREAT! I used to have one, but I moved to the Ally and haven’t looked back.
it’s up to the gamers preferences really, if you prefer more indies and don’t care about restrictions on some AAA. steam deck is the way to go, if you just want a handheld to run 90% PC games and all indies, xbox pass etc. or you simply want the best of both win os and steam os?! then ally x.
We can talk how much we want but SteamDeck only has the OLED, big selling point, amazing view, but it's the only thing that it has over the Ally X. Before was the OS as well, Windows in these consoles sucks, but now you can install SteamOS no problem on the Ally and here you can play every single game around, not limited to the Linux ones... on top of that you have a "mini" laptop, connect a m&k and you can do basically everything
I had the original Ally and I really liked it but the battery ultimately got me to sell it. All the power in the world means nothing if my battery dies in an hour or less. The Ally X seems to address it, but I recently got a good deal on a steam deck and I am absolutely loving it. Plus through local streaming I can play games using my PC if the steam deck is incompatible or lacking the power to play it.
I'm loving the rog ally x but windows 11 is a mess on a handheld. I'll more than likely be getting whatever steam puts out next. They are both great machines though, can't go wrong with either. I'm a huge OLED fan but the screen on the ally x is solid.
Windows 11 is not a mess on handheld imo. The touch screen is good enough and the fact is that I rarely need to fiddle with the OS at all for the most part. I just turn on the device and steam, play game. Really don’t feel any need to stress windows 11 as some sort of crapy OS for gaming compare to Steam OS on my steam deck. I play them both interchangeably most of the time. And I really don’t know why some hate windows so much? But each to their own I guess.
@@gangwu4541 It's clunky man. I'm fine with windows on my main rig but it's clunky on the ally x. I'm not knocking the device I love it. I have used windows since the 90s and it still has issues. You can't tell me it runs absolutely perfect Everytime you use it. I had the original ally also and you have to use windows at times even if you use big picture mode. If you're someone that doesn't have experience with windows I think you're absolutely gonna hate this device just my opinion. Microsoft needs to make a dumbed down version for these devices because there are alot of people that aren't going to want to learn how to use windows on a tiny awkward device. I would be willing to bet that is why alot of the original allys were returned on initial drop. Tons of people were returning them before the SD card issue even started popping up.
If you are a fan of oled, get steam deck oled. You won't regret it. If not, get the X because you can install Bazzite OS, and get all the benefits that steam deck provides plus more. I personally would go for the Oled as it is very pleasing to my eyes and a priority over performance.
Honestly Ally x has been amazing don’t care for the OLED SD it was awesome at first but Ally x fixed all the hardware problems I had and I’ve even tried bazzite on it and switched back to windows honestly don’t get why people complain once you got it set it it’ll always be a good timr
It's seriously not seamless. I had to do many workarounds to get games to work. I spent many of times messing around with different proton layers to run games.
yup this part i agree... both are handheld PCs so both are bound to have problem thanks to PC ecosystem being crap... best in case, dealing with external launchers like Ubisoft Connect and Battlenet.
If you only have $400 buy an LCD steamdeck, you’ll be happy. It is, what it is. If you have $800 buy the Rog Ally X, You’ll be happy. It is, what it is.
Ally X has bigger battery, yet Steam Deck is more efficent and runs linux at lower resolution making battery life much closer in comparison. Ally X has more performance, but also higher resolution that eats up the head room since ideally you want to play at native. Ally X might give you +5 more frames, but you will notice frame consistency much more than 5 extra frames, which is better on steamOS. So all pros/cons actually are touch pads, screen, steamOS and price vs game compatibility and alternate use as windows pc and Asus' support
I have a PC, prolly will get myself the deck, get my girlfriend the ROG. I think the ROG wins if you need to enter the PC realm, but the deck is like a switch for my desktop. I think the steam deck will also have more community interest with programming jailbreaking etc
The problem with the Ally X being a desktop replacement is the fact that you would need it to be docked. No one is using a desktop version of anything on a 7in screen with no touchpads. So you would have to add the costs of a dock, and a keyboard/mouse to an already expensive $800 device (made by a company with a subpar track record).
i may have missed, but as an OG deck owner, the ally x would have been my choice in todays date. you did mention battery and the ports, also i would have liked a full size m.2 vs the smaller 2230 , for me im a hoarder, but thers people who dont always have the benefit of fast wifi, so haveing the internal 4tb option on the ally X is nice and with tech improving all the time, ii have a 2tb micro sd, and seen rumores for a 4tb in about another year. so storage is a big one for ALOT of people given soem games are bigg big even witout their dlcs. the deck still goes strong in my opening as handeheld. but even to the day for example with a new game called "Akimbot" (ratchet and clank clone) that isnt so graphics intense, i can run it fine on handheld, but stutters or looks horible on a 55 inch tv. so the Deck id say is getting dated, even with the OLED being SLIGHTly stronger, the go to now, depending on your gaming preferences would be the LEgion Go and the Ally X. and you can add Bazzite to the Ally X giving you that "steam OS" look at feel
VRR makes Ally's screen hold up against the OLED. Bazzite and soon native Steam Os. Dual boot, yup. I feel the gap is closing. Each device has their benefits and use cases. Personally i want both Win (for work) and Steam Os for gaming. If Windows hamdheld Os arrives that would be IT.
"OLED is too overrated. I have a Samsung phone with a Super AMOLED display, and while I might not compare gaming on my Ally to my phone, I can compare RU-vid videos of gameplay. Honestly, the difference isn’t that big of a deal, even when watching in 1080p on my phone, which is higher than the Deck’s 800p. OLED doesn’t really offer much for gaming. On the other hand, VRR eliminates stuttering when a game’s framerate drops below 60fps, which is a huge benefit for handhelds as it compensates for their weaker processors. Plus, the Ally’s 1080p and 120Hz display with VRR makes everything look sharp and smooth. And don’t forget, the Ally is the only handheld with AMD Fluid Motion, which boosts FPS in any game. Also reason to buy a gaming PC is not to tie down on one platform and play all I mean all PC games because it is a PC afterall. Having gamepas for only AU$11 only you can install unli games and uninstall them anytime because it is a monthly subscription is a breeze and take note a single game on Steam on a 50% discount is AU$50+ which is still more than a monthly subscription and if your not happy with the game its hard to uninstall because it is not monthly subscription you buy it as a single game. Playing on Gamepass. Epic, Steam, Garena, GForce now, Bluestacks so you can also play your android games you name it anything Ally is a beast gaming machine.
wait, So the ally X is around $250 more just for +5FPS? I get the 1080p screen and VRR which is the only thing I see a real value over the SD Oled. But $250 more for just +5FPS?
I have the SD, and I was considering getting ally x due to having great performance/great battery life/ being able to play every game you wanted. But i like the quick sleep/wake and the game resume where it was. It helps me alot as i have to switch off quite frequently to help out my baby when needed. Another thing is that, i dont really need to play alot of games although game pass is good, but i dont have alot of time to play. Heck, i even took months to complete a jrpg. I do have a PS5, so AAA games i can play it from there. I still able to stream gaming using chiaki4deck. So personally as a dad with 2 small kids, steam deck oled is best for me.
then it's about software? i think someone can provide that in rog ally x so i don't think the reason to choose steam deck because the software, is good enough. Since internet can mod everything these day and rog ally x can install steam os too
Yes, you can dual boot bazzite and have the feel of the steamOS. But if i am not wrong, there are still some minor problems here and there. Afterall, you cant really compare with the stock OS. But if someone is new to handheld and never bought a SD before, you can consider getting ally x. If i have the time to game for more then 1hr+ without interruption, i gladly choose ally x.
You can install Bazzite on the Ally X and have steam OS running on a far superior machine. And then still have all the other benefits from having windows OS.
The only reason why i didn't buy an oled sd is because you can't play all your games. Why would you want to limit your options? That's the sd biggest downfall
In last 1.5 year i bought premiere steam deck then sold it, next steam deck then sold it, switch oled had a blast with all marios then sold it, last rog ally had a blast then sold it. Now i said its time for a brake from handhelds and it lasted whole day! now looking for something again haha :D
Steam deck lcd is better value than steam deck oled it have same performance, Enough battery. Since steam deck performance is not that good playing AAA game around 30-40 fps you don't need 90 fps screen and OLED gimmick that prone to burn in
OLED isn't worth the benefits of the Rog screen. OLED has better colors but the Rog Ally and X screen produces a smoother gameplay thanks to the VRR. Yes steam os gives the console experience but once again you're limited. Steamdeck (iPhone users) Rog ally X (Android users)
If I want to play high demand windows games, I’ll just play on a pc. Steam deck is perfect to play games like Tunic and Hades 2. But I will admit, the moment Nintendo announces their new handheld console, my OLED Steam deck will go on sale
Steam os is great is very very intuitive like Apple devices it OS is flawless , but it lacks in the power department .i recently play god of war ragnarok on the deck and it’s not a good experience.
The best : Rog ally x : The highest level of handheld S Rog ally z1 extreme : A legion go etc : A Steam deck oled : B+ Steam deck lcd : B Budget : Nintendo switch lite : S Steam deck lcd : A+
Did y’all talk about support? People exchanging these x units as much as the original. What when it breaks outside of the warranty period? Send it to asus? Good luck. It’s like owning a McLaren lol
Yeah that’s my hang up, valve would at least be there to help you. Asus? Who knows. I also heard the ally x is getting terrible stick drift and weird deadzone bugs. I also have a PC with a 4080 and a PS5 along with a switch. Not sure I care about playing a new game at 40fps lol. I will play new games on my pc at way above that at 4k. I’ve seen reviews showing returnal on low settings on these and I’m just like, why? It’s not even 30fps. Even on turbo plugged in the ally X is barely above 30fps. That’s pathetic to me when you can get last years model of gaming laptop for about the same price and smoke it
I got into handheld gaming awhile ago I honestly see no reason why anyone will buy a steamdeck. Yes the OLED is good far as colors but it’s only 900p display. You don’t get the same crisp and frame rate
@@GavinAeilts 1080p makes a big difference… even the remote play on the portal gives off a better display than the steam oled without the color saturation and black & whites
Steam deck lcd is cheap and affordable actually Steam deck original is winning on PC budget handheld since it the cheapest on the market but the best? of course not and buying OLED SD is not worth it since the price almost the same as rog ally x and performance same like lcd
How many ch is Valve paying people?? The Steamdeck has big compatibility flaws that are hard or impossible to get round. ie various loaders/frontends and anti cheat. I tried all the different ‘solutions’ and spent a lot of time trying to fix when I had a Steamdeck. Even dual booting…. Great if ALL your games are Steam based but if you want the full PC flexibility get the ROG Ally X mic drop
Yeah I have an Of Steam Deck and hating messing around with Proton. And it's was also a pain explain to friends and family that aren't tech savvy about proton. They were sold on the fact that the Steam Deck is a seamless experience, which it's totally not.
The Steam Deck is great, buts very far from the best. Honestly on paper it's the worst. Has the bottom of the barrel specs to every other handheld device on the market. And this is coming from someone who owns the OH steam deck. Also with many people creating Steam OS variants for the Ally X and windows based handhelds it's really no comparison
Steam Deck OLED all the way down. One reason: Steam OS. windows 11 sucks big time in handheld devices I know this having owned win 11 handhelds in the past.
Would anyone consider the Legion Go? Imagine playing the latest Triple A games in 2k @144hz with Max settings using a service like GeForce Now Ultimate which will give you longer game sessions while also improving hardware longevity since the heavy lifting isn't being done locally. No other handheld from a reputable manufacturer can do that.
"A smaller screen will have a higher number of pixels per inch (PPI) than a larger screen, so its image will be sharper and more vivid". So smaller screen is a win for resolution
Nobody is talking about ASUS’ garbage support. Everyone says install bazzite but not telling you that you void your warranty. So…yeah. The ally x is already being returned with control issues
Any handheld using windows is already up to a bad start 😂 , and asus with their rma scams makes the steam deck the clear winner 🥇. I guess you can add bazzite but you’re still dealing with Asus bs. Keep coping haters 😂 steam deck is superior.
Yep, installed on mines two days ago, it's a game changer. After showing to a friend of mines that's a diehard steam deck lover because of SteamOS they were sold. They ended up buying the Ally the same day, and installing Bazzite on it out of the box lol.
@@Will_Bx_NYC_718 I installed a 2tb SSD and did a cloud recovery and shrunk windows down to about 500 gig. The ally x updates and firmware fixes will still come from the windows side. Might let them know that lol
@@l0rdpelvis at the risk of bricking your device (screwing your boot partitions) the moment bazzite or windows wants to update... no thanks.. i would not recommend people to dual boot... either go pure Windows or pure Bazzite for now
@@humanizedkun6488 What? the 800p 16:10 screen is perfect for the size. i actually think it's baffling that a handheld pc is pushing for 1080p visuals.
The SteamDeck is losing a war against Sony remote play… an underpowered device that’s letting you stream your ps5 games on high settings with 1080P 60fps 😂
Windows is a PRO depend of the person... for me is garbage OS... but again, depend of the person. I dont need windows at all. If you depend of windows is Sad, I could do the same on win2, linux or MacOs. but the freedom is on Linux. so I CHOSE LINUX, I don't depend of linux
These videos help people tho. I'm struggling to decide between the two. Eg the negatives with asus Price. Warranty issues with asus. Quality product. No oled screen. No track pads. Smaller screen. Steam os. If you dual boot with Bazzite I've heard people say you loose warranty. So yeah some of those things make steam deck have the edge on a few things. Esp price point. I've watched quite a few video comparisons and I've come accross alot of comments with people having faulty devices already. Steam support are more likely to just replace your sd than Asus it seems
I K kw right! Honestly it's a bit insulting. The only leg up the Steam Deck OLED, has is the OLED screen. And with Bazzite being able to be installed on the Ally X, you can have the SteamOS experience many so fondly coveit.
@@mathewblyth5940trust me just go for the Ally, you won't regret it. But if you get the steam deck you'll be having buyers remorse because you'll realize the system is severely underpowered, and it's not as seamless they make it sound. There's many things you have to do with Proton Comodability layers to get many games to work properly. Also if you install Bazzite on the Ally X, you'll get the steam deck OS experience. But you'll also inherit all the Comodability short comings as well.
Spending 900€ for a console that makes the same FPS as the steam deck and that I'm going to use only when I'm out or traveling and just for doing some emulation, I think those extra money are not worth the money since most of my triple A games I prefer to play them on my pc, the handled is only for making some side quest or to just loose some time, at least for me the steam deck is faster and better for an normal a person that still plays on pc and sometimes just wants to lay in bed or is at a boring weeding ceremony 😂😂
If you only play 2d game and emulation it's better to buy lcd than OLED paying 200 dollar more is bad idea for same performance and gimmick OLED that prone to burn in bad durability screen 😂😂
@@humanizedkun6488 I know but I will not only play emulation , I will also play daily for different games like the first descendant or Forza horizon 5 or for other games that requires daily acces , since I work for 5 days away from my so I'm not able to play on my pc , so having it would be a nice thing, and I bought my oled steam deck for 400€ which is a nice price
@@humanizedkun6488oled is not a gimmick. The best monitors in the world are OLED. Every high end smartphone. Oled. It’s not a gimmick. Infinite contrast colors and let’s not forget the steam deck is the only handheld with 1000 Nits HDR
5 extra frames 😂😂? Bruhh most games literally have twice as much frames on the ally X he’s being so disingenuous just to make a false point lol anyways only people that’s prefer the Steamdeck are broke boys everyone that’s had the chance to use both all prefer the Ally. Steamdeck fanboys still talking about the warranties issues as if they ain’t already change their policies and offered an extended warranty on the original. Even if they didn’t, the people that’s actually take care of their devices don’t gotta worry about any of those stuff
Steam deck OLED just overrated this device not even have a chance to win againts Rog ally x. Steam deck fanboy just helping this poor device what a sad gaming community
While I think overall ally x is better especially that you can put bazzite on it which makes it the best of both worlds 250$ is a large price difference.
