The Asus ROG Ally X is like meeting your crush’s handsome brother. Your crush is cute, but what about his little brother? He’s more sophisticated, more mature, and more attractive.
Similarly, the ROG Ally X is a slight upgrade over the ROG Ally. Too Unlike its siblings, no, the tweaks don’t scream “stop pressing!”, but they do lend the ROG Ally X an air of refinement. They’re intentional and purposeful, and show that Asus has been listening to user feedback.
First off, the ROG Ally X is no longer white. Yay!
I guess Asus wanted the ROG Ally X to stand out from the crowd by having a white case; after all, most of the Steam Deck competitors are black models. But as many gamers will agree, a white handheld would leave obvious stains revealing my snacking habits, and we don’t want that.
It’s no ROG Ally 2, but this handheld gaming PC still holds its own in a market dominated by Steam Deck.
Asus ROG Ally X price and specs
The ROG Ally X is priced at $799 and comes with the same CPU and GPU as its predecessor, with a few slight differences.
Credit: Joe Maldonado/Mashable
Before we dive into Asus’ finer tweaks, let’s list the specs.
As mentioned before, the processor and graphics on the ROG Ally X remain the same, but the RAM has been upgraded from 16GB to 24GB, and the 512GB storage has been doubled to 1TB. to us Few This improves performance, as we will see in the following sections.
Design of Asus ROG Ally X
Yay! ROG Ally X is now available in black, so you can hide your tendency to overeat while gaming. Even if your fingers are covered in Doritos, ROG Ally X won’t let you down.
Credit: Joe Maldonado/Mashable
On the right side, above the right analog stick are the A, B, X, and Y buttons. Next to the X are two buttons: the Menu button (represented by three lines) and the Armoury Crate button (which gives you access to Asus’ Control Centre).
There are two buttons on the left side: the View button and the Command Center button. The directional pad (also known as the D-pad) is located to the bottom right of the left analog stick.
Credit: Joe Maldonado/Mashable
My only gripes are with the Menu, Armoury Crate, View and Command Centre buttons. The symbols are too small and hard to see. I wish the icons were a brighter white. I also wish the analogue sticks were more symmetrical. However, the buttons and sticks are sturdy, stable and clicky (they feel more secure and durable compared to the OG ROG Ally).
Additionally, the stick comes with an LED light ring, adding a glamorous design touch to ROG Ally X.
On top, as you’d expect, there are right and left bumpers and triggers.
On the back are programmable M1 and M2 buttons with satisfying tactile feedback. On the OG ROG Ally, these buttons were inconveniently placed on top of the grip, but now they’re Away The design is designed to reach all the way to your fingertips, with ventilation holes and a diagonal glossy strip on the underside adding eye-catching detail.
Weight and feel
ROG Ally X Slightly It weighs about 1.5 pounds, heavier than the Steam Deck OLED, which weighs 1.4 pounds. many It’s lighter than the Lenovo Legion Go, which weighs about 1.9 pounds.
Incidentally, the weight of the OG ROG Ally matched that of the Steam Deck OLED.
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SteamDeck OLED – 1.4 lbs
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Asus ROG Ally – 1.4 pounds
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Asus ROG Ally X – 1.5 pounds
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Lenovo Legion Go – 1.9 pounds
But of the three, I still find the Steam Deck OLED to be the most comfortable. The ROG Ally’s grips, which you wrap your hands around while gaming, don’t stick out as much as the Steam Deck’s, which is its drawback. The Steam Deck’s raised grips give you more to hold onto while gaming, making for a more comfortable experience.
However, compared to the OG ROG Ally, the ROG Ally X do This is a plus as it provides a firmer grip, and also has fewer bumps and a smoother feel.
Credit: Joe Maldonado/Mashable
If you are switching from the Steam deck to ROG Ally X, absolutely You’ll notice a slight decrease in comfort, but if you’re switching from the Legion Go, the ROG Ally X is a better choice. more It’s comfortable and lightweight.
If you’re new to portable gaming PCs, you probably won’t feel any discomfort at all.
Asus ROG Ally X Display
The ROG Ally X sports the same 7-inch, 1080p display with a 120Hz refresh rate, but that’s fine because, in the words of Bruno Mars, “you’re amazing, just the way you are.”
Credit: Joe Maldonado/Mashable
Plus, ROG Ally X is the only handheld gaming PC that supports variable refresh rate, meaning you can drop the refresh rate to a lower value or spike it up to 120Hz depending on what you’re doing – this way you’re not wasting energy producing high frame rates all the time.
It would be nice if the ROG Ally X had an OLED panel, but it still has an IPS screen (I think the Steam Deck OLED has a better panel).
I played Cyberpunk 2077 The ROG Ally X isn’t visually stunning, but… just It’s just the right amount of clarity, sharpness, and vibrancy to enjoy your favorite games, especially when you’re on the go. At 500 nits, the ROG Ally X isn’t as bright as the Steam Deck OLED’s 600 nits display, but it’s still plenty bright for outdoor gaming.
The Steam Deck OLED display is also a bit larger at 7.4 inches. The Lenovo Legion Go’s 500-nit panel is even larger, with an 8.8-inch display, but it feels a bit unwieldy. The 7-inch realm is the sweet spot.
Asus ROG Ally X Port
The Asus ROG Ally X now has an additional USB-C port (a Thunderbolt 4 port).
Credit: Joe Maldonado / Mashable
This opens up a world of eGPUs and docks – personally I kept one port plugged into my charging cable and the other plugged into my Viture Pro XR glasses (for a better virtual display experience).
Credit: Joe Maldonado/Mashable
ROG Ally X is equipped with the following ports:
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USB Type-C (3.2 Gen 2)
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Thunderbolt 4
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microSD card reader
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3.5mm combo audio jack
This is certainly better than the Steam Deck and Lenovo Legion Go, which only have a single USB-C port.
Asus ROG Ally X Audio
The ROG Ally X comes equipped with a dual-speaker setup, with this set of upward-facing speakers located on the front, one underneath the D-pad and the other underneath the right analogue stick.
Credit: Joe Maldonado/Mashable
I downloaded the Apple Music app onto the Asus ROG Ally X (which I’ll explain later, because the ROG Ally X runs on Windows), and to my surprise, the sound on the ROG Ally X was much better than I expected. Playing Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” at maximum volume, the peppy tune sounded big, splashy, and impactful.
While playing Cyberpunk 2077The audio managed to rise above the loud fan noise that can become deafening when Performance mode is on.
Additionally, the sound has real depth and a balanced quality, whereas the Steam Deck can sound a bit cheap. The ROG Ally X is also noticeably louder.
Incidentally, unlike the OG ROG Ally, the ROG Ally X comes with a new Smart AMP feature that enhances the audio for clearer sound.
Asus ROG Ally X benchmarks and performance
The ROG Ally X has the same internals as the OG ROG Ally, but offers a slight performance boost. This is likely due to the Ally X’s extra RAM, meaning a bit more headroom for AAA-class games that require lots of video memory.
When I ran Geekbench 6, which tests processor performance on the ROG Ally X, the multi-core 12,233 (6% performance improvement over OG Ally X). On the other hand, the Legion Go’s Geekbench score is 10,414.
In addition, when I ran 3DMark Time Spy, which tests the graphics performance of ROG Ally X, 3,477 Compared to Legion Go 2,982 shape.
Unlike the ROG Ally X and Legion Go, which are handheld PCs that run on Windows, the Steam Deck OLED is powered by a Linux-based operating system, which made benchmarking a bit trickier: there are no Geekbench or Time Spy figures for the Steam Deck.
But we Cyberpunk 2077 In the Steam Deck (non-OLED version) benchmark, it achieved 30 frames per second (fps). The ROG Ally X achieved more frames with a score of 47 fps, while the Legion Go also hit the 30 fps cap in the same benchmark.
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Steam Deck – Cyberpunk 2077 – 30 fps
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Lenovo Legion Go – Cyberpunk 2077 – 30 fps
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Asus ROG Ally X – Cyberpunk 2077 – 47 fps
It’s also worth noting that compared to the OG ROG Ally, the ROG Ally X comes equipped with a full-size SSD, which improves performance, resulting in faster read/write speeds and faster load times.
Asus ROG Ally X battery life
Asus has announced that it has doubled the ROG Ally X’s battery from 40Whr to 80Whr, promising a battery life of 3 to 8 hours.
We ran the PCMark 10 gaming battery life test on the ROG Ally X. 2 hr 48 minIn the same test, the Lenovo Legion Go 1 hour 46 minutes.
Even if it didn’t have a larger battery, the ROG Ally X would still have Legion Go-level battery life.
Steam Deck was unable to run PCMark 10, but Mashable’s Alex Perry said: 3.5 years It took hours.
Asus ROG Ally X Software and Windows
Running Windows on the Asus ROG Ally X is a good thing and a bad thing. On the good side, you can download games from anywhere, including Steam, Epic Games Store, Ubisoft Connect, and the Microsoft Store.
The downside is that it’s a pain to set up, much like setting up a Windows PC while dodging subscription after subscription solicitation, from Microsoft 365 to Xbox Game Pass. There’s a bunch of stuff to do, like setting up Wi-Fi, keyboard language, PIN number, entering your Microsoft account, etc. Then you have to navigate Windows with your fingers via the touchscreen and download all your games, which is a pretty tedious task.
With Steam Deck, on the other hand, setup is more seamless: enter your Wi-Fi password before signing in with your Steam credentials and you’re ready to go. The downside here, of course, is that SteamOS has some limitations (unless you go through the process of tinkering with Steam Deck to install Windows).
Is the Asus ROG Ally X worth buying?
The Asus ROG Ally X offers slightly better performance and longer battery life compared to the OG Ally.
Compared to Steam Deck, ROG Ally X excels in three ways: improved frame rates in AAA titles; Cyberpunk 2077a handy extra USB-C port (Thunderbolt 4), and great audio.
But I would argue that the Steam Deck still has the best ergonomic design and a better operating system with SteamOS.
I had a blast playing with the ROG Ally X and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for an alternative to Steam Deck.
