Asus ROG Ally Hands-On: Can This Win 11 Gaming Handheld Top the Steam Deck?

By now, the Nintendo Switch and the Valve Steam Deck have proven the value of the twin-stick, big-screen handheld form factor, and so, Asus is launching its own take on the subcategory with the ROG Ally.

You may have heard of the Ally before: Asus originally shared the device online as what appeared to be an April Fools’ joke, before clarifying that it is a real product. In reality, a lot of work has gone into this device over five years.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

The premise is exciting—this machine is running full-fledged Windows 11—and we were able to go hands-on with it at a preview event in New York. You can watch my impressions of the Ally following my hands-on session in the video up top, and read on for more spec and design details.

Your New Ally: Building a Better PC Handheld

I'll get the elephant in the room out of the way first: No price has been announced yet. Asus told us that it is still finalizing the price with retail partners, but as of our hands-on time, would not share even the range the final price will fall into. Hopefully, it comes in at least near the top configuration of the Steam Deck (the Deck starts at $399 and the highest-end model is $649), perhaps a bit more, which would be reasonable for what it is.

During its presentation at the preview event, Asus explained how this device has undergone five years of design iteration. Given that the development time Asus stated predates the Steam Deck's public announcement and release by some time, you have to wonder how much the Nintendo Switch—released in early 2017—was an inspiration if Asus began development sometime in early 2018.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

Regardless, Asus—working closely with AMD—has its own vision for the Ally. One of the main target goals for the device during the design phase was a weight of 600 grams, or about 1.32 pounds. The team came narrowly close: The final Ally weighs 608 grams, or 1.34 pounds. The Steam Deck weighs 669 grams, so the Ally is a bit lighter.

While I won’t claim to have felt that exact weight difference when holding the Ally, I do think it was a bit easier to handle on the whole. The device looks slimmer, feels light enough, and was comfortable to hold—at least, in my relatively short hands-on session. When I first picked up the Ally, I felt like the handles were insubstantial compared to the somewhat chunky handholds of the Steam Deck, more akin to the Switch. After a couple of minutes, though, I stopped noticing, and it felt like the device fit right into my hands.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

I also like the look and feel of the Ally. The choice of white and a textured finish, even while plastic, gives it an attractive look and feel. It’s possible white is not everyone’s preference, and it may be asking to get dirty or marked up over time, but it's at least initially clean in my view. RGB lighting, around the control sticks and a strip on the chassis, looks slick against the white background.

A 1080p Display and Plenty of Useful Features

The display Asus chose is also deeply attractive. Its existing competitors have been dinged for their lower-resolution screens, which are understandable choices because they save on battery and help to improve the frame rate. Asus, either confident on both fronts or willing to sacrifice them for a better-looking screen, has opted for an upgraded panel.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

This is a 7-inch 1080p touch display with a 120Hz refresh rate, which will be music to the ears of many gamers. It looks sharp and bright in person, rated at 500 nits. I am definitely curious to see how long the battery lasts given these specs—Asus stated it runs for “up to” eight hours, but that can mean a lot of things. Some less demanding and maybe 2D games might hit that mark or more, but more strenuous 3D games will surely drain the battery faster—such is life for the Switch, Steam Deck, and gaming laptops too. We’ll have to test it firsthand to see what kind of average runtime to expect.

Another aspect that needed a lot of attention during the design phase was the thermal system. For a device that will sometimes be used upright, at an odd angle, or facing downwards (say, when you’re laying in bed), the cooling methods need to adapt and still function as well as they do in another position. For this purpose, Asus developed “anti-gravity heat pipes,” which is to say, a vapor chamber and water pipe system that works to cool the system even when it is upside down.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

On top of this, you'll find dual back-facing fans that work to actively cool the system, which have been tuned to remain as inaudible as possible under load. Of course, this (and the heating system as a whole) are something difficult to gauge in a short time in a crowded room, but we’ll be curious to take a closer listen when we test the Ally for review.

A couple more design features that could be winners: macro keys on the rear and a fingerprint sensor on the power button with Windows Hello. The former can replicate more premium controllers that have rear mappable paddles—particularly useful in shooters—and the latter makes logging in much easier than typing in a password with control sticks or a touch screen.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

Other features include dual front-firing speakers with Dolby Atmos, the ability to display onto an external monitor over USB-C, compatibility with the ROG XG Mobile eGPU, Wi-Fi 6E, and stick and trigger dead zone and sensitivity customization. There's also a microSD card slot for expanded storage.

The Windows Advantage

Pure and simple, the one feature of the Ally that has turned the most heads is the fact that it runs Windows 11 natively. Even at the surface level, running an operating system most people are familiar with, and being able to use a Windows desktop for PC-style uses, is enough of a win on its own. But for gaming, the implication is huge.

I own a Steam Deck, and I generally like it quite a bit, but it has some drawbacks from running Linux and Proton emulation. Windows applications don’t run out of the box, and while Steam integration couldn’t be any better, that leaves out a wide swath of other game stores and clients that gamers use. Microsoft's Game Pass, for instance, is a big miss on the Steam Deck; there is a workaround to get the cloud streaming version running, but it’s not as effective as the real, locally running thing.

(Credit: Microsoft)

With Steam Deck, you can’t access the PC games you own or have access to in the Xbox app, because it’s a Windows program, and that goes for the Epic store, Ubisoft Connect, EA Play, Battlenet, GOG, and more. That leaves whole portions of your PC library unavailable on Steam Deck—not exactly a hidden con, given the name of the device, as it’s meant to play your Steam library. But realistically, enthusiasts have their game library split across these clients due to availability, sales, and other reasons.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

The Ally solves this issue as a Windows-based machine. As the Microsoft representative on hand explained at the preview event, any Windows application available on your PC is available on the Ally, full stop.

All of those libraries are open to you, and indeed, I was able to launch Forza Horizon through Game Pass, minimize to a normal (albeit smaller than usual) Windows desktop, and see the other clients installed. In addition, you can of course also browse Windows files and folders as you normally would; it really is just a small, handheld PC. You have the option to attach peripherals, as well, should wish to hook up a mouse or controller, and connect to a monitor.

The possibilities that Windows opens—game emulation and using the Ally as a laptop for productivity, for instance—are all gravy on top of the main PC gaming focus. If you already purchased a Steam Deck, that may not be enough of a reason to also buy the Ally, but if you’ve been on the fence, having Game Pass access in your hands is deeply appealing. We’ll circle back to how well the machine functions as a Windows device—and if, in any way, the implementation was in reality too good to be true—when we are able to spend more time with it for a full review.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

One more software inclusion revolves around apps made by Asus. On laptops, Asus provides several apps for monitoring or tweaking settings, performance, key mapping, and more. On the Ally, Armoury Crate SE will provide these, plus a unified games library page that can list everything you have installed on the system in one place. You may still prefer to use the individual apps, but it seems like a useful way to fight a fragmented gaming library.

AMD and Asus Partner Up: Welcome Ryzen Z1

Sturdy build quality and the full Windows 11 experience are well and good, but they mean little without the hardware to push them. In-depth performance testing and frame rate measurements will be one of the chief things we look at when we get our own unit in hand, but on paper, the specs look seriously promising.

That is in large part due to AMD, which was present at the Ally preview event as a close partner on this device. Alongside the chassis and thermal iteration, AMD has worked with Asus over the years to develop the right chip for this system.

The result is the new Ryzen “Z1” Series, debuting as the accelerated processing unit, or APU, in this system. It’s based on AMD’s Zen 4 architecture and 4nm process, and the graphics are powered by RDNA3—the company's very newest. Zen 4 is the latest processing platform AMD is using on PC, and it has proven highly efficient and effective in these other form factors.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

Hopefully, this bespoke solution—and its partnered RDNA3 graphics—can deliver similar satisfaction. The other hardware inside includes 16GB of DDR5-6400 RAM and a 512GB PCIe Gen 4 SSD. There was mention of more than one model, potentially, but those were the only hard specs provided; perhaps a less-expensive model will be available alongside a higher-end offering, but it's unclear which of those this AMD Z1/16GB/512GB configuration would be.

Again, we’ll need to test and record gaming performance ourselves, but on paper, this should immediately make the ROG Ally more powerful than the Steam Deck. AMD’s modern platform has proven markedly efficient in our laptop and desktop testing, and the parts are simply newer than what's in the competition. The higher resolution will make it a bit tougher to run games at higher frame rates, though.

In my hands-on time, games ran smoothly with decent quality settings; Forza Horizon felt responsive, and its frame rate stayed playable and stable. But it wasn’t the right venue to dive into the performance settings, or keep a close eye on frame rates in different scenarios; we look forward to testing more in a formal setting.

We'll have plenty more to say about the ROG Ally and its implications, especially if the execution delivers on its promise, but we’ll wait to deliver a clear verdict once we can spend more time with the device in the near future. Check back soon for a full review.