I don’t agree with the game library bit. Ofc steam os is better but armoury crate is not bad and people gotta stop treating it like so. My games launch every time and I don’t have to refresh often. So it’s ok not to like it but don’t say it never works and don’t make it seem like it’s the worst thing ever
@@jonasfrey9649 I'm a UNUX programmer and say its fine as is. You're not too blinded in my opinions, i think ppl exaggerate quite a bit. las update gives me quite somw crashes but its instantly back with a button press.
Me too. What people need to remember this ground breaking technology will not get old for the next 5 years because we will continue to play games even after rog ally 5 comes out. Thanks for the video
Thank you for making this video and all your videos. Having owned an Ally for almost 2 months now, I don't really agree with most of these issues. Armory Crate works just fine, albiet a little slow sometimes (I don't use the SD card slot). I'm always near an outlet so low TDP doesn't matter to me. I get about an hour of running 24 watts in demanding games. It's the price to pay for an 8c16t CPU, which is WAY better than the Deck's 4c8t. The back buttons are not assigned to anything for me, except in a handful of games, so I never accidentally pressed them. I never intend to use the XG Mobile. W11 is actually not bad, and annoying at times ... but not a turn off of the system. Wish it was more light on the RAM though. Regardless, it's great you gave your opinion and input ... keep these videos coming.
No issues for me on mine. Kryonaut extreme thermal paste 2280 m.2, jsaux back cover with with air vents. Runs super cold and gpu boost clocks stay higher longer after pasting. I have had 0 issues with mine since launch day.
You fucked up changing the thermal paste. It's PTM 7950 by Honeywell. You can't do better than that. People are now cutting it for CPU and GPU on desktops.
@@SuperBROKEN81 I'm fully aware of what it had. And no it made it better unless you call it over heated and thermal throttling out of the box good but I don't. It had a mounting issue and it's way better now and runs same temps as other people's units do stock. 75* max temps gaming an hour straight plugged in turbo mode.
I really don’t get why people don’t like the game library, it dose what it’s meant to do it shows you your games and lets you launch the game what’s the issues ?
It's bad, you can't organize it as you wish and every time you restart the system the library is shown as default even if you left it as showing newly installed games first for example.
Great vid . Me myself i had different experiences i use my ally as my daily driver now i play handheld and docked got a jsaux dock for it 12 to 1 and its on my tv incthe living room . I got a xbox controller and chat pad on it and i got 2 maps in steam for the controller 1 for games 1 for desktop i also have like a mini keyboard with complete button layout connected to the dock. I dont rlly use the sd card and for audio i use the tv and surround system or a xbox wireless headset i also gave a xbox wireless adapter so i dont have to use bluetooth for low latency in put on my headset and controller. Having this dock made me realize how asus missed out by making the xg mobile such a overpriced mess its not practical doesnt offer anything but horsepower to me itslike strapping a rocket to a camry instead of building something like a hellcat . A product needs a balance between quality ,price, efficiency,and accessibility and the xg mobile just fails poorly in all but one categorie and thats power They should of went with opulink and make it accessible gpd made one thats like 800 and also is rlly good. I dont understand how asus dropped the ball on this . Why not make the port thunderbolt so we can buy theyre other existing egpu’s . Or make the xg mobile more like a sff case with psu and a small pcb with extention slots for gpu and some usb, and such somethings thats upgradeable. Sowe can use a desktop gpu. As for the windows 11 part my experience isnt that bad but i had my windows gone bad ones because a amd driver broke the system and couldent get it un installed so i went factory again to fix it. So yeah its not the best but got to take it for what it is its a windows handheld and if it wasnt i wouldent have bought it but i agree that i dont like the. Direction winsdows is going ever since windows 7 had to go
I like using linux and run gentoo on my main desktop. Windows 11 is a dream to run on my ROG Ally. If i could i would build a distro specifically for the rog ally that is half computer and half gaming handheld. ChimeraOS is fine but i had little gripes with it on the Ally. ChimeraOS is a distro that is (in my experience) console first and computer second. Its not a bad distro. I just wish i can run a stable distro that can bring the ally to its full potential on the linux side of things.
Only issue so far in my two days of owning it was the overheating issue on the top of it, being so bloody hot to the touch as I was turning it off after the game Sonic Adventure 2 crashed on steam.
@@cloak55733 Luckily it was on me, I had like Windows updates on it, while also having Armoury crate updates going, and even Asus lol. Add to that, I hadn't gone through the Armory crates settings to adjust the fan speed when dealing with increased wattage and demand. Now I haven't had any issues since that day. Even the SD card area stays cool.
I have watched a number of this contributor's Ally content and I have found all of them very informative. This list of 5 downsides was also informative. That said, I did enjoy the rant on Windows 11 being the bane of his existence. All his points are valid yet the vigor, angst and bile while delivering his Windows 11 tirade makes me think that Microsoft has somehow wronged him earlier in his life or in a previous life. I say this tongue and cheek of course. Great video. Great content. Thank you.
Hmmm, the 32gb of ram will help with the igpu’s vram and that ryzen 7 that comes with the AOKZOE A1 is slightly faster (by a very small amount). I’d say it’s all up to if you want to spend the extra money and if the support for the AOKZOE A1 will be comparable to a higher profile handheld like the ROG Ally. Since a lot of eyes are on it, it will be getting better support and seems to have more support than the Legion Go which has better tech inside. Since the hardware for the AOKZOE A1 isn’t much of a jump besides the ram, I’d say both would be great for upcoming titles in similar ways. More ram doesn’t always mean better performance, the CPU matters more so if you have to pick one, I would personally go with the Ally just because of the support and slight difference in tech. Hope this helped, lmk what you decide! 👍
Low TDP, hmm. I don’t see ASUS changing this but they want to give you power. Not battery life per se. But it’s not ASUS fault completely, they went with one of the fastest mobile chips that wasn’t made custom like the Van Gogh.
Hate windows 11 too. Windows auto installed an OpenGL Open CL Compatibility Pack that conflicted with all my emulators. I lucked out that someone had already figured out that was the problem and all I had to do was uninstall it. Then there's the annoyance with being unable to get the PW lock to go away even when removed from the settings. That's a problem i've been able to fix on my other devices but for some reason not on Ally
@@jackykwan2580 that’s true I really think we’re just limited with tech right now. I’d love to see the next version with an OLED screen though that’d be nice. Maybe they can even try to make a more efficient battery like they’ve done with the oled steam deck
14:30 True Windows 11 is counter-productive, I see this with my own work too. They improved it slightly since release because you can finally ungroup taskbar windows and enable full names, but still it's horrible, especially the new right-click menu and poorly organized windows settings UI
Hmmmm. Wonder if the Rog Ally would be better with Atlas Os installed. Atlas Os, is an image that you put in with windows. Then it removes the crap from windows. Making it like a windows xp mode for windows 11. Its much faster then normal windows 11. Then also you can choose to pick security updates only. You can ofc, put it on later, if you feel like you need windows updates. I stopped using normal windows for a long time ago, when discover Atlas Os. Just so much better for gaming os in total
I like Armory Crate. It's simple and it's lightweight for me. I also only use my Ally as a PC companion, not an actual handheld like a Switch.. I still game mostly on my PC. So.. yeah windows jank is just PC territory. So I look past the crap of Armory Crate, because it also is "meh" on my PC. Low Power TDP is definitely trash. I like 18w, pretty good place to play. I don't personally think a external gpu is important either.. but that's because for me, I rather just build a more powerful PC for the same price as a ROG Ally and egpu... The heat and battery are my biggest issues. I've got large hands, so my hands naturally rest near the vents and I'm always getting blasted by the heat of the Ally. Also, everyone knows. The battery life is just trash. I'd like to get at least 2 hours out of 25w mode. Everything else, it is what it is. I knew what I was getting into. It's aiight... I would only recommend an Ally to someone who is a true PC enthusiast.
@@jackykwan2580 I like the software of ROG. It seems less buggy. I thought about the Legion, it’s just I already purchased the Ally. Some people don’t like ASUS but I do. Every product I’ve personally owned has always been good. I also don’t want to spend another $700. I’m not rich :)
I like the armory crate game library. The XG Mobile is better than thunderbolt. XG Mobile is faster. I have the 4090. I replaced my 5k+ PC. You can hide that port with Jasux . My buttons never get hit by accident.
Armory Crate (Straight Amateur Hour) Small Battery Mushy Thumbsticks Poor low wattage efficiency Two many places to check for updates (Microsoft store, Windows Update, My Asus, Armory Crate)
Don’t Agree with Armory Crate. It works for me, can setup my controls and gyro. 100% agree with XG mobile, hate it. My son has a ROG flow z13 that has it too plus a Thunderbolt/USB4 port guess what, it doesn’t even charge on the Thunderbolt port. Just hate XG mobile! Next, I don’t agree fully on macro buttons. Yeah they stick out, but not in a way it annoys me. I need them in every game. Just wish it had 4 macro buttons!
I am a little upset about the egpu slot.. but i dunno.. been a PC gamer for about 20 years. None of this stuff really bothers me. I do use Steam Big Picture Mode as my launcher.. but Armoury Crate works🤷♂️ I dunno. Maybe I have Stockholm's syndrome with Windows 😌
I bought the Ally last week and returned it after a few days. I had nothing but problems with it. I was so excited to get it too. Windows 11 kept overwriting the graphics driver or disabling the graphics card every time it restarted. I had a bunch of other problems also. I’m going to get the Steam Deck OLED instead. It seems to be way more user friendly.
You probably got a lemon. Did you get a used or new model? And it really all comes down to what games you like to play most. Ally gives you the opportunity to play more games without a huge workaround but steam deck gives you simplicity with games in steam’s library
Windows issue is just too overblown. How much time do people spend lingering on the OS? AT most 2 mins you basically spend most inside the game and perfomance is important inside game. Apart from this the Ally can be hooked up the monitor to do productivity task unlike the deck which is just a console unless you install windows.
Ill tell you something dude i blame Americans for windows 11 being so horrible in general and have u guys forgotten as a nation and a country ur 23 trillion dollars in debt so if use can rack up that much debt as a collective no wonder u Americans cant even make windows 11 work without issues
I don’t agree with the game library bit. Ofc steam os is better but armoury crate is not bad and people gotta stop treating it like so. My games launch every time and I don’t have to refresh often. So it’s ok not to like it but don’t say it never works and don’t make it seem like it’s the worst thing ever
Yes man! Armory Crate is really not as bad as ppl say. It does its job just fine and got better over time too.
Yeah, most things on the list are not really problems.. mine works fine, it is windows, but i'm used to windows, so I'm maybe to blinded.. 😂
@@jonasfrey9649 I'm a UNUX programmer and say its fine as is. You're not too blinded in my opinions, i think ppl exaggerate quite a bit. las update gives me quite somw crashes but its instantly back with a button press.
I’ve never had a problem with the library at all everything he said about that is total bs
I made a video about this called the Armoury crate in 2024!
I love my ally its getting better after every update
Damn I love my ally
Me too. What people need to remember this ground breaking technology will not get old for the next 5 years because we will continue to play games even after rog ally 5 comes out. Thanks for the video
Great video!
Im planning to use it only for gaming, with the minimal multi tasking as possible, do you think that a low TDP is a problem for me?
Thank you for making this video and all your videos. Having owned an Ally for almost 2 months now, I don't really agree with most of these issues. Armory Crate works just fine, albiet a little slow sometimes (I don't use the SD card slot). I'm always near an outlet so low TDP doesn't matter to me. I get about an hour of running 24 watts in demanding games. It's the price to pay for an 8c16t CPU, which is WAY better than the Deck's 4c8t. The back buttons are not assigned to anything for me, except in a handful of games, so I never accidentally pressed them. I never intend to use the XG Mobile. W11 is actually not bad, and annoying at times ... but not a turn off of the system. Wish it was more light on the RAM though. Regardless, it's great you gave your opinion and input ... keep these videos coming.
Why is the audio so quiet in this video?
No issues for me on mine. Kryonaut extreme thermal paste 2280 m.2, jsaux back cover with with air vents. Runs super cold and gpu boost clocks stay higher longer after pasting. I have had 0 issues with mine since launch day.
You fucked up changing the thermal paste. It's PTM 7950 by Honeywell. You can't do better than that. People are now cutting it for CPU and GPU on desktops.
@@SuperBROKEN81 I'm fully aware of what it had. And no it made it better unless you call it over heated and thermal throttling out of the box good but I don't. It had a mounting issue and it's way better now and runs same temps as other people's units do stock. 75* max temps gaming an hour straight plugged in turbo mode.
I can’t wait to see where x86 handhelds go in the next few years… probably close to max settings on the go.
I really don’t get why people don’t like the game library, it dose what it’s meant to do it shows you your games and lets you launch the game what’s the issues ?
It's bad, you can't organize it as you wish and every time you restart the system the library is shown as default even if you left it as showing newly installed games first for example.
I agree with the eGPU part, and the price of that XGmobile is over kill….
Great vid . Me myself i had different experiences i use my ally as my daily driver now i play handheld and docked got a jsaux dock for it 12 to 1 and its on my tv incthe living room . I got a xbox controller and chat pad on it and i got 2 maps in steam for the controller 1 for games 1 for desktop i also have like a mini keyboard with complete button layout connected to the dock. I dont rlly use the sd card and for audio i use the tv and surround system or a xbox wireless headset i also gave a xbox wireless adapter so i dont have to use bluetooth for low latency in put on my headset and controller. Having this dock made me realize how asus missed out by making the xg mobile such a overpriced mess its not practical doesnt offer anything but horsepower to me itslike strapping a rocket to a camry instead of building something like a hellcat . A product needs a balance between quality ,price, efficiency,and accessibility and the xg mobile just fails poorly in all but one categorie and thats power They should of went with opulink and make it accessible gpd made one thats like 800 and also is rlly good. I dont understand how asus dropped the ball on this . Why not make the port thunderbolt so we can buy theyre other existing egpu’s . Or make the xg mobile more like a sff case with psu and a small pcb with extention slots for gpu and some usb, and such somethings thats upgradeable. Sowe can use a desktop gpu. As for the windows 11 part my experience isnt that bad but i had my windows gone bad ones because a amd driver broke the system and couldent get it un installed so i went factory again to fix it. So yeah its not the best but got to take it for what it is its a windows handheld and if it wasnt i wouldent have bought it but i agree that i dont like the. Direction winsdows is going ever since windows 7 had to go
I think steam has to make a separate space menu for company to include their tdp and other options. So that every company make use of that
I like using linux and run gentoo on my main desktop. Windows 11 is a dream to run on my ROG Ally. If i could i would build a distro specifically for the rog ally that is half computer and half gaming handheld. ChimeraOS is fine but i had little gripes with it on the Ally. ChimeraOS is a distro that is (in my experience) console first and computer second. Its not a bad distro. I just wish i can run a stable distro that can bring the ally to its full potential on the linux side of things.
This is really interesting insight. Windows is too inefficient in my view for handhelds, what you're saying would be very nice
Only issue so far in my two days of owning it was the overheating issue on the top of it, being so bloody hot to the touch as I was turning it off after the game Sonic Adventure 2 crashed on steam.
Overheating over how much watts and plugged in or not?
@@cloak55733 Luckily it was on me, I had like Windows updates on it, while also having Armoury crate updates going, and even Asus lol. Add to that, I hadn't gone through the Armory crates settings to adjust the fan speed when dealing with increased wattage and demand.
Now I haven't had any issues since that day. Even the SD card area stays cool.
I have a Steam Deck and I just got the Rog Ally and I like both
I have watched a number of this contributor's Ally content and I have found all of them very informative. This list of 5 downsides was also informative. That said, I did enjoy the rant on Windows 11 being the bane of his existence. All his points are valid yet the vigor, angst and bile while delivering his Windows 11 tirade makes me think that Microsoft has somehow wronged him earlier in his life or in a previous life. I say this tongue and cheek of course. Great video. Great content. Thank you.
wait... Z1 Extreme is not a custom made APU ? now im confused.
If you consider disabling AI Accelerator as custom, then yes. Its a 7840U :)
It's basically a modifided 7840u. It shouldn't be but that's what it is
AOKZOE A1 32 gb ram vs rog ally z1 extreme.. WHICH should i buy? Is more ram worth it? Will Rog ally be good for upcoming new game titles?
Hmmm, the 32gb of ram will help with the igpu’s vram and that ryzen 7 that comes with the AOKZOE A1 is slightly faster (by a very small amount).
I’d say it’s all up to if you want to spend the extra money and if the support for the AOKZOE A1 will be comparable to a higher profile handheld like the ROG Ally. Since a lot of eyes are on it, it will be getting better support and seems to have more support than the Legion Go which has better tech inside.
Since the hardware for the AOKZOE A1 isn’t much of a jump besides the ram, I’d say both would be great for upcoming titles in similar ways. More ram doesn’t always mean better performance, the CPU matters more so if you have to pick one, I would personally go with the Ally just because of the support and slight difference in tech.
Hope this helped, lmk what you decide! 👍
@@ChristopherToro ally it is ♥️
2 SD Oled
I just bought white macro buttons that are much more recessed because I keep hitting them accidentally too
Agree with the windows part ,I dread any windows update especially when everything on my end is running fine.
I have the steam deck OLED 1TB and ROG ALLY over 1 year and to be honest I’m stuck on PlayStation portable
I love mine 😊
Low TDP, hmm. I don’t see ASUS changing this but they want to give you power. Not battery life per se. But it’s not ASUS fault completely, they went with one of the fastest mobile chips that wasn’t made custom like the Van Gogh.
Hate windows 11 too. Windows auto installed an OpenGL Open CL Compatibility Pack that conflicted with all my emulators. I lucked out that someone had already figured out that was the problem and all I had to do was uninstall it. Then there's the annoyance with being unable to get the PW lock to go away even when removed from the settings. That's a problem i've been able to fix on my other devices but for some reason not on Ally
I wire my steam deck to my router and play my rtx 4080 pc. you can do the same on the ally. fcck an egpu.
10' USB c to Ethernet cable. $20 amazon
if you regularly update when it just turns on and don’t just have a build up it won’t matter
Mine crashed after de last update i got him like 5 days 😢
Windows running on a Rog Ally in short: Its a shit show.
Adobe Atmos? 🤔
Why wouldn't u update windows?
Excellent video. Value for money the Steam Deck wins hands down.
The only problems with the Ally are bad battery life and SD card issue if that can be fixed then it is a flawless device
Battery issue i dont think is possible. Even laptops have battery issue not to mention handheld pc.
@@jackykwan2580 that’s true I really think we’re just limited with tech right now. I’d love to see the next version with an OLED screen though that’d be nice. Maybe they can even try to make a more efficient battery like they’ve done with the oled steam deck
Battery is mostly caused by AMD making the processor not efficient enough at 15w. 30w shouldn't be where it's at 15 is better
14:30 True Windows 11 is counter-productive, I see this with my own work too. They improved it slightly since release because you can finally ungroup taskbar windows and enable full names, but still it's horrible, especially the new right-click menu and poorly organized windows settings UI
Hmmmm. Wonder if the Rog Ally would be better with Atlas Os installed. Atlas Os, is an image that you put in with windows. Then it removes the crap from windows. Making it like a windows xp mode for windows 11. Its much faster then normal windows 11. Then also you can choose to pick security updates only. You can ofc, put it on later, if you feel like you need windows updates. I stopped using normal windows for a long time ago, when discover Atlas Os. Just so much better for gaming os in total
I like Armory Crate. It's simple and it's lightweight for me. I also only use my Ally as a PC companion, not an actual handheld like a Switch.. I still game mostly on my PC. So.. yeah windows jank is just PC territory. So I look past the crap of Armory Crate, because it also is "meh" on my PC. Low Power TDP is definitely trash. I like 18w, pretty good place to play. I don't personally think a external gpu is important either.. but that's because for me, I rather just build a more powerful PC for the same price as a ROG Ally and egpu...
The heat and battery are my biggest issues. I've got large hands, so my hands naturally rest near the vents and I'm always getting blasted by the heat of the Ally. Also, everyone knows. The battery life is just trash. I'd like to get at least 2 hours out of 25w mode. Everything else, it is what it is. I knew what I was getting into. It's aiight... I would only recommend an Ally to someone who is a true PC enthusiast.
If you have large hands why dont u go for legion go its suitable for people with huge hands.
@@jackykwan2580 I like the software of ROG. It seems less buggy. I thought about the Legion, it’s just I already purchased the Ally. Some people don’t like ASUS but I do. Every product I’ve personally owned has always been good.
I also don’t want to spend another $700. I’m not rich :)
I like the armory crate game library. The XG Mobile is better than thunderbolt. XG Mobile is faster. I have the 4090. I replaced my 5k+ PC. You can hide that port with Jasux . My buttons never get hit by accident.
This was entertaining. I like your take on things. You audio quality is a bit shite. But good video. Nice job.
I'll write down all of the weak points of the ROG Ally in my opinion:
-Smaller Battery
-That's it!
Armory Crate (Straight Amateur Hour)
Small Battery
Mushy Thumbsticks
Poor low wattage efficiency
Two many places to check for updates (Microsoft store, Windows Update, My Asus, Armory Crate)
Don’t Agree with Armory Crate. It works for me, can setup my controls and gyro. 100% agree with XG mobile, hate it. My son has a ROG flow z13 that has it too plus a Thunderbolt/USB4 port guess what, it doesn’t even charge on the Thunderbolt port. Just hate XG mobile! Next, I don’t agree fully on macro buttons. Yeah they stick out, but not in a way it annoys me. I need them in every game. Just wish it had 4 macro buttons!
I am a little upset about the egpu slot.. but i dunno.. been a PC gamer for about 20 years. None of this stuff really bothers me. I do use Steam Big Picture Mode as my launcher.. but Armoury Crate works🤷♂️
I dunno. Maybe I have Stockholm's syndrome with Windows 😌
I bought the Ally last week and returned it after a few days. I had nothing but problems with it. I was so excited to get it too. Windows 11 kept overwriting the graphics driver or disabling the graphics card every time it restarted. I had a bunch of other problems also. I’m going to get the Steam Deck OLED instead. It seems to be way more user friendly.
You probably got a lemon. Did you get a used or new model? And it really all comes down to what games you like to play most. Ally gives you the opportunity to play more games without a huge workaround but steam deck gives you simplicity with games in steam’s library
What did you do? Which driver did you install?
Windows issue is just too overblown. How much time do people spend lingering on the OS? AT most 2 mins you basically spend most inside the game and perfomance is important inside game. Apart from this the Ally can be hooked up the monitor to do productivity task unlike the deck which is just a console unless you install windows.
Steamdeck has a linux desktop that is the same as windows and is actually easier to update and install apps.
@@jonathont5570 Installing apps is pretty much the same thing on both
you forgot steam deck has desktop mode my guy? i literally use Unity on Steam OS lmfao
I play fortnite at 10 watts and get 60-80 fps ez pz
Ill tell you something dude i blame Americans for windows 11 being so horrible in general and have u guys forgotten as a nation and a country ur 23 trillion dollars in debt so if use can rack up that much debt as a collective no wonder u Americans cant even make windows 11 work without issues