4 ms·

Has someone sold ther Steam Deck for a ROG Ally? Why? Has it the same compatibility?

ekianjo 3y ago
No idea about such stats, but the ROG Ally has several problems: - Windows as the key interface - very poor battery life (even worse than the Deck!) - no trackpads so this limits what you can ever play with it to games made for gamepads - none of the SteamOS goodness
- fendy3002 3y ago
  Compared with deck, no suspend continue. And I read that the button can stuck and it can get hot.
  - calini 3y ago
    Both consoles get about as hot, but yeah, no good Sleep option in Windows is a shame.
    - kibwen 3y ago
      > Both consoles get about as hot The problem specific to the Ally right now is that it seems to get too hot where the SD card reader is, causing SD cards to fry for some users: https://www.dexerto.com/tech/asus-rog-ally-has-a-bizarre-overheating-issue-2193923/ https://www.dexerto.com/tech/asus-rog-ally-has-a-bizarre-ove... . I'm sure this will be fixed in a future hardware revision, but for now it seems worth waiting on the Ally for them to hammer out the first-generation kinks. Still, I'm happy that the Ally exists, both as competition for Valve and to help prove that this PC form factor has legs.
      - calini 3y ago
        Exactly, competition is good!
  - smileybarry 3y ago
    Stuck buttons were apparently a review model issue; The Verge reported on it originally and a month later, ASUS shipped a much-improved unit. (Hardware and software)
  - nucleardog 3y ago
    > Compared with deck, no suspend continue. And for anyone comparing the options… go upthread and read how many people are saying this is _the_ killer feature of the Steam Deck. Because it is. I’d been kind of on the fence how I felt about the ROG, but that makes it a solid “no” for me.
- calini 3y ago
  Disclaimer: I ordered both a Steam Deck and an ROG Ally at the same time, and ended up returning the Ally, mostly because of the reports of the SD card reader frying up cards. If in 2 months it turns out it was all a software issue, I might rethink my option. That being said, I think the Ally has great potential and some of the problems listed can be solved/mitigated; > - Windows as the key interface You can boot straight into Steam Big Picture. It will show you the desktop for a second, for now, but surely there will be solutions to make it boot almost instantaneously. And then Windows remains as your Desktop Mode. > - very poor battery life (even worse than the Deck!) There's a tool called Handheld Companion (FOSS) that tries to do a lot of what the right hand side menu in SteamOS does, FPS limits, power control, etc. It has a feature called AutoTDP which basically modulates power to target a certain FPS average, and it works surprisingly well, shaving off enough power to make the SD and the Ally battery comparable in situations over 9W. Below 9W I agree, the ROG Ally chip just eats more power for sometimes lower performance. It even emulates a DualShock 4 controller so you can stream PS4/PS5 games to it via Sony's app. (that also enables gyro in Steam games, which Asus didn't care much to add, even though the hardware is there) > - no trackpads so this limits what you can ever play with it to games made for gamepads Nothing that can be done about that, except maybe yet another Handheld Companion tweak which adds virtual gamepads on the edges of the touchscreen. Very customizable, not perfect, hard to reach with smaller hands, but hey, it's an option. > - none of the SteamOS goodness See Handheld Companion above PS: how do I add quotes in here?
- jeroenhd 3y ago
  Surely the lack of SteamOS could be compensated by launching Steam in big picture mode? Or even installing HoloISO if they support the device?
- zhynn 3y ago
  The steam controller customizability is an incredible feature that I doubt any other manufacturer will be able to compete on. It is bananas how fully-featured it is. The flexibility of being able to pop open a radial/grid menu with any input and map the items to hotkeys or other actions... just that alone is kind of nuts, but then you can have buttons that change "modes" and all of the inputs can have secondary effects.... you can toggle between "flight" and "ground" setups... I have myself barely scratched the surface of the steam input features, but there is nothing that I have been unable to do with it. And that is so important when you are emulating games.
- ThatPlayer 3y ago
  > no trackpads so this limits what you can ever play with it to games made for gamepads Personally I like the Ally's gamepad a bit more. The Steam Deck makes the buttons just a bit too small to make room for the trackpads. When I compared them they were about the same size as a Joycon's buttons.
IggleSniggle 3y ago
There's no way I would ever do this. The Steam controller overlay is my killer feature! The Deck controller is brilliant. If they issued a v2 controller that copied the deck I would buy it in a heartbeat.
- jeroenhd 3y ago
  FWIW you can use the Steam UI to configure any controller if you launch big picture mode on desktop. I've used it to remap my Stadia controller and an Xbox controller and it works almost as good as the Deck configuration. I say almost as good, because the "Steam button + joystick" mouse controls don't work for very long; the Xbox button gets mapped to the Steam button, but holding that will turn off the controller...
  - IggleSniggle 3y ago
    Oh awesome. I suppose you can also do the menu overlays? Obviously there's no track pad to put them on but I imagine could work well mapped to eg a left joystick.
    - jeroenhd 3y ago
      Sure can! I'm not sure how the touch menu is supposed to be operated, but radial and hotbar menus are available for sure. The UI is quite clearly designed for use with a touchpad, so your mileage may vary, but it works okay in my tests.
nickthegreek 3y ago
Purchased a rog ally yesterday. The setup isn’t for the faint, as it’s basically a fresh windows install. Tinkered with it and got Diablo 4 running real nice.
crims0n 3y ago
I have both, I default to the Steam Deck for most things - but use the Ally for incompatible games, alternative launchers, and Gamepass.
theshrike79 3y ago
To my knowledge the ROG Ally is more of a gaming laptop replacement. Only get it if you want to play online shooters where anti-cheats don't work reliably on Linux/Proton. Or if you want the absolute best resolution and graphics in portable format. For single player games and people who don't expect their portable gaming device to be 4k/240FPS SD is better in every way.

No idea about such stats, but the ROG Ally has several problems: - Windows as the key interface - very poor battery life (even worse than the Deck!) - no trackpads so this limits what you can ever play with it to games made for gamepads - none of the SteamOS goodness

fendy3002 3y ago
Compared with deck, no suspend continue. And I read that the button can stuck and it can get hot.
- calini 3y ago
  Both consoles get about as hot, but yeah, no good Sleep option in Windows is a shame.
  - kibwen 3y ago
    > Both consoles get about as hot The problem specific to the Ally right now is that it seems to get too hot where the SD card reader is, causing SD cards to fry for some users: https://www.dexerto.com/tech/asus-rog-ally-has-a-bizarre-overheating-issue-2193923/ https://www.dexerto.com/tech/asus-rog-ally-has-a-bizarre-ove... . I'm sure this will be fixed in a future hardware revision, but for now it seems worth waiting on the Ally for them to hammer out the first-generation kinks. Still, I'm happy that the Ally exists, both as competition for Valve and to help prove that this PC form factor has legs.
    - calini 3y ago
      Exactly, competition is good!
- smileybarry 3y ago
  Stuck buttons were apparently a review model issue; The Verge reported on it originally and a month later, ASUS shipped a much-improved unit. (Hardware and software)
- nucleardog 3y ago
  > Compared with deck, no suspend continue. And for anyone comparing the options… go upthread and read how many people are saying this is _the_ killer feature of the Steam Deck. Because it is. I’d been kind of on the fence how I felt about the ROG, but that makes it a solid “no” for me.
calini 3y ago
Disclaimer: I ordered both a Steam Deck and an ROG Ally at the same time, and ended up returning the Ally, mostly because of the reports of the SD card reader frying up cards. If in 2 months it turns out it was all a software issue, I might rethink my option. That being said, I think the Ally has great potential and some of the problems listed can be solved/mitigated; > - Windows as the key interface You can boot straight into Steam Big Picture. It will show you the desktop for a second, for now, but surely there will be solutions to make it boot almost instantaneously. And then Windows remains as your Desktop Mode. > - very poor battery life (even worse than the Deck!) There's a tool called Handheld Companion (FOSS) that tries to do a lot of what the right hand side menu in SteamOS does, FPS limits, power control, etc. It has a feature called AutoTDP which basically modulates power to target a certain FPS average, and it works surprisingly well, shaving off enough power to make the SD and the Ally battery comparable in situations over 9W. Below 9W I agree, the ROG Ally chip just eats more power for sometimes lower performance. It even emulates a DualShock 4 controller so you can stream PS4/PS5 games to it via Sony's app. (that also enables gyro in Steam games, which Asus didn't care much to add, even though the hardware is there) > - no trackpads so this limits what you can ever play with it to games made for gamepads Nothing that can be done about that, except maybe yet another Handheld Companion tweak which adds virtual gamepads on the edges of the touchscreen. Very customizable, not perfect, hard to reach with smaller hands, but hey, it's an option. > - none of the SteamOS goodness See Handheld Companion above PS: how do I add quotes in here?
jeroenhd 3y ago
Surely the lack of SteamOS could be compensated by launching Steam in big picture mode? Or even installing HoloISO if they support the device?
zhynn 3y ago
The steam controller customizability is an incredible feature that I doubt any other manufacturer will be able to compete on. It is bananas how fully-featured it is. The flexibility of being able to pop open a radial/grid menu with any input and map the items to hotkeys or other actions... just that alone is kind of nuts, but then you can have buttons that change "modes" and all of the inputs can have secondary effects.... you can toggle between "flight" and "ground" setups... I have myself barely scratched the surface of the steam input features, but there is nothing that I have been unable to do with it. And that is so important when you are emulating games.
ThatPlayer 3y ago
> no trackpads so this limits what you can ever play with it to games made for gamepads Personally I like the Ally's gamepad a bit more. The Steam Deck makes the buttons just a bit too small to make room for the trackpads. When I compared them they were about the same size as a Joycon's buttons.

IggleSniggle 3y ago

There's no way I would ever do this. The Steam controller overlay is my killer feature! The Deck controller is brilliant. If they issued a v2 controller that copied the deck I would buy it in a heartbeat.

jeroenhd 3y ago
FWIW you can use the Steam UI to configure any controller if you launch big picture mode on desktop. I've used it to remap my Stadia controller and an Xbox controller and it works almost as good as the Deck configuration. I say almost as good, because the "Steam button + joystick" mouse controls don't work for very long; the Xbox button gets mapped to the Steam button, but holding that will turn off the controller...
- IggleSniggle 3y ago
  Oh awesome. I suppose you can also do the menu overlays? Obviously there's no track pad to put them on but I imagine could work well mapped to eg a left joystick.
  - jeroenhd 3y ago
    Sure can! I'm not sure how the touch menu is supposed to be operated, but radial and hotbar menus are available for sure. The UI is quite clearly designed for use with a touchpad, so your mileage may vary, but it works okay in my tests.

nickthegreek 3y ago

Purchased a rog ally yesterday. The setup isn’t for the faint, as it’s basically a fresh windows install. Tinkered with it and got Diablo 4 running real nice.

crims0n 3y ago

I have both, I default to the Steam Deck for most things - but use the Ally for incompatible games, alternative launchers, and Gamepass.

theshrike79 3y ago

To my knowledge the ROG Ally is more of a gaming laptop replacement. Only get it if you want to play online shooters where anti-cheats don't work reliably on Linux/Proton. Or if you want the absolute best resolution and graphics in portable format. For single player games and people who don't expect their portable gaming device to be 4k/240FPS SD is better in every way.