The Asus ROG Ally is a solid portable gaming PC with Windows built in

The Nintendo Switch ushered in a new era of handheld gaming through its portable hybrid design and extensive library of games. Though Sony and Microsoft have yet to release anything remotely similar, PC gamers loyal to Valve’s Steam ecosystem championed the Steam Deck when it dropped early last year. Over a year later, Asus is entering the portable gaming PC market through the ROG Ally. Using a similar yet more powerful version of the Steam Deck’s AMD Zen and RDNA chipset, the Ally has a few noticeable advantages over the competition.

That includes its gorgeous 1080p LCD touchscreen, which packs a 120Hz refresh rate for ultra-smooth gaming. However, this portable PC’s biggest advantage is Windows 11. Unlike the Steam Deck that runs on its own operating system and requires tinkering to get Microsoft’s OS to work, the ROG Ally having it from the jump allows users to quickly use their favorite launchers, including Epic Store, EA Play, Ubisoft Connect, Blizzard.net, Xbox Game Pass app and even Steam.

After using the ROG Ally for a few weeks, here are our thoughts on Asus’ new portable gaming PC handheld.

What we liked about it

Respectable power inside a small handheld

The configuration of the Asus ROG Ally we received during our testing period was the higher-end AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme model. We played around eight different games from different launchers and found that having Windows 11 built in allows the handheld gaming PC to play just about anything without issue. One of the few issues we had when trying to launch a game revolved around standard Windows permissions and flipping various control modes to use things like keyboards.

The ROG Ally can run most of the latest blockbuster PC games — as long as your expectations are kept in order. During our Shadow of the Tomb Raider test, we received somewhere in the ballpark between 30 and 58 frames per second (fps) at 1080p while playing. Bumping the resolution down to 720p resulted in an even higher frame rate. Of course, Shadow of the Tomb Raider was released in 2018 and the game is visually still impressive even while on handheld.

Modern big AAA games like Diablo 4, Street Fighter 6 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 ran fine at 720p resolution at low to mid graphical settings. Online and off, these games performed pretty well at a consistent 60 fps, which is the ideal minimum for smooth, extra-responsive gameplay. Some of these games performed better if they were compatible with FidelityFX Super Resolution upscaling. This places 720p as the sweet spot visually, which is fine considering that the difference between 720p and 1080p is less noticeable on a small screen.

Having Windows 11 provides multiple opportunities outside of gaming

When using the Steam Deck, there are several complicated steps to get Windows 11 running on it. Having Windows 11 by default on the Asus ROG Ally takes away a lot of the busywork of getting games outside of the Steam ecosystem to work on the device.

As mentioned previously, digital launchers like the Epic Games Store for Fortnite, EA Play for Apex Legends and the Xbox Game Pass app and its massive library all worked exactly how they do on desktop or laptop. Meanwhile, a Steam OS-like app is included and works nearly as it does on the Steam Deck. Of course, having Windows 11 built in makes the device not only a dedicated gaming platform but a true Windows handheld as well.

Thanks to the ROG Ally’s DisplayPort-enabled USB-C port and Windows 11’s screen mirroring capabilities, this handheld is perfect for tasks outside of gaming. During testing, it was fairly easy to stream video content from Google Chrome to a hotel television. Having a keyboard and mouse handy allowed us to get some work done on Google Docs, and the built-in microphones are ideal for camera-less Zoom or Google Meet chats (if you need to show your face, you can always get a webcam that connects via USB-C).

While lying in bed with the ROG Ally, it was a pretty cool experience getting to lollygag on social media between game sessions. There are other nice perks, like connecting your mobile phone through Windows’ Phone app, which is a secure experience, thanks to the fingerprint scanner that doubles as the power button.

Great-looking 1080p display and audio quality

The ROG Ally’s 7-inch 1080p LCD touchscreen display is one of the best available at the moment for gaming PC handhelds. From gaming to watching video content to browsing the web, this handheld device has phenomenal image quality. Navigating Windows 11 on a smaller 7-inch display wasn’t difficult at all. Colors were bold and vibrant when needed, while blacks were perfectly deep. Text was adequately crisp and easy to read.

As of now, there isn’t a better way to enjoy PC games on the go than with the ROG Ally, at least in terms of visuals. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing out in the open sun or in a light-controlled room — games look great on this handheld. Rollerdrome’s stylistic cel-shaded visuals nearly popped off the screen and more AAA games like Forza Horizon 5 and Diablo 4 looked good enough to make us forget that they were running on lower visual settings.

Meanwhile, the speakers are good enough that you don’t really need headphones — unless you’re on an incredibly noisy airplane or train. The dual front-firing Smart Amp speakers feature Dolby Atmos, leading to rich audio quality and volume that can get pretty high. Keeping online gamers who like to communicate in mind, the Ally also packs two-way AI noise cancellation for incoming and outgoing audio.

What we didn’t like about it

Performance can’t quite keep up with the display

As we said before, 720p is definitely the sweet spot when playing AAA games that require  serious system requirements on the ROG Ally. Games that support FidelityFX Super Resolution upscaling will definitely be able to get the most out of the gaming PC handheld. It’s just a shame that many of the games will barely run well enough to take advantage of the 1080p screen or the zippy 120Hz refresh rate. If it’s giving these types of problems on the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme configuration, expect worse performance on the standard edition.

Trying to play Need for Speed Unbound at 1080p at mid to low settings only pumped up an average of 30 fps with dips to the low 20s. Dropping the resolution down to 720p and pushing to the highest performance setting of FidelityFX bumped it to an average 60 fps. When attempting to play Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, it sat between 25 and 40 fps depending on what was happening on screen even with super sampling.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was the only game released within the past year to reach the 120Hz display limit, and that took lowering all of the visual settings, placing the resolution at 720p and using FidelityFX. Also be mindful that using super sampling isn’t very popular, as it leads to this unattractive muddy effect to visuals.

While the Ally is more powerful than the Steam Deck, Valve’s handheld has an optimization program in place for many of the top games. This allows users to jump right into playing instead of spending time tinkering with visual settings, which can be time-consuming. One thing is for sure: If all else fails, go for the Steam Deck verified settings on the ROG Ally when playing games that support it.

If you want to take the standard power of the ROG Ally to the next level, users can hook it up to an expensive XG Mobile through the top XG Mobile Interface slot. This will give you the power of up to a high-end Nvidia RTX 3080 graphics card, but it will also set you back around $1,099.

Battery life is pretty low

There are three power modes for the Asus ROG Ally that are activated through the Command Center button located near the display’s upper right-hand corner. Turbo, Performance and Silent mode do exactly as their titles suggest.

Silent mode is really great for browsing the web and watching video while also helping preserve battery life at around five or so hours. Performance mode definitely works when playing most games that don’t require much horsepower, but Turbo mode is necessary for playing the bigger AAA titles.

When playing games like Star Wars Jedi: Survivor or Need for Speed Unbound on Turbo mode, the ROG Ally is going to only give you about an hour of gameplay tops. This means that AAA games like those or Diablo 4 and COD: MW 2 aren’t going to be great moments when flying bicoastal.

Considering this is a handheld dedicated to PC gaming at its highest available settings, the battery life here simply isn’t very good for long playing sessions. Thankfully, it charges pretty fast and takes a little under an hour to charge to full when you’re not gaming.

A few control and design issues

The all-white design of the Asus ROG Ally looks as premium as it feels, and its port selection — a microSD slot, headphone jack, ROG XG Mobile Interface and USB-C with DisplayPort 1.4 — is adequate for gaming both at home and on the go. However, two issues hurt the ROG Ally design in meaningful ways that take away from the experience.

While most of the ROG Ally’s controls (which include thumbsticks with customizable RGB lighting and programmable back and shoulder buttons) worked well, we had a big problem with the face buttons.

When playing fast action games like Street Fighter 6 and Forza Horizon 5, the buttons would occasionally get stuck at the wrong time. This happened frequently enough to become extremely frustrating. It’s a shame because the ROG Ally is comfortable to hold for several hours, but those face buttons are the absolute worst. Thankfully, since this is a Windows 11 machine, getting an alternative controller hooked up isn’t much of a problem.

As with the Steam Deck, the ROG Ally lacks a built-in kickstand. This means when trying to play with a controller, users are going to have to prop it up against something flat (or spring for a separate stand), which isn’t necessarily ideal.

How it compares

Your experience with the ROG Ally will depend on which version you get. We tested the higher-end AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme version with an 8-core AMD Zen 4 and AMD RDNA 3 GPU with 12 compute units at $699 — that’s $50 more than the highest Steam Deck configuration available. Or, users can go for the cheaper $599 6-core AMD Zen 4 and AMD RDNA 3 with six compute units, which sits in between the middle and high-end Steam Deck configurations in terms of price.

Bottom line

For PC gamers looking for an alternative to the Steam Deck, the Asus ROG Ally comes highly recommended. Having Windows 11 built in makes the device more than just a gaming PC handheld but a functional tablet as well. Using the operating system will be definitely more helpful for PC gamers who play on multiple game launchers or want to be able to get some basic tasks done between playing sessions.

The ROG Ally has some issues with base 1080p performance on graphically intensive games, and the controls could be better; however, it’s still an impressive piece of hardware that can serve as an amazing travel companion if one doesn’t want to carry a bulky gaming laptop with them.