Customer Ratings & Reviews

The ROG Ally is priced very competitively in the market space against handhelds like the Steam Deck & Ayaneo 2. However it’s held back by hardware flaws and software bugs. For raw performance the turbo mode (30w) is absolutely fantastic, there isn’t a single game you can’t easily play. On the flip side the Zen 4/RDNA3 SoC used in the Ally is horrible at lower power setting (which is kind of important for a handheld). At 10w the Ally is considerably slower than the older Zen3 6800U in the Ayaneo 2. The last photo in my review show the Ally running roughly 35% slower at 10w. This same performance disparity at lower wattage can be seen between the Ally & Steam Deck as well. As in most cases the Steam Deck ties or beats the Ally at anything below 15w. Maybe this is a just immature drivers but this makes the $700 a hard sell compared to the $350 Deck. The other elephant in the room is the widely reported SD card issue. My Ally ran my SD card fine until about the 5 week, just outside of the return window my SD card reader died. At this time it’s hard to say if this is a driver issue, or hardware issue but regardless it’s been 3 weeks+ without an actual update from Asus on a fix for the issue. My last gripes with the Ally is the small storage & ram (given the issue with the SD cards this is a big deal). Flash memory is insanely cheap now, with 1tb drives costing $40-60, Asus could have put a 1tb drive in the Ally for another $20-25. They also should have included 20gb instead of 16gb of ram, since the Z1 SoC is an APU so it uses your ram for VRAM. Now with games like Last of Us using 8gb+ of VRAM and Windows consuming 2-3gb, it only leaves you 4-5gb for the games. Again another 4gb ram module would cost $20. My last hardware complaint is the lack of Hall Effect sensors. At this point they cost basically the same as regular joysticks. Bad: 1. 16gb of ram can easily become a bottleneck when playing games that require 8gb of VRAM 2. No Hall Effect Sensors (very noticeable deadzone issues) 3. Small 512GB storage for a $700 device 4. Weak performance at lower wattage modes 5. SD Card reader failure 6. Sticky buttons & D-pad The Good: 1. Fantastic 20w+ performance 2. More affordable then devices like the Ayaneo 3. 120hz screen is amazing 4. Easy to upgrade (joysticks and NVME are easily accessible) 5. Windows OS adds so much flexibility 6. Armory Crate is surprisingly polished

This handheld is great for on the go gaming. The main issue I have with it is the battery, but there are accessories that give you quality of life improvements that will be included in the pictures with this review. These accessories have made the experience much more enjoyable as the default grips are uncomfortable in my hands, but I know that this is different for everybody. The other accessory that I have been using is the joystick extensions. The joysticks are the only other problem with this device, as the joysticks are a little loose and have some drift. However, the new update that they released does help alleviate some of those issues. I would also recommend getting joystick locks that will prevent the joysticks from getting caught on anything when being taken out of a case or bag, the battery accessory with a clip that carries a portable battery pack on the back of the Ally has been a great addition to this as well. In terms of performance, I’ve thrown a few AAA games at it such as cyberpunk, Need For Speed, Overwatch, and was able to download an app to play World of Warcraft successfully, with the controller setup. The oppurtunities are endless with this device…. even emulated games as it is basically just a full Windows 11 PC. If you’re looking to get into PC gaming or even being able to play those PC games on a big screen with the dock, then this is the device for you. Be sure to get the accessories and maybe even a screen protector. Do not bother with an SD card as it may get cooked, unless you are not using it for long periods. Volume can be pretty loud, but can get a little distorted at higher volumes. It is awesome to be able to just move the usb-c cord from my work laptop to this and kill some time on a mid range gaming PC. Get an open-box one as they are typically barely touched, because people did not like the fact that you had to go through a Windows serup and configuring software etc. Overall 7/10, excited for the second iteration and the start of high end PC gaming at your fingertips.

Since my first review was taken down for some reason I have decided to update it with a few more observations and have deducted a star. I will be comparing the Ally with my Steam Deck that I've had for 8 months. First, the positives. The hardware! The 1080p 120hz with VRR (variable refresh rate) is way better than I'm used to with my steam deck. Color accuracy, text clarity, motion performance are all way better. It's hard to go back to using the deck after using the Ally. The Zen 4 APU is in a different class of performance (more on this later). The Ally is smaller and lighter and feels more premium in hand. Armoury Crate works quite well - better than I anticipated. Lots of functionality that's needed to provide a great user experience. Having the ability to customize power profiles/fan curves and the ability to set the VRAM to 8gb is a huge plus for more demanding games. The game launcher works great, the performance overlay is neat, and there's a ton of other customizability I could mention that would make this review even longer than it is. Buttons and analog sticks are good. The front facing speakers sound fantastic, and get quite loud. Thermals are also very good under normal use. Fans are quiet. The things that are more "neutral"- The rgb. There's not much of it and I just turned mine off. I like how having the Ally white makes it stand out, but I feel like over time it will stain with skin oil/etc. It takes some time to almost "re-learn" how to hold the Ally compared to the Deck. You have to sorta shift your hands higher and rest the rounded bottom corners in your palm. It is comfortable to use once you figure out the right way to hold it. The Negatives- 512gb isn't enough storage. I can't find the toggle in Armoury Crate to disable the startup sound. Armoury crate is good, but seems to get in the way often. The performance overlay is in the top right corner, which makes it impossible to just click on the X to close something. Sometimes when I bring up the quick menu in a game I get "you are using x Controller mode" messages. That's not necessary. There's a bit of lag in game when altering quick settings. FPS limiter seems broken. It doesn't limit frame rates when adjusted in game. The included 'stand' is painful. If it was this cheap stand or nothing I would prefer the nothing option. Official accessories appear to be overpriced. (a soft case for $40???) Yeah. The battery. There's more to it, though. It's tied to what I'm going to discuss next- The Ally does a TERRIBLE job at power/frequency management. All around. It's why my review says "needs time to bake". At idle on the desktop, APU power doesn't go below 4 watts. For context, the Steam Deck is able to clock/power down at idle down to less than 1 watt. I've found often that in quiet and performance modes the GPU gets 'stuck' at 800mhz. It seems like only the CPU is allocated any power and performance TANKS when this happens. In The Witcher 3 when the GPU is at 1200-1400mhz I can get ~45 fps and at 800mhz it slows to a painful 20 fps. This is something the Steam Deck is way better at. If the CPU isn't really needed with a game running on the Deck, it will give the GPU more power and higher clock frequencies - again depending on the workload which allows for more performance at lower power targets. AMD and ASUS need to get this fixed as it seems to me that it's a BIOS/firmware/driver issue. There needs to be a better algorithm (optimization?) to determine how to allocate power available to the CPU/GPU, better idle power consumption (of sub 1 watt), and if necessary a way to 'turn off' some of the CPU cores to boost performance at lower power targets. This is why this device has such poor battery life. Further optimization is sorely needed. Lastly, the left side of the Ally on the back where you might rest your fingers if not using the triggers tends to get hot. I guess that's the price to pay for having a smaller device? This will be a highly recommended handheld if AMD and ASUS can get some of this optimization done.

This product is great at what it’s meant to do: Play PC games completely from a mobile standpoint. However, what it has in flair and features, it lacks in practicality and the shortcomings do show. Pros: - Well built chassis with a premium feel - Analog sticks are good quality - Screen is vibrant with a nice glossy finish to make colors pop - Nice resolution at 1080p - Excellent speakers and sound quality - Ability to play any PC game on the go - The Z extreme AMD chip delivers great performance for what it try’s to do Cons: - Poor optimization for Windows 11. This will hopefully be fixed in future windows updates (as they expand their mobile UI capabilities. - Confusing update cycles. You need to go to multiple different spots for updates. - Poor battery life makes you wish you were always connected to a battery. This is even on a custom 17W mode. - SD card issues that still persist make using the slot a risk, essentially hampering your storage space significantly. - Game performance varies a lot on this device. I do recommend 720p for more games to be acceptable at 60+ frames. You will likely never fully utilize the 120hz refresh rate. 720p with AMDs super resolution upscaling actually keeps 1080p fidelity. Would I recommend it? If you absolutely need a handheld now.. sure. If you CAN wait for the next generation, do yourself a favor and hang on before buying it.

I bought this instead of Steam Deck. I was going back and forth and when I did you can’t play Destiny 2 on a SD, this cemented my choice. I’m SO happy with this little device. It really is great. The screen is fantastic, and bright. The colors are vivid. The device isn’t really loud either, even when the fans are on full blast. I also find it comfortable to hold for long periods of time. I also find that it plays nearly all of my games with ease. Now for some cons: the battery life is not great when playing at max cpu levels (this should be fairly obvious). The official case for it isn’t included like a steam deck, and even if it was, I’d probably complain about it because it’s not as good as some aftermarket cases. I also wish for the price, it came with 1 TB of memory as standard issue. For the higher price point this device is at, I think Asus could make that happen. Also, maybe include a better dock/stand. The one included is comically bad. But at least I was able to use my 3d printer and print out a better one. Lastly, I’m not super thrilled about having to use full Windows 11 on it. It’s a necessary evil, but I wish Microsoft had a special streamlined “console edition” manufacturers could use for devices like this. Overall, I’m really happy with the device. It was my Xmas present to myself. And I’m very glad I made the jump. I’m an old gamer (40s), and when I was younger, I had a Sega GameGear. This gives me that nostalgia vibes.

I play PS5 and PC games...but was looking for a way to play games quicker and closer to my wife. Wanted something that i could grab and start up a game while making the kids lunch, playing a a little bit then being able to put it away easy. Gaming on the go. This also is an easy thing to grab and play a game while watching a movie with my wife. We can sit there and my ADHD brain can bounce from game to movie and its a great time! She enjoys watching move mobies and I get to continue playing games! Loved the PSP, Switch was great but it dosnt have the game library that i have on PS5 and PC. This solved it all. This review is all my opinions as a gamer, above average tech user, father, and husband.... I just want to have some fun im not trying to have a product thats going to change the world... but anyway back to topic. PROS: This thing feels great to hold (could be a little fatter in the grip area...) and is a nice weight. The screen looks amazing, the colors, refresh, touch sensitivity...for me everything about the screen is great! I was pleasantly surprised with the rumble...With all the research I did I can say I don't remember anyrhing talking about this. But its fun. The speakers are outstanding.... not gonna lie...was playing call of the wild on it and I kept hearing crickets/bugs behind me... I did....i kept turning around trying to digure out what the hell was making the noise........yeah....I felt fairly sumb after that. BUT that made me love the speakers. Armory crate is great......most of the time. There have been a few issues ive had with it and it can be frustrating. When it works properly its actually really helpful and a smooth experience! The quick menu is a great way to change and twaek settings for what i plan on playing for the session. Every game i have tried runs overall pretty great. I am not the biggest "MORE FRAMES! BETTER GRAPHICS!" Kind of person. So when i found that just about every game i tried can run high graphics and is smooth (hefty games when on 25 watt or 30 watt plugged in)....i was very happy! (I wont play competitive games on it, im sure they would really have a problem but i have better ways to play those.) Games tried - Baldur's Gate 3, Star Wars Fallen Order, Call of the Wild, Multiversus, Broforce, PSRemote play, and a few others. So far cooling is no issue, this thing really kicks hot air out. CONS: For me, the back buttons are ehhh...they work and feel allllright. Not amazing but accpetable. Not sure what i would do for a change though. The battery life is definitely the BIGGEST con for the entire system. Depending on game and watt mode....i can play for a couple hours to 30 minutes............ will say though. The included charger, is great. It keeps it running and depending on what im playing will get the battery back to full in no time, while playing! Windows 11 is not exactly thier issue but it can be picky and finicky.... which makes armory crate freak out a bit. A way to quickly disable the touch screen would be nice too...too many times i catch a glare and see a smudge, go to wipe it off and all the sudden cancelled everything i was doing.......... Storage isn't the greatest... its like 475 gig. If you really obly plan on keeping 2 or 3 large games around at a time then its fine, but I like to have options and since most games are now hitting closer to 150gb..............under 500gb for storage is a bit rough. TLDR: To sum it all up...this is the machine I wanted but did not realize how much I would enjoy it. Runs great, looks great, feels great...its great!

An interesting, powerful, handheld gaming PC. Certainly not without it's faults, but an amazing device if you have need for a handheld Gaming device. I've had a handful of issues that have apparently been prevalent with other ROG ally owners, such as SD cards being fried, SD card reader failing and most frustrating for me, the left bumper not functioning. Despite these shortcomings, I love this device. I travel a lot for work, so I don't often get time to sit in front of a laptop or desktop to play games, it gives me a more free experience. Performance is great, I've yet to encounter any games that won't run with decent settings. It constantly blows me away with how powerful it is despite its small form factor. Pros: Great device for PC gaming, yet to encounter anything it won't run (even if sometimes settings have to be set to the lower end) Great screen Form factor is comfortable (I have large hands, so this is important to me) Speakers are nice, buttons feel great. -upgradable SSD Cons: -I am not thrilled with ASUS' nor Best Buy's support for this device. This is a pretty big downside, my only advice from ASUS was to send it in for an RDA. -SD card reader issues are in abundance. Do a search on Reddit and see all the users who have had these issues. -normally, a 512gb sdd isn't the worst, but given the lack of SD card slot in my case (and for many other users) this is an issue. Overall, I love this thing. But I just can't recommend it from the issues I've had and the lack of support.

The good: - Incredibly fast and snappy plugged in - Beautiful high refresh rate screen - Excellent sticks and buttons - Feels lighter than its peers - Somewhat more portable than some of its peers - Fairly quiet fans when they do idle - Excellent looks - Plays anything that runs on Windows - Fun RGB accents - Standby/Hibernate works in many games - Armoury Crate is, for once, not terrible The bad: - Unexpectedly slow and only just comparable in speed with its peers when unplugged - Stick mouse controls fairly annoying to use - Difficult to navigate Windows with the touchscreen - Fans ramp up often even at idle making it louder than its peers at idle - Tons and tons of updates spread across three different places (Windows Update, Armoury Crate, myASUS) - Chunky bezels - Some apps think it’s a 1080x1920 device and freak out - Modern standby is garbage The ugly: - WiFi busted out of the box and would constantly only connect to 2.4GHz that runs at awful speeds (fixed by preferring 5GHz band in Device Manager) - Difficult to get more than 2 hours of battery life, let alone 1 hour - Performance can be worse than 2 generation old hardware when unplugged - Only the packed USB-C charger works well with Turbo mode; other chargers will show a warning and sometimes charging will just suddenly stop Recommendation: If you already have another handheld, this is one to miss this generation. To get the most out of it, you will be tethered to a wall outlet. Unless you absolutely need this form factor, you should be looking at the G14 or something similar. However, given it’s price, this is the best Windows handheld all around. But ask yourself, do you really need it?

The ROG Ally was my first introduction to the handheld gaming pc space. When it comes to performance, there are few that come close to it within its class, especially with the Z1 Extreme processor. The majority of games, with the exception of some AAA titles, run as good as you can get for a handheld. The 120hz LCD screen is also a nice plus. HOWEVER, the blessing and curse of this device is the software, namely Windows, in my opinion. If you like tweaking settings, installing mods, and are okay with typical Windows quirks, then this device is perfect for you. However, if you want a machine that boots up and just plays games with little hassle, you may want to look towards a Steam Deck or even look into installing a Linux-based OS designed for handhelds. Armory Crate SE certainly does a great job of hiding certain Windows issues, but you will still encounter a bug here and there. Typically, the bugs are quick fixes, though. Battery life is okay, with my top end at around 3 hours and bottom at around 1 hour. It really depends on the games/tasks you’re using and the TDP you set it to. For example, I was able to play Halo 2 on this device at 1080p normal graphics for close to 2 hours at 12-15W before the battery started getting somewhat low. Honestly, that’s plenty of time for me, but if battery life is a concern for you, a power bank would most likely cover those issues. Now for the other parts: The speakers were great for what they are, and the joysticks were a little loose for my tastes. The weight of the actual device is light but not cheap feeling. I have a case on mine, but I don’t think you’ll really need it unless you’re carrying it around in your backpack all day with a bunch of other items. The screen is a great LCD panel, but sometimes the slightly raised black level as compared to an OLED screen did cause minor issues in terms of visibility on same games. Usually this is easily remedied by changing gamma settings in game. All in all, as a first generation product, the ROG Ally Z1X is a great all rounder, with the main issues really coming from typical Windows bugs you see every once in a while. If you are okay and/or used to that, then this device is for you.

I really love what they've done with incorporating Windows 11 on this device. I felt like setting it up was a little bit of a chore, as I had to use an external dock to get the keyboard to work so that I could enter all of the information in. But now that I've created a restore point I've installed all my software and I have everything set up, this device is really solid and really makes me happy that I purchased it. If you're going to go with the steam deck or the Ally focus on if 120 HZ is important to you or not. Something to consider with the steam deck is if you actually use a broken Max or some sort of usb-c glasses device it may actually not make sense to get the Ally because then you can actually use your glasses with the steam deck for a lesser price. I got my Ally because I already have the steam deck and I really wanted to try to find out which was the better device. My verdict is that the steam deck is the better device for low poly games and for General use, any Ally is more of a PC replacement. If you mess with the fov adjustment in the Oculus settings and make it slightly less you can actually play some VR games on the Ally using the quest link and a dock that has 3.0 USB compatibility. I recommend the Ally if you've got more money to spend and are looking for something that replaces the PC to a certain degree. I recommend the steam deck in cases where you are looking for something easy to set up and more user friendly with software updates. I have both and I think they both serve a really good purpose. The screen is phenomenal on the Ally because it has freesync and you can mess with the settings a little bit more using the AMD software center to get the AMD card to totally get configurable whereas in the steam deck you really have to rely on their drivers. However if your smart like me and you put Windows 11 on your steam deck this is not an issue because you can actually put the AMD software Center on it by installing an extracted version of AMD adrenaline for a different driver. I think that both serve a really good purpose and that the Ally is trying to be more of a PC with gaming capabilities out-competing the steam deck and that the steam deck is trying to be more of a dedicated gaming device for Valve to sell more games. The steam deck has an entire community of people who build software for it whereas the Ally has a couple things you can do but it's really more of a Windows 11 decice, more generic but not in a bad way.

Performance: Its a great alternative to having a laptop. It has the power and capabilities of a PC but much more portable than a laptop. Runs demanding games really good, (Ive only tried Cyberpunk 2077 on the highest settings. Idk about any other demanding games). Battery life will be a problem if you run max settings and you do not have a portable power bank. Personally I never use this outside my house so it never leaves its charing cable. Controls: The control scheme setup is a bit wonky. If you use Steam to play your games, its a bit difficult to use on the Ally. I had to disable Steam Setup in the game settings on the Steam Library to be able to play. I use the ROG Ally as my controller and Idk how using a XBox/PS4-5 controller feels or how well it operates with the Ally. Memory: It only has 512Gb storage. I bought a 1Tb MircoSD to help expand its small capacity. Installing the chip is very easy as its a slot at the top of the handheld and the machine recognized it and I was able to store games and data onto it very easily. Screen: It is a touchscreen so that did kinda trip me out when I was able to bring up the Windows Startup screen by swiping up. It takes some getting used to but now that Ive tinkered with it for more than a week, it feels fluid and simple. You can change its resolution by pressing the bottom left button located at the top of the screen. You can change it from 720p 60Hz to 1080p 120Hz. You can enable Real-Time monitor so you can see what FPS youre getting on low-med-high settings. FPS Limiter so if you need to save a bit of battery, you can activate this feature.

The rog ally is a love and hate relationship. At times its amazing and the power is there for a handheld. Indy games at 1080p, 120 fps locked is truly awsome. Not everything will hit that taget, but thats the point of pc gaming, finding what settings and resolutions work best for you. A lot of moden AAA games i run at 720p for the better framerates. That being said there is some jank. The first brand new ally freaked out during the windows setup and completely locked me out of windows. I exchanged it. Went threw that whole set up process and no issues the secound time around. Sometimes feels like system will have a mind of its own and start doing to wierd stuff. For exsample I shut down my rog when not in use to conserve the battery life. Upon turning it back on it was in like a slow motion state. Taking about 5 mins to boot. So tryed hard restarting and same thing. Everything was at a snails pace. Well decided to plug power into the handheld and came right back to life. Wierd for sure but glad it was nothing major. Speaking of power delivery lets talk battary life. It sucks, if your coming from the steam deck this will be noticeably worse if running in turbo so hope your ready to sit next to a outlit. Unless your running indy games. not a lot of games will run off the 10 watt mode. Well, they will run if you like slide shows but yeah, i digress. The screen is top notch for a handheld and that 120htz vrr display is just the cream of the crop. It really is stunning for a lcd display and a higlight of the handheld for sure. Next i want to mention hand feel. Its different, I have heard people say its more comfortable then the steam deck. At times it is. At times im trying to ajust my grip on this machine. Its hard to explain but its hit and miss. If your sitting at a table or desk where you can take the weight off your hands and just play then the comfort is awesome, but if you're holding up in front of your face, it's awkward. The plastic feels a lot like a series x/s standard controller, which is not a bad thing. The back bottons are a lot more usable than i thought they would have been and can set them up with each game individually. Never had any of the bottons stick on me and really do like the placement of all the bottons. The sticks feel really good to use, and i personally like the tension. Its a little less rigid as something like a steamdeck but feels good in its own way. The dead zone out the box is awsome. I heard complaints aboht this in other reviews but for me it was very responsive. Asus needs to really flush out there softwear (as much as they can considering its windows) but so far they have been doing a ok job with the updates. I really hope they keep up that same energy but only time will tell. Now, heres the big one. The sd card reader. I really cant comment because i don't use one in there yet, but I do plan on installing emulation station and seeing if the card frys over time. If you are new to pc handhelds and can google problems then this handheld should just fine for you. If you are someone that does not want to tinker with setting or troubleshooting problems then i would not pick up this device. Maybe get a steamdeck or a switch but for those that love gaming and love messing with stuff to see if it will work than this is the product for you. Thank you for reading my random rambling and unorganized review. Had a lot to say and wrote a review for a chance to win a 400 dollar gift card. Figures crossed.

It is a good handheld. But it takes some technical work and patience. One important thing to note: “It is not ease of use and an out of the box experience.” (Prepare for alot of updates) This is a performance beast but at the cost of battery life, but with the right TDP watt limit and settings it can slightly last for 2-3 hours of play time. 512gb of storage also fills up pretty fast. I would recommend planning to get more storage in the future. It also has a nice 1980x1080p 120hrtz display. Armory crate software is nice but it has some minor issues which will eventually be patched. I would like to mention that sometimes the handheld device does get hot. Like I said before this handheld takes time and patience, but if you do have time and patience you will be rewarded in the end, it is very useful to me on the go seeing I barely have time to play my consoles at home and I use it to get some of my work done. If you want something that you can play games on the go with decent performance, at a somewhat affordable price. This would be the handheld device for you. I recommend this to anyone willing to give it a shot.

Pros: -Best PC handheld currently -1080p IPS screen -If you're a Windows expert, this OS is right up your ally (no pun intended) -'Most' games run well if you run at 720p & normal to low graphics settings Cons: -This is NOT an open box and go experience like a Nintendo Switch -Like most IPS screens, you might have some slight IPS glow -Initial set up was not smooth -Took me at least 2 hours to get this thing to run the way 'I' wanted it to run. You treat this like a new PC -Battery life is atrocious. To get more battery life, you have to compromise performance/graphics -512GB of storage can barely store more than a handful of games. And even if you get a microSD card, running games on that card isn't as fast as running it via the Ally's internal SSD Overall: This is a handheld PC with Windows 11. With that said, this comes with all the shenanigans that PC gamers deal with on a regular basis with a normal PC rig. So if you're a PC gamer, all these little knick knacks that come with Windows 11 and the headaches of PC gaming should be nothing new to you. BUT, if you're able to tweak everything the way you want it via Windows 11 on the Ally, this thing is a beast. You can actually connect it to a monitor, use a USB hub to connect keyboard, mouse and/or controller and treat it like a mini gaming PC. Overall, I think it's a great handheld. It's not perfect and if you don't have the patience of a person who uses Windows 11, this might not be for you.

I absolutely love my ally. I've been searching for the past few years for a handheld that could check ALL the boxes for me. Steam deck was great, but I didn't like linux and performance is just okay and the screen was pretty meh. Logitech's GCloud was nice but the emulation performance was mid. The razer edge was just a repackaged phone. The Ally is the best of each of them. Stellar performance from a handheld that can play a ton of games at 60fps (and higher) and even those that run at 40-50fps punch up due to the ally's VRR and 120hz refresh rate. Speaking of VRR and the ally's beautiful 120hz screen, streaming things like game pass and GeForce Now has also never been better than with this handheld. Emulation on the ally is a breeze, esp with something like emudeck that makes it super easy for anyone to put 100s of their favorite retro games on the device. Its not all rainbows, the updating process is tedious when setting up the device the first time. There are lots of people reporting SD card failures after extended use, myself included, I've also lost an SD card to the ally already. I just put in an SSD and quit using the SD card altogether. The swap is super easy, 6 screws, unplug & replug. Problem solved.

All I can say is this little thing plays anything from older games from my childhood to the most demanding titles of today up to Cyberpunk 2077 without skipping a beat. The Rog Ally Z1 Extreme has phenomenal audio, an amazing crisp/clear screen, the performance of the Z1 Extreme AMDCPU/APU is amazing. If you want something for on the go while traveling, or on the couch that is small and compact that will play anything you throw at it. Then look no further this little powerhouse delivers for what it is. The only thing you may want to think about is upgrading the storage to a 1-2TB 2230 m.2, its super easy to do. I would suggest it if you have a large PC game library like myself over multiple windows digital distribution services. Bestbuy thanks for getting it to me so fast. Asus thank you again for another Amazing product. This is also for the 90 day extended warranty program. If you are on the fence, just get it! This is an amazing little handheld windows pc to play all your AAA Games on anywhere.

Note: I have returned the ally at the time of writing due to already having a top of the line pc and gaming laptop though do plan on picking it up in the future for gaming outside of my house. This review is written in regards to the ROG Ally Z1 Extreme and not the non extreme version. My first impression is that it won't be replacing my pc as my main source of gaming entertainment, but it can definitely work well at certain times. 1) Storage looks great but with the amount of storage games take up I wish that there was an option to opt for 1tb or even 2tb from the factory, especially with the issue of the sd card slot getting too hot and damaging the sd card thats inserted. Note: ASUS do plan on implementing a fix but Im unsure if it has already happened or not so do research if needed. 2) Performance is not going to replace your top of the line gaming pcs in terms of graphics power, but it is solid for its price and even its size. Even though you won't be cranking graphics to max you can definitely enjoy games with solid fps as long as you tone the graphics down. 3) Controller and just controls in general were actually amazing, armory crate worked well, and the ease of access to different power profiles and fan speed settings was a very welcome feature. Also being able to change the refresh rate of the screen to save battery if needed was nice too. 4) Battery life is rough when you're going full tilt at the highest power profile but with the different power profiles you can make the battery last. The included charger is quick and speedy, but I do think that the charger hdmi all in one accessory should have come in the box as it blows the included one out of the water due to having the hdmi and having the wire be detachable so replacment of said wire is an option. All in All I will definitely recommend this as an entry to pc games/gaming as it is a very solid option, you can play all the games that you would be able to on a normal PC right out of the box unlike the steamdeck and you have access to xbox game pass for pc/ultimate. Definitely recommend it for a good holiday gift for any aspiring gamers that want to play pc games. Besides gaming this machine is also solid at being a normal pc albeit needing a dongle/dock to plug in more than one device such as a mouse and keyboard. Side Note: You can technically use it as a powerful gaming pc by buying an external graphics card that is compatible with the ROG Ally but note that its worth investing into and actual PC because of the prices of these external cards.

Had high hopes for this device, and they have mostly been met. I only have a few complaints, but significantly more satisfaction. Games run very well on it. Far Cry 5 ran at no lower than 31 Fps, Project Wingman fluctuated from 33-60 fps. Forza Horizon 5 ran smoothly at 60fps... all on performance mode. The only 2 games I've had an issue with were Tmodloader for Terraria not responding to any controls once I load a world, and Ace Combat 7 which runs smoothly at 50fps on Turbo mode, but absolutely drives the cooling insane to the point where the fans start spinning so fast, they start shaking the system, leading me to shut it down. The console feels great in my hand. It's gonna take me a bit to get used to the control layout since I'm used to using a Playstation 4 controller, but anyone who has felt comfortable with an Xbox One controller should feel right at home. One of my gripes is the storage. The Ally was advertised with 512Gb, yet my settings show I have 476Gb, with 150Gb or so of that being taken up by Armory Crate. I understand some essential software takes up some storage, but my total storage is less than advertised. I have an SD card coming in. I also have an issue with sleep mode, where the device turns the screen and RGBs off to save battery. My problem is that occasionally, the screen refuses to turn back on, so I have to hold my power button for 10 seconds to restart the device. Battery life is also an issue. I get around 3.5-4 hours of playtime before I have to plug it in. Asus is supposedly working on updates to improve this, so I won't complain too much about it. Other than the gripes I've listed, I'm having alot of fun with my system and I'm very happy I pre-ordered it.

This is very convinient for myself. I wanted something that I can take on the go if needed. So busy with life, that most days I don't have the luxury to sit down and game for hours on my PS5 at my desk. This is a little more convenient, and the fact that it is a small PC, makes it great. It is not restricted to only gaming, you can browse the web. The only down sides are 2 major things that I was aware of; the battery life, within 2 to 3 hours you will need to reacharge, the low storage, this only comes with 512GB which is nothing for today's videogames,and the SD card slot has been known for failing due to heat. I will still stand by this product and say it was worth the money.

I bought thos because I didnt want to be locked into linux os and I'm pretty familiar with windows. It sets up just like a computer or laptop would. The screen on this thing is freaking awesome and crsip. It handles alot of AAA games well, but you will need to adjust your settings. The included space on the ssd is okay, just okay, since my purchase at the beginning of the month i have since upgraded to a 2tb ssd. Depending on your game settings the battery will not last long at all, i get about 2-ish hours on ff7 remake. Having said that it is a portable and a power hungry portable gaming pc with a built in screen so it is expected. I have about if not over 100 hours of using it and it's been solid. Even with the battery and storage shortcomings i still give it 4 stars just because maybe another hour or so of battery would help a ton, but the way i see it if you're out and about all day are you really gonna be gaming for hours on end? It gets the job done its fast and capable and I dont regret my purchase at all