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ASUS ROG Ally (Z1 Extreme) Review | MMORPG.com

SystemSystem Member UncommonPosts: 12,599
edited October 2023 in News & Features Discussion

imageASUS ROG Ally (Z1 Extreme) Review | MMORPG.com

Setting out to compete with Valve's Steam Deck, the ASUS ROG Ally (Z1 Extreme) aims to pack a ton of gaming power in the palm of your hand. But at $699, is the ASUS handheld worth the money?

Read the full story here


Comments

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,483
    This is much higher performance than a Steam Deck, but also burns a lot more power.
  • lotrlorelotrlore Managing EditorMMORPG.COM Staff, Member RarePosts: 662
    Quizzical said:
    This is much higher performance than a Steam Deck, but also burns a lot more power.
    Despite loving my Steam Deck, I really don't want to send the Asus back, lol.
  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,483
    edited October 2023
    We're probably going to see a lot more devices like this in the near future.  Valve had to pay AMD to make a custom chip for the Steam Deck.  Now that AMD has seen that the demand is there, they make chips optimized for this form factor so that any vendor can just buy the chips and go.

    Intel is likely to jump into this market, too, as the chiplet approach of Meteor Lake will make things like this a lot easier to do.  Catching up on process nodes will also help Intel a lot.

    Speaking of which, after Meteor Lake launches later this year, you should do a review of some device (likely a laptop) using only the integrated GPU, but get the top end one (with 8 Xe cores), preferably with a TDP of a least 28 W.  I think you'll be surprised at how well it performs, at least if the rumors about a giant L4 cache are true.  It's not going to be competitive with discrete GPUs, of course, but it is likely to be quite a bit faster than this device.
    Terazon
  • lotrlorelotrlore Managing EditorMMORPG.COM Staff, Member RarePosts: 662
    Quizzical said:
    We're probably going to see a lot more devices like this in the near future.  Valve had to pay AMD to make a custom chip for the Steam Deck.  Now that AMD has seen that the demand is there, they make chips optimized for this form factor so that any vendor can just buy the chips and go.

    Intel is likely to jump into this market, too, as the chiplet approach of Meteor Lake will make things like this a lot easier to do.  Catching up on process nodes will also help Intel a lot.

    Speaking of which, after Meteor Lake launches later this year, you should do a review of some device (likely a laptop) using only the integrated GPU, but get the top end one (with 8 Xe cores), preferably with a TDP of a least 28 W.  I think you'll be surprised at how well it performs, at least if the rumors about a giant L4 cache are true.  It's not going to be competitive with discrete GPUs, of course, but it is likely to be quite a bit faster than this device.
    Tagging @GameByNight in here for visibility.
  • Slapshot1188Slapshot1188 Member LegendaryPosts: 17,586
    Do you guys have a unit of the Legion Go to compare it to?

    I almost impulsively ordered one a week or so ago when it popped into my Email but figured it would just not get a lot of use.

    All time classic  MY NEW FAVORITE POST!  (Keep laying those bricks)

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    Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017. 

    Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018

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  • TerazonTerazon Member RarePosts: 407
    This looks awesome 
  • WordsworthWordsworth Member UncommonPosts: 173
    I’ve been on the fence about picking one of these up since launch.

    Love that apu, but i can’t shake the feeling that something better is always around the corner with these handheld devices.

    Also the sticks are a tad loose for my taste.
  • AngrakhanAngrakhan Member EpicPosts: 1,750
    I'm so rarely on the go that I see the need for one of these, but if I were a road warrior I could totally see wanting to pack one of these to game on versus one of those boat anchor gaming laptops.
  • TalinTalin Member UncommonPosts: 923
    edited October 2023
    I had one of these and returned it for a Steam deck. The battery life difference is a huge factor, as I was getting 1-1.5 hrs per charge. Sure I could have dropped the brightness and lowered the resolution, but it just is not well optimized in its current state.

    The other thing that doesn't get highlighted heavily is the lack of quick save/soft shutdown. The ASUS runs windows, for better or worse, and operates the same as if you went to put your PC in sleep or standby mode.

    For people who want to easily run all of the different non-Steam loaders, it is great, although the Armory Crate is still a bit buggy when I used it but it does give a central hub across different loader ecosystems (Steam/Epic/Blizzard/etc).

    You absolutely can get better looking and some additional performance on this compared to a Steam deck, but at the cost of battery life and heat. I also found the ergonomics of the device to not be as good as the Steam Deck, and finally it lacks the mouse control sliders on the back of the Steam - navigating Windows is a pain using an analogue or sub-performing touchscreen (plus, fingerprints in your gaming view).

    I returned and have not looked back with the mid-range Steam deck, and treated myself to a few games with the savings. :)
  • lotrlorelotrlore Managing EditorMMORPG.COM Staff, Member RarePosts: 662
    Slapshot1188 said:
    Do you guys have a unit of the Legion Go to compare it to?

    I almost impulsively ordered one a week or so ago when it popped into my Email but figured it would just not get a lot of use.

    No, but it's something we're looking into already. So, stay tuned, we hope *fingers crossed*
    Slapshot1188Terazon
  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,483
    Wordsworth said:
    Love that apu, but i can’t shake the feeling that something better is always around the corner with these handheld devices.
    There's always something better coming eventually.  In terms of a better APU, that's probably at least a year away.
  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,483
    Talin said:
    I had one of these and returned it for a Steam deck. The battery life difference is a huge factor, as I was getting 1-1.5 hrs per charge. Sure I could have dropped the brightness and lowered the resolution, but it just is not well optimized in its current state.
    AMD says that the chip has a configurable TDP of 9-30 W.  Asus set it at 25 W by default.  You could likely improve the battery life a lot by reducing that in the BIOS, at least if Asus made that option available.  That will come at the expense of performance, however.
  • GameByNightGameByNight Hardware and Technology EditorMMORPG.COM Staff, Member RarePosts: 808

    lotrlore said:


    Quizzical said:

    We're probably going to see a lot more devices like this in the near future.  Valve had to pay AMD to make a custom chip for the Steam Deck.  Now that AMD has seen that the demand is there, they make chips optimized for this form factor so that any vendor can just buy the chips and go.

    Intel is likely to jump into this market, too, as the chiplet approach of Meteor Lake will make things like this a lot easier to do.  Catching up on process nodes will also help Intel a lot.

    Speaking of which, after Meteor Lake launches later this year, you should do a review of some device (likely a laptop) using only the integrated GPU, but get the top end one (with 8 Xe cores), preferably with a TDP of a least 28 W.  I think you'll be surprised at how well it performs, at least if the rumors about a giant L4 cache are true.  It's not going to be competitive with discrete GPUs, of course, but it is likely to be quite a bit faster than this device.


    Tagging @GameByNight in here for visibility.



    Already in talks about exactly this :-)
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