Last year, a new gaming device became a bestseller — Steam Deck, which made handheld gaming PCs affordable. But it wasn’t enough as the device was restricted to certain markets. So here is Asus ROG Ally, which opens up the gaming landscape, thanks to its more-traditional Windows experience offering.

The device is part of Asus’ Republic of Gamers line of products and it’s something I have been hooked to for many days. Since it has Windows 11 — unlike the Linux-based SteamOS on Steam Deck — there is a wide range of possibilities, playing games from Steam to the Epic Game Store to Xbox Game Pass. Here are our thoughts on Asus ROG Ally.

A display that dazzles

There are three main things that make ROG Ally stand out from the competition — display, performance and the fact that you can play all your games. In the box, you get the device and a 65W adapter, which will get this from zero to 50 per cent in around 30 minutes.

The flat ABXY buttons have a nice springy return

Let’s start with the display. Most devices in this category normally have 720p resolution. ROG Ally not only has a seven-inch 1080p full HD IPS display but it also has a 120Hz refresh rate. Sure, 720p at 60 hertz is usable, especially if you want to prioritise battery life, but coming from super sharp smartphones, the difference is noticeable when using the ROG Ally. It’s sharper and games look absolutely stunning. At 500nits, it’s also brighter compared to the others, making it easier to view outdoors and has a seven millisecond response time with adaptive sync.

The screen is made from Gorilla Glass Victus and features Corning Gorilla Glass DXC coating that reduces surface reflections, increases hardness by around 40 per cent, helps with scratch resistance and gives you better visibility outdoors. All of this makes this the best display for a handheld gaming PC out there. Add to this the loud front-firing dual stereo speakers that make gaming as well as watching movies a joy.

Surprisingly silent

Coming to the design, the first thing you will notice is how light the device is — 608g and it’s made with reinforced white polycarbonate, so it’s not painted; you’re not going to have to worry about paint peeling off.

There are curved handles that are moulded to fit the natural shape of your hand. Ideally, you would want to use this leaning on a desk or on your lap and I think that’s where it’s most comfortable, especially if you’re going to be using this for long hours.

Being an ROG device, there is ROG lighting around the joysticks, and you can customise these with your favourite Aura Sync patterns. Internally, there is ROG’s Zero Gravity thermal system and this has dual fans. Other devices in this category normally have one fan. The only place where I’ve really noticed any heat is around the top, but when you’re gaming you’re not affected by that at all.

The Ally uses a thumb stick for navigation, even in Windows, and the trigger buttons work well

It’s surprisingly silent as well. Coming to the controls, you have a good touchscreen and everything else is similar to an Xbox controller. You have the left and right triggers, you’ve got the D-pad and you’ve got the left and right joysticks and ABXY controls. There’s also haptic feedback and a gyro.

And then we’ve got the macro keys at the back. Think of these as Fn keys for your keyboard. So if you press and hold M2 and D-pad up, that’s going to show the keyboard, M2 and down will show task manager. M1 and A will take a screenshot, M1 and Y will begin recording.

Excellent performance

To something that matters the most — performance. You get this with the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme with 512 gigabytes of PCIe Gen 4 SSD storage. So that’s eight cores and 16 threads. Making things even better is the 16 gigabytes of 6,400 megahertz, LPDDR5 RAM, and you can also expand the storage via the micro SD card slot on the top.

In terms of gaming performance, this can make it up to twice as fast as the Steam Deck and it pretty much handled everything I’ve thrown at it.

This is running Windows 11, which means you can play any game that you also can on your Windows PC. Windows for a screen size this big for touch is not the best; I’d advise increasing the interface size to around 175 per cent. But you do get Armoury Crate. This will allow you to bring in everything — Steam, Xbox Game Pass, Epic… all into one place. It means you don’t need to use the Windows interface often, besides when you are installing and configuring things, and the Armory Crate lets you customise key mapping, manage game footage, and tweak or sync lighting all from one central location.

The ROG Ally also comes with a 90-day free trial of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. If you’re somebody who has an Xbox at home, this is absolutely awesome. I can play games from wherever I want.

On the ports front, we have a 3.5mm audio jack, a micro SD card slot, USB Type C input with the XG Mobile port combined. You can pair this with the XG Mobile external GPU (more about this in a future article) and get up to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 performance. I’m not sure how many people have an external XG Mobile GPU but if that’s something that you’re into, it’s awesome to have that option.

The real test was always AAA titles and the ROG Ally handles them very well. ASUS and AMD have worked with a lot of game developers to optimise popular titles and that includes AAA offerings, so a game like Forza Horizon 5 looks great and runs well. The ROG Ally gets 60fps average and offers a good gameplay experience. You can even connect the ROG Ally to a TV and do some 4K gaming. Red Dead Redemption 2 too looks great. Most of the games I played support gamepad and the gameplay experience with these controllers is really good.

Juice up and play on

Battery life: Many think this won’t last long. You do have a large 40Wh battery. Gaming time will, of course, vary. If you’re playing something light that’s on an emulator or something, then you can get up to eight hours. But if you are playing an AAA game, then you are looking at around two hours. If you max out settings (1080p, 120Hz) then realistically speaking, it will be max two hours. You can extend that time by going down to 720p and 60 hertz if you’re not going to be near a power outlet for quite some time.

However, you do get the 65W power adaptor included. That supports pass-through charging, so you can just plug it in and play as long as you like and it’s going to give you around a 50 per cent charge in 30 minutes. Overall, this is very good for what it’s offering.

It has a proper cooling system. There are two fans that are not loud at all. You can also customise the fan speeds via the Armoury Crate. There are “anti-gravity” heat pipes, which keep the device cool even during all kinds of motion.

For audio, we do have nice dual, front-firing stereo speakers. There is support for Dolby Atmos with high-res audio and sounds absolutely great to me. For connectivity, there is Wi-Fi 6E. So if you’re playing some multiplayer games and you need low latency, then Wi-Fi 6E is going to be awesome. There is no cellular version of the ROG Ally.

There is a 120Hz, 16:9, 1,920x1,080 screen, which is among the best you will find on a portable gaming device

Should you buy it?

Handheld gaming devices continue to improve and handheld PC gaming holds a lot of potential. I agree that working with Windows on a touchscreen may not be the best of experiences, especially when you have to do this with analogue sticks. But this is a powerful gaming machine. Asus ROG Ally definitely has an edge in performance and it will make you a couch-gamer for days. It’s one of the best devices you can buy for the forthcoming festive season.

At a glance

Device: Asus ROG Ally

Price: Rs 69,990

High notes

Higher-res display makes graphics appear sharp

User-friendly design

Windows 11 makes it easy to access all your games

The fans remain quiet

Fast charging

Supports XG Mobile connector

Muffled notes

Windows still needs improvement for handheld devices

No included case