Last summer I picked up an Asus ROG Ally on sale for £450 to replace an ageing, and increasingly rattly, Switch 1. For clarity, this is the RC71L model, with the Z1E processor but not the nicer Ally-X, and not one of the newer Xbox branded models. I’ve upgraded it to a 2TB drive with a 50/50 split between Bazzite and Windows.
I had a few ideas for how I’d use it: travel handheld, home handheld (for sofa play) and also docked to the TV. For home use I also wanted to use it as a Moonlight streaming client.
This started off as a three-month review, but here we are after six. And this is just because it’s a very hard device for me to pin down what I think of it. I swing between considering it a success or failure every week or so. The short version of it is that it’s deeply flawed, but still has some uses.
Ergonomics
It’s big and it’s heavy. The Switch 1 was already too big to just carry by default and this is even more so. It takes up a lot of space in a bag, and my smaller daily bag won’t take it at all even with a form-fitting case.
I’ve also found it hard to get comfortable in some situations, e.g. on a bus where the device weight and seat pitch encourages me to hold it close and low which in turn is bad for my neck. On a train, I had an issue with the table where having the Ally above the table lip wasn’t comfortable and there was no way near enough space in front of the table. The correct arrangement would have been to stand the Ally up, and use a wireless controller – and suddenly the detachable controllers on the Legion Go make sense.
Power
Battery life is a real issue. At a 20W TDP setting (my preferred balance of performance vs consumption), you get under an hour of usage, especially if you only charge to 80% to preserve battery health. Additionally, the sleep mode isn’t very sleepy, and over an eight-hour work day it can lose 15-20% of battery doing nothing. There is a hibernate in Bazzite, but it’s semi-hidden in the HHD overlay, rather than being assignable to the power button.
Control
The controllers are a basic type, and on this model there’s no (good) way of upgrading to Hall effect. They’re fine but I’d rate them a bit below my Xbox or Dual-shock controllers, but above the Switch 1.
My qualitative experience varies by game, for example, Borderlands 3 is great (I suspect the aim assist is flattering me), while Sniper Elite 4 is very tough to get the fine control required. Anything that relies on mouse emulation is best completely avoided.
PC gaming is more traditionally mouse and keyboard, and controller support is still patchy and incomplete. And that’s another factor to consider alongside Linux compatibility and performance when looking at your existing Steam library and thinking how much will be usable handheld.
Docking
Switching between docked and handheld is not a seamless experience like the Switch and often requires manual reconfiguration to change which controller is active. I’ve also had issues with the sound output not switching. In Windows, I had issues with some docks not outputting video at all, the USB ports stuck in USB2 mode, and the video driver forcing 4K signal output which in turn meant the dock was limited to 30Hz, when I actually wanted 1080p/120.
And unlike the Switch there’s no automatic reconfiguration of graphics settings to match your docked or power state, which is why I’ve ended up just configuring everything for 20W TDP. Unlike the Switch you have to plug and unplug the docking cable, rather than just drop into the cradle, which adds to the clunkiness.
If you only change modes occasionally, e.g. handheld during the week and docked at weekends, it’s liveable, but it’d be irritating multiple times a day.
This model doesn’t have Thunderbolt which closes off most of the options for an external GPU. There are the XG Mobile GPUs but then you’re paying £500 second hand for 6850M which you’ll never be able to repurpose elsewhere. And either way this might only be for Windows users as Bazzite doesn’t officially support eGPUs.
A thousand cuts
The dock issues are one example of a general feeling of it all feeling a bit like a beta version. Many things are possible, everything’s a pain. In Bazzite, too often you have to resort to the command-line, for things like installing Decky (which should be pre-installed), or into desktop mode to choose Bluetooth codecs, or add non-Steam software to the gaming mode. There was a period where switching from desktop mode to gaming mode would corrupt the system and it would have to partly rebuild itself. Similarly, there was a time when Decky was crashing on startup. Sometimes the 80% charge limit isn’t respected.
But I still prefer it to Windows. There are games that launch on Windows without taking screen focus and you have to Alt-Tab to find them. Which is a challenge when you don’t have an Alt or a Tab. Performance is worse in Windows, partly due to background processes and partly from the heavier memory footprint. Running on Bazzite means I can have 6GB VRAM vs 4GB in Windows, with the same memory available for apps. I will say that Windows desktop mode is better with touch than Bazzite desktop mode.
Since I don’t play multi-player games I use Bazzite 99% of the time, and just keep the Windows partition as something to fiddle with and see how it develops.
In all cases, you never forget you’re running a PC, and you will have to deal with PC stuff. And you’re often dealing with PC stuff without the benefit of a mouse and keyboard. One time I’d spent a few hours fighting with some Ally nonsense, turned on my old PS4 and was struck by the huge gulf in user-experience, and how together it all felt.
Laptop supremacy
When travelling I normally end up bringing my laptop in case I have to do some day-job work, or for general use, media watching etc. and that largely negates also bringing the Ally. My current laptop is a Dell 9305 with Iris Xe graphics which is less powerful than the Ally, but it’s not completely useless. If I just want something for the occasional evening then there’s enough that works. It’s fast enough for games in the era of Borderlands 2 plus anything that’s genuinely low power like Defence Grid, Mars First Logistics, OpenTTD.
The laptop is also easier to pack since it’s flat rather than brick shaped, and I can include a controller if I feel the need. I’ve taken the Ally on two holidays and on neither did I get enough use to justify the space it took up, and I should have stuck with just the laptop.
A newer laptop would close the performance gap. A Macbook Air with Crossover is in a similar performance class to the Ally, i.e. it can run Cyberpunk and Satisfactory, but not Borderlands 4. If I want to stick with a Windows ultrabook, the good Panther Lake models are there or thereabouts.
The sweet spot
This has all been very negative, but my actual opinion is more mixed. In the right scenario, with the right games, it’s genuinely very good. When it’s actually running a game, it’s been stable. The ergonomics, weight aside, are comfy, the screen’s very decent. The performance is surprisingly OK with more games being usable than I expected. The CPU performance is actually really impressive, it’s significantly quicker than my 11th Gen i7 laptop.
I think it’s best used as a power-tethered sofa device. I have the space to get comfortable and I can run off mains power, which solves the two biggest issues. Leave it running a game (that you’re not running elsewhere) and you can pick up, wake, play for 15 minutes, then just hit sleep and walk away. It’s really low-friction.
I originally planned to do a lot more Moonlight streaming from my desktop PC, but in practice I’ve valued the quick startup/shutdown of local running, when possible, over higher graphics settings. The crossover point is something like Space Marine II which is barely playable on the Ally locally.
It’s also not a bad device to keep permanently docked. At the price I paid it’s cheaper than mini-PCs with the equivalent 780M. You could use the Ally purely as a TV attached PC that runs some things locally and streams the things it can’t, and that wouldn’t be wasteful.
Alternatives
If not the Ally then what else?
The Switch 2 is the obvious direct alternative. It’s in a similar performance class and the user experience will be much better. But it’s still too big to casually carry, the screen’s not as good, the games are more expensive and, right now, there’s a more limited selection. Also not usable as a streaming client.
In terms of other PC handhelds, the Z2E devices aren’t much quicker and cost a lot more. There is the lunacy option of the GPD Win 5, which gives PS5 level performance for, er…. five times the price. It wouldn’t solve the portability problems, but if at home and tethered is my favourite way to play then this is the best, money-no-object, option.
Otherwise, a full-time Steambox/Bazbox in the living room for TV play and as a handheld streaming host. Slightly higher friction having to wake up and connect, but the better performance and cheaper than a Win 5. I have experimented with using my main desktop as a streaming host but if I want to keep that in Bazzite by default I’ll need something alongside it to use as a light purpose desktop machine, e.g. a Mac Mini.
A decent Bazbox would be twice as expensive as just getting a PS5 Pro like a normal person. The PS5 would be much slicker and I could add a Portal if I want a handheld mode. There are PS streaming clients for the Ally, which I’ve tried with the PS4, but missing the correct button labels and touchpad, and having to use the rear buttons for the PS button is not great. Games are more expensive and, mostly, no cross-progression with PC. Could get PS Plus and just graze on whatever comes past monthly.
There’s also the unfortunate truth that my biggest gaming hurdles are not technical, but rather time and mental energy. My Steam pile of shame doesn’t exist because of hardware limitations.
Finally
That’s more or less where I am. Sometime it’s great, sometimes it drives me nuts. But it gets used and during the week it’s 90%+ of my playtime.