ASUS – ROG Ally 7″ 120Hz FHD 1080p Gaming Handheld – AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme Processor – 512GB – White
Rated 4 out of 5 based on 1 customer rating
(8183 customer reviews)
$617.49
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SKU:
1A330C09
Category: Handheld PC Gaming
Description
Play your way with the ROG Ally gaming handheld. Access any game that runs on Windows across all game platforms, including Steam, GOG, Xbox Game Pass, cloud gaming services, Android apps and more. Play anywhere, anytime, using handheld mode or by connecting the Ally to a TV and linking multiple controllers to play with friends. The Ally even transforms into a gaming PC by connecting to ROG XG mobile eGPU and dock – supporting mouse, keyboard, monitor, and more of your favorite peripherals. Equipped with an AMD Ryzen Z1 extreme processor, a smooth 7-inch 1080p 120Hz touchscreen with AMD FreeSync technology, and ROG intelligent cooling, the ROG Ally takes handheld gaming on to a whole different level.
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8183 reviews for ASUS – ROG Ally 7″ 120Hz FHD 1080p Gaming Handheld – AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme Processor – 512GB – White
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LeeS –
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.
K0pp3r –
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.
KevinK –
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
NurfR –
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.
anactoraaron –
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.
THEMERTMAN –
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!
Okayokay11 –
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.
Br4nd3n –
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.