Asus ROG Ally Vs Steam Deck: Can Powerful New Tech Deliver A Gamechanging Handheld?

Steam Deck is subject to specs but has issues and bugs with battery life.

It's here - and as promised by Asus - sooner than expected. It's been a year since the Asus ROG Ally Steam Deck added a new dimension to PC gaming: portability. No longer a bedroom or office, you can now play your game library anywhere, and not just your old games, but the latest AAA games... to an extent. The Steam Deck struggles with the latest and most demanding games, but the Asus ROG Ally not only delivers the hardware performance boosts we like to see in a deck, it also adds 71% more gaming performance. So what's the point?

At the heart of Ally is AMD's latest mobile APU called the Z1 Extreme. It appears to be a modified version of Phoenix's flagship silicon, specifically the Ryzen 7 7840U. The number of CPU cores doubles compared to Steam Deck, and the frequencies increase dramatically when using the latest Zen4 builds. Meanwhile, the GPU has 50% more compute units, an architectural upgrade over RDNA 3, and again a much higher frequency. 16 GB 128-bit LPDDR5 memory interface completes the basic specification. At this point, it's not entirely clear how the Z1 Extreme differs from the 7840U, as those specs are very similar, right down to the new 4nm CPU node, which is another advantage over the 7nm deck design.

You'll see in the specs table below that I've also included specs for a similar new wearable, the AyaNeo Air Plus. I added it to the list because it is based on AMD's latest Ryzen 7 6800U at 6pm. : Think of it as an advancement of AMD's custom Van Gogh Deck APU. It is built with the same building blocks as Vegeta, but with a much larger CPU and GPU. We'll see how AMD's new flagship compares to the older model later in the review, but you'll find that the basic configuration is very similar to the Z1 Extreme.

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An overview of the Asus ROG Ally hardware is now available for you to enjoy.

	Asus ally right	Aya New Air Plus	steam bridge
main processor	AMD Z1 Extreme	AMD Ryzen 7 6800U	AMD Custom "Van Gogh"
Healer	Zen4, eight cores, 16 threads, max. 5.0 GHz	Zen3+, eight cores, 16 threads, max. 4.7 GHz	Zen2, four cores, eight threads, max. 3.6 GHz
graphics processing units	RDNA 3, 12 calculation units, max. 2.6 GHz	RDNA 2, 12 calculation units, max. 2.2 GHz	RDNA 2, 8 calculation units, max. 1.6 GHz
Maximum GPU performance	8.60TF	3.38TF	1.64TF
memory	16GB LPDDR5 6400MT/s	16GB LPDDR5 6400MT/s	16 GB LPDDR5 5500MT / s
the screen	1920 x 1080 - 120 Hz IPS with VRR	1920 x 1080 - IPS 60 Hz	IPS 1200 x 800 - 60 Hz
Drums	40Wh	46.2 watts	40Wh
operating system by default	Windows 11 operating system	Windows 11 operating system	Steam operating system
inputs outputs	One USB-C port, one MicroSD port, a headphone jack and one PCIe expansion port	Three USB-C, MicroSD, headphone jack	USB-C headphone jack, MicroSD

When you open the box, there isn't much in Ally's package. The PDA itself is under an unprotected cover (which is worrying), underneath are the documents, the 65W power adapter and the power cable. Asus has also introduced a charger that doubles as a USB hub and has an HDMI 2.0 output, but this will be a separate purchase for users - it's a bit strange to have video and USB outputs in one connection, but that's about it. And . . I recommend using a more traditional USB-C hub instead.

The design of the laptop itself is surprisingly good. Ally is easy to grip with textured grips, front panel buttons, Xbox-like joysticks, D-pad, shoulder buttons and familiar triggers. There are some petal-shaped buttons on the back, and RGB accents work around the thumbsticks as well.

The IO includes the power and volume buttons, a USB-C port, a microSD slot and a 3.5mm stereo headphone jack. There's also a PCIe interface to connect the Asus range of mobile GPUs to the RTX 4090, which then converts to an external Ally iGPU. This allows the CPU to take advantage of the memory bandwidth and power budget and not have to compete with the Radeon 780M's onboard resources. IO does the job, but I would appreciate an extra USB-C or two (the AyaNeo 2 has three!).

There are two more hardware design elements that I want to single out for praise. First, an excellent display - bright, with excellent color reproduction. It's a 1080p panel that runs at 120Hz and supports FreeSync technology. It appears to have an adjustable sync range of 48Hz to 120Hz, and the VRR is completely disabled if you switch the board to 60Hz... so no. While targeting 40fps gets you out of the VRR window, switching to normal v-sync will still be fine for gaming, as that 40fps is broken down in the 120Hz output.

Another interesting point is that with v-sync disabled, screen tearing occurs in traditional landscape mode. Mobile devices like the Steam Deck and AyaNeo (and almost certainly the Nintendo Switch) again use vertical scrolling screens, so the screen scratches go from left to right, which looks worse than usual, which may explain why the Steam Deck and Switch work. . All games with vsync enabled.

The second important point you should pay attention to is the cooling system. I've heard a lot about the Ally's cooler design—dual fans, zero-gravity thermal system, fluid-dynamic bearings, ultra-thin 0.1mm fins—but it's actually the quietest laptop I've tried. It's more of a steam deck than a wrench with 15W in Performance mode and 25W in Turbo mode. The fans are only powerful in turbo mode at 30W, but it's still quiet overall.

In terms of overall hardware design, the Ally does everything fans want from a Steam Deck: a cooler, lower-profile display with an impressive resolution. It's still a Windows laptop, and SteamOS has proven that a custom desktop interface can be a game changer. Also, Windows has not yet proven itself to be an effective design. Battery life can be tough on deck, but it's even tougher on a Windows machine, and the Asus ROG Ally doesn't fare so well, as we'll see on the next page.

Asus ROG Ally vs. steam floors

• Introduction, equipment, specifications [this page]
• Software, power patterns and battery life
• Playtests: Control, Forza Horizon 5, God of War
• Playtest: Cyberpunk 2077, A Plague Tale: Requiem, Returnal, Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition.
• Excellent specs and performance, poor battery life and bugs - Digital Foundry Verdict

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Steam Deck vs. ASUS ROG Ally - The ultimate battle for mobile gaming powerhouse