I used to be harsh on the unique Asus ROG Ally. Perhaps just a little too harsh, since lots of the issues I had with it are inherent to the very idea of a Home windows-based handheld gaming console. So, after I obtained my arms on the brand new ROG Ally X, I attempted to be a bit extra open-minded. It wasn’t onerous, as a result of the newer mannequin is a considerable enchancment. However some hurdles simply can’t be overcome.
The ROG Ally X appears nearly an identical to its predecessor, save for a brand new coat of black paint. There are delicate variations, like rounded-out grips which might be extra comfy to carry, barely elevated ABXY buttons, and an eight-direction D-pad that handles diagonal actions a bit higher. When you didn’t look too carefully although, you’d be forgiven for pondering little has modified.
However beneath the hood, Asus has made some huge enhancements. Most notably, the battery measurement has doubled. The unique ROG Ally had a 40-Wh battery, roughly akin to the unique Steam Deck. The ROG Ally X, then again, by some means packs an enormous 80-Wh battery. That’s bigger than the battery in Asus’s Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop computer, which I cherished for its prolonged battery life. Regardless of this huge enhance, the Ally X is simply about 70 grams heavier.
Asus additionally beefed up the storage capability—it now comes with a 1-terabyte SSD as a substitute of 512 GB—and eight extra gigabytes of DDR5 RAM. The corporate additionally swapped out the XG Cellular port that’s solely actually helpful for Asus’ exterior GPUs for a USB4 port that may attain speeds as much as 40 Gbps, making it preferrred for connecting to exterior docking stations. However specs can’t inform the entire story.
{Photograph}: Eric Ravenscraft
The Insurmountable Wall of Home windows
Home windows isn’t designed to be run on a handheld. That’s only a easy, unavoidable fact. Microsoft expects you to return to its working system with a mouse and keyboard, or a minimum of a big contact display. Attempting to navigate the OS with a controller is all the time going to be an train in frustration. Regardless of how onerous I strive, I can’t appear to flee the fundamental downside of making an attempt to work together with issues on the display.
One outstanding instance of that is the Xbox app. Asus has made some stable strides with its Armoury Crate SE app that’s meant to be the bridge between all the opposite recreation libraries in your system. Armoury Crate launches at startup, there’s a devoted button subsequent to the correct management stick with open it whenever you want it, and it has shortcuts to apps like Steam (which launches within the controller-friendly Large Image mode) or Xbox so you’ll be able to entry any recreation you personal.
{Photograph}: Eric Ravenscraft
