Both versions of Asus‘ ROG Ally are here now, so how do they compare to the Steam Deck? We put all three devices head-to-head.
It’s been a few months since I originally wrote my Asus ROG Ally Z1 Extreme review, and the device has changed drastically in that time. It’s still a compelling device that easily beats the Steam Deck in raw performance, but a slew of strange updates has left the ROG Ally in a strange spot compared to the Steam Deck.
For those who don’t have a handheld gaming PC, the ROG Ally still wins over the Steam Deck. However, as you can read in our Steam Deck review, Valve’s handheld still continues to be a force in the evolving world of gaming handhelds despite its aging hardware.It’s all a matter of price
Price was the main point in question for the ROG Ally, especially against the aggressively-priced Steam Deck. But it’s clear Asus was ready to fire back at Valve’s handheld with equally aggressive pricing.
The ROG Ally with the Z1 Extreme costs $700. It’s currently available from Best Buy exclusively, and although I was worried it would sell out immediately, it’s still in stock for list price. A cheaper model sporting the Ryzen Z1 is available now, too, priced at $600.
The Steam Deck is as cheap as $400, but that’s only with 64GB of slow storage. To get 512GB, which is what the ROG Ally with the Z1 Extreme has, you’ll need to spend $650. A point in the Steam Deck’s favor, however, is that Valve is now offering refurbished Steam Decks that cut the price as low as $320.
Valve is phasing out the 64GB and 512GB models of the Steam Deck now that the Steam Deck OLED is arriving. Instead, you’ll just have the 256GB model, now at $400. The Steam Deck OLED comes in at the same price points, but now with 512GB of storage for $530 and 1TB of $650. The ROG Ally is faster than the Steam Deck, but now, it’s also significantly more expensive.Some curious specs
The ROG Ally looks pretty, that’s for sure, but it’s really the underlying hardware that makes Asus’ handheld exciting. The ROG Ally is powered by AMD’s Z1 Series processors, which are custom APUs leveraging Zen 4 CPU cores and RDNA 3 GPU cores. AMD has two of these Z1 processors available, though, and they’re very different.
The Ryzen Z1 comes with six Zen 4 cores and four RDNA 3 cores for a total of up to 2.8 TFLOPS of theoretical performance. The Ryzen Z1 Extreme, by contrast, comes with eight Zen 4 cores and a massive 12 RDNA 3 cores. That enables much higher performance — up to 8.6 TFLOPs, according to AMD.
The ROG Ally was the first device to debut the Z1 Extreme, but there are competitors now. Lenovo’s upcoming Legion Go packs a Z1 Extreme, and the Ayaneo 2S uses a Ryzen 7 7840U, which is a rebranded version of the Z1 Extreme.
By comparison, the Steam Deck is packing much weaker hardware. Regardless of the model you choose, you’re getting four Zen 2 cores and eight RDNA 2 cores, which offer up to 1.6 TFLOPs of theoretical performance. The Steam Deck’s APU also tops out at 15 watts, while the ROG Ally can go up to 30W in its Turbo mode.
There’s a big difference between the APUs, but the Steam Deck and ROG Ally have some specs in common as well. Both devices come with 16GB of LPDDR5 memory, and they both include a Micro SD card slot for storage expansion. They also both support USB-C for charging and come with a 3.5mm headphone jack.
The Micro SD card is a point of contention. Asus has confirmed that the ROG Ally can cause the Micro SD card to fail under certain thermal conditions. We’ve run one for months without issue, but it’s still an ongoing problem.A clear performance champ
There’s no question — the ROG Ally with the Z1 Extreme is faster than the Steam Deck.
