Rog Ally review: It is a powerful handheld gaming PC with poor software optimization and poor battery life. Gaming on the ROG Ally is an enjoyable experience, but the software and battery life compromises do not make the ROG Ally a good value-for-money product for most consumers.
The Asus ROG Ally is a handheld gaming PC that became very popular right after its launch. The handheld gaming PC market is still quite new and is slowly gaining traction as more and more devices like the ROG Ally, Steam Deck, and AYANEO Air 1S hit the market. This is primarily due to the powerful hardware, but there is more to a device than just the hardware.
The heart of the ROG Ally is the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme APU, which is said to be specifically designed for handheld gaming PCs. Is the performance enough to make the ROG Ally successful as a handheld gaming PC PC? That’s exactly what we tested on our review unit over the past two weeks. In this article, we will explain the good, the bad, and the interesting things about ROG Ally. Let’s start.
Table of ContentsAsus ROG Ally Review: Build and Design
The ROG Ally is not the best in terms of construction, but it is very well designed. The ROG Ally is made mostly of polycarbonate, which makes it quite light at only 608g. Branding from ROG can be seen on the front and back. On the back is a vent in the shape of the ROG logo, and running down the center of the back is a vertically angled reflective strip that reflects different colors depending on the angle. The white color looks very good, but gets dirty very easily, so you’ll need to take care of it a bit. You get a plastic stand that you can dock the ROG Ally to for hands-free gameplay with an external controller.
The front of the ROG Ally houses the controls, speakers and display. On the top are all the inputs and outputs, the triggers, the shoulder buttons and a couple of ventilation slots. On the back are two more buttons and a couple of vents for the fans. The ergonomics aren’t great, though, and your hands will tire quickly after just 30 minutes of gaming with the ROG Ally. There simply isn’t enough room on the back to hold the device properly, and two buttons stick out, making it harder to hold the device while trying not to press them.
Overall, the ROG Ally is well-made and has a good design, but it could have been a bit more comfortable in the hand for longer gaming sessions.Asus ROG Ally Review: I/O and Connectivity
The ROG Ally has a controller layout similar to an XBOX controller. The buttons feel clicky and responsive. The triggers are a bit too easy to press, they should have offered more resistance. The shoulder buttons work as expected and provide good feedback. There are two additional buttons on the front, the left one opens the Command Center (where all the shortcuts and quick toggles are located) and the right one opens the Armoury Crate SE (a revamped version of the Armoury Crate application with additional features for the ROG Ally) application. All four function buttons are very easy to press. On the back are two more buttons that can be assigned in-game.
The thumb sticks are responsive and smooth, but not so easy to press when you need the L3 and R3 function in games. They have an RGB ring around the base that can be customized via the Armory Crate SE application. On the top is a power button with an integrated fingerprint sensor that is very fast when it works properly. There is also a row of volume buttons on the top.
Here are all the I/O available on the ROG Ally:
1x ROG XG Mobile interface (8PCI express lanes, can connect up to an RTX 4090 Mobile GPU).
1x USB Type-C combo port (with USB 3.2 Gen2x2, 20Gbps, DP 1.4 support).
1x 3.5mm Audio jack.
1x Micro SD slot (UHS-II, Micro SD 4.0).
In terms of connectivity, the ROG Ally supports WiFi 6E and Bluetooth v5.
