Asus ROG Ally X review: More battery and storage, same Windows issues
I was harsh on original Asus ROG Ally. Perhaps that’s a bit too harsh, since many of the problems I have with it are inherent in the very concept of a Windows-based operating system. handheld game consoleSo when I got the new ROG Ally X, I tried to be a little more open-minded. It wasn’t hard, since the newer model is a significant improvement. But some hurdles just couldn’t be overcome.
The ROG Ally X looks almost identical to its predecessor, save for a new black paint job. There are some subtle differences, like a more comfortable rounded grip, slightly raised ABXY buttons, and an eight-way D-pad that handles diagonal movements a little better. If you don’t look too closely, though, you’d be forgiven for thinking that little has changed.
But inside, Asus has made some big improvements. Most notably, the battery size has been double. The original ROG Ally had a 40 Wh battery, which is about the same as the original Steam deck. On the other hand, the ROG Ally X has a large 80 Wh battery. Larger than the battery in Asus Zephyrus G14 gaming laptopwhich i love because its long battery life. Despite this significant increase, the Ally X is only about 70 grams heavier.
Asus also bumped up the storage—it now comes with a 1 terabyte SSD instead of 512 GB—and added 8 gigabytes of DDR5 RAM. The company also swapped out the XG Mobile port, which was really only useful for Asus’s external GPU, for USB4 Port can reach speeds of up to 40 Gbps, ideal for connecting to external docking stationBut specs don’t tell the whole story.
Photo: Eric Ravenscraft
The impassable window wall
Windows wasn’t designed to run on handheld devices. That’s just the simple, unavoidable truth. Microsoft expects you to come to its operating system with a mouse and keyboard, or at least a large touch screen. Trying to navigate the operating system with a controller has always been a frustrating exercise. No matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to escape the basic problem of trying to interact with things on the screen.
A great example of this is the Xbox app. Asus has made some solid strides with the Armoury Crate SE app, which is supposed to be a bridge between all the other game libraries on your system. Armoury Crate launches on boot, has a dedicated button next to the right joystick to open it when you need it, and has shortcuts to apps like Steam (which launches in controller-friendly Big Picture mode) or Xbox so you can access any games you own.
Photo: Eric Ravenscraft
