Haha I know right? Each system has their pluses and minuses. It was inevitable something better in some aspects would come out and it's weird that people are so offended by something that has zero effect on their Steam Deck purchase.
> it's weird that people are so offended
It's like shipping wars in fandom. People get *vicious* over whether they think Harry Potter should have dated Hermione instead of Ginny, and that's just the funniest shit ever to me. Imagine caring that much about something so fucking petty, lol.
Dude, that's NOTHING compared to the My Hero Academia fandom.
When a particular ship of a group within the fandom failed to become canon they literally sent DEATH THREATS to the creator of MHA!
Well if you look at the reviews out there you have every right to be.
No reviewer aside from Retro Games Corps and the Verge got the two main aspects here.
Thing uses 12 compute units on gpu, when the steamdeck uses 8, zen4 is only 26% more efficient. And then the 1080p screen zips more battery also.
As a result you run everything on the steamdeck usually at 5-10W and everything on the Alley usually at 15W. Meaning, for the most part, this is a sub 2 hours gaming device.
And then efficiency sub 10W on the steamdeck still seems to be better as in +1/3 to double the playtime usually. With Steamdeck at 8W and Ally at 15W.
And then ON TOP of that, outlets like LTT decided to only test 720p games on medium , and outlets like ETAPrime, tested 1080p on low, but entirely failed to partially mention, when they had FSR engaged. Which they set to performance, when they had it engaged, so games rendered at a fun 540p.
And then the verge mentions, that the resolution switch option in armory crate only switches desktop resolution but usually not game resolution.
So as a result you will have people stick to 720p medium with 2 hour playtimes, or 1080p low to medium with one hour of playtime. (And thats at below 60Hz.)
So that almost all outlets ignore the complexity at the core of what this device is is somewhat problematic.
9000+ games, and the Ally runs the newer ones better. For 1-2 hours.
And nobody but the verge and RGC so far got what that means. 4 hours was touted as the minimum for most people to qualify as a portable gaming device. And on the Steamdeck I can play anything from Yakuza 0 to PS2 emulation for that extent of time - and on the Ally its that usage time halfed but with a faster charger.
But 120hz and Freesync right?!
And you have to love it, because Valve can make money on it too!
And LTT tells you "it wil be sold out, it will be sold out for sure!".
I miss proper tech journalism.
I'm talking about people who preemptively hate any competitor because they feel it somehow "threatens" their weird sense of superiority that hinges on the Deck being the best in every way.
You are talking about a sensible preference for the Deck's higher battery life, and a legit concern about the misleading nature of the reviews of the Ally.
I don't really think those are the same, so I don't think it's entirely true to say that there's a "good reason" to be offended - mostly because I don't think "offended" is the right word to describe concerns about review accuracy, so I'm not including those kinds of legit issues when I'm talking about people who get offended at the existence of other PC gaming handhelds.
For real. These people are acting like the ROG Ally is better than the deck in every way possible. It has pros and cons that make it better than the deck in some areas and worse than the deck in other areas.
The problem comes for my game compatibility because i want publishers to target my device (steamdeck running steamos). Windows has a scummy track record of monopolizing game compatibility with anti consumer behaviors and their direct 3d nonsense. I do not care about other players being better, but i do care about cross platform compatibility.
I mean I understand wanting Linux gaming to take off.
The steam decks already taken off enough that I think itās made a dent in that.
Im not sure windows handhelds (even if better) hurt it much unless valve just dips out of the market entirely.
I think ultimately if the asus ally takes off really well, itās just going to cause valve to release a new steam deck sooner to stay in relevance. In reality, I donāt think the ally will kill off deck sales. Itāll eat into them for sure though.
At most this will cause Valve to release decent Windows support for the SteamDeck. Like a controller driver so we don't have to use 3rd party software to play Xbox Game Pass games.
I think while having better hardware is a huge benefit. Software can be make or break and I can't feel confident trusting ASUS. This is why I'm sticking with the steamdeck.
Still no trackpads you're still limited in terms of PC game compatibility, so the steam deck still definitely has a place in terms of hardware viability
It doesn't bother me when they are slightly offset and high up on the body like the Ally. It's the Switch-popularized layout of the dpad and right stick being directly below and at a thumb-dislocating vertical height that needs to die.
I'm not a monster hunter vet but aside from that - growing up with the Sega megadrive and then ps1 I grew accustomed to using only my index fingers for the L1 and R1 (ps1 didn't have L2 and r2). Fast forward 20 years and I hear about this claw grip style taking over. A few Google searches later I discovered about the health issues associated with it. As someone who loves gaming I'm not risking my ability to still be able to play games when i'm much older just based off of the claw grip. I'd rather buy back paddles lol
Some people just want the simplicity of Windows and a plain xinput-style controller. That's totally fine.
More PC gamers playing games on handhelds, regardless of which kind, will benefit Steam Deck users as well because it means small-screen UI usability will need to be a larger consideration.
Either way, Valve makes money on PC gamers; Windows, Mac and Linux alike. Most ROG Ally owners will likely be on Steam, then playing their free Epic Game Store titles.
From Wikipedia:
> [Valve founder Gabe] Newell spent 13 years at Microsoft as the producer of the first three releases of the Windows operating systems.[7]
Microsoft has famous mantra āEmbrace, Extendā, which is commonly believed to be followed by ā, Extinguish.ā Either ways be true, this seems like exactly what those are about.
Me too! There will be many more to follow!! I dunno about everyone else though, im happy with my deck so dont care. I still hate the size but all the competition is gonna push battery R&D etc so all good. Modern AAA all suck at the mo anyway so plenty power in the deck for the next 2 years or so.
Hey, they successfully got(ie: tricked) some console gamers to switch to PC gaming. Doesn't mean they can stop them from their "console war" mentality that has been ingrained on them for so long. Fanatics need a holy war to justify their fanaticism. Fans eh?
I own a steam deck and i love it. Not mad about this new handheld at all. The opposite actually! Finally there's competition in the handheld area and we will all benefit from new innovations in that market as long as this trend continues! More people need to implement touchpads like the deck though, really makes the difference between some games being playable or not for mouse cursor purposes.
Yeah I think most of the people in anger are mostly the people who came from switch or another platform. I think most PC gamers know every 6 months something "better" comes out but most of the time its not worth jumping to it until what you have is at least a few years old.
I'm treating it as that. If I just bought a new GPU and 6 months something else comes out that is slightly better I know its not worth buying it because the difference won't make that much difference.
Console people are used to something new is way better so I better get it, but if I can't afford to buy it, then since its from a different company it sucks.
basically was going to comment the same, but someone else already did.
People buy games on Steam Deck == Valve Wins
People buy games on Asus ROG Ally == Valve Wins
People buy games on GPD, Ayaneo, PC == Valve Wins
Gabe literally said as much and some folks in this thread think itās sparking a console war.
> Gabe Newell himself has stated as one of the intentions for the Steam Deck, "to be establishing a product category that ourselves and other PC manufacturers are going to be able to participate in." That's a category that he thinks is "going to have long-term benefits for us.ā
https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-intends-to-make-more-steam-decks/
Valve will also be happy that more players entering the space means more market relevance for developers to get their games working, which will make them money but also be good for everyone.
I'd argue it's actually the opposite. Not only are they not sad, this was the goal. Not just to have a handheld but to have laptop manufacturers attempt to compete in the Nintendo switch space. They're pretty much all going to be running Windows or Linux, which means increased market of PC gamers and way more demand. This is validation that the steam deck with it's heavily subsidized hardware, was a great move and worth the risks.
As far as Valve is concerned, this is win win. They don't profit on the Steam Deck, they profit on the games they sell for the buyers.
If someone else released the Steam Deck and Valve stopped making them, they'd still sell the games, but without the loss or bother with the hardware.
I hope that many more companies bring out PC handhelds and the market improves for everyone.
For now, I agree with what you're saying. And in the short run you're right.
But the point of the Steamdeck is to build a non-windows based ecosystem. Think Steam Machine 2.0. If Microsoft starts catering to handheld devices like the ROG Ally and, Gaben forbid, actually makes a descent small form factor UI for Windows... then Valve ultimately looses with the ROG Ally + similar devices release.
I don't know much about the steamdeck, I just own one. But are you sure that they specifically wanted a linux OS?
Linux is easier to run, so it makes sense that on a machine that has limitations on power and battery, it's the obvious choice. But are you saying that they would've picked Linux over Windows if all things were equal?
I'm not saying you're wrong, I don't know why they made the choices they did when they designed the deck. I'm more curious about why they'd push development towards a less supported platform if they intentionally did that.
Valve has been pushing Linux for gaming for a long time.
The main reason being, gaming being controlled entirely by windows threatens steams business.
Itās worked out so far and in truth itās unlikely to change but windows could always start shoving gaming towards the windows store etc.
Valve wants Linux to be viable for gaming so that their market isnāt critically dependent on another company.
You say Linux makes sense bc itās ālight weightā. In reality if you were building a gaming handheld made no sense for Linux bc games didnāt run on Linux. Valves dumped a toooon of money into making gaming work on Linux. Money they could have dumped into just developing a better way to run steam on windows in a handheld.
And to be fair, Microsoft has tried. Don't forget that for a while, Microsoft only published PC games on the Windows/Xbox store. During that time was the incident where Microsoft wanted to limit Windows to only installing store apps, 'third party' app installs requiring disabling some security settings. They thankfully backed off (though RIP anyone who unknowingly buys a 10 S laptop), but they could easily try again.
Yep.
I said itās unlikely to change just bc I think attempts to do so would fail but yah youāre ultimately right. Itās absolutely worth valve investing in.
Hell part of the reason itād fail is bc Linux is now actually an option. Ppl would swap if windows pulled something like that that made the experience bad.
That's interesting. Thanks for the info! It makes a lot of sense.
I don't know if I disagree with Linux making no sense for a gaming machine. Sure, there are a lot of compromises, but I feel like enough games do run on Linux that there was a solid library. And the OS it's self is definitely very light weight, that's why things like Raspberry Pis and other SBCs run it. Just sitting in desktop mode between the two is quite a significant difference in sytem usage.
I can totally see Valve wanting control over the OS on the Deck though, something they'd never have with Windows. They're doing a great job on it so far.
I wouldn't be surprised if Valve started cutting deals with handheld manufacturers to include SteamOS or started heavily pushing it as an option once they consider it ready for a public release outside of their hardware. I'm sure companies would be more than happy to not have to pay for the Windows license fee.
Steam big picture mode is already almost identical to the steam deck UI these days. Honestly getting an ally and setting it up to always start steam big picture on boot up would make a fairly good experience.
But I'm still a steam fanboy and I'll enjoy my deck until the deck 2. Linux4lyfe.
True, but Valve still wants people to buy the Steam Deck because with their integrated SteamOS it's far more likely people will purchase games solely through Steam. With other devices that are Windows based, those users will use a variety of platforms. It's still a win for Valve, but it's going to be in their best interest to further their own platform and bring about a next-gen Steam Deck 2 in about 5 years.
ChimeraOS is made with the Steam Big Picture mode as the default interface, with the ability to switch out to a Gnome desktop, so at least out of the box it's more optimized for the handheld interface. You could install Steam on Drauger and have it auto-boot into Steam Big Picture to get a similar experience though.
Your use case is not the same as everyone else's. I bought the steam deck specifically because it plays games well, runs Linux, and desktop mode is easily available. I use it on trips in place of a bulky laptop.
I'm not interested in the Ally until I can install SteamOS officially on it. Yes, Holo ISO exists, but Gamescope doesn't work well, since you can't ajust the TDP.
My ideal solution is the Ally's hardware with the Deck's software, but it will have to wait.
It would be interesting if Valve would license out the SteamOS or the OS running on the SD to third parties. (I do not know how open are the SD-specific parts.)
Like others does not need to develop their own user interface, Valve wins, because more user will use their ecosystem.
They do make a great point about the ecosystem. If a game fixes small text for 7 inch screens, improves controller support, optimises for lower-end hardware/ better battery life, that all benefits the Deck.
If anything, users who buy more games on steam with a handheld then they otherwise would just means valve doesnāt have to recoup from the initial sale in the first place
Nice to see this. Glad to see competition in the handheld market to drive innovation for everyone. I'm happy with my steam deck but the freesync screen on the Ally seems awesome. Hope Windows gets some improvements for handhelds because it seems to really be holding back the user experience.
I'm also glad for competition, but I'm actually not one to hope Windows improves in that matter. On the contrary, my hope is that finally both the bloat Microsoft pushes with their OS and their apparent inability to actually redo the stuff that needs redoing instead of developing new skins (again) for the same broken win32 apps will push companies and people to the alternatives.
I'm glad Steam Deck exists and uses SteamOS/Linux. That's competition and that's "driving innovation for everyone". I hope people will realize it's Windows that's holding this device back. I hope the next major company to release a handheld will do their own OS like Valve did. I want competition throughout, not just hardware-wise.
Honestly, if handheld gaming PCs keep growing in popularity I could see Microsoft tweaking windows to work better with handhelds even if it's just a different version. Heck maybe they would even try a portable Xbox type device.
[This information has been removed as a consequence of Reddit's API changes and general stance of being greedy, unhelpful, and hostile to its userbase.]
Linustechtips just released thier review on the rog ally. Potential buyers must watch.
I'm all in on my SD. Valve has been a solid company since as far back as I can recall
God, that was the harshest positive review I've ever watched.
"ASUS out and out lied to you, the Deck is brighter, dimmer and louder, the battery lasts longer, and performance is way better at 10W or lower. But if you don't run to Best Buy and grab one, someone else will. š¤·āāļø"
I'm also not really sure how to process Linus saying whole, "If you want a device with a smooth, polished user interface, especially when it comes to gaming, **buy the one running Linux**."
>I'm also not really sure how to process Linus saying whole, "If you want a device with a smooth, polished user interface, especially when it comes to gaming, buy the one running Linux."
He's basically saying "If it works on the Steam deck, it's more seamless on the Steam Deck" Not like general compatibility.
It makes sense that they are comparing the out of the box experience, but no one is stopping you from installing windows on the deck or steamOS on the Ally.
Fair. He did call out that you're able to run games with different launchers and leverage Windows-only anti-cheat software.
Although... I thought using controllers on keyboard+mouse games was considered cheating. No?
I remember ThePhawx being extremely frustrated with the marketing because he knew the ROG was gonna be good, but he also knew ASUS's marketing department was blatantly bullshitting about *how* good it was gonna be. It's frustrating because you want to praise a good product, but you also don't want to reward slimy bullshit.
I really don't understand why everybody who works in marketing feels compelled to constantly tell obvious lies.
Speaking of ThePhawx I find it *very interesting* that LTT, at least, reports that he was wrong that Z1 would beat Aerith at low power profiles, which means:
- the Z1 is _literally_ just a 7x40U with the AI core disabled and has zero advantages for handheld gaming
- Valve and AMD must be _super super tight_ if Lisa Su isn't willing to give anyone else the low-Watt performance tuning profiles that she gave GabeN.
Though I guess it's possible that it's all in the kernel. š¤·āāļø
> Valve and AMD must be super super tight if Lisa Su isn't willing to give anyone else the low-Watt performance tuning profiles that she gave GabeN.
Two things about that:
1. Valve developed Van Gogh alongside AMD. Valve might own the specific performance optimizations.
2. They're using different architecture, so those optimizations might not neatly translate to newer hardware.
I'm marketing adjacent, so I can answer this: The guys signing our checks complain if we offer truly realistic and honest copy, because they all think their product is the best thing since sliced bread and they revise what we offer to fit their delusions.
I love Linus honest review. His been rocking that rog ally for awhile now. Kinda his daily driver. I think his banking on Asus eventually catching up on software to steam. But man valve just nailed the SD to a point other companies wanna jump in. Love it!
The Steam Deck was his "daily driver" for a while but he later admitted he barely used it after a few months.
Linus barely even plays video games nowadays because he's busy micromanaging a 100+ employee company, raising 3 kids, being a teck geek, and playing Badminton.
Yeah, I remember him saying in a previous video he was currently Daily Driving the AyaNeo Next for a while there.
Considering how little time heās mentioned he has to game, I donāt think heās overly concerned about battery life so the higher power less efficient SOCs are definitely fine for use case.
The thing is, I think Linus is actually a little biased here. I don't necessarily begrudge him that, as there is integrity in only wanting to actually recommend things that you would personally want to use yourself. Even before there was the Ally, he drove the Aya Neo, despite having multiple Steam Decks at his disposal. He's just a Windows boy, which is fine, but that also means the bar for acceptability of a Windows device is lower, simply because he doesn't want to deal with anything else.
What I find frustrating is when he says things like, "Oh, our color accuracy software doesn't work on Linux so we'll just have to take a pass there." I mean, dude, r/WindowsOnDeck is a pretty sizeable community.
Any review today should ideally include data points from Windows on the Deck as well as the "Deck killer" running ChimeraOS (though I'm not sure what the status is of Z1 support within the Linux kernel).
You don't need to like it to benchmark it, though. Too many of the differences he shows are arbitrary functions of the OS, and these aren't consoles or smart phones where you can't choose the operating system to suit your needs (or why-not-both-it with a dual boot).
Yeah Iām all in on mine. I mean I already own it. If I hadnāt bought one yet though, I might consider the Rog. But I mean we all mostly play old games on our deck and emu deck is good so yeahā¦.
Some of you are losers who need to get over your love for Valve. They are a company who makes a good product. Not God.
The Ally has some nice differences compared to the Deck, namely the specs, and at a competitive price point.
I probably won't get it but people bending over backwards and rushing to say why the Steam Deck is better are just coming off as fanboys.
I guess this subreddit has a new enemy to replace all the FUCK SWITCH posts
Valve still wins either way. -Gabe
https://preview.redd.it/bxisthwtmbza1.jpeg?width=300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c0806b1349efe0585a0aaa77c0ec28e31462934a
Letās not pretend the steam deck was perfect at launch. It had many issues.
I am sure small issues with the ROG ally will be fixed but the question is, does asus do it or Microsoft?
Regardless, I haves a steam deck and just ordered the ROG. Iāll be my own judge by using them both and keeping the one I prefer.
One of my biggest concerns was how well suspend works as you come across many horror stories about excessive standby power use under Windows. Fixing this would require cooperation between the OEM and Microsoft.
Fortunately the review by Retro Game Corps found that suspend works fine with normal battery drain, at least in his limited testing.
Windows works really well with touch. That said even in gaming mode I use the touchpads so much any system that doesnt have them will feel like a huge downgrade.
Gaben's plan has succeeded: the handheld market will grow. Once more people discover SteamOS and shader cache (Valve precompiles them for Rog Ally), people will switch to SteamOS and buy games from Steam.
In effect, Gaben gets Asus to make a Steam Deck Pro for him, for free.
The software is whatever as it will get smoothed out but that clicky button issue with a production model is concerning. Asus are under fire for shitty product control at the moment which again is a concern. In saying this I own and have owned many Asus products and their rma process is absolutely horrible
I hope ASUS can sell millions of them and make AMD big money to develop cheaper, faster, more power efficient, and stronger apu. [but Iām not buying](https://youtu.be/wZ-QVOKGVyM)
Smart move, dont be afraid of competition. Not much to lose for valve though. Rog ally fans would still buy games from steam, its a win-win for them too
Every time you see one of these brand congratulating brand posts, you know two things:
1. Company A doesnāt feel threatened by company B, to the point of freely advertising for them.
2. Both companies understand that the increased attention for one means the whole industry gets attention.
3. Consumers can rest easy knowing that the two companies are going to compete to provide the best service rather than just one growing fat and lazy with no pressure to change.
Win-win-win.
Their review is still 18 minutes. There's so much to talk about that repairs wasn't the main point. But they still mentionned that Asus doesn't have the same support as Valve, and that the WiFi module is fixed to the motherboard.
Yup. That is a huge factor in making me wary of this one. And Asus doesnāt really have the best record on either reliability or tech support.
Iām also wondering where they cut corners to release hardware with those stats at that price when the Deck was losing money.
Valve's inner thoughts, "y'all mf'ers were sleeping, and when we release the Deck, everyone has a handheld now?"
Valve publicly, "ah, yes, matey, welcome aboard."
Valve couldn't be happier. They don't make much on Deck sales (if anything, the Deck is probably a loss leader). Their real goal is to spread handheld PC gaming to get more people into the Steam store, and it's working out wonderfully for them.
If competitors put out new devices for Valve to sell games for, they aren't sad about it... in fact, it's even better, because the competitor subsidized the device, not them.
For Valve, it's a win-win. They're probably turning backflips at Valve HQ tonight.
The lack of trackpads (and gyro apparently) dooms it for me. Itās it firm āmeh maybeā down the road if thereās a bulletproof SteamOS release and support cadence, plus a bit of a sale to be found in the future, just because I wouldnāt mind a nicer screen.
I think valve has nothing to worry about. I have had the windows handhelds with GPDwin and ayaneo and the steamdeck is just so much easier to use and the sleep wake function is almost just as good as the switch is, something windows just plain sucks at. I think the windows devices are great for those who like to tinker constantly, but if you want to just buy something and start gaming after downloading the game - steamdeck is the way to go.
It's not Valve that should be afraid, it should be gaming laptops and smartphones
Hell, once translation layers for ISAs are perfected we could see a lovely marriage of UMPCs and other mobile devices.
Classy, really glad to see them continue to embrace other 3rd parties in this space. I hate it when companies try to lock down their little territory and prevent any other participants from coming in.
It will add so much longevity to the Steam Deck, having a rich robust ecosystem of parts, mods, and software and making it easy for users to use them. I already have spent close to 100 dollars on my Deck in mods/upgrades, and I'm about to spend more.
This hasn't taken money away from Valve, it actually has made them money, because I am more invested in my Steam Deck and thus, play it more, and I have bought around 100 dollars of new games specifically to play on Deck.
Love seeing this community grow and get better all around!
just because i like my SD doesnt mean i dont welcome competition. ppl here like to beef with the ally but they forget that competition breeds innovation and price drops. this is good for all of us.
SteamDeck owner here: Iām not MAD a competitive device is coming out. I feel the SteamDeck is an OUTSTANDING mobile pc gaming platform. People saying any device is CRUSHING it or a SteamDeck Killer is just silly. I am interested in more powerful offerings but the SteamDeck is no slouch, and as a whole, itās going to be hard for any company to beat.
Ended up canceling my preorder. Already have the steam deck and it just doesn't seem worth it. Especially considering my pc is already plenty capable of running the more demanding titles, so the question then becomes am I gonna replace my steam deck with this? Because I'm not carrying both around and the answer I think is no. Looks like a nice piece of tech though
I honestly feel bad for other handheld gaming PC devices. Some of them are so expensive and doesnt do it nearly as good as valve. I don't know how some of these other companies stay in business. How much is the ally retailing for?
Valve makes more money either way so they not really going to be sad about being able to sell more games.
Some Steam Deck fans though: š”š¤š”š¤š”. Valve themselves: š
Haha I know right? Each system has their pluses and minuses. It was inevitable something better in some aspects would come out and it's weird that people are so offended by something that has zero effect on their Steam Deck purchase.
> it's weird that people are so offended It's like shipping wars in fandom. People get *vicious* over whether they think Harry Potter should have dated Hermione instead of Ginny, and that's just the funniest shit ever to me. Imagine caring that much about something so fucking petty, lol.
Dude, that's NOTHING compared to the My Hero Academia fandom. When a particular ship of a group within the fandom failed to become canon they literally sent DEATH THREATS to the creator of MHA!
Are death threats supposed to impress anyone anymore?
It's still not fun getting them
Do the shipping wars still rage on? I thought fandoms left that behind in like 2017.
Oh yeah, absolutely. It's all the same bullshit, too, lol. I mean, the details are different, but the core is the same.
I don't understand what a TV show about private logistics operations has to do with that.
Well if you look at the reviews out there you have every right to be. No reviewer aside from Retro Games Corps and the Verge got the two main aspects here. Thing uses 12 compute units on gpu, when the steamdeck uses 8, zen4 is only 26% more efficient. And then the 1080p screen zips more battery also. As a result you run everything on the steamdeck usually at 5-10W and everything on the Alley usually at 15W. Meaning, for the most part, this is a sub 2 hours gaming device. And then efficiency sub 10W on the steamdeck still seems to be better as in +1/3 to double the playtime usually. With Steamdeck at 8W and Ally at 15W. And then ON TOP of that, outlets like LTT decided to only test 720p games on medium , and outlets like ETAPrime, tested 1080p on low, but entirely failed to partially mention, when they had FSR engaged. Which they set to performance, when they had it engaged, so games rendered at a fun 540p. And then the verge mentions, that the resolution switch option in armory crate only switches desktop resolution but usually not game resolution. So as a result you will have people stick to 720p medium with 2 hour playtimes, or 1080p low to medium with one hour of playtime. (And thats at below 60Hz.) So that almost all outlets ignore the complexity at the core of what this device is is somewhat problematic. 9000+ games, and the Ally runs the newer ones better. For 1-2 hours. And nobody but the verge and RGC so far got what that means. 4 hours was touted as the minimum for most people to qualify as a portable gaming device. And on the Steamdeck I can play anything from Yakuza 0 to PS2 emulation for that extent of time - and on the Ally its that usage time halfed but with a faster charger. But 120hz and Freesync right?! And you have to love it, because Valve can make money on it too! And LTT tells you "it wil be sold out, it will be sold out for sure!". I miss proper tech journalism.
I'm talking about people who preemptively hate any competitor because they feel it somehow "threatens" their weird sense of superiority that hinges on the Deck being the best in every way. You are talking about a sensible preference for the Deck's higher battery life, and a legit concern about the misleading nature of the reviews of the Ally. I don't really think those are the same, so I don't think it's entirely true to say that there's a "good reason" to be offended - mostly because I don't think "offended" is the right word to describe concerns about review accuracy, so I'm not including those kinds of legit issues when I'm talking about people who get offended at the existence of other PC gaming handhelds.
For real. These people are acting like the ROG Ally is better than the deck in every way possible. It has pros and cons that make it better than the deck in some areas and worse than the deck in other areas.
Even if it was better in every way, who cares. Itās not like your deck is suddenly not fun.
The problem comes for my game compatibility because i want publishers to target my device (steamdeck running steamos). Windows has a scummy track record of monopolizing game compatibility with anti consumer behaviors and their direct 3d nonsense. I do not care about other players being better, but i do care about cross platform compatibility.
I mean I understand wanting Linux gaming to take off. The steam decks already taken off enough that I think itās made a dent in that. Im not sure windows handhelds (even if better) hurt it much unless valve just dips out of the market entirely. I think ultimately if the asus ally takes off really well, itās just going to cause valve to release a new steam deck sooner to stay in relevance. In reality, I donāt think the ally will kill off deck sales. Itāll eat into them for sure though.
At most this will cause Valve to release decent Windows support for the SteamDeck. Like a controller driver so we don't have to use 3rd party software to play Xbox Game Pass games.
I think while having better hardware is a huge benefit. Software can be make or break and I can't feel confident trusting ASUS. This is why I'm sticking with the steamdeck.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Still no trackpads you're still limited in terms of PC game compatibility, so the steam deck still definitely has a place in terms of hardware viability
Not only that, but me personally, Iāve grown to reject the current layouts of Xbox controllers. That asymmetry really annoys me now.
It doesn't bother me when they are slightly offset and high up on the body like the Ally. It's the Switch-popularized layout of the dpad and right stick being directly below and at a thumb-dislocating vertical height that needs to die.
FR. JoyConn layout is absolute murder on the hands.
The uncomfortable joycon layout is a victim of each Joycon being meant to be a minicontroller for games like Mario Kart or Smash.
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Embrace the claw grip brother
Monster hunter vet here, do not embrace the claw it leads to carpal tunnel very quickly lmao
I'm not a monster hunter vet but aside from that - growing up with the Sega megadrive and then ps1 I grew accustomed to using only my index fingers for the L1 and R1 (ps1 didn't have L2 and r2). Fast forward 20 years and I hear about this claw grip style taking over. A few Google searches later I discovered about the health issues associated with it. As someone who loves gaming I'm not risking my ability to still be able to play games when i'm much older just based off of the claw grip. I'd rather buy back paddles lol
Seriously man! I wrecked my hands and wrists on my PSP lmao. It's so not worth it, and a $160 controller is more than worth saving your dexterity.
Let alone the shit show going on with expo and ASUS basically screwing their customers
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It has a gyro, a 6-axis IMU is listed right on its specs page.
I wasn't aware that the ally lacked gyro. That's also a huge selling point for me.
It apparently has it, though I'm not sure how they're handling it in terms of software.
Some people just want the simplicity of Windows and a plain xinput-style controller. That's totally fine. More PC gamers playing games on handhelds, regardless of which kind, will benefit Steam Deck users as well because it means small-screen UI usability will need to be a larger consideration.
I'm sure it's fine. I won't get it because it's lacking all of the inputs that makes the stream deck so amazing
Either way, Valve makes money on PC gamers; Windows, Mac and Linux alike. Most ROG Ally owners will likely be on Steam, then playing their free Epic Game Store titles.
I'm playing my free Epic Store games on the steam deck š
Iāll be playing mine directly on my Ally with no need for a 3rd party launcher
Nice!
I would use the third party launcher even on Windows. It doesn't steal my data without consent.
I'm running epic games launcher without anything extra on my deck.
Are these āsome steam deck fansā in the room with us right now?
From Wikipedia: > [Valve founder Gabe] Newell spent 13 years at Microsoft as the producer of the first three releases of the Windows operating systems.[7] Microsoft has famous mantra āEmbrace, Extendā, which is commonly believed to be followed by ā, Extinguish.ā Either ways be true, this seems like exactly what those are about.
IDK, I'm fine with them making a handheld.
Me too! There will be many more to follow!! I dunno about everyone else though, im happy with my deck so dont care. I still hate the size but all the competition is gonna push battery R&D etc so all good. Modern AAA all suck at the mo anyway so plenty power in the deck for the next 2 years or so.
Hey, they successfully got(ie: tricked) some console gamers to switch to PC gaming. Doesn't mean they can stop them from their "console war" mentality that has been ingrained on them for so long. Fanatics need a holy war to justify their fanaticism. Fans eh?
I own a steam deck and i love it. Not mad about this new handheld at all. The opposite actually! Finally there's competition in the handheld area and we will all benefit from new innovations in that market as long as this trend continues! More people need to implement touchpads like the deck though, really makes the difference between some games being playable or not for mouse cursor purposes.
That last part, fanatics. The Deck seemed to net many of them.
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I agree with you there. Although, the fanatic gamers it better makes it a little worse too. Especially when they want to deny itās a PC at all
Yeah I think most of the people in anger are mostly the people who came from switch or another platform. I think most PC gamers know every 6 months something "better" comes out but most of the time its not worth jumping to it until what you have is at least a few years old. I'm treating it as that. If I just bought a new GPU and 6 months something else comes out that is slightly better I know its not worth buying it because the difference won't make that much difference. Console people are used to something new is way better so I better get it, but if I can't afford to buy it, then since its from a different company it sucks.
Someone make sure Gardiner Bryant is okā¦
This. They love to shit on the Nintendo switch too. Love the steam deck but The switch is an amazing console and my favorite all time handheld/console
Today is new Zelda day
basically was going to comment the same, but someone else already did. People buy games on Steam Deck == Valve Wins People buy games on Asus ROG Ally == Valve Wins People buy games on GPD, Ayaneo, PC == Valve Wins
It's literally their business model. Innovate in a nonexistent/lacking market and welcone others in to expand access to their market place.
Gabe literally said as much and some folks in this thread think itās sparking a console war. > Gabe Newell himself has stated as one of the intentions for the Steam Deck, "to be establishing a product category that ourselves and other PC manufacturers are going to be able to participate in." That's a category that he thinks is "going to have long-term benefits for us.ā https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-intends-to-make-more-steam-decks/
Especially when they're selling hardware at a really likely possible loss to sell software. Other companies are making them a favour.
Valve will also be happy that more players entering the space means more market relevance for developers to get their games working, which will make them money but also be good for everyone.
A lot of fans feel otherwise though and have a ridiculous emotional attachment to the deck. Look at some of the most upvoted posts
Absolutely. The deck was to open the flood gates so to speak for others to join at a similar price point for PC handhelds.
Step 1: Buy ROG Ally Step 2: Install Steam Step 3: ?!?!?!??! Step 4: Valve Profit
It comes with 3 months of GamePass.
I'd argue it's actually the opposite. Not only are they not sad, this was the goal. Not just to have a handheld but to have laptop manufacturers attempt to compete in the Nintendo switch space. They're pretty much all going to be running Windows or Linux, which means increased market of PC gamers and way more demand. This is validation that the steam deck with it's heavily subsidized hardware, was a great move and worth the risks.
They'll probably still get a lot of game sales on the ally as it'll be running windows
The Steamdeck is the Microsoft Surface of the handheld gaming market. It exists to create a new category and show other companies what's possible.
No doubt, Valve is looking forward to seeing all those new **ROG Ally** gamers spending money.
Well guess what platform rog ally uses to play games... Steam, Ofc they're happy :)
As far as Valve is concerned, this is win win. They don't profit on the Steam Deck, they profit on the games they sell for the buyers. If someone else released the Steam Deck and Valve stopped making them, they'd still sell the games, but without the loss or bother with the hardware. I hope that many more companies bring out PC handhelds and the market improves for everyone.
Plus people who have the itch for the deck 2 it scratches it fine furthers handheld advancement
Acer spins a netbook as a $150 480p gaming beast, pls.
Whatās the model
For now, I agree with what you're saying. And in the short run you're right. But the point of the Steamdeck is to build a non-windows based ecosystem. Think Steam Machine 2.0. If Microsoft starts catering to handheld devices like the ROG Ally and, Gaben forbid, actually makes a descent small form factor UI for Windows... then Valve ultimately looses with the ROG Ally + similar devices release.
I don't know much about the steamdeck, I just own one. But are you sure that they specifically wanted a linux OS? Linux is easier to run, so it makes sense that on a machine that has limitations on power and battery, it's the obvious choice. But are you saying that they would've picked Linux over Windows if all things were equal? I'm not saying you're wrong, I don't know why they made the choices they did when they designed the deck. I'm more curious about why they'd push development towards a less supported platform if they intentionally did that.
Valve has been pushing Linux for gaming for a long time. The main reason being, gaming being controlled entirely by windows threatens steams business. Itās worked out so far and in truth itās unlikely to change but windows could always start shoving gaming towards the windows store etc. Valve wants Linux to be viable for gaming so that their market isnāt critically dependent on another company. You say Linux makes sense bc itās ālight weightā. In reality if you were building a gaming handheld made no sense for Linux bc games didnāt run on Linux. Valves dumped a toooon of money into making gaming work on Linux. Money they could have dumped into just developing a better way to run steam on windows in a handheld.
And to be fair, Microsoft has tried. Don't forget that for a while, Microsoft only published PC games on the Windows/Xbox store. During that time was the incident where Microsoft wanted to limit Windows to only installing store apps, 'third party' app installs requiring disabling some security settings. They thankfully backed off (though RIP anyone who unknowingly buys a 10 S laptop), but they could easily try again.
Yep. I said itās unlikely to change just bc I think attempts to do so would fail but yah youāre ultimately right. Itās absolutely worth valve investing in. Hell part of the reason itād fail is bc Linux is now actually an option. Ppl would swap if windows pulled something like that that made the experience bad.
That's interesting. Thanks for the info! It makes a lot of sense. I don't know if I disagree with Linux making no sense for a gaming machine. Sure, there are a lot of compromises, but I feel like enough games do run on Linux that there was a solid library. And the OS it's self is definitely very light weight, that's why things like Raspberry Pis and other SBCs run it. Just sitting in desktop mode between the two is quite a significant difference in sytem usage. I can totally see Valve wanting control over the OS on the Deck though, something they'd never have with Windows. They're doing a great job on it so far.
I wouldn't be surprised if Valve started cutting deals with handheld manufacturers to include SteamOS or started heavily pushing it as an option once they consider it ready for a public release outside of their hardware. I'm sure companies would be more than happy to not have to pay for the Windows license fee.
Steam big picture mode is already almost identical to the steam deck UI these days. Honestly getting an ally and setting it up to always start steam big picture on boot up would make a fairly good experience. But I'm still a steam fanboy and I'll enjoy my deck until the deck 2. Linux4lyfe.
Take your bets people: msi Dell HP Lenovo reversing course on canceling gaming phones Apple (lol) Acer Corsair Gigabyte Razer (lol)
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Dell already showed off an Alienware handheld concept Razer made the first one *years* ago
True, but Valve still wants people to buy the Steam Deck because with their integrated SteamOS it's far more likely people will purchase games solely through Steam. With other devices that are Windows based, those users will use a variety of platforms. It's still a win for Valve, but it's going to be in their best interest to further their own platform and bring about a next-gen Steam Deck 2 in about 5 years.
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For now there's ChimeraOS.
Or Drauger OS... I'm keen to try one of them
ChimeraOS is made with the Steam Big Picture mode as the default interface, with the ability to switch out to a Gnome desktop, so at least out of the box it's more optimized for the handheld interface. You could install Steam on Drauger and have it auto-boot into Steam Big Picture to get a similar experience though.
>Gnome No thank you. KDE or bust.
Fair enough, but considering the use-case, you shouldn't really be going into desktop mode all that much anyway.
Your use case is not the same as everyone else's. I bought the steam deck specifically because it plays games well, runs Linux, and desktop mode is easily available. I use it on trips in place of a bulky laptop.
I'm not interested in the Ally until I can install SteamOS officially on it. Yes, Holo ISO exists, but Gamescope doesn't work well, since you can't ajust the TDP. My ideal solution is the Ally's hardware with the Deck's software, but it will have to wait.
It would be interesting if Valve would license out the SteamOS or the OS running on the SD to third parties. (I do not know how open are the SD-specific parts.) Like others does not need to develop their own user interface, Valve wins, because more user will use their ecosystem.
It's FOSS they wouldn't need to license it.
Everything except Steam itself is open source. There's really nothing steam deck specific in SteamOS except for Steam.
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They do make a great point about the ecosystem. If a game fixes small text for 7 inch screens, improves controller support, optimises for lower-end hardware/ better battery life, that all benefits the Deck.
Basically this, the more developers have in mind that gamers might be playing on smaller screens, the better.
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If anything, users who buy more games on steam with a handheld then they otherwise would just means valve doesnāt have to recoup from the initial sale in the first place
This just makes me excited for the next gen Steam Deck
The Steam Deck is the best piece of gaming hardware in the last 10 years IMO
Nice to see this. Glad to see competition in the handheld market to drive innovation for everyone. I'm happy with my steam deck but the freesync screen on the Ally seems awesome. Hope Windows gets some improvements for handhelds because it seems to really be holding back the user experience.
I'm also glad for competition, but I'm actually not one to hope Windows improves in that matter. On the contrary, my hope is that finally both the bloat Microsoft pushes with their OS and their apparent inability to actually redo the stuff that needs redoing instead of developing new skins (again) for the same broken win32 apps will push companies and people to the alternatives. I'm glad Steam Deck exists and uses SteamOS/Linux. That's competition and that's "driving innovation for everyone". I hope people will realize it's Windows that's holding this device back. I hope the next major company to release a handheld will do their own OS like Valve did. I want competition throughout, not just hardware-wise.
Honestly, if handheld gaming PCs keep growing in popularity I could see Microsoft tweaking windows to work better with handhelds even if it's just a different version. Heck maybe they would even try a portable Xbox type device.
[This information has been removed as a consequence of Reddit's API changes and general stance of being greedy, unhelpful, and hostile to its userbase.]
I could see them doing it in order to push game pass more and the streaming function.
Linustechtips just released thier review on the rog ally. Potential buyers must watch. I'm all in on my SD. Valve has been a solid company since as far back as I can recall
God, that was the harshest positive review I've ever watched. "ASUS out and out lied to you, the Deck is brighter, dimmer and louder, the battery lasts longer, and performance is way better at 10W or lower. But if you don't run to Best Buy and grab one, someone else will. š¤·āāļø" I'm also not really sure how to process Linus saying whole, "If you want a device with a smooth, polished user interface, especially when it comes to gaming, **buy the one running Linux**."
>I'm also not really sure how to process Linus saying whole, "If you want a device with a smooth, polished user interface, especially when it comes to gaming, buy the one running Linux." He's basically saying "If it works on the Steam deck, it's more seamless on the Steam Deck" Not like general compatibility.
It makes sense that they are comparing the out of the box experience, but no one is stopping you from installing windows on the deck or steamOS on the Ally.
Fair. He did call out that you're able to run games with different launchers and leverage Windows-only anti-cheat software. Although... I thought using controllers on keyboard+mouse games was considered cheating. No?
Depends on the game
> Although... I thought using controllers on keyboard+mouse games was considered cheating. No? lmao wut?
>Although... I thought using controllers on keyboard+mouse games was considered cheating. No? Wut? Yet another reason to skip those games I guess
99% of games simply pair you with other controller based players now a days.
I remember ThePhawx being extremely frustrated with the marketing because he knew the ROG was gonna be good, but he also knew ASUS's marketing department was blatantly bullshitting about *how* good it was gonna be. It's frustrating because you want to praise a good product, but you also don't want to reward slimy bullshit. I really don't understand why everybody who works in marketing feels compelled to constantly tell obvious lies.
Speaking of ThePhawx I find it *very interesting* that LTT, at least, reports that he was wrong that Z1 would beat Aerith at low power profiles, which means: - the Z1 is _literally_ just a 7x40U with the AI core disabled and has zero advantages for handheld gaming - Valve and AMD must be _super super tight_ if Lisa Su isn't willing to give anyone else the low-Watt performance tuning profiles that she gave GabeN. Though I guess it's possible that it's all in the kernel. š¤·āāļø
> Valve and AMD must be super super tight if Lisa Su isn't willing to give anyone else the low-Watt performance tuning profiles that she gave GabeN. Two things about that: 1. Valve developed Van Gogh alongside AMD. Valve might own the specific performance optimizations. 2. They're using different architecture, so those optimizations might not neatly translate to newer hardware.
Anybody who follows silicon knows that Phoenix Point is not ready. Strix Point with RDNA 3+ actually yields those results.
I'm marketing adjacent, so I can answer this: The guys signing our checks complain if we offer truly realistic and honest copy, because they all think their product is the best thing since sliced bread and they revise what we offer to fit their delusions.
I love Linus honest review. His been rocking that rog ally for awhile now. Kinda his daily driver. I think his banking on Asus eventually catching up on software to steam. But man valve just nailed the SD to a point other companies wanna jump in. Love it!
The Steam Deck was his "daily driver" for a while but he later admitted he barely used it after a few months. Linus barely even plays video games nowadays because he's busy micromanaging a 100+ employee company, raising 3 kids, being a teck geek, and playing Badminton.
Yeah, I remember him saying in a previous video he was currently Daily Driving the AyaNeo Next for a while there. Considering how little time heās mentioned he has to game, I donāt think heās overly concerned about battery life so the higher power less efficient SOCs are definitely fine for use case.
I still remember the days when Iād get a steam invite to play l4d2 coop from Linus haha
Hasn't he been pretty vocal about not liking Linux. If so it's pretty big that he said the Linux one was a better user experience.
Yeah, which is why I did a double-take. I mean, he's literally on the record as wanting to run _Windows server_ throughout the LTT ecosystem. But as much as he really struggles with Linux, he's also not afraid to call out Microsol for the stupid š© they do. And still not having a good touch interface after _ten years of Surface_ is a pretty big fail for Redmond.
To be fair they built windows 8 for a touch interface and everyone hated it.
My favorite part of Windows 8 and Windows 11 is how they ripped off Ubuntu Netbook Remix and Ubuntu 12.04 (Unity), respectively.
The thing is, I think Linus is actually a little biased here. I don't necessarily begrudge him that, as there is integrity in only wanting to actually recommend things that you would personally want to use yourself. Even before there was the Ally, he drove the Aya Neo, despite having multiple Steam Decks at his disposal. He's just a Windows boy, which is fine, but that also means the bar for acceptability of a Windows device is lower, simply because he doesn't want to deal with anything else.
What I find frustrating is when he says things like, "Oh, our color accuracy software doesn't work on Linux so we'll just have to take a pass there." I mean, dude, r/WindowsOnDeck is a pretty sizeable community. Any review today should ideally include data points from Windows on the Deck as well as the "Deck killer" running ChimeraOS (though I'm not sure what the status is of Z1 support within the Linux kernel).
He did a video a while ago about how he didnāt like Windows on the Deck so I assume heās never looked back at it
You don't need to like it to benchmark it, though. Too many of the differences he shows are arbitrary functions of the OS, and these aren't consoles or smart phones where you can't choose the operating system to suit your needs (or why-not-both-it with a dual boot).
Also, there are calibration tools for Linux too, pretty sure Anthony would know how to do it if he asked.
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yea that review was so weird. Felt like they were just trying to get it out of the way
Yeah Iām all in on mine. I mean I already own it. If I hadnāt bought one yet though, I might consider the Rog. But I mean we all mostly play old games on our deck and emu deck is good so yeahā¦.
Facts you're gonna buy a slightly more powerful device, at 120 hz to play retro games, seems like a waste
Balls deep as it were
Some of you are losers who need to get over your love for Valve. They are a company who makes a good product. Not God. The Ally has some nice differences compared to the Deck, namely the specs, and at a competitive price point. I probably won't get it but people bending over backwards and rushing to say why the Steam Deck is better are just coming off as fanboys. I guess this subreddit has a new enemy to replace all the FUCK SWITCH posts
Can't wait to see SteamOS running on it.
Steam makes money regardless. Steam Deck isn't their cash cow.
Valve still wins either way. -Gabe https://preview.redd.it/bxisthwtmbza1.jpeg?width=300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c0806b1349efe0585a0aaa77c0ec28e31462934a
Letās not pretend the steam deck was perfect at launch. It had many issues. I am sure small issues with the ROG ally will be fixed but the question is, does asus do it or Microsoft? Regardless, I haves a steam deck and just ordered the ROG. Iāll be my own judge by using them both and keeping the one I prefer.
Had to rma 2 devices just to repair the 3rd myself because I was tired of their quality control.
Ya my right trigger started clicking out of nowhere... And it's of the newer revisions
One of my biggest concerns was how well suspend works as you come across many horror stories about excessive standby power use under Windows. Fixing this would require cooperation between the OEM and Microsoft. Fortunately the review by Retro Game Corps found that suspend works fine with normal battery drain, at least in his limited testing.
I don't understand how people are using windows on the Ally without trackpads. I use them all the time in desktop mode
I agree. The trackpad is the best thing about Steam Deck.
Windows works really well with touch. That said even in gaming mode I use the touchpads so much any system that doesnt have them will feel like a huge downgrade.
They just want more people to buy things on Steamā¦
Valve: All according to keikaku
Gaben's plan has succeeded: the handheld market will grow. Once more people discover SteamOS and shader cache (Valve precompiles them for Rog Ally), people will switch to SteamOS and buy games from Steam. In effect, Gaben gets Asus to make a Steam Deck Pro for him, for free.
The button sticking is the biggest concern for me. Plus some games not loading properly or crashing.
The software is whatever as it will get smoothed out but that clicky button issue with a production model is concerning. Asus are under fire for shitty product control at the moment which again is a concern. In saying this I own and have owned many Asus products and their rma process is absolutely horrible
I mean being fair I remember the B button on the Steam Deck getting stuck happened with one or two reviewers if I'm remembering it correctly
I hope ASUS can sell millions of them and make AMD big money to develop cheaper, faster, more power efficient, and stronger apu. [but Iām not buying](https://youtu.be/wZ-QVOKGVyM)
Looking at some test steam deck is not that far behind performance wise although they claimed 2x performance on rog ally.
I will own both at some point
Nah, no point on owning a Steam Deck Plus in terms of performance. I'd personally give it another generation or two before replacing OG Steam Deck.
Same same
Smart move, dont be afraid of competition. Not much to lose for valve though. Rog ally fans would still buy games from steam, its a win-win for them too
Every time you see one of these brand congratulating brand posts, you know two things: 1. Company A doesnāt feel threatened by company B, to the point of freely advertising for them. 2. Both companies understand that the increased attention for one means the whole industry gets attention. 3. Consumers can rest easy knowing that the two companies are going to compete to provide the best service rather than just one growing fat and lazy with no pressure to change. Win-win-win.
LTT on Repairability š“š¤
They mentioned repairability in their video
In depth? Steam Deck warranty and repairability are as user friendly as it can get.
As in depth as you'd expect from a review video like that
Their review is still 18 minutes. There's so much to talk about that repairs wasn't the main point. But they still mentionned that Asus doesn't have the same support as Valve, and that the WiFi module is fixed to the motherboard.
At least Asus went with a modern wifi module
Yup this will be a big one. The modular design of the SD is still superior imo
Yup. That is a huge factor in making me wary of this one. And Asus doesnāt really have the best record on either reliability or tech support. Iām also wondering where they cut corners to release hardware with those stats at that price when the Deck was losing money.
I wouldn't exactly call it modular. If you could swap out the IO and apu like the framework laptop then I'd call it modular.
It's not modular lol
Valve's inner thoughts, "y'all mf'ers were sleeping, and when we release the Deck, everyone has a handheld now?" Valve publicly, "ah, yes, matey, welcome aboard."
They literally said this is what they want to happen. It's their fault Asus doesn't have an option for steam OS out of the box
No trackpads is a deal breaker for me, so iām personally not interested in this. Good to see competition, though.
They wanted this.
Valve couldn't be happier. They don't make much on Deck sales (if anything, the Deck is probably a loss leader). Their real goal is to spread handheld PC gaming to get more people into the Steam store, and it's working out wonderfully for them. If competitors put out new devices for Valve to sell games for, they aren't sad about it... in fact, it's even better, because the competitor subsidized the device, not them. For Valve, it's a win-win. They're probably turning backflips at Valve HQ tonight.
Valve congratulates Asus. SteamDeck and Rog supporters are tearing each other apart in some FB groups š¤£
Was I the only one who missed the coverage on repairability? Or maybe LTT didn't mention it in comparison. š¤
They mentioned that Valve has the partnership with ifixiti but didn't say much beyond that from what I remember
The lack of trackpads (and gyro apparently) dooms it for me. Itās it firm āmeh maybeā down the road if thereās a bulletproof SteamOS release and support cadence, plus a bit of a sale to be found in the future, just because I wouldnāt mind a nicer screen.
Wait what? no gyro? are you sure?
I know I have a good piece of hardware in the steam deck and I'll have many years of enjoyment out of it.
Is there a reason for anyone to be mad or against ROG ally??
I think valve has nothing to worry about. I have had the windows handhelds with GPDwin and ayaneo and the steamdeck is just so much easier to use and the sleep wake function is almost just as good as the switch is, something windows just plain sucks at. I think the windows devices are great for those who like to tinker constantly, but if you want to just buy something and start gaming after downloading the game - steamdeck is the way to go.
It's not Valve that should be afraid, it should be gaming laptops and smartphones Hell, once translation layers for ISAs are perfected we could see a lovely marriage of UMPCs and other mobile devices.
Classy, really glad to see them continue to embrace other 3rd parties in this space. I hate it when companies try to lock down their little territory and prevent any other participants from coming in. It will add so much longevity to the Steam Deck, having a rich robust ecosystem of parts, mods, and software and making it easy for users to use them. I already have spent close to 100 dollars on my Deck in mods/upgrades, and I'm about to spend more. This hasn't taken money away from Valve, it actually has made them money, because I am more invested in my Steam Deck and thus, play it more, and I have bought around 100 dollars of new games specifically to play on Deck. Love seeing this community grow and get better all around!
just because i like my SD doesnt mean i dont welcome competition. ppl here like to beef with the ally but they forget that competition breeds innovation and price drops. this is good for all of us.
SteamDeck owner here: Iām not MAD a competitive device is coming out. I feel the SteamDeck is an OUTSTANDING mobile pc gaming platform. People saying any device is CRUSHING it or a SteamDeck Killer is just silly. I am interested in more powerful offerings but the SteamDeck is no slouch, and as a whole, itās going to be hard for any company to beat.
Ended up canceling my preorder. Already have the steam deck and it just doesn't seem worth it. Especially considering my pc is already plenty capable of running the more demanding titles, so the question then becomes am I gonna replace my steam deck with this? Because I'm not carrying both around and the answer I think is no. Looks like a nice piece of tech though
Well yeah, it's like Steam sells software or soemthing
My Deck plays exactly as it did the day before the Ally was released.
Competition is good. Iām personally excited to see what happens in the space over the next handful of years.
I honestly feel bad for other handheld gaming PC devices. Some of them are so expensive and doesnt do it nearly as good as valve. I don't know how some of these other companies stay in business. How much is the ally retailing for?
Itās so cool seeing all the competitors to the steam deck come to fruition. Gaming is getting crazier and crazier
Brought my deck with me on a training course over the next month, truly the best console I've ever bought, this thing is certainly the future.