Got an Ally, no issues other than SD card stopped working. Loving it and can’t go back to a Deck after having full Windows. No messing about with workaround to get games running can install anything and everything without much tinkering. Armoury Crate software is really decent now it’s come a long way. Even has Gyro support now. I have a 4TB SSD thanks to the 2280 mod and loving it. The best thing 4TB SSD plus Rog Ally cost me less than a 1TB Switch OLED.

VRR is a game changer on a handheld

Does the lighter weight feel significant?

Does the Switch OLED have the same sub pixel issue?

It’s because Valve are targeting 15w max with 10w as a sweet spot. Where as Legion Go/Ally targeting 25w with a sweet spot of 18w. They want a handheld that appeals to mainstream audience, while other handheld OCs are more powerful the battery life isn’t sufficient for mainstream audience where you will mainly be restricted playing near an outlet. Currently there is no new chip that is more powerful as can run at low watts. Will take many years for this to happen

Now get a OLED Samsung Tablet. You have WiFi 6 which is better than Portal WiFi. Better OLED screen. Access to PSPlay which is better than official PS Remote app, and moonlight as well for PC streaming

I have many years left on my PS5 for PS Extra via a cheap Turkish account. Sony had blocked buying from Turkish account but luckily I staked up many years taking me to the end of this generation and maybe few years of next gen too. I really like the PS5 ecosystem, the instant loading, dualsene haptics. But I just don’t like the fact they charge for online pay and they bumped the price up drastically for online play. Games also cost a lot more I can’t remember the last time I bought a game fill price. Also don’t like games don’t get patched for powerful hardware as often. So I have decided once my sub expires I will sell my PS5 and never buy a console again. The PC ecosystem is great, will go full gaming rig and handheld PC going forward.

Lenovo doesn’t have VRR, it has worse software, more uncomfortable to hold, and loud fan noise as well as bad speakers.

This is one of the reasons I moved to ROG Ally the combination of VRR and 120fps and the extra performance to get higher frames made it a no brainer. I’m playing Monster Hunter Rise at 100fps

OLED Deck made them put some effort lol

While Ally community is not that big you can join Discord channel, where there is tons of discussions and help. You have multiple YouTube channels focused on Ally as well such as Filterless

Another thing is you don’t need much community support or work around as it’s windows and games just work most windows troubleshooting work for ally, and of course windows pc gamers are many so you can simply find your fixes from general windows discussions rather than Ally specific

I’m starting to think Valve hid features so OG owners don’t get even more buyer’s remorse, better input lag, better touchscreen, better gyro are some of the hidden features not mentioned enough on OLED Deck

Just accept the original Deck was more of a Beta. Even when I got it I could t believe how bad the screen was even for LCD standards. My V1 Switch had a better screen I made many posts about this and got downvoted. Not having WiFi 6 was also a big deal for me at the time when WiFi 6 was already common. Finally the crap touchscreen was something I noticed right away. Also the input lag was a known issue. I sold my original Deck and moved in to the ROG Ally, but I’m glad Valve finally addressed all these issues. Oh yeah forgot to mention the original delta fans were very loud I hated it.

If you care about battery life, trackpads, expandable SD card, integrated motion controls, OLED get a Deck

If you care about graphics, framerate, playing any game you want, easy to mod games etc, less input lag, full size SSD mod, light and smaller, 1080p VRR, better D Pad get ROG Ally

I owned both and preferred Deck

The graph also shows Ally can get some real performance upto 18w when it starts getting diminishing returns

The reason why Deck OLED isn’t more expensive is for 2 reasons. First of all they make money on software, Steam, they most likely seen steam growth with the release of Deck. I know I bought more games on Steam since the Deck. 2nd of all the Deck APU was shrunk making it less expensive to produce, the APU is also a generation old, you have stronger ones like Z1 Extreme now. Releasing a refresh that’s superior is nothing new we had this with DS Lite, GBA SP etc. it’s just Nintendo basically got greedy with Switch OLED. If Deck OLED was way more powerful and they charge the same price is agree. £480 for something that’s a generational old isnt exactly a bargain when you have Asus and Lenovo offering things like detachable controls,.VRR 1080p, more power for £700 and they don’t make money on software.

Wow reading comments here blew my mind didn’t realise people go in debt to pay for a gaming device, I guess I should feel blessed I don’t have to be in debt for luxury goods. I think if I was broke though I’d stick to at least 1 gaming device and nothing else

Be honest would you have gone through with this if you knew about OLED Deck

Now that you have an OLED Switch coming those black bards will be basically turning off the pixels where it looks like larger bezels

For me it was the opposite I sold my Steam Deck got an Ally and never looked back. Part of the reason I was satisfied was I expected the worse after reading similar posts to yours. So let me break down my experience.

I am familiar with Windows, I’ve used Windows computers all my life, I even own a Gaming Laptop. I’m also IT literate but not some expert who knows how to code.

When I got the Ally I went through the initial Windows set up it was very smooth and easy to do. The next thing I did was follow a video from Retro Game Corps. This is a step by step guide and only took me half hour to do a set up and very basic and easy to do. Yes it’s cumbersome but not rocket science, you do updates between 3 different apps. There are additional optional optimisation that Retro Game Corps video also does such as disabling CPU boost and Core Isolation. I then moved on to create custom fan control and wattage settings. After some basic research I determined 18w was the sweet spot for battery, and 21w was the sweet spot for being plugged in.

I then went on to install all the stores like you would do in any Windows PC, this included Steam and Epic Game store. Finally I uninstall any software I didn’t need as well as disabling any software that auto starts. I also enabled hibernate and removed sleep as I heard hibernate works better.

One thing that really surprised me is how easy the interface on Windows is on a touchscreen. I just couldn’t believe the complaints. The touch is superior to steam deck, and I was satisfied using the touch screen and right analog stick to navigate. Compared to Deck I felt I was free and not chained up, I can install anything as I please, install mods, have games from different stores, no messing about with proton layers, no lutris, bottles it was just much easier and begginer friendly to me. I can also use Steam Big picture mode or Armour Crate and make thos auto start if I wanted to avoid Windows UI.

The 2nd thing that surprised me is the quiet fan. I’m playing at 21w and the fan is considerably more queiter than a Deck at 15w. The performance increase is insane and the flexibility was great and easy to tinker thanks to Armoury Crate. I can play a indie game at 1080p 120fps. I can play a recent AAA game at 720p with RSR enabled. With VRR I don’t have to worry about capping framersre there is no screen tearing or hitching at all. Also the games had less input lag than a Deck thanks to no proton later or V Sync. I also liked having the D Pad at an angle I found it more pleasent for 2D games and fighting games than the Deck. The system also felt way lighter to hold than a Deck. Maybe I was lucky but I have had no issues running any games everything just worked. From controls to performance.

The key negatives for me on Ally are the battery life and SD card issue. But because I got my Ally used and came preinstalled with 1TB I overlooked the SD card issue, the Ally is actually moddable where you can upgrade to a normal sized cheaper SSD, so now I’m tempted to upgrade to 4TB. The battery life issue for AAA games I play plugged in, this doesn’t impact me because I mainly play around the house and have an outlet next to my bed, my office and my couch. Ally isn’t better than a Deck and Deck isn’t better than an Ally. It’s down to personal preference. If you like Windows, something smaller and lighter, more power get an Ally. If you like Steam OS, trackpads, longer battery get a Deck.

Can you give examples which games perform better and optimise on Deck than Ally?