Steam Deck or Asus ROG Ally

[gaborsk]

Hi everyone

I figured I'd ask you, as you are all tech savvy and might have some experience with the two devices.

The thing is this: I am from Switzerland, and Valve in their infinite wisdom do not sell Steam Decks here. So I would have to buy it from a reseller that sells it at a much higher price than justified.

The ROG Ally is freely available. But: The price difference ist 0. So I could either get a Steam Deck 256GB at 100$ cheaper (although it's not dollar but swiss francs, but it's basically 1 to1) or a 512GB one for 799.- The ROG Ally is also 799.-

I have most games on Steam. But I do have all the other launchers like GOG, Origin, Epic, Battle.net and uplay. And I also have some games on them.

I heard that the ROG Ally has a lot of software bugs, but I don't know if this is still the case. The Steam deck on the other hand is polished on the software side but a) less powerfull and b) almost 2 years old now with tech according to that time or even older.

 

What do you guys think? I will only have money to buy one, so posts like buy both are not helping

[filpo]

3 minutes ago, gaborsk said:

Hi everyone

I figured I'd ask you, as you are all tech savvy and might have some experience with the two devices.

The thing is this: I am from Switzerland, and Valve in their infinite wisdom do not sell Steam Decks here. So I would have to buy it from a reseller that sells it at a much higher price than justified.

The ROG Ally is freely available. But: The price difference ist 0. So I could either get a Steam Deck 256GB at 100$ cheaper (although it's not dollar but swiss francs, but it's basically 1 to1) or a 512GB one for 799.- The ROG Ally is also 799.-

I have most games on Steam. But I do have all the other launchers like GOG, Origin, Epic, Battle.net and uplay. And I also have some games on them.

I heard that the ROG Ally has a lot of software bugs, but I don't know if this is still the case. The Steam deck on the other hand is polished on the software side but a) less powerfull and b) almost 2 years old now with tech according to that time or even older.

 

What do you guys think? I will only have money to buy one, so posts like buy both are not helping

The ROG ally is technically better but its batter life is worse on lower power profile modes. It's your decision. if you're gonna be more away from the wall and travelling a lot more then I'd say get the Steam deck. If this is mostly for home then get the ROG ally or even a gaming laptop (though it probably will be quite a bit heavier)

[venomtail]

As someone who has neither, Steam deck is far more appealing to me. Over and over and over again better software wins me over always in the end even when the hardware might be better for the alternative. I do believe Steam deck with be cradled and kept relative by Steam far longer than ASUS. ASUS is a hardware company so they have to make money by making new models after one another. Valve can keep the same model around for far longer due to not having to solely rely on singular hardware sales.

 

I'd only consider the top tier Steam Deck with the best screen and so on.

[Wh0_Am_1]

This depends on what you want, a streamlined experience with software options, or a faster device with more bugs, annoyances, but the potential to connect a faster GPU. The Steamdeck is really appealing because how refines it is esp. in software. Valve tailored Steam OS for the Steam deck, it fits like hand in glove, it's incredibly smooth and easy to operate. Asus shoehorned Windows in, this means that you need to use an on screen keyboard all the time and use the touch screen or the joysticks to access the different features, on the flip side this means that all the drivers for Windows are there and relatively well polished and that you have a windows license if were going to buy one.

To sum it up reasons not to buy the ROG Ally; it eats SD cards for breakfast, two of the buttons stick, it runs windows, and the battery life isn't quite as good. Reasons to buy the ROG ally; It's faster, it runs Windows, it can attach a GPU (through a proprietary connector, you can upgrade the SSD without removing the heatsink, ANND THAT RGB GOODNESS.

Reasons not to buy the Steamdeck; It's slower. it's harder to upgrade the SSD and you need to consider the fact it's on top of the wifi card so bitflips may be a concern, Windows drivers are shaky and it does not come with a license, It has a single fan and depending on the factory it came from that fan may be rather noisy under load. 

Reasons to buy the Steamdeck; the software is refined and feels like it was made for the device like the Switch software for the Switch, it doesn't cook SD cards, you can buy hall effect joysticks for it, Valve will support it for a LONG time to push off the dilemma of counting to three as long as physically possible, games are optimized for it, longer battery life, and the repair guides are on Ifixit with the official parts supplied through Ifixit.

[ChrisLoudon]

2 hours ago, gaborsk said:

What do you guys think?

Sorry to throw in a grenade but have you considered a Switch?

 

I consider myself a pretty serious gamer and had the handheld quandary about a year ago when things were a little less vibrant with the Steam Deck the only 'higher end' contender but after careful consideration I decided to go with the Switch and while its nowhere near the SD or Ally in terms of performance, it has opened up a whole new ecosystem with regards to games.

 

Zelda, Picman, Metroid... to name just a few.

 

If the handheld unit is going to be your ONLY platform for gaming then maybe the switch wouldn't be the best option but for something a bit different is actually very good.

 

My Switch is reserved for the 2 weeks by the beach or a quick blast in bed after a hard day of Horizon Zero Dawn and I love it.

 

Game prices are big negative though. Nintendo tax is pretty high!

 

 

[Donut417]

2 hours ago, gaborsk said:

What do you guys think? I will only have money to buy one, so posts like buy both are not helping

I have a Steam Deck. Its a pretty polished experience. Even if the game is "Not Supported" you can check Protondb.com and there could be tweeks to get it working. Im pretty sure I got Diablo 4 installed so other game launchers can work, but you might have to use work arounds. I like the fact that is loads up to a Big Picture mode type interface for game selection and you have an option to use the desk top if you want. I got the 256 Gig model with a 513 Gig SD card. From what I read the SD cards are hot swapable. So you dont have to buy the biggest card and Steam will automatically find the games installed when a new card is inserted. The carrying case is pretty nice and a nice inclusion for the price.

 

The only real negatives. The touchpads take time to get use to. My friend is pretty quick at it, but Im not. The deck is a hefty boy and I find that during long gaming sessions my hands can go numb. I probably got carpal tunnel. Other than that its a pretty versatile device. Pretty much anything a PC can do it can do. The only other thing is its Linux so it could have a learning curve. For the record I have a Plex server running Linux and have used Linux many times so I have a bit of Knowledge. My friend works in IT and Linux is all he pretty much does so I have someone to lean on for help.

[gaborsk]

52 minutes ago, ChrisLoudon said:

Sorry to throw in a grenade but have you considered a Switch?

 

I consider myself a pretty serious gamer and had the handheld quandary about a year ago when things were a little less vibrant with the Steam Deck the only 'higher end' contender but after careful consideration I decided to go with the Switch and while its nowhere near the SD or Ally in terms of performance, it has opened up a whole new ecosystem with regards to games.

 

Zelda, Picman, Metroid... to name just a few.

 

If the handheld unit is going to be your ONLY platform for gaming then maybe the switch wouldn't be the best option but for something a bit different is actually very good.

 

My Switch is reserved for the 2 weeks by the beach or a quick blast in bed after a hard day of Horizon Zero Dawn and I love it.

 

Game prices are big negative though. Nintendo tax is pretty high!

 

 

I do have a Switch already. But besides Zelda and Mario there's not much that gets me interested.
I also have a PS5 though.
I am just looking for a Handheld PC since there are the games that I play the most.
Thank you all for your replies!

[BrandonLatzig]

On 10/13/2023 at 6:28 AM, gaborsk said:

I do have a Switch already. But besides Zelda and Mario there's not much that gets me interested.
I also have a PS5 though.
I am just looking for a Handheld PC since there are the games that I play the most.
Thank you all for your replies!

With that considered, do you have game pass? Because if you want to get into that, then I would lean towards teh ROG since i believe that is mostly around gamepass (might be wrong, please research thisyourself)

[BADESTPIE1]

On 10/14/2023 at 11:12 AM, BrandonLatzig said:

With that considered, do you have game pass? Because if you want to get into that, then I would lean towards teh ROG since i believe that is mostly around gamepass (might be wrong, please research thisyourself)

if you gonna do game pass, the Logitech cloud G is good for cloud gaming game pass as well as gforce now, but for WIFI reasons you'd only really want that when your in like a Starbucks with wifi

[Firepower]

On 10/13/2023 at 6:28 PM, gaborsk said:

I do have a Switch already. But besides Zelda and Mario there's not much that gets me interested.
I also have a PS5 though.
I am just looking for a Handheld PC since there are the games that I play the most.
Thank you all for your replies!

Yeah Nintendo has got some exclusives that can only be played on their platform, nowhere else. This is unlike the situation on the PlayStation, where most games there also release on the PC and fewer but still a lot release also on the Xbox and Switch. So you can play like Final Fantasy on the PlayStation and Switch but you can't play Mario on both, only on the Switch.

[Firepower]

On 10/13/2023 at 6:13 PM, Donut417 said:

I have a Steam Deck. Its a pretty polished experience. Even if the game is "Not Supported" you can check Protondb.com and there could be tweeks to get it working. Im pretty sure I got Diablo 4 installed so other game launchers can work, but you might have to use work arounds. I like the fact that is loads up to a Big Picture mode type interface for game selection and you have an option to use the desk top if you want. I got the 256 Gig model with a 513 Gig SD card. From what I read the SD cards are hot swapable. So you dont have to buy the biggest card and Steam will automatically find the games installed when a new card is inserted. The carrying case is pretty nice and a nice inclusion for the price.

 

The only real negatives. The touchpads take time to get use to. My friend is pretty quick at it, but Im not. The deck is a hefty boy and I find that during long gaming sessions my hands can go numb. I probably got carpal tunnel. Other than that its a pretty versatile device. Pretty much anything a PC can do it can do. The only other thing is its Linux so it could have a learning curve. For the record I have a Plex server running Linux and have used Linux many times so I have a bit of Knowledge. My friend works in IT and Linux is all he pretty much does so I have someone to lean on for help.

Yeah man most PC games are made for Windows not Linux, and I hear Proton is an imperfect solution. Correct me if I'm wrong, but some developers still have not implemented anti-cheats that work on Linux, meaning those games will just refuse to run on that OS. Sure there some native Linux games, but those are few and far between.

[Donut417]

2 hours ago, Firepower said:

Yeah man most PC games are made for Windows not Linux, and I hear Proton is an imperfect solution. Correct me if I'm wrong, but some developers still have not implemented anti-cheats that work on Linux, meaning those games will just refuse to run on that OS. Sure there some native Linux games, but those are few and far between.

Most of the games that have anti cheat I don’t play. 
 

As for a perfect solution it doesn’t exist for handhelds. Because Windows isn’t really designed well to be used with touch and controllers and Linux has its own issues. But I’d rather be using Steam OS over Windows just due to it working well in that form factor.