I used to be impolite on the unique Asus ROG Ally. This can be too harsh, since most of the issues I encountered are inherent within the very idea of a Home windows-based moveable gaming console. So after I obtained my arms on the brand new ROG Ally X, I attempted to be slightly extra open-minded. It wasn’t onerous, as a result of the brand new mannequin is a major enchancment. However some obstacles simply cannot be overcome.
The ROG Ally X appears nearly equivalent to its predecessor, save for a brand new coat of black paint. There are delicate variations, like rounded grips which are extra snug to carry, barely raised ABXY buttons, and an eight-way D-pad that handles diagonal swipes slightly higher. Nevertheless, except you’re trying too carefully, you’d be forgiven for pondering that not a lot has modified.
However underneath the hood, Asus has made some main enhancements. Essentially the most noticeable is the battery measurement. doubled. The unique ROG Ally had a 40Wh battery, which is roughly corresponding to the unique Steam deck. Alternatively, the ROG Ally X by some means sports activities an enormous 80Wh battery. That is larger than the battery in Asus Zephyrus G14 sport laptop computerwhich I cherished for lengthy battery lifeRegardless of this important enhance, the Ally X is just 70 grams heavier.
Asus additionally bumped up the storage capability — it now comes with a 1TB SSD as a substitute of 512GB — and an additional 8GB of DDR5 RAM. The corporate additionally changed the XG Cellular port, which is actually solely helpful for Asus’ exterior GPUs, with a USB4 port which may attain speeds of as much as 40Gbps, making it excellent for connecting to exterior docking stationsHowever specs do not inform the entire story.
Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft
An insurmountable wall of home windows
Home windows is not designed to run on a pocket laptop. That is the straightforward, inescapable fact. Microsoft expects you to log into its working system with a mouse and keyboard, or at the least giant contact displayAttempting to regulate the OS with a controller is at all times going to be an train in frustration. Regardless of how onerous I strive, I can not keep away from the fundamental drawback of interacting with issues on the display.
One nice instance of that is the Xbox app. Asus has made nice strides with its Armoury Crate SE app, which is designed to be a bridge between all the opposite sport libraries in your system. Armoury Crate launches at startup, there’s a devoted button subsequent to the precise follow open it once you want it, and it has shortcuts to apps like Steam (which launches in controller-friendly Massive Image mode) or Xbox, so you may entry any of your video games.
Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft