ASUS ROG Ally, AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, 7"/17.78cm, 120Hz, Windows 11 Home, White, RC71L-NH001W Handheld Gaming Console

Amazing little handheld, Ergonomics are perfect, the weight if perfect and the performance is amazing. I recieved the R8 version which according to Asus has fixed the SD card issues. The only things I don't like is that there is only 1 USB C port and the battery backup is not that great. But for the price 39k the value is unbeatable, even the base model steamdeck does not compare. The display is crisp and fuild, the sound is nice. For most games you can get 60fps but if you don't you can use upscaling or play at 900p which on this small screen looks pretty alright. One word of caution be careful with the USB C port as if you break it finding a replacement for repair will be very hard as the USB port is part of the proprietary XG mobile port. I 3d printed a a cable protector for mine which reduces the strain on the USB port. Also many people seem to be complaining about the seller, so for reference mine came from Clicktech Retail.

It’s the best product I have bought. I ran “God of War 3” on a PS3 emulator and was completely blown away by its performance. Even in 15W performance mode, it worked really well and was playable. Even my Alienware couldn’t handle this, but this device handled it like a champ. It’s the best portable gaming laptop/handheld console. Forget the battery life; it charges in 30 minutes. You can play for one or two hour, leave it to charge, do other personal work, and then come back to gaming. It’s a healthy and fun way to play. One downside during travel is the battery life, but you can buy either a travel adapter for the car or a 65W power bank, which gives twice the battery life. At this price of 39K, it’s the best buy. It’s better than Snapdragon phones. Optimized emulators like PS3 run really well. The ROG Ally X has better battery life but costs twice as much in India for now, so this is the best product.

Pros 1. Can handle almost all modern games in medium to low settings. Older games can be played at high or ultra settings. Tried Division 2, Doom eternal, nfs etc. 2. Can function as a proper windows desktop when connected with a monitor. 3. Can serve as a good gaming pc if connected with external gpu. 4. Excellent audio quality. 5. Display is very crisp. Cons 1. Heats quite a bit while playing games. 2. Fan noise audible if in a indoor environment. 3. Poor battery life if playing in Turbo mode. Hardly 45 mins for demanding games. 4. Limited and less storage. Only 500gb and half of that Windows takes. So you are left with installing 3 or 4 modern games. 5. Upgrading ssd is expensive as its 2230 slot. 6. Risk of frying sd card if used for installing applications. 7. Device ergonomics could have been better. 8. Biggest Con - Only 1 type c port and no other connection as it also serves as charging port. 9. An Oled screen would have better in terms of battery management. If your budget allows go for Ally X. But for me it fulfills all my need as I mostly play on my Xbox or Gaming PC. Overall the best handheld.

I was not entirely keen on buying a handheld as I mostly play on console for exclusive games and PC for everything else.The only reason I bought it because I got a good exchange value on my 10 year old laptop along with some credit card discounts. Setup Experience: It took me a day to set it up,update all the drivers,bios and transfer some of my games and files across.The experience is mostly the same as any windows desktop/laptop setup however due to the small screen windows does not scale appropriately and hence it takes few tries to navigate around. This is not on ASUS but on Microsoft as their OS is not build for touch screen based interface. It would have been a better experience if we connect a mouse and keyboard externally. What I like so far: Screen - Despite being a LCD screen I find it to be a very well quality and calibrated display,there is very less or minimum back-light bleeding and with good contrast ,blacks look proper black. Yes if you compare with a AMOLED/OLED mobile display side by side you will notice the different but I have no complain with the display. Audio - The speakers are very good, I was quite surprised by the sound clarity and quality. They sound spacious and gives a very good listening experience. Controls - The controls are decent,all the buttons feel like usual XBOX controller except the ABXY face button they have a bit of a squishy type feel.I did not find much use for the back buttons in games but they are useful for custom tasks like bring up keyboard/set it to quick close an app etc. Overall controls are decent. Usability - I can comfortably use they for a couple of hours while laying down after which it either needs to be charged or I have a bit of arm fatigue. As for actual gameplay, if you play games from 2020 or before they mostly give locked 60 FPS(with few exception) with a medium/high setting at 900p. Latest games depending on load can be run with low settings at 720p using some frame gen mod with locked 40-50 fps. With VRR and Low framerate compensation along with the small screen I do not feel much of any stutter or lack of visuals quality in low settings. It also works best with emulated and streaming game services.It comes with free 3 months xbox ultimate and the experience is very good. Official availability - Steam never bothered to release their product in India,Legion GO/MSI CLAW has no update for Indian market yet. At least ASUS officially released early than rest of the competition out here. What I do not like: Battery - It is in the lower side,mostly within 2 hours it dies. However if you play some low demanding games which can be sustained in 7-9 watt power profile with screen brightness set to less than 40% it does last close to 3 hours. The supplied charger take about 2 hours to charge full or 1 hour if you charge till 80%. Storage - They come with 512 GB and you get close to 450 GB usable space. For the price I would have preferred at least 1 TB. Also ASUS should have went with a full size 2280 instead of expensive 2230 SSD,there is clearly space for it and we would have been able to update the storage down the line without paying such high price for 2230 variants. No Carry case - For the price ASUS should have provided a carry case along with some pre-applied screen protector instead they charge 1.9K for their official carry case. Single USB C Port - Bad design choice,they should have provided at least 2. XGM Port - This propriety port is basically useless for this handheld. Asus does not sell any external adapter case which we can use to connect any external pcie device like desktop GPU. They do sell some XG mobile GPU but they are far too expensive and no one would pair them with this handheld. They should have went with a usb gen 4 port instead. Modularity - I would have preferred if these came with a detachable controller then we could transform this completely into a windows tablet and have the best of both worlds. I hope they add this in their next iteration. With all this being said this is gradually growing on me and I find myself playing a lot of my backlog games while lying down. I think the future for handhelds are growing and with a few generation of improvements both OS interface & hardware these will become the all in one device.