![]() These are extra buttons you can program to do different things, but what's especially useful about them is they allow useful little hotkey combinations.įor example, if you hold both of the back pedals down and hit down on the D-pad, you'll bring up Windows Task Manager. On the back of the controller, there are two little paddles marked 'M1' and 'M2'. The pro move is going to be connecting a bluetooth keyboard and mouse to set up this device the first time, but if you don't have one, or you're lazy like me, you'll have to deal with the fiddly Windows touch UI. Windows 11 is fine on a touchscreen – the Surface Pro is one of the best tablets, after all – but on this tiny screen it's really easy to misclick things. You can get through most things without having to go to the desktop, but installing anything but the 3 game launchers included in Armoury Crate will require you to go to the desktop and poke around. Because unlike the Steam Deck, which has an operating system designed from the ground up for a controller, the Asus ROG Ally Z1 runs on a standard Windows 11 install, just with some Asus software to make it a little more usable. This is way more important than you'd think. That will bring up an array of different options, including a power option, control mode, a button that summons the onscreen keyboard and a "show desktop" button. The other button looks like an acute triangle pointing to the right. I recommend doing that as little as possible. That will essentially function as your game launcher, as the only other way to launch games is to fiddle around with Windows 11 on the 7-inch touch screen. You've got the standard Options and View Button that any Xbox controller has, but then you have a button below the options button that brings up Asus ROG Armoury crate. Speaking of, aside from the face buttons, which are pretty standard Xbox-coded fare, you have four menu buttons on the front. Of course, if you don't like the lighting out of the box, you can click the little ROG logo button (it looks like a circle made of little angular shapes), go into the settings and either change the lighting or turn it off. RGB lighting is divisive, sure, but it gives the ROG Ally a distinctive flair, and looks really cool if you're playing games in bed at night. ![]() The Ally uses a more modern-feeling white colorway, with RGB accents around the joysticks and power button. Valve clearly had a vision for what it wanted the Steam Deck to look like, but it looks straight up boring next to the ROG Ally. ![]() There's a reason the Nintendo Switch went with offset joysticks on the Joy-Con, after all.Īt the same time, the Asus ROG Ally looks much more like something a PC gamer would use than the Steam Deck. This naturally moves your right hand into a position that supports the weight of the device, making it less of a burden on your wrists during long gaming sessions.Ĭouple that with the textured grip on the back of the device and you have a handheld gaming PC that just feels a lot better to use. There are going to be people who don't like that there aren't the little haptic pads that the Steam Deck has, but by getting rid of those and moving the right thumbstick down, it makes the ROG Ally handle a lot like the Xbox Series X controller. But it feels so much more comfortable to hold, and I think it comes down to the size of the device. You'd think that with the ROG Ally, it would have the same problem, as it's only marginally lighter. Now, I have very small hands, and my biggest issue with the Steam Deck was how massive it is, making it uncomfortable to hold up during long gaming sessions. But I can tell you that holding the device, it feels much lighter than the Switch, and I'm pretty sure that has something to do with the ergonomics of the device. Weighing in at 608g (21.4oz), it's about 10% lighter than the Steam Deck and about 30% heavier than the Nintendo Switch OLED, which isn't that impressive. Immediately, the first thing you notice when you pull the ROG Ally out of its box is how light it is. When I first saw Asus' little handheld PC, I thought the garish RGB lighting would have turned me off immediately, but whether I'm holding it or just admiring it from afar, I love the design of this thing. It's impossible to talk about any handheld gaming PC without bringing up the Steam Deck, but as much as I adore the Valve portable, the ROG Ally is so much more sleek.
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