Why the ROG Ally is superior to gaming laptops

Hello, welcome back to a new video. So I

want to talk about my brand new ROG Ally.

After using it for a while, it's actually

really good, better than I was expecting,

and it's actually now become my main

desktop computer. I've replaced my main

laptop with this ROG Ally, and I've got

this little keyboard and my mouse, and it

functions pretty much just like how you'd

expect a computer to function. I've got

Windows, got my desktop, I've got

browsers, I've got folders and files. I

guess it is kind of strange going from a

2400 $1,500 gaming laptop and then

switching from that to an ROG Ally, which

is only about $700. But I just had to

because my gaming laptop is falling apart.

So I bought this because my gaming laptop,

my RTX 3060 17-inch Razer Blade Pro gaming

laptop, has kind of been failing recently

after using it for nearly over 2 years. I

have no idea what's wrong with my laptop,

but it gets really hot when I try and play

games, and it plays games really badly.

It's really slow, really laggy, probably

because so hot inside, and I haven't been

able to play latest modern games at very

good FPSs even on low settings. So I had

to get something new to replace it with,

but unfortunately I'm kind of broke right

now, so I can't afford to buy another

really high-end laptop or desktop

computer. I spent over $2,000 on that

laptop, so I'm kind of upset that it's

broken already after only 2 years. I don't

know what's wrong with it, maybe the fans

are clogged up or something, but I don't

see any dust on the fan vents. I'm gonna

have to open it up and see what's going on

inside. So when trying to figure out what

to replace it with, I thought, okay, I

don't have much money to spend here. I

could get a PlayStation 5, that's got good

games on it, but it doesn't have Steam and

I can't refund the games if I don't like

it, and I can't really do other computing

things on the PlayStation 5. So I didn't

want to buy the PlayStation 5. And then I

thought, what about the Steam Deck? I had

the Steam Deck before, but the performance

wasn't very good and I didn't really like

how it is running Linux instead of

Windows. And then I thought, okay,

there's other handhelds like the the

AYANEO 2, but that's too expensive. It's

like over $1,000. And then there's the ROG

Ally. It's not too expensive, it's not too

cheap, which means it's got good

performance. And best of all, it's running

Windows 11 full operating system. And this

cost me $700, or maybe like $690.

And I think for the price of $700, you get

a really powerful computing machine that

can play modern AAA games at pretty good

FPS even though it's on low settings. And

after using this for a while, it feels so

much faster and snappier and responsive

compared to my gaming laptop. And it can

even play games that I was struggling to

play on the gaming laptop. And best of

all, it's really quiet. So listen, if I

just stop talking for a second,

it's so quiet. There is a fan, but right

now it's not on because I'm not doing

anything. I'm just on the web browser,

not really doing much. But when you do

play games, there is a turbo mode and the

fans do get a bit noisy, but nowhere near

as noisy as my gaming laptop gets,

and it's so peaceful now. I can just

browse the internet and do what I usually

do without having this stupid fan noise.

So for web browsing and general computer

use, it does everything you'd expect it to

do really quickly and really snappity.

I'm really surprised and pleased with the

performance of using this as a desktop

computer. You got YouTube, you got Edge,

you got your browsers and your websites

and whatever you want from a computer. It

really is amazing to think that you can do

all this When compared to things like the

Switch OLED, which can't do anything apart

from— okay, it's got a YouTube app, I

guess. But there's so much better being

able to just use Windows as— use this as

like a Windows desktop computer that I can

play YouTube like this.

And then for gaming, for some reason this

thing plays games better than my gaming

laptop. I was playing all these games on

my gaming laptop like Starfield Forza,

Elden Ring, what else? I can't remember

now, but a lot of the new games I was

trying to play on my gaming laptop, just,

it was struggling to play those games.

But when I try them on this thing, it's

completely smooth with good FPS between 40

and 60. And okay, I can't play the games

on ultra or medium or high, I play them on

low for ultimate performance, but it still

looks pretty good even on low settings,

and I got amazing FPS. I played Starfield

on this and it was really smooth. Look,

I'll launch Starfield right now. And I'll

show you how good it is. I've got Xbox

Gaming Pass, can't get that on the Steam

Deck, can you? So here is Starfield.

So when I played Starfield, my experience

of it was kind of ruined because I played

it when it first came out on my gaming

laptop, and I don't know if it's because

the game wasn't really fully optimized for

Nvidia graphics card, it's more optimized

for AMD cards, which this is using an AMD

chip, or I don't know, like an AMD CPU and

GPU. I don't know if it's integrated

or not. Wait, my keyboard's not on. I

turned the keyboard off because it was

flashing. I don't know how to turn off the

LG— the RGB lights.

So it's kind of annoying on the video,

it's like flashing so much, but in real

life it's not. It's a bit weird. So here

is Starfield, and it runs surprisingly

well Better than you think. Well, better

than my laptop ran it. When I tried

playing this game, I played it when it

first came out and I finished it on my

laptop, and the performance was pretty

bad. It kept stuttering and lagging,

sometimes it'd crash, there'd be weird

bugs. And wow, that loaded really quickly

as well. So let me just land somewhere.

Where can I land? Let me undock first.

It is shocking how well this game plays.

When it was struggling so much on my

gaming laptop. It feels really weird. The

game plays really smoothly. Look, if you

press this button here, you can bring up

this on-screen monitor which shows you FPS

and temperatures. So it's currently 54

FPS and the temperature is like 73

Celsius. Let me find a planet to land on

first. It feels so nice

playing this game now. I might actually

play it a second time just to experience

playing it without all the lag that I

experienced on my laptop. How do I land

again? I'm pretty sure I can land on this.

Oops.

Okay, where's this button?

And then land.

Yeah, the game ran really badly on my

laptop. I remember it very clearly, how

laggy and stuttery it was. I had to really

fiddle with the settings to finally get it

to work somewhat acceptably.

But this game on the ROG Ally, I didn't

really have to fiddle with the settings.

Everything is on low. I haven't tried it

on medium. We could try it, but I think

it's gonna make the game run worse. And

I'd rather have high FPS. Well, this is

not a great planet to show you because, I

mean, it's just a barren moon,

but it runs really smoothly. It's so weird

because I've never played this game whilst

it's running this well. Wait, let's just

go to another planet. This planet sucks.

Why did I land on the moon?

I really like this keyboard. It's so soft

and spongy to press the keys. I don't know

why people like those clicky buttons.

They're just annoying. I might get a

monitor as well because playing it this—

playing on this as a desktop when the

screen is so small is a bit annoying. But

I gotta buy a monitor next, I guess.

Actually, I'm gonna try this on the TV.

I've got HDMI cable. I'm gonna plug this

into the TV and then put the keyboard and

mouse on the table, and then I'm gonna see

what it's like to play on the big TV. So

let's go to a planet that doesn't look

like a boring moon. I can't believe

how smooth this feels. It's so smooth,

like the transitions between the different

menus are also much faster and snappier

than it was on my gaming laptop. Hello, I

think I found an abandoned space station,

the Almagest.

Almagest, how would you even pronounce

that? So let's go on to the space station

and see if there's any action to be had,

and then maybe later I'll show you

Cyberpunk 2077. I also want to get GTA 5

and see how well that works on this. So

far, every game I've tried on this has

just worked without any problems.

It's also really nice to be able to unplug

this and then just go onto the bed and

then play some Starfield or Cyberpunk

whilst lying down on the bed. Something

you wouldn't really feel like you would be

able to do normally.

Oh, I know what this place is. It's that

stupid annoying floating casino. I really

hate this place. I really don't like the

zero-grav places. So let's go and land on

that planet. Oh, this is my ship. I can't

believe how smooth this feels. I keep

saying that over and over again, but after

playing this for over 100 hours on my

laptop where it was just a stuttery mess,

damn, it's so different. I mean,

it even looks better than my laptop when I

zoom in on things closely.

How do I zoom in? Oh no, it's not

Cyberpunk. Even little details like the

text on things looks really sharp and

crisp. Oh look,

Sarah Morgan in bed.

It's so weird. I can't believe playing

this super new game that's

supposed to need really good specs on this

tiny little handheld device.

It is very strange,

although the battery does drain really

quickly. We're at 52% already. Okay,

where's that planet?

There definitely was a planet. Behind this

space station. Oh, there is.

Okay, let's just land, land here.

I wonder what to try next. Maybe I'll try

I did try Elden Ring and it crashed a few

times when I was trying to load into an

area, but then I just loaded into another

area and then it didn't crash anymore.

I also had to update the drivers, so maybe

that was the reason why. I swear

the loading times are much faster as well.

Okay, so we're on the planet. It looks

really boring. Not really much to show

you. I was hoping there'd be things to

shoot, but I guess not.

Well, that's what the game looks like. It

runs really well. I've got 40 FPS.

Okay, I'll show you Cyberpunk 2077 next.

Okay, here we have Cyberpunk 2077.

Maybe more action to be found in this

game. And again, it runs really well.

I've got an FPS of 48, 47.

This is also running on low, but it still

looks great. Look at the lighting, the

shadows, and it looks really sharp as

well. Maybe because the screen is small,

you don't really notice the imperfections,

but I think it looks great as long as

you're not pixel peeping. I can't believe

a game like this can play on a handheld

device. It's amazing. Technology has come

so far. I'm gonna try and get into a more—

a brighter, a more well-lit area. There's

too many shadows here.

I can't believe this is actually playing

though. I thought it'd be like a really

ugly, laggy, stupid mess.

Look, 46 FPS.

It's so smooth. There's no lag at all.

It's smoother than my gaming laptop plays

this game. It's insane.

Why is everywhere dark? So far, I want to

find a bright area so you can actually see

But anyway, I think you can see how smooth

it is. I don't know how well it does—

oops, just ran over a policeman.

This feels so good to play,

and also it's nice having this little

keyboard because now my hand's not getting

burned by having it resting on the laptop.

I don't know if there's some people in

here to fight. So get out of the car.

Got my big gun. Look at the combat,

so much better than Starfield as well.

Starfield's like a rubbish version of

Cyberpunk.

The combat feels so much better in this.

I forgot how to do that, that dash.

And then we got the mono wire,

the katana. Whoops.

This game runs so well.

What did you see that?

I can't believe how good this is. This has

to be the best handheld gaming device I've

ever tried. Why would you even get a

Switch OLED? The games on the Switch OLED

are rubbish compared to this. You can't

play Starfield and Cyberpunk on the

and then you can't get Xbox Gaming Pass on

the Steam Deck.

Whoa, look at the graphics!

What's happened to his arm?

Oh, his arm was like twisted and bent

behind himself.

I can't believe how good this looks.

It's amazing, amazing.

His arm's like glitched. Behind his back!

Oh, he's walking towards the explosive

barrels. Thanks for that.

Why do they walk towards the explosive

barrels? Idiots.

So yeah, I think you can tell that I'm

very pleased with this, and for the price,

I mean, $700. What can you buy for $700

that allows you to do this?

You could build a computer, I guess, but

for $700, what are you gonna build? Like

RTX 2000 series with a Core i5? That's

probably the best you can get.

Or maybe even less than an RTX 2000

series, maybe like a GTX 1600 something.

Damn, look at this, so smooth.

46 FPS.

Oh my God, look at this.

I can't believe it. It feels— I mean, it

feels pretty good when you hold it

handheld and you've got the screen closer

to your face, but then you've got to use I

don't like using the controls on it.

The control button layout is not that

comfortable compared to like a proper game

controller, and nothing comes

close to using keyboard and mouse. But

then you need a much bigger screen. This

screen is a bit too small.

Imagine if they made a 10-inch version of

this. But without the controller things,

so it's just like a tablet.

Yeah, this is really cool. I can just

drive around for ages. So smooth.

It feels so good as well, the way it's

responsive.

Yeah, I think that should be enough for

today's video.