Don't buy a ROG ALLY, if you want a gaming handheld buy an Steam Deck OLED - here's why!

Hello, welcome back to a new video. So

recently I've been using this ROG Ally as

my main gaming and computer device, but

unfortunately after using it for about a

month now, I feel like it's not quite up

to my standards and I kind of wish I had a

Steam Deck OLED instead. So I originally

had the original Steam Deck and I thought

it was okay, but it wasn't quite good

enough for what I needed it for, so I

replaced it with this ROG Ally. But after

the Steam Deck OLED came out, I kind of

feel myself finding that I want the Steam

Deck OLED because it kind of fixes all of

the problems that I had with the original

Steam Deck. So after comparing the specs

between the ROG Ally and the Steam Deck

OLED, it has come to my conclusion that it

seems like the Steam Deck OLED would be a

much better gaming device. Number one, it

is much cheaper. It's like $200 cheaper.

I think it's about $534 US,

whereas the ROG Ally is over $700 or $699,

which is almost an entire $200 more

expensive. With $200, you could buy so

many games. Imagine all the games you

could buy with $200. So you're saving a

lot more money with the Steam Deck OLED.

And also, the Steam Deck OLED screen is

slightly bigger and much more colorful

thanks to the OLED technology. The ROG

Ally has very nice looking LCD panel, but

it just doesn't really come close to what

the Steam Deck OLED's OLED panel is

capable of offering. Also, the Steam Deck

OLED has better battery life, and that's

mainly because it's running SteamOS. Now,

the ROG Ally is using Windows 11 operating

system, and if you want more function

functionality and capability in your

operating system, then obviously the

Windows 11 operating system would be much

more functional as an operating system to

do much more than just gaming. But if all

you care about is only gaming, then the

Steam Deck OS, which is a Linux-based

operating system, would be pretty good as

well. It's also more power efficient since

it doesn't have all the bells and whistles

that Windows has. It's much more

streamlined and basic operating system,

so it's much more power efficient, which

means it's going to drain the battery much

less. So it's good for only gaming. And

that's fine if you only want the device

for gaming, which I'm guessing most people

just want the Steam Deck OLED for gaming.

So you could play the Steam Deck OLED for

maybe 2 to 3 hours off the battery alone,

and that's much better than the 1 hour of

gaming you can get on the ROG Ally.

Because the ROG Ally is much more

powerful, it drains the battery much

faster as well. Some games like GTA 5 and

Cyberpunk 2077, I've only gotten about 40

or 45 minutes out of the battery before

the thing is completely dead. Also, the

Steam Deck OLED has some added

functionality with the trackpads on the

device, which can be very useful when you

want like a mouse cursor kind of

experience when you're browsing the web on

it. Also, it has 2 back paddles on either

side for a total of 4 back paddles instead

of just the 2 back paddles on the ROG

Ally. So when it comes to the body and the

buttons, the Steam Deck OLED kind of wins

points over the ROG Ally in my opinion.

Some might be thinking because ROG Ally

has Windows 11, you can do a lot more on

it, like play games on Xbox Game Pass,

Battle.net, or Epic Games Store, do other

things like presentations, spreadsheets,

editing videos using whatever editing

software you might have. And some of these

editing software, most of them are not on

the Linux App Store. For example, I

sometimes do live streams and I use

Streamlabs, but Streamlabs wasn't on the

Steam Deck operating system Linux app

program store thing. It only had OBS,

which is like a very basic version of

Streamlabs. I didn't have Streamlabs, so I

couldn't use my usual stream setup. And

you could do all that stuff straight out

of the box on the ROG Ally. And you might

be thinking that's good because Steam Deck

can't, but actually it can. Steam Deck

doesn't come with Windows, but there's

nothing stopping you from sideloading or

sidebooting Windows onto the Steam Deck.

It just takes, you know, you have to look

up a tutorial or a guide. If you don't

really know much about technology or

computers, then you might struggle here,

but I'm pretty sure there's a basic guide

and just have to follow the steps, and

then you can get Windows 11 on your Steam

Deck as well. So don't think that just

because it's a Steam Deck and it has

SteamOS doesn't mean you are only limited

to Steam. You can also find other ways to

play other kinds of games on the Steam

Deck. So when it comes to choosing between

the Steam Deck OLED and the ROG Ally, I

guess it At the end of the day, I guess it

really just comes down to you and your

preferences. What are you going to do with

it? If you want something that is much

more powerful, comes with Windows 11

straight out of the box, then you might do

better with the ROG Ally. If you don't

really care about battery life and you're

going to have it plugged in all the time

anyway, then the extended battery life of

the Steam Deck OLED might not really be

that important to you. But then if you're

someone who does actually take your games

console outside on the bus, on the train,

or maybe you want to play it in the

garden, or I don't know, in the car on the

car trip, something like that, then you

would probably prefer the Steam Deck OLED

because it has slightly more hours of game

time that you can play with it without it

being plugged into a battery power source.

And you can play games on it. Maybe it

doesn't have as good power or graphics as

ROG Ally, but it's going to be good enough

if all you care about is the gaming,

which I'm going to assume most people do

care mostly about the gaming and the

graphics come second. I don't really care

too much about the graphics. I'm not

exactly a pixel peeper. I prefer to play

games actually fun than fuss about the

graphics too much. So I don't mind

lowering the graphics settings a bit down

to medium or low to have a better gaming

experience. Maybe you're like that as

well, and Steam Deck OLED with its

brighter, more colorful and brighter

screen, the game's going to look pretty

good on that anyway, even with lower

graphics and lower power. So you might not

even be that bothered about the extra

performance and juice and power that the

ROG Ally has to offer, and you would think

that the Steam Deck OLED would be the

better choice. The Steam Deck OLED also

has more accessories. There's more people

using the Steam Deck, so there's just more

of a community and more mods and more

accessories available for the Steam Deck,

whereas the ROG Ally, although it is quite

a popular device, it's just nowhere near

as popular as the Steam Deck is. And

because the Steam Deck has a bigger user

base, that just means gaming companies are

going to be more inclined to making their

games optimized for Steam Deck, and

they're going to be working with Valve

since the Steam Deck is the most popular

handheld gaming device right now. They

aren't really going to be fussing too much

about all these other niche Windows

handheld-based devices. So if you want the

best kind of optimization for the widest

amount of games, then that's probably

going to be on the Steam Deck. It is a

little bit annoying that Valve didn't come

out with the Steam Deck straight from the

beginning, because if that was the first

generation, first attempt at the Steam

Deck, then I would have just kept it

instead of switching to the ROG Ally. But

because they came out with the Steam Deck

1.0, which was kind of lacking in luster,

and then they came out later with this

kind of Steam Deck OLED 1.5 It just kind

of makes it very confusing trying to

figure out which one to get. If they just

held off releasing the Steam Deck for like

a year and spent a bit more time working

on it and making it how they really wanted

it to be, which is what the Steam Deck

current is, they could have just released

that as the first Steam Deck and blown

everyone's socks away. But no, they had to

like rush out this kind of prototype beta

version of the Steam Deck, which came out

last year, which was all right as like an

initial attempt. But it would have been

much better if they just came out with the

Steam Deck OLED straight away from the

beginning of the race.