Why I Regret Buying the ROG Ally

Hello and welcome back to a new video. So

as you can see, I recently got myself an

ROG Ally and I kind of regret purchasing

this and I'm not super happy with it, and

I'll explain exactly why in today's video.

So the reason why I bought this in the

first place was because I'm actually

planning to go to the UK for Christmas.

I'm currently living in Thailand and I

wanted to go back home for a bit just to

see family, and I was trying to decide

what kind of gaming device I'm going to

bring with me. As you can see in the

background, I've got several choices.

I've got the this 17-inch gaming laptop,

I've got my Switch OLED, and now I have

the ROG Ally. And I thought I was

definitely going to bring the ROG Ally

with me as my number one gaming choice,

but I'm not too sure now because I want to

keep things lightweight. I only want to

bring one of these devices with me in my

backpack when I go traveling because it'll

be very heavy to carry all of these things

all at the same time. I like to travel

light. Obviously I'm not going to bring

the gaming laptop, the Switch OLED, and

the ROG Ally and my portable wireless

keyboard. That would just be insane. My

back would really hurt. So I don't have a

lot of space in my backpack. I like to

travel light. I don't want to carry a big

backpack. So I've got this kind of

smallish backpack that I can just take

onto the plane without having to check it

into the luggage thing, which is kind of

annoying because I hate having to check in

my luggage. I like just carrying my

backpack straight on with me. But when you

look at the ROG Ally inside of the

protective case, which I got for free by

the way with the ROG Ally, you can see

that it takes up a lot of space in the

backpack. Look at the size of that

compared to the backpack. It's literally a

third of the size of my backpack. Look,

1, 2, 3.

It's, it's actually a third of the size of

the backpack. And width-wise, yeah, it's

as wide as the backpack. So this thing, I

don't know, it's supposed to be portable,

but it doesn't really seem super portable.

And then you throw in the wireless

keyboard on top of it like this, um,

yeah, the wireless keyboard and the case

with the ROG Ally inside of it takes up

2/3 of the space of my backpack. So it's

kind of hard to decide to bring the ROG

Ally over the gaming laptop when the

gaming laptop has better performance. The

gaming laptop is as portable as the ROG

Ally with the case and the keyboard and

everything. If we put it horizontally,

it's like 1, 2, 3 ROG Allies

horizontally Next, I'll show you what it's

like packing it into the backpack. So with

the gaming laptop, you know, it's pretty

easy. You just slot this into the back

compartment of the backpack. In it goes.

It's pretty heavy though, but it does just

slide in there without too many problems.

Now in comparison, let's, um, put the ROG

Ally into the backpack and see what it's

like. So we're going to put it into the

gaming case like this.

So it's quite secure and snug in the case

now. And then we'll just slot that in, I

guess, same place, like here.

So that'll just

fall right in. And then we got the

wireless keyboard that will go in as well,

because, you know, I want to use the ROG

Ally as a computer, not just a gaming

device, because Usually I'd bring my

laptop and that would be my main computer

to do video editing and other kind of

email stuff and web browsing. So I don't

just want this for the gaming, I want it

to also act as my main computer. So yeah,

I need to bring the keyboard because I'm

not going to use the stupid little

touchscreen keyboard. And then we've got

the mouse that goes in, and then we've got

the USB hub, so that goes in as well.

And that's all the stuff we need really.

Also the charger, but that's not too big,

it doesn't really matter. And then, yeah,

it's still pretty heavy. I mean, it's not

really much lighter than the gaming

laptop. So you want to say the ROG Ally is

amazing because of the portability? The

portability flies out the window very

quickly when you start adding all this

stuff onto it. Also, I'll quickly talk

about the battery life. The battery life

is absolutely terrible. I played this game

for about 30 minutes and it drained the

battery from 100% down to about 50%.

So about an hour, I would say slightly

under an hour, is how much you could

expect to play on a game like this with

high graphical fidelity. By the way, I'm

playing on ultra settings and the game

does run very smoothly, so I'm not going

to say the game has bad— I'm not going to

say the ROG Ally has bad performance

because it's pretty good, but it does

drain the battery extremely quickly.

You'll be able to get 1 hour tops And if

you want to play any more than an hour

when you're out and about, then you'll

need to be plugging this into some kind of

massive battery bank which has enough

power and enough wattage to be able to

power up the device whilst you're playing

a game, which I don't think most battery

banks are capable of. You need to get like

a very specialized powerful battery bank

to be able to do that, and then maybe

you'll be able to play like 3-4 hours,

which is pretty pathetic compared to the

Switch OLED where you can actually play a

AAA game like Zelda Tears of the Kingdom

for about 5 or 6 hours on the battery. So

look at the battery, currently it's at

63%, which is kind of funny because I've

only been playing this game for about 15

minutes just to show you on the video,

and I started off at 100% and it's already

drained nearly 40%. So the battery is

really terrible, so don't expect to be

able to play mobile gaming on the go for

very long. So when trying to decide which

device to bring with me on my Christmas

trip, I had to weigh up the pros and cons

of each device. The ROG Ally, my gaming

laptop, and the Switch OLED are all viable

choices, but there can only be one winner.

First, I thought the Switch OLED would be

a great choice because it's super light,

super portable, great battery life,

really easy to hold and lightweight, but

the games on it just kind of suck. I'm not

really a huge Nintendo fan, and the only

reason I bought this was to play indie

games and Zelda, and Mario Kart,

which are the only Nintendo games I

actually do like, but I'm kind of bored of

those games now and I don't play them

anymore. I like PC games. So as someone

who likes PC games, this isn't really

gonna cut it because the games on it are

kind of like made for children. So usually

I play on my 17-inch Razer Blade gaming

laptop, which has been my go-to gaming

device up until now, but it's getting kind

of old now. It's over 2 years old, it's

having a lot of problems, and it's

struggling to play modern games at a

decent FPS. As you can see, I've had to

glue some cardboard to the top of the

laptop where I place my hand because the

whole thing gets so damn hot. I put my

hand here and it's actually burning my

hand with how hot this metal gets. It

really makes games run very poorly and

very slowly because of the thermal

throttling. So this gaming laptop has kind

of become unusable with AAA modern games.

So I thought to myself, what has the

portability of the Switch OLED but has the

power and the games library of a gaming

PC? Seems like the ROG Ally. Would be a

no-brainer. Okay, so first of all, let's

talk about the design of the body and how

comfortable it is to hold. I don't really

find it to be extremely comfortable. This

is quite a chunky device, as you can see.

It's pretty thick, it's pretty wide, and

the buttons are very spread out widely,

which makes it hard to press them when

you're holding it comfortably. So when I'm

playing Rainbow Six using the control pad,

I would hold the game console like this— I

would hold the ROG Ally like this using my

right thumb here, but then it's very hard

to press the buttons. You see, my thumb is

not long enough, and I've already got

pretty long thumbs. You'd have to have

insanely long thumbs to be able to reach

all these buttons comfortably. I can only

reach the A button and maybe the B button.

I can't reach those X or Ys. I have to

move my entire hand up to then press them

and then move it back down, which is kind

of frustrating when you're trying to play

a game that's as fast-paced as Rainbow

Six. Also, the triggers are very wide and

long, and you can only kind of tap the

edge of them with the end of your index

finger like this. You can't really wrap

your fingers all the way around the

triggers, which is kind of annoying. It

would have been nicer if the shoulder

triggers were slightly lower down so I

feel like I have more control over them

compared to the Switch OLED, where when

I'm holding it like this, I can easily

press all of the buttons without having to

stretch my fingers in awkward positions.

There's not really much to grip on the

back as well. You've got these slightly

raised bumps, but it's not much to hold on

to when you're trying to grip the thing

firmly. Okay, so we have a match of

Rainbow Six ready to go, and I'm going to

show you how cumbersome it is to move the

character around, use different gadgets

and tools and weapons whilst I try and

hold this thing in my hand. Okay, so

moving around is quite simple. We just

click the left thumbstick like that to

sprint. We can aim down the sights and

move around like this, but then when I

want to use the X, Y, and B buttons, it

does get kind of annoying. So I need to

use them to deploy my defensive tool like

this. So I've got to like move my hand

like that, then move it back down like

this. And to switch weapons, I've got to

press Y, which is kind of annoying that

it's placed up there. It's kind of

annoying not having these buttons easily

accessible when you're trying to stay

alive in a game like Rainbow Six. So I'll

just show you what it's like trying to

play this game. I mean, ideally you'd use

keyboard and mouse, but then that creates

another problem which I'll get onto later

in the video. So as you can see, whilst

trying to move my hand around and play

this game at the same time is kind of

cumbersome. I like to have the console

resting in the middle of my palm like that

so it's stable, but then I find it hard to

reach those buttons up there. So let's

just try and play some of this, see if I

can stay alive. It's very hard playing the

game looking through the viewfinder of my

camera, so don't, don't, uh, judge my

gaming skills too much. It's extremely

tiny. Trying to see what's going on.

Oh my god, I can't even tell that that's

an enemy. Is that an enemy? Oh my god, I

got a kill! Okay, I was not expecting

that. Oh my god, I didn't think

there's gonna be another person there.

But I think you understand what I mean

when I say that it's kind of uncomfortable

holding this thing and trying to play a

game at the same time because of how the

buttons are laid out. I bought myself this

tiny wireless keyboard to be able to use

with the ROG Ally so I could play Rainbow

Six using keyboard and mouse. It's not

plugged in right now, and that's because

there's only one USB-C port at the top,

and that's used for charging. So you can

plug in a USB hub, which I do, and I plug

in the USB hub to be able to plug in the

wireless mouse and the wireless keyboard,

but there's not enough ports, and it's

kind of frustrating. So I've got it

plugged in now, and as you can see, yeah,

you can play keyboard and mouse with this,

but then the screen is extremely tiny,

which means you're going to have to buy

some kind of portable monitor or just any

kind of monitor if you want to be able to

play this as if you're playing on a

desktop. But then when you buy the

portable monitor and the keyboard and

you've got the mouse, you're basically

carrying something that's like the

equivalent of the size of a gaming laptop,

and you kind of lose out on the

portability. So if you want something

that's portable and also you can play it

like a desktop computer, then I don't

really see why you would buy this and use

this kind of setup instead of just using a

gaming laptop. The gaming laptop is

basically all of this combined into one

sleek package. This is just like having a

gaming laptop where all the different

components are separate. So I find it

annoying because there's only one USB-C

port, and it would have been nice if they

had some USB ports at the top so I can

plug in my wireless mouse and keyboard,

but I have to use this USB-C hub thing,

which is okay, but it's not designed in

the best way. It also means you have to

have this thing dangling off the top of

it, which doesn't look very good, and it's

kind of annoying. Okay, so I have the

entire package laid out in front of you

here to show you the footprint, show you

the comparison in size between the laptop

and the ROG Ally that you would be packing

into your backpack. And as you can see,

there's not really much difference. You'd

think, oh yeah, the ROG Ally is much more

portable, but when you throw in the

keyboard and the carry case— which

definitely you would use the carry case

because can you imagine just chucking this

this expensive thing into your backpack

without a carry case. I got this carry

case for free, which is pretty nice. So

you're going to put that into, into the

case, and then you've got the mouse and

the USB-C hub, and then maybe a portable

monitor unless you want to play desktop

and unless you want to play keyboard and

mouse using this tiny 6 or 7-inch screen,

which I don't think most of you would. So

you'd probably want to get like a smallish

15-inch portable monitor to go in there

with you, and that'll just make it even

bigger and even heavier than the actual

17-inch gaming laptop. And I don't see how

the ROG Ally is going to have better

performance than a modern gaming laptop.

And then if we compare the size of the ROG

Ally to the 17-inch gaming laptop, it's

not really that much smaller. It's just

like a third or like half the size of the

gaming laptop. If you can look at this,

it's like 2, 2 ROG Allies

is how big it is compared to the gaming

laptop. Or if we put it side by side like

this, you can see. So to wrap things up,

in conclusion, I don't really see why you

would want to buy this device. It doesn't

have the portability of the Switch OLED

when you chuck in all of the other

accessories. It doesn't have the

performance and the power of a proper

gaming laptop. So it's kind of like a jack

of all spades, master of none. I thought

it'd be a good Goldilocks solution with

the portability of the Switch and the

games of the laptop, but but in reality,

it's kind of like a Goldilocks of nothing.

So yeah, I probably will be looking into

returning this device or trying to sell it

because I don't really see why I would use

it over my other gadgets.