ROG ALLY vs Switch 2 – The Ultimate Handheld Battle!

So in today's video, we're going to be

comparing the Switch 2 versus the ROG

Ally, both very comparable and compatible

and capable handheld gaming devices.

The Switch 2 being much newer and slightly

more expensive at £400 or $450 USD,

whereas the ROG Ally came out a few years

ago.

Now, as someone who's had an ROG Ally in

the past and now has the Switch 2, I have

to say, so with the body, I would say the

Switch 2 definitely feels nicer, looks

nicer, makes me want to touch it more.

The ROG Ally had a good design, it didn't

look awful, and I like the white design of

it, and I did appreciate the bigger

handheld grips, but it was a much

chunkier, thicker device with noisy fans,

bad battery life, and subpar gaming

performance.

Now it was pretty good, so I could play

things like Red Dead Redemption 2, GTA 5,

um, probably could play World of Warcraft,

I could play Diablo 4.

So you play all the latest PC games on a

handheld device, which is pretty cool.

Can't really do that on the Switch 2.

Now we do have Red Dead Redemption 1, we

have GTA Trilogy I think, and I think San

Andreas, but there's no GTA 4.

Or 5, so the newer GTAs are not on this

game.

You've got Cyberpunk, which is I guess the

closest you're going to get to a modern

GTA on Switch 2.

You also have Saints Row, which I've got,

which is kind of like GTA but a bit more

silly, and it does look pretty good and it

just plays like GTA, you know, hijacking

vehicles, killing people.

So yeah, I mean, you do have the

equivalents, but you don't have exactly

what you might want.

If you've got a PC, you can play anything

you want.

Um, even, you know, like real-time

strategy games— Civ, Total War— you can

play it on Steam Deck, or I Was Your Ally.

So you can play anything you want,

basically.

Um, Switch 2, you're much more limited,

but the trade-off is you now get to play

Mario games.

Now it really depends if you like Mario

games or Zelda games or, you know,

Nintendo games in general.

And there's one game in particular I

really like, which is Mario Kart.

And I'm not a Mario fan, don't get me

wrong.

I don't really care about Mario.

I never played it when I was a kid.

I played Sonic.

Um, but I really do like Mario Kart.

It is a really good game.

It is really fun.

It easily kills a few hours.

Control system's great for this kind of

device, and it's just like very

stress-free casual gaming, which, which is

what you want from a handheld.

Now with the ROG Ally, uh, I don't really

have that option, do you?

Unless there's some kind of kart racing

game on Steam.

That's as good as Mario Kart.

I guess you— people say, oh, use

emulators.

I can't be bothered to figure out how to

do that.

And also, I've heard Nintendo will brick

your device if you try and do that, so I

wouldn't really want to do that.

Um, so yeah, ROG Ally, um, pretty good

device, not too expensive, pretty

powerful.

I played Red Dead Redemption on it and it

was fine, and I played GTA on it and it

was fine, but the battery life lasts like

40 minutes.

I swear to God, it was like 30 to 40

minutes if you try and play one of these

big games.

You have to have it plugged in all the

time, which kind of defeats the purpose of

it being handheld.

I mean, what's the point of it being

handheld and you have to plug it in?

So for example, if I want to sit in my

beanbag and do some gaming, I don't have a

plug in— well, there's a plug over there,

so I guess I could plug it in.

But my point is, if I didn't have a plug—

and there's a plug there as well— Well, if

I didn't have a plug and I wanted to sit

somewhere, then I wouldn't be able to do

much handheld gaming, would I?

30 minutes, what's the point of that?

So yeah, it is cool you can play high-end

PC games on a handheld gaming device, but

if you've got to have it plugged in, then

it kind of limits where you can play it.

So with the Switch 2, I can easily play 2

to 3 hours on even demanding games because

the Switch 2 Okay, it's not going to be as

powerful as one of these Windows devices,

but it's going to have better battery

life.

There's always a trade-off, you know,

slimmer, longer battery life.

It's obviously not going to have as good

graphics as something that's thicker but

has worse battery life.

So you've got to pick which is more

important to you.

And if you're going to have a handheld

gaming device

Obviously the ability to game handheld

anywhere is the whole point you get a

handheld gaming device.

Otherwise you just get a games console and

plug it into a TV, or you get a, get a

gaming laptop with a desktop configuration

with a monitor like I have here.

So if I'm gonna go traveling, which I'm

planning to go to Thailand soon this year,

hopefully for 5 years, I'm thinking like,

do I want to bring a laptop and a

handheld?

Or do I just get rid of both and just get

one Windows handheld like an ROG Ally?

And it's tempting to instead of having a

laptop and a handheld, you just have the

handheld because that'll be much smaller

in my backpack.

And then I could use the ROG Ally linked

up to a monitor when I get there.

I'll go buy a monitor, like a cheap one,

and then I'll just hook up the ROG Ally to

the monitor, use it as a desktop, and then

I could also use it for handheld gaming

when I want to relax in the evening.

So it is kind of a 2-in-1 device, I guess

you could say, whereas the Switch 2 is—

yeah, you can dock it, but I mean, you're

not going to trade stocks on it or book

flights with your Switch 2, are you?

I mean, I have heard that there's ways to

get a browser on Switch 2.

There's a way to get Win— I mean, uh, like

a Windows browser on Switch 2, but it's

probably not very good, is it?

And it's probably not going to work very

well and it's going to be glitchy because

it's not intended for that.

So it's interesting, like, do you want to

bring a laptop plus a Switch 2, or do you

just want to have a more all-in-one device

which is ROG Ally and

have more space in your backpack at the

cost of— I don't really know what the cost

is actually.

ROG Ally versus my laptop, it's probably

not a huge performance difference.

I've got an RTX 4050 in my laptop, but

it's the mobile version, so I don't know

how that compares to the Z1 Extreme chip.

So you might want to wait for the next

generation of handhelds to come out with

the Z2 chip, because that's probably going

to destroy my RTX 4050 graphics card.

And then bringing a laptop over a smaller

handheld that can become a desktop if

plugged into a monitor seems to make more

sense.

The only thing is I would then have to

sell the laptop And it's got a Thai

keyboard, so I probably wouldn't be able

to get a lot for it because people would

be like, oh, you got that in Thailand,

mate?

Does it work in the UK?

Yeah, of course it works in the UK.

It's just got a Thai keyboard on it

because I bought it in Thailand.

Yeah, so I'll probably just stick with my

laptop because I probably can't get— I

mean, the amount of money I get for the

laptop would be how much the ROG Ally

would cost anyway, so you'd just be

trading it in for an ROG Ally, and then

the only thing you gain really is the

portability of the ROG Ally and the

handheld part of it, which you can't

really have with a laptop.

But then do I really care that much about

handheld gaming?

Desktop gaming is pretty good too, you

know.

It's just, I think it's more relaxing, you

know.

Sometimes my back hurts and I don't want

to be sitting upright, and although this

chair is nice and everything I don't want

to be sitting upright in my chair playing

games when I could be slouching, leaning

back in my beanbag or on a sofa or

somewhere more comfortable.

And, uh, that's the option the Switch 2

gives you.

So yeah, for those reasons, I don't really

know.