I was SO Wrong about the ROG Ally!

Hello, welcome back to a new video. So

today we just have to talk about the ROG

Ally. I've been using it for several weeks

now, almost over a month, and has come to

my conclusion that this thing is actually

pretty damn good. So I've kind of

flip-flopped all over the place since I

bought it. First I loved it, and then I

hated it, and then I loved it again, and

then I hated it again, and I kept

switching between this and my laptop. I

had a pro gaming laptop, Razer 17-inch

Razer Blade 3060 RTX graphics card with an

Intel i7 10th generation CPU, and I

couldn't decide I found it really hard to

decide between that laptop and this ROG

Ally, but I think I was wrong about the

ROG Ally. I think I've decided that this

is actually the best device I own, and to

back it up, I have actually sold my

laptop. 2 days ago, I met up with a guy in

Bangkok and I sold my laptop to him for

about $500 US. And I used that laptop for

about 2 years. I remember buying it 2

years ago, and it was one of the most

expensive purchases I had ever made. And

it served me well for the 2 years. I did a

lot of stuff with it, played a lot of

games, made a a lot of money using it,

making videos and testing out video games.

But I feel like it's time to move on. 2

years has passed and technology has become

a lot better with these new 4-nanometer

chips in these new handheld devices. AMD

Ryzen have really blown the water out of

the park with these new chips, and I can

actually safely say that the new Ryzen AMD

chips are even better than my gaming

laptop, which costs over $2,000, which has

like an i7 processor and RTX graphics

card. I can't believe stuff like that is

on par or even bettered by a miniature

mobile APU chipset such as the Ryzen chips

and the new Z1 Extreme chips that can be

found in the Lenovo Legion Go and also the

ROG Ally. So after using it for several

weeks, this is now my main computer.

This is what I do most of my, well, all of

my computing on. I do video editing on it,

I do live streaming, I do my gaming, and I

don't really have many complaints about

it. And in today's video, talk about why I

absolutely love this thing. So first of

all, obviously it's extremely portable.

It's so light. I think it's like 500 or

600 grams compared to my gaming laptop,

which was nearly 4 kilograms with the

power brick included. I remember taking it

to sell it to the guy and I had nothing in

my backpack. It was completely empty and I

only put the laptop and the power brick in

it. And still, with just that alone in the

backpack, it was so damn heavy, like 4 or

5 kg almost. Lugging that around was

really uncomfortable and I'm so glad to

finally get rid of it. And it's really

nice because ROG Ally doesn't have a power

brick. It just has like a tiny thing

adapter, AC adapter thing that plugs into

the USB socket. And for portability, you

can't really get better than the ROG Ally.

It's one of the smallest footprints out of

all of the Windows handheld devices. It's

also really powerful. I actually find it

plays some games better than my laptop

could. And I played my favorite games like

Rainbow Six Siege, Diablo 4, and some

other games on ultra settings, and it

works perfectly fine. It's really smooth,

good FPS, and it really has no trouble

playing any kind of game that I would want

to play on it. So for my gaming needs, I

completely satisfied. Now some people have

complained about it. They said that the SD

card slot actually fries and cooks SD

cards because it gets so hot. I haven't

tried that because I've only got one SD

card. I don't really want to risk losing

it, and I feel quite satisfied with 512GB

of storage. I only have a few games. When

I finish a game, I'll delete it and then

get a new game. And there are other

storage options, so if you're scared of

using your SD card— and I do agree that is

a major design flaw, and I don't know why

they didn't realize this before they made

the final products. I mean, come on, they

should have should have tested it, done

extensive testing with it, and realized

that it is way too hot for the SD card. I

don't know why they put the SD card slot

right at the top where all the ventilation

and the cooling system is. They should put

it down at the bottom, like the Switch

OLED has a little slot at the back under

the kickstand, the kickflip thing, where

you put the SD card slot, and that has no

problems. So they should have just copied

the Nintendo Switch design. But anyway,

um, the SD card slot is a bit frustrating

as a design flaw because it would have

been an easy way to expand the storage.

But there are other options. I'm

personally using like a 1TB hard drive

plugged into a USB hub, and I can extend

my storage to 1TB using a HDD drive.

But you can also expand the drive by

opening up the ROG Ally. I haven't done

this because I'm kind of scared, but I was

at the shop and I saw they've got this

tiny SSD which is the same size as the one

that's already used in there, and you can

get like a 1TB, 2TB, and it's quite easy

to upgrade it. You just unscrew it, 6

screws, unscrew the SSD that's already in

it, unplug it, pull it out, put in the new

one, and that's it. And then you've got

like 1TB, 2TB expanded storage. The other

great thing is ASUS is constantly

upgrading and improving this thing.

There's just recently a massive new update

for the ROG Ally which allows you to use

gyroscopic controls in gaming. Now I

personally don't like gyroscopic controls.

I've only experienced it when playing on

the Switch OLED. I remember playing Zelda:

Tears of the Kingdom and you can like

control the aiming of the bow and arrow by

moving the device around. I always

switched it off But it's nice that if you

wanted to use it, it is there. So certain

games like racing games, you can now use

the ROG Ally by— you can use it like a

steering wheel and move it around like

that to do the steering. And there's now

gyroscopic controls in the console, and

they've done a bunch of new updates. So

there's improved stability, better

graphics, better efficiency. They're just

constantly giving more love and care to

this device, which makes me feel really

secure and satisfied with the amount of

love and attention they're putting into

this device. It's not like a device where

you buy it and then half half a year later

it's a dead device because they've given

up on it. Not enough people bought it to

make it worth their time, and they just

moved on to like the next idea. It's nice

that they're sticking to it and trying to

make it the best device they can possibly

make it. So I feel very reassured with

ASUS in the way that they're handling the

updates and making it a better console

over time. And I think in a year's time or

2 years' time, it's going to be a much

better device than it is today. So you are

getting a lot of value for your money.

And talking about money, it is very good

value for money. It's only $600 right now,

which is extremely cheap cheap compared to

an expensive gaming laptop. Now I had an

expensive gaming laptop. I recently just

sold it and got rid of it because ROG Ally

does everything it can do and better, and

it's more portable. So I spent over $2,000

for my gaming laptop. And if you want like

an RTX 3000 series, you're going to be

spending $1,500 or more. If you want an

RTX 4000 series laptop, you're going to be

spending over $2,000, like $3,000 almost,

for an i9 with a 4060 with 32 graphics

gigabytes of RAM, and that is a lot of

money. I don't really want to spend that

much money on a gaming laptop. I'm an avid

gamer and I love gaming, but I don't want

to spend thousands of dollars on a gaming

laptop just so I can play on ultra

settings. I don't really care that much

about having the best graphics or playing

the latest games. I don't mind waiting a

bit for the latest games to be fixed and

patched and optimized for lower-end

devices. And actually, my favorite games

are almost 8 years old, 5 years old, and

the ROG Ally plays those games

exquisitely. So if you were hesitating

about getting an ROG Ally, I definitely

recommend it, and I also recommend it over

any of the other handhelds. I think it's

better than Steam Deck easily, and it's

better than chunkier devices like the

Legion Go or the TDP T101. And also the

GDP Win Max series seems pretty good, but

that's also kind of bulky. It's kind of

like a miniature 10-inch sort of laptop.

But if you wanted a 10-inch laptop that

plays games, then GDP could be pretty

good. But if you wanted something slimmer,

more portable, more like a traditional

handheld design, then the ROG Ally, you

can't really lose by buying that. I also

believe that if you want a portable gaming

system rather than getting a gaming

laptop, you should get the ROG Ally

instead. Even if money is no problem and

you've got loads of money and just get a

massive laptop, I really wouldn't

recommend getting a 17-inch gaming laptop

or even a 15-inch gaming laptop for that

matter, because it just hurts after

carrying it in your backpack for a long

time. It just gets very annoying. And

yeah, they have bigger screens and maybe

better performance, but you can just get

like a portable AMOLED, OLED portable

external monitor, or you could just get

HDMI cable, plug it— plug the ROG Ally

into the TV of your hotel room, and then

you've got a massive TV as your monitor.

Now I really didn't think I could do

everything on the ROG Ally that I usually

do on my powerful gaming laptop. I really

didn't think it would be powerful enough

to do live streaming AAA gaming on good

graphics, and also video editing. You

think, oh, you need a good PC to do video

editing for YouTube, but no, you just

download some kind of video editor and

then it can splice clips and upload at 4K

and exports really quickly as well. Only

takes about 5 minutes to export at maximum

quality settings, which is what I usually

do for my YouTube channel because I like

to have the highest quality I can squeeze

out of my devices. So I usually export at

maximum bitrate, 60 FPS, maximum quality,

1080p, and exports it pretty quickly,

like in a few minutes, which is kind of

surprising considering it's like a mobile

gaming device, not, not like a really

powerful computer or anything. But it can

do everything I throw against it, so it is

an extremely versatile machine that I'm

very happy with.