Pick Steam Deck Oled Instead of ROG ALLY： Here's Why

Hello, welcome back to a new video. So the

Steam Deck OLED has been out for a bit

now, and as someone who main drives the

ROG Ally as his main computing device and

main gaming device, sometimes I do feel

like the Steam Deck OLED would be the

superior device over the ROG Ally. Having

used the ROG Ally for several weeks and

months now, I have come to be quite

familiar with the flaws of this device,

and these are flaws that I don't really

see present in the Steam Deck OLED. So

there's a few reasons why I think the

Steam Deck OLED is kind of superior over

the ROG Allied, and that's what we're

going to be discussing in today's video.

So first of all, the Steam Deck OLED, as

it says in the name, has an OLED screen

which is actually brighter and more vivid

and has more nits of brightness than the

ROG Ally display. The ROG Ally display is

pretty good and pretty highly detailed,

it just can't really compare to the OLED

screen of the Steam Deck OLED. Now when it

comes to battery performance and battery

life, the Steam Deck OLED has a more

powerful and bigger battery than the ROG

Ally, coming in at 50 watts of power

compared to 40 watts of power with the ROG

Ally battery. That means you're going to

get more battery life out of the Steam

Deck than the ROG Ally when it comes to

gaming and any kind of gaming or

performance test comparison. You get

better battery life and performance out of

the Steam Deck OLED, and that's mainly

because it's just a bigger battery pack.

So you kind of have to make a trade-off.

Do you want more power in the ROG Ally at

the sacrifice of lower battery performance

and life, or do you want a longer battery

life so you can play games on the go for

longer but with slightly less power with

the Steam Deck OLED chip. Many would argue

that they would prefer to have 3 to 4

hours of battery life and portable gaming

on the go than just having 1 hour or 2

hours, even if that does mean that you get

better graphical fidelity with the ROG

Ally. For some people, and you could say

for most people, graphics are not

everything. One of my main concerns with

the ROG Ally is although it runs Windows

11, and Windows 11 is much more powerful

and functional and just In general terms,

you can do more things with Windows 11 as

an operating system than you can do with

SteamOS. But if all you want to do is play

games and you don't really care about

using this tiny little thing as your main

computer because maybe you already have a

laptop or maybe you have a desktop

computer where you do your main work and

productivity stuff and you just want the

Steam Deck to play some games, then in

that case I would say that the SteamOS is

a much better operating system than

Windows 11 is for handheld gaming.

And the reason why that is, is because

SteamOS is just much more optimized for

gaming. Games run better on SteamOS and

it's much more fluid than games trying to

run on Windows 11 on a kind of gimped

device like the ROG Ally. So if you just

want it for gaming and pure optimization

for Steam games, then you can't really do

any better than the Steam Deck OS.

There's other gaming devices out there as

well, but they all run on Windows 11, and

some people say that the software For

example, the software on the ROG Ally has

problems in terms of how well it runs

Windows and how well the games are

optimized for Windows 11 to run on this

tiny handheld device. So in terms of

operating systems and just pure gaming,

many would say that the SteamOS is

superior than these Windows 11 devices.

The ROG Ally just lacks the software

customization that optimizes the Steam

Deck as an overall device, and for that

reason, I have to give the crown of

optimization to the Steam Deck OLED. In

terms of price comparisons, the prices

aren't really that different. So the ROG

Ally Z1 Extreme is selling for about $600

now on Black Friday sales, and the Steam

Deck OLED 1TB version is selling for about

$650. So for an extra $50,

you get double the storage space that you

would get in the ROG Ally, and you'd also

get a more optimized SteamOS operating

system, and you get superior battery life

with a 50-watt battery, which is bigger

and holds a bigger charge, which also

lasts longer because it's just better

optimized for gaming on the go. I also

believe that the Steam Deck OLED has the

better control layout than the ROG Ally

because the Steam Deck OLED is just much

wider and bigger. That means it can fit

more buttons on it, and this— the ROG Ally

is just kind of smaller, which is good if

you want a smaller device that's lighter

and more portable, but it's bad if you

want more buttons. So the Steam Deck OLED

with its original design, as same as the

original Steam Deck design. It has the

trackpads on both sides of the controller,

so you can use the trackpads to do web

browsing, control the mouse and the

cursor, and it can also allow you to

pinpoint accuracy aiming on games such as

Rainbow Six or first-person shooters,

which can be very useful, especially if

you're playing online competitive shooting

games. And also, the thumbstick layout,

as you can see on the ROG Ally, is

diagonal, kind of like the Xbox

controller. Now, some people prefer that,

but then other people prefer the

horizontally laid out thumbsticks such as

found in controllers such as the PS5 and

the PS4 and the PS3 and 2 and— well, not

the 1 because that one didn't have

thumbsticks. But the Steam Deck OLED and

the original Steam Deck also have that

same horizontal thumbstick layout, which

some people prefer because it's just more

comfortable. And you also get 4 back

paddles. As you can see, the ROG Ally only

has 2 back paddles. So if you're someone

who really enjoys using the back paddles

then the Steam Deck OLED is a no-brainer

since it has double the amount of back

paddles that you can reassign buttons to

or just assign different kind of functions

to them. And it makes it a lot easier to

play games. So it makes it a lot easier to

play games such as World of Warcraft,

where, for example, in World of Warcraft

you might have 12 buttons for your skills

and abilities and potions and mounts, and

you need like 12 to 14 buttons to be

really competitive in World of Warcraft.

So having those 4 extra back paddle

buttons to assign skills to is really

useful and something that's just not

really an option with the ROG Ally. So at

the end of the day, it kind of depends on

what kind of device you're looking for.

Do you want a powerhouse Windows 11-based

Windows handheld device which has more

power but less battery life and other

problems and bugs that come with running

Windows 11 on a handheld gaming device?

Or do you want a more streamlined gaming

handheld experience? Then the Steam Deck

OLED can't really be beaten in those kind

of terms. No other handheld has a SteamOS

or runs Linux, they all run Windows 11,

and they all have their own version of

software. For example, ROG Ally has the

Armory Crate, and it has some buttons

that show on-screen display stuff. So you

could press this button here, and then

you've got a bunch of buttons that show

various things. So each device, such as

the Legion Go, has their own version of

this, and some say that the software is

kind of buggy in the ROG Ally, whereas the

SteamOS is a much more fluid system,

much more fluid software that has less

problems and less bugs than these other

Windows 11 handheld devices do. Now, I

won't personally be buying a Steam Deck

OLED. I'm not going to sell my ROG Ally

just yet. I'm going to be using it for a

bit longer, maybe into next year. And then

if there's a Steam Deck OLED 2, or maybe

we'll see the Switch OLED 2, or see what

Nintendo comes out with, see what other

handheld comes out next year, and then I

might consider ditching the ROG Ally to

jump up to something that's equally or

even more impressive than what ASUS has on

offer. So for that reason, I think I'll be

sticking on to my ROG Ally and waiting

until next year to see what kind of great

handhelds we will be blessed with.