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ROG Ally

Vengance_01 said:
Because Windows sucks on handhelds. but I tend to agree. Can the Ally/AllyX dual boot yet?
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You're really just trading dealing with compatibility issues for sucky battery life with Windows. Asus FWIW has a dedicated hardware key to allow you to bring up a keyboard, power usage settings, etc. I'm actually typing this right now on my OG Ally in a dock with a USB KB/Mouse and my 40" widescreen monitor running 30W. I haven't tried to game this way, but it works as a replacement while I'm changing out parts in my regular desktop. I dual booted my Steam Deck when I had it. Windows never ran quite right compared to how it runs on the Ally. I gave away my laptops to family members. I just take the Ally with me along with a dock, a travel mouse/KB, and a portable 15.6" monitor when I travel. Works great.

I don't see any reason why a 2nd and 3rd generation product can't improve on the experience (and likewise a 2nd and 3rd gen Steam Deck improve compatibility and the desktop experience).
 
kirbyrj said:
You're really just trading dealing with compatibility issues for sucky battery life with Windows. Asus FWIW has a dedicated hardware key to allow you to bring up a keyboard, power usage settings, etc. I'm actually typing this right now on my OG Ally in a dock with a USB KB/Mouse and my 40" widescreen monitor running 30W. I haven't tried to game this way, but it works as a replacement while I'm changing out parts in my regular desktop. I dual booted my Steam Deck when I had it. Windows never ran quite right compared to how it runs on the Ally. I gave away my laptops to family members. I just take the Ally with me along with a dock, a travel mouse/KB, and a portable 15.6" monitor when I travel. Works great.

I don't see any reason why a 2nd and 3rd generation product can't improve on the experience (and likewise a 2nd and 3rd gen Steam Deck improve compatibility and the desktop experience).
Click to expand...
I do this with a 1st gen steam deck with a 2tb ssd in it and a dock with some 8TB sata ssds in a camper and another one in a boat because it's a nice linux computer for cheap and it runs fine on a 30w port but charges slow so we use 45w and a powered usb hub. I've used it with 20w in a car before too and it worked fine for older games.
 
Picked up one of those 74wh battery upgrade kits from eBay for the ROG Ally and it's been great so far.

It addressed my biggest issue with the ROG Ally Z1E: paltry battery life (iirc, the stock is 40wh-ish). Haven't tested it out much, but a quick play of DQ3-HD showed 2 hours of gameplay @ 60fps 15w, and close to 4 hours when locked at 40 fps 15w - which is perfect for my needs.

Installation wasn't bad, you have to do some clipping of the case (I also used a rotary tool to flatten out the cut area) - but I had everything installed in about an hour. Oh, and the system panels clicked back together without any stress - I was worried I was going to have to really squeeze to get the larger battery to fit in there (which I read about online).

Weight-wise, it feels heavier, but that might be more about having mainly used a Switch 2 lately than any increase in weight from the larger battery.
 
So after reinstalling Win11 on my desktop to try out 'Xbox Mode' and being impressed by it - I figured I'd try it out on my ROG Ally (which has been running Bazzite without issue for a few months now).

I did a fresh install of Win11 on my ROG Ally and, initially, it wasn't a good experience as multiple launchers were fighting with each other, Armory Crate was conflicting with Xbox Mode, amongst other issues. So I tightened things up a bit - made sure Steam wasn't getting triggered by the Xbox button, made sure Armory Crate wasn't starting at startup, and I was booting directly into Xbox mode.

This seemed to clear up the conflict and it's actually been a great experience so far. Not nearly as smooth or refined as Bazzite, but it's nice having access to all my launchers and game library from a single interface. When I click on the 'Command Centre' button, it opens up the Game Bar, but the normal Command Centre prompts are on the first 'tab', so I can easily access TDP, resolution - all the typical Command Centre options. But after that are the new 'Xbox Mode' specific fields (settings, widgets, social, etc). This setup felt good and is a nice mashup of the ASUS developed controls and the new Xbox mode enhancements.

Also, 'Sleep' through the Armory Crate settings seem to be in a good place - the times I used it for Yakuza it went to sleep and woke quickly enough. It didn't feel as smooth as Bazzite, but that might've been due to having to 'swipe' the lock screen to resume gameplay.

But - yeah, between this and my desktop, I'm feeling a bit more confident that Windows will be able to give me a comfortable 'console' experience when required (and the next Xbox may be able to pull off a hybrid approach).
 
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