Steam Deck, Asus Rog Ally, Lenovo Legion Go... What now?
Let's discuss these devices that are very popular according to statistics revealing how many Steam users play on Steam Deck, 10% of a massive user base. In my opinion, the most interesting things to discuss are user reviews and anything that you can't find on the official websites, but you can discuss anything. Just don't forget to say what model you are talking about, I had a hard time following NEStalgia. š
I installed Bazzite (SteamOS) on my Asus ROG Ally. Iām not hating on Windows as it does have its advantages (better compatibility, native Game Pass and MS Store integration). That said, I donāt like more things about Windows that Bazzite alleviates: frequent updates, which may break as many things as they fix and can take ages to be installed (on Bazzite you just see an icon that tells you thereās an update and it waits for you to decide the best time for it). Armoury Crate is sluggish and its content store (or whatever itās called) is pathetic in comparison with Decky loader and plugins (I made my Ally a portable PS4, with a custom background, PS4 sounds and home theme). Tdp control and fancurves are way more intuitive on Bazzite IMO. Handheld daemon lets you swich from Xbox gamepad to DualSense in 2 seconds. Emudeck implementation is way better on Bazzite than on Windows (Retrobat is okayish, but has its flaws). In my tests I found Bazzite to give me better fps and battery life than Windows (tested on Baldurās Gate 3 and Cyberpunk 2077). These are just off the top of my head. I sincerely hope MS is working on a handheld-friendly Windows 11 version because that would even the odds.
Legion Legion Go or Asus Ally? Iāve had my Ally since March and while I really like it, I keep thinking about getting the Legion Go. I held it in my hands at a local CEX and was surprised how light it was (people say itās heavy lol) and the build quality seems up a notch from the Ally. The screen is the obvious focal point for me, but I do have a portable 15 inch monitor so itās not a must for me. Just wondering if I should switch (sic!) or buy the Legion to accompany my Ally.
I gave it a lot of thought and decided to ride this gen out with my Asus Rog Ally Z1 Extreme (which Iām really happy with). I have to say that quite a few folks online report the LeGo cooling fan to be very noisy and I hate that in a gaming machine (had a PS4 Pro and you may remember my failed gaming PC attempt I mentioned a while ago). Either way, with Z2 chips from AMD on the horizon I think Iāll wait and buy an Ally 2 or LeGo 2, whichever impresses me more (unless Valve announces a Steam Deck 2 with beefy specs- doubtful knowing Valve).
Lenovo Legion Go feels like The Duke in your hand, only bigger, lol. Too big tbh, those bumpers are massive and I have to shift my hand to the dpad. Asus Rog Ally is more Xbox XS controller proportions (and Xbox assisted in the development.) You can dock these things to the big screen, just BYO HDMI adapter like any PC. FWIW, while it's no 4070, the Z1 Extreme chip sports the same integrated GPU that the Ryzen 7 7800x3D comes with. It's no slouch. Starfield doesn't even function without mods, but it's kind (of) broken. But games like Armored Core 5 run 40-60fps with RSR doing the heavy upscaling from 720p up. Elden Ring runs similarly. That's on the NON-EXTREME Z1 Ally I have. Runs even better on the Extreme Z1 legion. These ain't Nintendo.
What didn't you find user friendly about the default Windows OS (with or without Crate or Big Picture?) Personally, I never find gets in the way, especially with the hardware button to get to those important shortcut buttons, and I like being able to swipe up while in-game to get the taskbar up for anything else. Nothing wrong with the Steam OS of Steam Deck, I just haven't found Windows to get in the way, and of course value having the Play Anywhere games I already own and GOG available. The only thing I really miss is a working suspend state. The suspend/resume is a big deal for me, so I can definitely appreciate the appeal of that. For me it depends on game of course. MOST of the ones I've tried suspend fails horribly on (Elden, Armored Core 5, FF13, Live a Live, a few others fail horribly.) Windows suspend does seem to work fine on Little Kitty big City, P3R, Octopath 2, Rune Factory 5. So it's not a total fail. But yeah, suspend is actually important to me, so I don't like how bad it is on Windows. Maybe that'll improve with the Xbox handheld sounding windows based, Win11 may get some boosts from that (like it got AutoHDR from Xbox etc.) I think I still prefer the Windows interface (after all that's the reason I bought it instead of a Deck to begin with), but it definitely sounds like there's some nice benefits without it.
Asus Rog Ally Z1 Extreme and Legion Go are more or less the same rig with a lot of form factor differences. More, the Rog Ally X definitely has some advantages internally but it's still the same SoC and is a whole other price class. We'll call it the "Ally 5 Pro"... Still a better value than that blue company model though lol
In my case I got the non-extreme cheap Ally to compliment my Legion Go as a Super Switch. I definitely tend to like the Legion Go more as my "power" handheld. It's less dense, but it's not really heavier, the screen is just incredible, I like having the option to detach the controllers and play tabletop mode switch style, I don't use it a lot but I like using it sometimes, and also means you can replace the controllers if they fail which seems important on $600+ devices. But you're less likely to need to because it uses hall effect and Ally does not. Also has the little track pad, semi hard case, and the controller has an attachment you can use as a mouse mostly meant for shooters but I haven't used that. The size can be ungainly for some and it's harder to one-hand than the ally with its wide center of mass. And some might not like that it's more hollow and less dense feeling though similar total weight. One thing some don't like is the louder single fan. Hasn't bothered me at all. Ally kind of whines, legion kind of whooshes, doesn't seem that different really but some take issue with it. One perk on the ally is the fingerprint scanner though. Legion you have to enter windows pin every time. Minor things but they can matter.
(AMD's Z2 for next-gen gaming handhelds) should be beastly though I worry about price after Ally X 5 Pro lol. Personally the Legion fan hype seems overblown to me. It produces sound but it's not loud. I've not played in a dead silent room but I don't really notice it over the game, personally. It's no PS4 lol. It's quieter than my laptop.
Streaming handhelds: if you luuuuuuuuuuuuv the Dual Sense and need an 8" screen, Sony's Portal is nearly fine. As long as you also love wired headphones or didn't mind buying Sony proprietary wireless ones because no BT. And don't mind short battery. and also don't mind substandard steam quality. It's ducky. If you're not the Dual Senses BFF, like having a battery you don't need plugged into a 10lb sack of potatoes for more power, and have any wireless headphones on planet Earth other than magic Sony Specials, and like a quality stream I'd recommend the Logitech G Cloud over it. A little more expensive and a bit worse display, but Xbox format controller, battery that runs for days, 3rd party PS Play app (must purchase on app store) streams better and Bluetooth, because standards are so hard. It cost a little more than portal but..... also works for Xbox, PC moonlight, and every other streaming service and is also a full android tablet for video and all too. Then of course Ally and the like are full PCs, can do all the above, play all the PC store games, game pass natively, not streamed, and can even stream PS Plus Premium while Sony's Portal can't.
My Rog Ally is my sole use these days! I haven't put the Xbox on in ages. Having a young daughter, she takes up most of the tv time when we are home, and my wife watches TV in the evenings, so having a handheld is handy for me, and being able to play Game Pass, Steam and more on it, is brilliant. Will be interesting to see which way MS goes with the handheld, whether they go native gameplay or as PS did with the portal and make it a streaming platform.
Interesting topic. Definitely will be here later with a longer reply but if youāre here looking for a recommendation, Steam Deck OLED would absolutely be the safest recommendation out of the ones youāve listed. For reasons listed below that were highlighted by a different user in a different thread.
It's going to depend on the game, of course. I've seen many use cases for bigger games where the improvement is 60%+ at similar settings. Especially in darker games where more of the OLED screen isn't drawing power. It's generally more power efficient as well.
There's a BUNCH of little improvements across the board that Digital Foundry discusses as well. Like, every aspect of the device is touched up in some way.
Worth a watch.
Reason Iām citing a second opinion is because I have the LCD, not the OLED. So my thoughts on OLED are only second hand, so I thought Iād cite that part. My general steam deck experience is definitely first hand so Iāll be speaking on that and give my opinion on why itās better to just get the OLED.
To add to the post by Ralizah, OLED also can turn on remotely, something the LCD canāt do.
That, and the point they made about OLED screens using less power in darker games due to turning off individual pixels is absolutely true and nothing to scoff at.
Furthermore, while I donāt own an OLED, the lacking features in LCD that are in OLED are so tangible that theyāre enough to validate my stance.
Cannot unfortunately speak for the Legion GO, but running on windows means you likely run into less compatibility issues.
Some games cannot run on a framework other than .NET 4.6.2, which is not supported by Linux in any way nor is it able to force compatibility via any versions of Proton or Proton GE. But that issue is so rare that itās honestly not worth ignoring the steam deck for it. Just thought Iād mention it since no reviews do.
Legion GO is also severely more powerful and is likely better at running certain stuff, including RPCS3.
P.S.: apologies for the sudden ping if this is a community you never visit, it was merely as means of giving credit. Gāday.
@Yousef- I drop by when there's a topic I'm interested in. And, as you can probably guess, I'm an increasingly big proponent of Valve and the Steam Deck.
Despite the power limitations compared to more expensive devices and the issues still involved with gaming on Linux (which has made great strides since the introduction of the Deck, thankfully), it's hard to beat the Deck when it comes to active support and user-friendliness in terms of customization and UI. Between discounted LCD models and the customer-friendly pricing for the OLEDs, it's also definitely the best value when it comes to gaming handhelds.
I'd absolutely agree the OLED model is worth spending a bit more on. It's a brilliant device.
Nice work, @Banjo- , saved me the trouble of repasting it and in a much more organized manner!
I was messing around with trying to get a unified launcher and discovered Playnite. It's really nice for integrating all your storefronts into one interface, but it doesn't play very well with Xbox. It can only import games you've launched before, so if you have a big backlog of games that you have bought but haven't played they don't show up in your list and you have to find them in the Xbox app anyway. Plus Game Pass games you've played do show up in your list, even if you don't still have access to them. Launching games means downloading and installing them (either on console or PC) which is a pain if, say, I'm not playing Infinite Wealth anytime soon but want it to show up in my library. You can add manually but that's a huge pain.
It's kind of interesting, PureXbox will probably end up having to transition into more of a Xbox+PC gaming site if Xbox itself is going to continue promoting actual PCs as part of its Xbox ecosystem. They may stop when they have their own handheld, of course, but when even their showcases show most things on PC and include PC-only games, "Xbox" and "PC" start to become synonymous.
so I had a steam deck and my wife bought me the rog extreme for Xmas. they don't even compare the rog is better in everyway except batter life. I liked it so much I bought the new one and was able to sell the first one for 400. the new black rogs battery is amazing my car adapter still works for it.
The biggest thing it has over the deck is you don't have to run proton for non steam things and you can still use steam out of the box. it has great macro controls like opening the keyboard and taskmanager or getting a second desktop. it works great in the TV. the most demanding game I have played is dying light 2 and no issues. BG3 runs great.
I travel a lot 5 days a week my rog and kindle maybe the best things I own.
Forums
Topic: Gaming handhelds
Posts 1 to 5 of 5
Please login or sign up to reply to this topic