I’ve been a computer gamer basically my whole life. Even as a kid, I spent hours on my dad’s boxy beige work computer playing the only game it had installed: Microsoft Golf 1998 Edition. I loved the glorious Flash era of web games and bought a lot of magazines purely for display purposes.
Growing up, I was obsessed with console gaming, but when I got my first gaming laptop as a teenager, we were back to familiar territory. It wasn’t long before I built my first gaming computer and the rest, as they say, is history.
I never thought I’d give up my trusty gaming desktop – perhaps the fourth or fifth computer I’d built purely for myself in as many years, not counting the ones I’d built while working at Maximum PC magazine. Ten computers – but these days I find myself using it less and less for gaming. I used to spend hours sitting at my desk hard at work on my live service game, but now I mostly just sit in that chair and write articles like this. What is the reason? I bought myself an ASUS ROG Ally.
The handheld device revolution
Early forms of PC gaming handhelds had been around for a while, but it wasn’t until Valve released their successful and popular steam Interest in Deck handheld devices is really starting to pick up. Before long, other manufacturers wanted to get involved. ASUS became Valve’s first major competitor with its ROG Ally (and the new ROG Ally X), and then more products started to appear: MSI claw, Lenovo Legion Go and more recently Zotac Zone both offer premium handheld gaming experiences that transcend the existing console realm.
I’m not making a spoof of consoles here. I have a Nintendo Switch thanks to it (and my fiancé’s second Switch, and two Animal Crossing: New Horizons) I made it through lockdown and cancer treatment. I’ve owned every Game Boy, and I was one of eight people who actually bought a PS Vita in 2011 – a seriously misunderstood handheld console by the way.
But ROG Ally is a completely different beast. I have a huge library of games on Steam, Epic, GOG and more, which means I can enjoy a wide variety of games with better graphics than anything the Switch has to offer. Plus, as a fan of indie games, I have the added benefit of being able to play all the great content on Itch.io, much of which isn’t available on consoles.
What makes PC handheld devices so great?
My love for the ROG Ally grew, so much so that I started actively recommending it and its ilk – abandoning my usual recommendations for gaming laptops and PC builds. The first reason is simply pricing. If you keep an eye on sales, the ROG Ally can usually be found for around $400/£400 – and frankly, even during a sale, it’s impossible to find a gaming laptop that delivers the same performance for that price , wish you good luck.
Speaking of performance: The Z1 Extreme APU chip inside the ROG Ally and some other handheld devices does a great job, delivering powerful 1080p gaming performance. Of course, you may need to dial down the graphics performance in some more demanding games to hit that coveted 60 frames per second, but the performance of such a compact device is truly outstanding and would have been unheard of just a few years ago.
Of course, it’s this compact nature that makes the Ally more attractive to me than a desktop or bulky gaming laptop. I sit at my desk all day; why would I continue to sit there in my free time after get off work when I could just grab my handheld and lounge on the couch while playing the exact same game? You won’t notice the benefit until you have the option. During one of the recent storms in the UK I stayed warm and cozy in bed, with a hot water bottle and a pretty good bedspread. after partythis is great. While the Ally is a bit heavy, its comfortable design and sturdy joystick fit my hands better than a mouse and keyboard.
So yes: I’m done with gaming laptops, and while I don’t plan on tossing my beefy desktop in the trash any time soon, I’m definitely putting far less miles into it now. Now that I think about it, this might also be good for my electricity bill – the RTX 4080 is a real power hog.