Hello everyone it's SpawnPoiint and this is the ROG Ally which is a new handheld games console
from Asus and let me start by saying this thing is an absolute Beast now unlike some of the others
out there that only allow you to stream your games this will let you download and play them
offline that includes PC games from the Steam and epic stores as well as the Xbox game pass
library on top of that as it's running Windows 11 you can install the PlayStation Plus app and play
all of those games as well now Asus did send me this unit ahead of launch to review but it
is not sponsored and all of the views are 100 my own but on First Impressions this is awesome
okay so here's the box that it comes in which is nice and simple with a little ROG branding but
let's get this opened up and see what we get inside there's the Ally itself which is a lot
lighter and bigger than I was expecting but more on that later then we have a warranty card as well
as a quick start guide to get you up and running and here's a 65 Watts power brick that has a USBC
connector on one end and a plug on the other and that's it that's everything that we get inside
the Box so straight out of the box and first impressions I really like this the color theme
looks nice and the position and other controls and buttons feel well placed I also like the pop
of color that we're getting from the a b X and Y buttons which have a nice glossy finish to them
now photos and videos might not do this justice but this is big I've put the measurements on
screen now but just for size reference here it is compared to something like an iPhone 14 pro a 14
pro Max and a switch OLED console so you can see it makes the switch look so much Slimmer it weighs
just over 600 grams which is more than any of the other items I've just shown but you know what it
doesn't feel heavy it actually feels really well balanced in my hands it's not top or bottom heavy
although it's not something you'd probably want to use one-handed looking around there are a few ROG
logos including one on the front on the palm rest and even on the corners just here there's also a
vents on the rear that's cut out in the shape of the ROG logo and this silver line in the middle
at first I thought it was an LED strip but it's actually a holographic strip that changes color
depending on how you hold it so over all I don't mind the white design I think it looks clean and
fresh so I imagine dbrand will probably bring us some skins just like we saw with the steam deck
so on this we get a seven inch touchscreen display which is capable of up to 120 hertz at 1080P and
on a screen this size 1080p looks incredible in fact looking around at the text and the images on
screen is super sharp and there's no ghosting or Clarity issues at all and having used it for the
last week I honestly feel that this is the perfect screen size for a handheld sure it would have been
great to have seen an OLED screen as that would have improved the overall picture quality and
viewing angles but most of the time you're playing straight on so if you and angles aren't really
going to be a huge issue as for the brightness well this maxes out at 500 nits which is decent
so viewing it and playing indoors or outside on a cloudy day is fine indirect sunlight your
struggle but that's going to be the same with any glossy screen and as for the reflection handling
well it's brilliant the screen is glossy but it has a very dark tint which helps with reducing
those Reflections here it is compared to the OLED switch console and you can see just how good it
looks and from the game I've played so far they all run really smoothly I know most games won't
take advantage of the full 120 frames per second but playing games like Spider-Man Mars Morales
instantly show me how capable of the screen is plus it supports a vrr or the variable refresh
rate so you're getting the best frame rate from each game that supports it that means
no stuttering or screen towering which is a huge advantage of this device over some of the others
as for the controls we've got the asymmetrical thumbstick layout which we've seen across almost
every controller other than PlayStation it's got a nice grippy texture to the top and the positioning
is great and around those you'll notice there's a tiny little LED ring well this can be customized
to pulsates a flash or show a solid color on some supported games you can also sync this to what's
on screen or you can turn them off completely if you don't like them the a b X and Y buttons
as mentioned are glossy and are a good size and the d-pad on the left feels firm and has no hard
clicks to it then across the top we have the left and right bumpers and triggers which could be the
best that I felt so far on a handheld and that's in terms of the size and the positioning these
can also be adjusted in the settings to reduce or increase the sensitivity we then have the power
button which also doubles up as a fingerprint reader for logging in a couple of LEDs for the
battery and the power status next to that we have the volume buttons a USBC Port which also supports
DisplayPort 1.4 and this can be used to charge and send a picture to an external monitor but I will
show more on that later there's a Micro SD card slots although it comes with a 512 gigabytes of
internal storage you can expand this and finally we've got the headphone and microphone port at
the end now I like the fact that they've designed this with all of the ports at the top so there are
none at the bottom at all which makes charging and using at the same time so much easier then
around the back we've got these two rear mappable buttons they call them the macro buttons and you
can actually customize those in the settings to map them to any other button on the controller
the smaller buttons on the either side of the screen include the view button this changes
the layout of the screen or folder that you have open then there's the command center button which
brings up this quick launcher from here you can adjust the brightness and sound and a few other
things as well this includes the ability to change the operating mode between silence performance and
turbo essentially increasing the performance and wattage output you can also change or limit the
resolution or refresh rate as well as taking screenshots or screen recordings and one cool
feature is by pressing the real-time monitor you get to see the current stats of the console things
like the CPU GPU and Watts as well as the FPS counter and temperature you can even move this
window around your screen to place it wherever you need it all of this can be customized too
so you can decide which icons you want to show up in the command center include an airplane mode and
a few others then on the right side we have the menu button and this acts like the start button
while you're playing games and underneath that we have the Armory button that brings you to the game
Library which is the centerpiece of this console so by default each time you power on the Ally it
will bring you to this screen this is the game Library it's where all of your installed games
or related apps are located this includes local games you've downloaded from places like steam or
the Epic store as well as quick launches into apps like Game Pass PS remote play and even PlayStation
Plus it means every time you want to return to this Library instead of using gestures or trying
to get back to the desktop one simple click of a button and you're straight into this library
now adding different apps isn't as easy as jumping into a store like on Android and iOS you will need
to go and find these apps on their websites and download them now one thing I did notice is after
I downloaded the Playstation apps is they did not show up in this launcher so if you want to add an
app that doesn't show up here automatically simply click the add button and navigate to the folder
that is located in you can also change the way that apps are sorted either by recently played
name when they were added or the platform and if you press that view button again it will toggle
between the list and the grid layout so the Ally comes with amd's brand new ryzen Z1 series chip
either the Z1 or the Z1 extreme dependent on the model that you go for the one I have here is the
Z1 extreme which gives us eight cores instead of six and eight point six teraflops instead of 2.8
and this thing is rapid as you can see I've installed a few different games on it to test
out including Spider-Man remastered and Forza Horizon 5. these are all stored locally which
means not only am I using the processor to play it but I can play these offline so jumping into
a game whether I'm at home in the car or away is effortless having all of this power in my hands
more power than most laptops is just crazy but it's not just how good these games look and play
is also how they feel so the handset actually has haptics built in which means when you're running
swinging or driving you can fill the rumble and feedback through the controller it's only subtle
but it's enough to make it for that a little bit more immersive it also has a six axis gyro built
in for any of those games that support it now I know a few of you commented on my shorts last
week asking what the responsiveness was like of the thumbsticks well for my testing is no
different to that of an Xbox on a PlayStation 5 controller you can tweak it in the settings
so if you're not happy with it you can adjust it yourself it's also incredibly comfy to hold
the grips on the rear are a textured plastic while the angles in the overall shape makes
you feel ergonomic in the hand even reaching the buttons in the top half feels effortless
so as mentioned the controls triggers and thumb sticks feel well balanced and are very easy to
use and it's likely how your use is handset most of the time however if you wanted to use your own
controller well you can just simply connect to it via Bluetooth and pair it up and you're good
to go but basically any controller that says it works on PC will be fine on the Ally I tested
this with the Xbox series s controller and it let me play my games as well as control the dashboard
and the same goes for the PlayStation 5 controller it will connect via Bluetooth and you can control
the games that you're playing the only issue that I faced was trying to use the PlayStation
Remote Play unfortunately it doesn't recognize the Dual sense controller unless it's plugged in
so unlike the Logitech G Cloud where you can only stream Xbox games via this app on the Ally you can
stream and download them this means that any games you want to take with you on holiday or somewhere
you won't have an internet connection but you can do that simply by jumping into the Game Pass App
choosing the game you want to download and you now have that game for offline play but of course if
you'd rather stream the games without waiting for them to download well you can do that as well via
the cloud gaming the games will run as fast as your internet speed can handle and from the games
I've played so far everything looks and runs so smoothly thus included Forza Horizon 4 and a few
others are available in the library then there's PlayStation so if you didn't know already there
are two ways you can play Playstation games away from your PS4 and PS5 the first is remote play
this app lets you boot up a remote log into your console and essentially stream the feed straight
to your device this works on quite a few devices already including most phones tablets PC and Mac
however you do need to use a PS5 controller when playing these games you can navigate around the
dashboard with the Ally controller but as soon as you jump into a game it appears to stop working
the only option for me was to plug the Dual sense controller in Via USBC I then tested out Star
Wars Jedi Survivor and as you can see it played incredibly well over Wi-Fi and the same goes for a
few other games I tested out as well but remember you do need your PS4 or PS5 on for this to work
then there's the second option something that's currently only supported on PC so PlayStation Now
allows you to play and stream your games to your PC via their PlayStation Plus app all you need is
an active subscription and the app installed now as the Ally is running Windows 11 it means it can
install normal Windows apps which is what this is once it's installed and you've signed in you
will have full access to the PS plus library of games to play on the go now you do need an active
connection for this to work as it's streaming rather than downloading but you do not need
your PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5 console on as this is cloud gaming and not remote play in
fact you don't even need a PlayStation console for this to work also the inbuilt controller
on the Ally work so there's no need to connect an external controller to use it so on top of playing
all of the current games from your streaming services and consoles you can also use it to
load emulators this isn't something that I've done personally but taking a quick look around online
there are already people doing this this means you can play your old PS1 the PSP and N64 games which
are all stored locally this is with thanks to it running Windows 11 which means most Windows apps
and software will run on here as well so it's not a custom-made Os or running a mobile or tablet OS
it's a full windows 11 installed but that means like with most new PCS or laptops it does come
with apps and softwares that you might not want or need so my advice is once you've powered it on
for the first time you'll probably want to check out what's installed and remove any that you know
you'll never use and as mentioned each time you switch it on it will default to the Armory crate
which is where all of the games are installed but you will still need to use Windows to install new
apps apply updates or just navigating around if you're familiar with Windows already this isn't
going to be an issue but it's still something worth mentioning it does also come with a usual
gesture control so swiping up with three fingers will show you all the apps you have running it's
also the quickest way to jump between Windows or games you have open and as this is Windows
11 you basically have a full PC in your hand that includes the Windows store Microsoft Office and
any other apps you can think of you can also use it to watch YouTube and Netflix or download movies
to watch them offline although this is obviously aimed at gaming you could use this for work now
there isn't a mouse or a touchpad control for the cursor but you can either use the touch screen or
the thumbstick to navigate it around failing that you can connect a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and
use it like a Mini PC and on top of that if you use the USBC Port you can actually connect this to
an external monitor which is a pretty cool feature for both work and gaming so I hooked it up to a 40
inch Ultra wide and as you can see it's literally like having a mini Windows 11 PC on my setup that
I can take with me anywhere and you'll be pleased to know it does support ultrawide which I know was
a question that a few of you asked on Twitter when I posted those photos last week okay let's talk
about the sound so these little vents on the front are the speakers they support Dolby Atmos and use
something called smart amp to provide a distortion free experience and I'm amazed at just how good
they sound like these are seriously really good speakers for such a small device it's also great
that they are front facing rather than facing upwards or backwards now at first I was concerned
that my palms would probably cover the speakers while playing but as you can see your thumb or
your palms never actually sit on top of the vents but have a listen to this and see what you think
it's also worth mentioning the fans so when it's in a slow state or standby the fans are very quiet
and when running it in performance or turbo mode you won't going to hear them although only very
slightly but once you have your speakers on or your headphones in you're not going to notice
them at all and as for the heat while the screen and the top part of the handset do get quite hot
but it does a great job of pushing that hotter out of the top via the vents if you're wondering
do my hands get hot while playing well the answer is not at all the grips and buttons don't get hot
only the top vents in the screen itself do so your hands should not get sweaty while gaming
okay let's talk about the battery so I charge this up to 100 using the provided 65 watt charger which
can charge from zero to fifty percent in just 30 minutes I then set the brightness to 75 and
I ran it in performance mode just to see how long it would last well after two hours of constant
playing it was flat which is more than I was expecting of course this time will vary depending
on the game and the mode that you're running in but I would expect anywhere between 90 minutes
and three hours would be achievable but if you're playing at home or near your desk setup you'll
probably run it in wired mode anyway okay so the big question is is it worth buying the Rog Ally
well if you're looking for a portable PC that can run all of your games from places like the Steam
and epic stores download and play your Xbox games as well as access to PlayStation Plus this is a
brilliant console on top of that you can emulate pretty much every classic game that's out there
using external controller and install Windows apps that you cannot get anywhere else it also looks
good feels ergonomic and is straightforward to use once you're up and running and the fact that
you can plug this into your TV or Monitor and use it like a Mini PC is insane and as for the price
it starts at 599 but the model that I have here is 699 with a faster processor but what do you
think to it what's been your favorite feature is this something that you would pick up or is there
another handheld that you would go for instead now drop in nice gaming handheld in the comments and
I'll give you a thumbs up for staying right till the end and if you did enjoy today's video check
out my 77 inch G3 video next as it covers LG's new 2023 OLED TV which I unboxed a couple of weeks
ago well thanks for watching please like a sub and follow me on Instagram and Twitter until next time