ROG Ally vs ROG Ally X: Which Windows-powered handheld should you buy?
The ROG Ally X promises numerous upgrades on its predecessor but how do the two consoles perform head-to-head?
I was reasonably positive about the Asus ROG Ally when I reviewed it, awarding it four stars in May 2023. Fourteen months later, I still use it regularly despite finally getting hold of a PlayStation Portal and sinking countless hours into console exclusives like Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and Spider-Man 2.
It isn’t without its issues, however. It can do justice to demanding AAA titles in its most powerful Turbo mode, but battery life is prohibitively short; after an hour or so of intense gaming, you’ll need to reach for the charger. Windows 11 is another stumbling block: it provides access to a fantastic range of gaming platforms but is a clunky operating system for a handheld console.
Then you have the reports of the Ally frying users’ SD cards. Asus acknowledged the issue shortly after launch, stating that “under certain thermal stress conditions the SD card reader may malfunction”. It later extended the warranty of the reader to 24 months and offered to reimburse those whose cards had been damaged, but only in the US.
With the ROG Ally X, Asus has taken steps to address two of those problems – battery capacity has been doubled and the SD card reader has been relocated. The Taiwanese manufacturer has also made numerous other tweaks to improve the overall feel and performance of the device.
I’ve spent the past few weeks using the Ally X to see how it compares to its predecessor across various areas and there’s no doubt in my mind that it’s the superior product. But do the improvements justify the additional outlay? Read on to find out.
ROG Ally vs ROG Ally X: Design
The first thing you’ll notice about the ROG Ally X is that its chassis is black rather than white. I was a big fan of the original’s white polycarbonate shell so this is a bit of a disappointment to me.
In pretty much every other design department, however, the Ally X is a step up from its predecessor. It’s slightly thicker and heavier than the Ally (675g vs 608g) but that’s mainly down to a larger battery, and the difference when holding the devices is negligible.
While I had no complaints about comfort when using the original Ally, the Ally X is definitely more comfortable for longer gaming sessions. The curves at the rear of the handgrips are deeper and the bottom corners of the console are more rounded, meaning they sit in the palms of your hands more agreeably.
Winner: ROG Ally X – the additional weight is worth it for a more comfortable handheld experience, though we hope they’ll be a white model at some point.
ROG Ally vs ROG Ally X: Controls
The Ally X uses the same general button configuration as the original but makes some sensible tweaks to the layout. The ABXY buttons on the right-hand side of the screen have been shifted down ever so slightly, meaning you don’t have to stretch your thumb quite as far to reach them. They’re still a bit too loose and noisy for my liking but proved less prone to sticking than on the Ally.
The pair of analogue sticks that sit on either side of the display have been moved and upgraded, too. They’re now located in a more natural position for your thumbs to reach and have stiffer springs inside, which gave me more precise control over movement. They should also last a lot longer, with Asus saying their lifespan has been increased from 2 million cycles to 5 million cycles. The D-pad – a bugbear of many on the original Ally – is also significantly better. It’s now eight-directional and has slightly less travel, making inputs feel tighter and easier to execute.
Further changes have been made to the RB and LB bumpers and RT and LT triggers. All four are larger and the grooves on the triggers are deeper to better accommodate your index fingers. They’re still distractingly loud – my partner calls the original Ally “The Clicker” – but I’m yet to experience the annoying squeaking of springs that occasionally affects the triggers on the 2023 model. This may come in time, however.
Finally, the macro buttons (M1 and M2) on the rear of the Ally X have been shrunk down in a bid to prevent you from accidentally pressing them. I didn’t have any problems with this on the original Ally and actually prefer the larger pads, but clumsier gamers will likely see this as a positive move.
Winner: ROG Ally X – every change made is a smart one and the newer console is a lot more satisfying to control as a result.
ROG Ally vs ROG Ally X: Display
The display is one of the few areas Asus has left unchanged, with the Ally X using the same 7in 1080p IPS panel found on its predecessor.
Touch controls are supported, as is Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) up to 120Hz, which gives both the Ally and Ally X an advantage over the Steam Deck OLED (90Hz) and Switch OLED (60Hz).
I measured peak brightness at 536cd/m2 in Turbo mode with brightness set to 100%, which is marginally higher than the 515cd/m2, though I didn’t notice a tangible difference when gaming. The colour coverage was identical at 97% of the sRGB gamut (in the default picture mode), while colour accuracy was very similar too, with an average Delta E error of 1.14 compared with the Ally’s 1.1 This demonstrates that any differences between the true hue of colours and how they are reproduced by the Ally X are effectively imperceptible.
If you were hoping for a larger, quicker display on the Ally X, check out the Lenovo Legion Go. It has the same stated peak brightness of 500 nits but measures 8.8in across the diagonal, has a superior resolution of (2,560 x 1,600) and a faster 144Hz refresh rate.
Winner: Tie
ROG Ally vs ROG Ally X: Connectivity
There are some pretty big changes in this department, with the most significant being the relocation of the microSD card slot. This remains on the crest of the console but has been moved from the left to a more central position further away from the fan exhaust. While I can’t say for certain that this has fixed the issue of frying SD cards, the 128GB SanDisk microSD card I’ve had in the console for over a week is still working just fine.
The Ally X also gains an additional USB-C port, meaning there are now two found to the far left of the upper section of the console, one of which is Thunderbolt-certified. To accommodate this extra input, Asus has dropped the XG Mobile port found on the original Ally. This will come as a disappointment to owners of Asus’ pricey external graphics docks, but I imagine that’s a relatively small proportion of potential customers.
The remaining connection options are as they were on the Ally: there’s still a 3.5mm headphone jack (although this has been moved to the right-hand side of the console), along with support for Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax) and Bluetooth 5.2.
Winner: ROG Ally X – unless you own an XG Mobile graphics dock and don’t plan on using a microSD card.
ROG Ally vs ROG Ally X: Software
This is another area in which the two consoles can’t be separated. Both run Windows 11 as their operating system and support a fantastic range of platforms for buying and launching games. Xbox Game Pass, Steam, Epic Games Launcher, Ubisoft Connect, the EA App and GOG Galaxy are all available, meaning the only games you can’t play on the consoles are those exclusive to PlayStation or Nintendo.
The Ally X still uses Armoury Crate SE as its hub for accessing games, settings and additional content and both handhelds support the latest iteration of it: version 1.5. This was released in July and overhauls the user experience, offering new options such as the ability to assign GPU settings on a game-by-game basis and import and export custom keymaps for specific games.
Winner: Tie
ROG Ally vs ROG Ally X: Battery life
My biggest complaint about the ROG Ally was its short-lived battery life. Playing demanding games at high settings in the console’s most powerful mode drained the 40W battery in around an hour and I could only get two to three hours of playtime when running more basic games at lower power settings.
The Ally X’s battery has twice the capacity (80W) of that found in the Ally, so should in theory last twice as long. Based on my experience, it actually exceeds that in some cases.
Playing Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn on medium settings in the original Ally’s 25W Turbo mode at maximum brightness, the battery fell to 50% after just 22mins 50secs. Battery saver mode (20%) kicked in at 37mins 30secs and the Ally gave up the ghost at a measly 45mins 40secs.
Under the same conditions, the Ally X blew that out of the water. I hit 50% battery at 56mins 58secs – more than the Ally managed in total – while battery saver mode didn’t kick in until the 1hr 29mins mark. The last 20% of juice was good for a further half an hour of gaming, for a total playtime of 1hr 50mins 34secs.
Running a less demanding game in the 13W Silent mode with brightness set to 50% produced similar results. I got 2hrs 5mins 5secs out of 50% of the Ally X’s battery while playing Nine Sols at medium graphics settings and it wasn’t until 3hrs 48mins 18secs that the X powered down. On the Ally, meanwhile, half of the battery got me through a 1hr 7mins 19secs session, and total playtime clocked in at 2hrs 48mins 18secs.
Winner: ROG Ally X – the above numbers speak for themselves. The Ally X outlasts its predecessor by an impressive margin and this additional battery life is the biggest reason to upgrade.
ROG Ally vs ROG Ally X: Processor, memory and storage
The Ally X uses the same AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme APU as the Ally but gets a nice bump to its memory and has twice the storage.
The 16GB of dual-channel 6,400MHz LPDDR5 RAM found in the Ally has been replaced with 24GB of RAM (2 x 12GB LPDDR5), while the Ally X houses a 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD compared with the 512GB SSD in the Ally.
Winner: ROG Ally X – increased memory and more storage, this one’s a no-brainer.
ROG Ally vs ROG Ally X: Performance
Here, there was little to choose between the two consoles but the X did perform marginally better overall, likely down to its additional RAM.
In the 25W Turbo mode, both the Ally and Ally X ran the tutorial section of Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn at between 50 and 60fps with the in-game graphics preset on Low. Upping the graphics settings to Medium saw the game at an average of around 48fps, though the Ally dropped as low as 35fps while the Ally X very rarely dipped below 42fps. The Ally X also hit frame rates above 50fps more frequently. It was a similar story with graphics set to Ultra, with both consoles fluctuating between 25fps and 31fps and suffering from quite a lot of stuttering.
Senua’s Sacrifice: Hellblade II is a gorgeous, extremely GPU-intensive title and this played out in the numbers for both the Ally and Ally X. With global graphics set to low, I was achieving framerates in the high 20s on both. Medium settings saw these numbers fall into the low 20s, while the game became borderline unplayable at High settings, with frame rates of around 15fps. The Ally X consistently delivered a couple of frames higher and was less prone to frame drops but don’t expect to enjoy a satisfying playthrough of demanding titles with graphics maxed.
It’s also worth noting that I found the Ally X ran considerably cooler than its counterpart. Asus has added a third exhaust vent on the crest of the console and reduced the thickness of the fan blades to help improve airflow and this has had a positive impact. The Ally X took longer to warm up and wasn’t nearly as hot as the original Ally towards the end of longer play sessions.
The above observations were backed up when I ran the Geeks3D Furmark 2 stress test on both consoles in tandem while monitoring the system temperature using GPU-Z.
After running the test for half an hour, the Ally averaged 28fps (31fps maximum, 10fps minimum), while the X averaged 31fps (33fps maximum, 14fps minimum). The SOC and GPU temperatures of the Ally hit 84°C and 86°C, respectively, with the Ally X at a far cooler 75°C for both measurements.
Winner: ROG Ally X – there’s not much in it, but it’s cooler and consistently just a little bit quicker at rendering frames.
ROG Ally vs ROG Ally X: Price
The new Asus ROG Ally X costs £799, which is £100 more than the ROG Ally cost at launch. While you could reasonably argue that the various improvements merit a price bump, the Ally was already pricier than its biggest competitor – the Valve Steam Deck – and this increase only widens the gap between the two.
It’s also important to consider that the original ROG Ally can now be picked up significantly cheaper than when it was first released. When I started testing the X, the original was being sold by some retailers for just £479. It’s since jumped back up to £579 but that’s still significantly cheaper than the X.
Winner: ROG Ally – assuming you can live with a shorter battery life and don’t plan on using an SD card to expand storage.
ROG Ally vs ROG Ally X: Verdict
As you can see above, the ROG Ally X is superior to its predecessor in just about every aspect; the only area in which it’s beaten is price. That’s a pretty crucial area and unless you’re made of money, I wouldn’t rush out to upgrade if you own the original Ally.
If you don’t already have a handheld console, however, want access to a wider range of titles than the Steam Deck provides and have the best part of a grand to spend, the choice is obvious. The ROG Ally X is the best Windows-powered gaming portable around.
