Steam Deck

I want the deck, but what ear buds you using

Ally!

Steam Deck OLED

1st Ally - Portable, light weight, good screen, performance 2nd SD Oled - Easy to use and longer battery life, Screen Oled 3rd GO - For me this one is not a handheld since I have to constantly set it down on a table to play for longer than thirty minutes because it is too hefty for me. If you prefer this I suggest just buy a gaming desktop since you will just stock on your computer table and chair most of the time or a gaming laptop instead as you can purchase a good one for $700.

in the 80s and 90s (Steam Deck = Gameboy), (ROG Ally = Sega Game Gear) and (Legion Go = Atari Lynx). History repeats

it was hard for me to go back to Gameboy when the Game Gear was discontinued and no new games were made for it :(@@lastxp

​@@lastxpall of those are from the 90s lol just fyi

This. Handhelds are so convenient and when devs accommodate for them, it's definitely something magical that consoles and a PC just don't have.

​@@14CODFTWThe MSI Claw is also coming out. I like the competition.

Believe me go with Ally. Run anything you want with high end performance. Currently owning now from about a month . And it’s a beast

Me too I sold my steam deck to ally mainly because I can play pretty much any games compared to steam deck.

@@kimbo9643 what games are missing on steam deck? I’m a console guy (so I don’t have a clue about pc games) and also must choose between these 3 devices

Ally 2 seems to be on course for release this year

​@@kaimmjattzz what games you play on the ally that you can't on the deck

fellow 64gb to 1tb steam deck user here had mine for 9 months now been great absolutely 0 interest in rog ally lenovo go or anything else valve did such a solid job with the steam deck that if i buy another handheld it will be the steam deck 2 i skipped the oled because i couldnt justify spending 600 euros when my current steam deck is perfectly fine for now

Love that!

I have a 64gb lcd on the way. I’m considering doing the same and other upgrades to “deck” it out but I want to wait and see how I like it first. I was tempted to go for the higher end handhelds but $282 with a dock was too good a bargain. The money saved seemed worth the sacrifice in performance.

​@@pastiesandagstringWhere did you get it for that price brother?

@@wolveslands6701 eBay. Sent a guy an offer, expecting him to decline and surprisingly he accepted. You’ll likely have to hunt around a bit but you should be able to get a good price on a used lcd version.

Yep definitely worth a revisit in a few months - also hoping or Rog Ally 2 in the summer!

I think the real benefit of the Legion Go is that you can dock it like a Switch with an eGPU to have a home PC / console like experience.

Are you worried about lenovo not supporting it with updates like steam does for steam deck?

​@@Thetechchapally 2 in the summer. I doubt it

Can u watch movie on the legion go?

I agree, I absolutely love mine. The christmas eve updates were especially fantastic. I snagged my 1tb legion go for $636. If people want to return them, so be it. It just means huge discounts for people like me who are ok with an open box device. Mine is flawless too. Absolutely no dings or scratches whatsoever. Just be sure to check the rating of the box before buying. If you are shopping at best buy look for open boxes marked "excellent". Don't settle for a box marked "fair". The only minor issues ive had with mine would be that i sometimes have to re-open a game window for blutooth headphones to work. If they arent connected before i start playing, the sound reverts back to using the speakers when i go back to the game window. Kind of odd but not a dealbreaker at all. I'm sure a software update can fix it. Also, one time, my touch screen stopped working. I simply restarted the device and it worked again. Its never happened since. I honestly had more issues with the series x at launch than ive had with this device. People just have unrealistic expectations for brand new devices. Give it 3-6 more months and people will be raving over the Legion Go. On paper its over 5 times more powerful than a steamdeck. The legion go is closer in specs to a PS5 than a steamdeck. Its actually right between the Series S and Series X in benchmarks. This thing is a BEAST!

Does the Legion work off windows?

@@weakbruteforce Yes Legion is a Windows 11 device.

I've been waiting for a handheld PC since the Newton and Axim.

I bet it can run Linux pretty easily as well. For example Batocera for emulation.

I feel like Gen 2's will add a bit better perf, bit longer battery - but probably won't be a wholly different experience. If you want to get into handheld PC gaming I think now is a good time (especially if you can pick one up on a deal)

I’m waiting for Gen 2 too 👍🏻

Just buy now. Later sell it to buy the gen 2.

@@zerolifez if they had 32GB so we could get 8GB-12GB vram then yes, as it is now no way. Gen 2 it is.

I’ll wait for gen 2. Battery life is abysmal

Very excited to see what we get in 2024!

what's the point of big screens if no matter how big battery you put into a device it always will be not enough. 720p always will be the best option for a HANDHELD. I hope SD2 will stick to it.

sold today the legion go, awful display without vrr..

VRR is for removing tearing. It also reduce input lag. It does not stop framedrops. Just opposite. It allows fluctuating framepacing. This is good thing if fps is high enough. +90fps... On lower frames ~ 30-60 it is useless because frametime differences are too big.

I stream from my pc 4k 144hz, the tearing on legion go Is very bad compared RoG ally with overlclocked display at 144 hz.. if you are used to play with gsync or freesync Is difficult to pass over

@@retro_ed746 I didn't say VRR stops framedrops. What I mean is that VRR makes them a lot less noticeable compared to vsync. Even at lower framerates (compared to the refresh rate) some people notice the frametime fluctuations.

You guys have to understand that the Go has a portrait display so tearing isn't so noticeable. This is why Lenovo just dropped having VRR in the first place. They just hope people will use vsync and call it a day. This might be great if your games can run at a constant 60, 72, or 144fps. If your games are running around 45fps then vsync can't help you to smooth out that drop in framerate. This is where VRR is needed for games that don't perform that well on lower end specs. This is very important for a chip like the Z1E and it's unfortunate that the Go doesn't have it. This is what makes the Ally a better product overall even tho it has the smaller screen which some people don't mind or prefer. If you're ok with using vsync and want a larger screen then go with the Go. It's a similar experience minus the VRR screen. Remember you could always use an external monitor and get VRR so it shouldn't be deal breaker imo. As for the SD OLED, it's for people that don't mind playing games at 30, 45, 60, and now 90fps. If you're ok with that and want a console like experience then go with that. If you're into high frame gaming on older titles you will need a Z1E chip, it's just a matter if you want to go with the Ally or Go. Edit. I meant to say portrait display.

What do you think of the battery, has it given u any issues

@@coolcat9624 i don't think the battery is amazing especially when using high TDPs. If battery is an issue get a fast charging power bank

im trying to decide out of the 3. its so difficult 😳

@@Dboss74 Me too. Yet I've taken the Ally off my list of choices, since I heard it breaks SD cards.

They fixed it​@@Dirt_heart

Im coming from console and just ordered the 1TB OLED version Do you have advice on how to get MW3 running on the Steam Deck? I’m a total noob when it comes to PC and heard I need windows 11, buy the game on Steam and then possibly more steps to play it ?

@@nils0603 From what i've heard if you want to primarily play call of duty you are better off with the ally or go because of windows os. Sure you can install windows on the steam deck and dual boot it but that takes away one of the big advantages of the steam deck which is its streamlined os.

@@draecath5953 thanks for the reply Seems like this really would be the better decision for me Do you know the process/steps on how it works with the Ally or the Go in terms of playing MW3 So what I mean is, would it literally just be, downloading Steam on the device , purchasing the game on Steam, download it and start playing or are there multiple more steps even on a windows device like the Ally/Go?

@@nils0603 Since its windows it should work like it would on any pc. I haven't played call of duty in several years because I hate slamming my face into the brick wall that is extreme sbmm but as far as I know it should be pretty straight forward.

@@draecath5953 haha, I can feel you on that reason Thanks man, appreciated

How do you feel about the comfort level compared to the Deck? I love how the Deck feels.

He mentioned this as a pro for steam deck.

Can you give me an example game that is true for this? Been playing on my OLED for a while and basically never use the trackpad

And the legion go has a whole freaking mouse 🤷

​@@inbracedefeatone of the first games that I've played once I got my original model about a year ago were Torchlight 1 and 2 - trackpads are really useful there, since you can customize it by separating the surface area to support up to 9 additional inputs. This is basically 9 additional buttons for a single trackpad, which you can bind for spell or potion usage in these or similar kinds of games. I also quite enjoy Point&Click adventure games which also play great using the trackpad inputs. For example, I have also completed entire Broken Sword series between the two Torchlight games. So yeah, I do find them extremely useful

@@celestial_froggy genuinely never heard of any of those games till that comment haha. I love my deck but I don’t think the trackpads are useful for my gaming library. Thanks for the insight tho!

good choice as what I got the SD 512 oled slapped it with a 1tb sd card also thinking of changing the SSD to 1tb endless games bro lol

But the steam deck is very limited to games while the other too can play all games that's not???

I have the steam deck oled and the rog ally and the one thing i despite about the ally is its battery life. At 15 watts its okay i guess. But at 25watts the battery life drains so quickly. Also now having the oled with 90hz the thing just looks fantastic and 90hz makes everything more fluid. Ally has its 120hz but most games wont take advantage of it. On top of that its 1080p screen will eat the battery life quickly. At this point im just considering selling my rog ally. The steam deck is superior imo.

@@hollowprincegaming7547 valid . Dunno Why is it called a handheld when it can’t even last as a handheld game

I honestly think that's the right move!

For it's price point I would hope so, out of the windows handhelds it's definitely the best, it atleast makes using windows more bearable

How much fps on cod? Debating purchasing one

@@eddieking_gaming.4790 solid 60 after tweaking settings but latency is a thing….

Hey could you explain a bit about what is moonlight?

Moonlight basically let's you stream from your PC if it is Gamestream/Nvidia GPU-enabled.

I have the steam deck and sometimes I feel like I gotta get my face really close to the screen cus I can't see a damn thing lol

​@@oOoZilverwarrioroOo 😂😂😂😂😂😂🤣😭😭😭🤣🤣😂😂😂

legion go is too heavy and seems clumsy i choose rog ally

SD can play almost all games with proton what issues you had with it?

@@yourkingorginal3286 Anything outside purchased on Steam was jumping through hoops. I switched to a Go recently and have no issues with Windows again.

This ^ being able to remove the controllers + the bigger screen is a deal for someone who wants to game just as much as they want a computer. (and the kickstand 🙏)

Is it comfortable to actually use handheld though?

How’s ur user experience?I was planning to buy one too

Its like a PC? Like see movies and stuff like that?? Have USB in? Or what in for connect other advices have??

@@andreguerreiro44 yes it literally is a pc. it runs windows 11

Tell me how bad it really is cause I'm leaning heavily to the rog ally

The Asus is crap. It’s like a Range Rover. Nice until the hardware fails, which is super common. Had mine less that a year and my ssd drive went out in a month and I got he the black screen of death a few months after that. The ROG Alley is the most unreliable piece of tech I’ve ever owned.

What is VRR?

@@Brelicity Variable refresh rate. You don't have to worry about tearing or keeping a locked FPS. It's a huge feature.

Have fun playing AAA games on low settings

@@NinersOwnPhilly have my 4090 for that

⁠@@NinersOwnPhillyAs opposed to what? Medium?

rather have legion go for low settings WITH smooth experience instead choppy and laggy compare to steam deck.@@grantmitchel2810

what a douche @@NinersOwnPhilly

I got a ROG ALLY Extreme Open box at Best Buy for about $500 (price was $491 but with tax ended up being a little over $500). The previous owner had a vanilla Windows 11 install on it so setup didn't see the ROG's wifi card. Had to boot the ROG into the bios and do a Asus Cloud recovery. Ended up putting a 2Tb drive in it. System is an absolute beast. Have 0 regrets and would do it again. The ROG Ally is especially awesome with the RayNeo AR glasses I have.... a personal virtual 200 inch screen projected in front of you through the glasses.

I've also been considering a open box. For $450

U buy it used?

The base Z1 actually sports comparable performance in silent mode. And I always use my handheld in silent mode. So, I could've gotten a base Z1 rather than Z1E, but the price difference was very small, so I ended up with the senior model.

Here in Thailand ... ROG Ally is 599$full / 549 on sell SD oled 256 is 729$ and 528 799$

It was on sale at Gamextreme for P34,750 or around $630

I've never heard about it. I'm googling it now, I'm waiting for my 1TB Oled to arrive. Cryo Utilities, right? Any sample on how much it improves?

Damn isnt lubricant a better choice?

Steam oiled. 🥰🥰🥰

The Asus is crap. It’s like a Range Rover. Nice until the hardware fails, which is super common. Had mine less that a year and my ssd drive went out in a month and I got he the black screen of death a few months after that. The ROG Alley is the most unreliable piece of tech I’ve ever owned.

So you would have bought the ally from the beginning if you had to do it over?

@@LoneSch0larX probably not, the steam deck was so easy to use that I felt comfortable in modding and discovering different ways to mess around with the system, while the Ally would probably spit in my face if I even dared to change some things around.

@@takskid lol i hear you

Can you just pick up and play the legion? You think that's the best portable gaming right now?

@jfez1206 Yeah. For the most part. Watch any of the "set up" guide videos and you'll be good to go. Not too much messing about. I thought it would be worse.

what kinda set up that you need for LeGo for the best performance? i have a gaming laptop, when i bought it i just need to go to windows update and geforce experience to update those drivers to the latest. genuinely asking because I'm considering to buy LeGo

How's Linux restricted ?

Finally!

Yo tengo la de 1TB y se ve perfectamente brillante la pantalla, con el extra de que no se ven reflejos

Good to know @@StevenSite I've just bought one and comments like this worry me

I have the 1tb version and the screen protector overrides the antiglare screen.

Yeah very different as that just streams from your PS5.

Thanks for the reply! I would be intrigued to know more if you're planning to have a look at it, how it works away from home in terms of quality and latency etc, maybe compared to remote play on a phone or one of these devices, could be interesting!

How long does it last at @18W? Did you try to disable CPU boost? and how much battery life does that add. Still debating the Ally

@@ij6708 yep CPU boost is disabled, I’d say it lasts about an hour and 40 minutes at 18 watts. But I have it set to only charge to 80% for battery longevity health reasons. If you disable Dolby atmos (which works shockingly well btw) you can also get some extra battery life and 1-2 extra FPS. But I leave it on since it turns good speakers into great speakers, at least for gaming.

Any sd card issues?

And wondering what AAA games were you playing on both Ally and SD? Im still considering between these two (non OLED SD)

@@agumon1605 i have an R9 (date from manufacturer in September) and runs like heaven. Also put on it a 2TB NVME. Put BatoGo with a lot of roms and customized for ally and legion go and is just amazing. The design and everything for the ally and the most important the screen for me is the best right now on the market and VRR is a must!

@@agumon1605 I've never used a SD card since I've installed a 4TB SSD on my ally. I believe as long as you run your system on performance mode instead of turbo and reduce the resolution to 720p or 800p, the temp should run around 40 to 60C, the SD card should be fine. I've been playing Baldur's Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, and Horizon Zero Dawn. The games ran much smoother on the ally than the legion go because of VRR. Both the legion go and ally have a higher frame rate than the steam deck. For baldur's gate 3, I would get around 30ish fps on the steam deck oled and around 50fps on the ally, cyberpunk is about 50ish fps on steam deck and 60ish fps on the ally. I also play dozen of emulators and they are all much faster and have a higher FPS on the ally since my ally's cpu is the Z1 extreme. My ally runs at 720p in performance mode, highest temp I got was 62C.

@@DamnitMan88 damn thats a lot of perf difference for AAA games, been wanting to play cyberpunk on SD because of the supposedly longer battery life but idk anymore if i would sacrifice my eyes for a bit longer juice to play it lol... anyways thanks for the info 🙌

People like you really need to stop comparing a handheld to a laptop (for the price of this, you can get bla bla bla). They both have two different target audiences.

SteamOS is the difference for me. It's so optimised and has pretty much made me ditch my PC/Laptop. Laptop comparison is fair enough seeing as you can plug the SD into a dock and it's a PC. Brillant.

Have you actually looked up laptops that are the price of these three handhelds? The performance gains will be very slight, and you'll have to always have a place to set it.

Wdym the gaming performance is so close ? Rog ally and legion go blow steam deck out of the water in terms of performance, especially in newer games like alan wake 2 / baldur's gate 3

@@barozzbaro3283 enjoy playing both those games for an hour before needing an outlet ;)

The most important thing is the compatibility with games, cause you buy this devices in order to play, not to cook

@@simoneritucci5928 haven’t had a game on my deck I wanted to play that couldn’t. I agree though that you should buy the device that plays the games you want, that’s exactly why you buy a handheld gaming device. My point about battery life still stands though imho, because what’s the point of being able to play a game you want if it lasts 1 hour, vs playing the same game at lower settings for 3-4

@@inmypaants your point was that the performance was effectively the same so battey was the only deciding factor, but performance isn’t the same. You can make the argument that battery is more important than performance, but that isn’t your original point.

it's unlikely you have to look at and for better efficiency for AAA performance, if you want to play lower TDP games then Steam Deck has tit beat thanks to bespoke soc and the os.

​@@NoradNoxtusthey could easily manage a 25% bigger battery from 40 to 50 WH. That alone would help. They didn't really push the boundaries with first iteration, no one does. That's why it's always a bad idea to purchase first gen products (SD card dying)

​@@ij6708Funny thing is I got the Ally on day 1 and my SD card is still good.

@@ij6708yup ima wait for an oled version

Cap 😂

@@kysierkevinnaa i aint joking, but forget to mention only when plugged in, when not the fps will drop about 20fps approximately.

Truth is u got non of them, and ure coping hard cuz u broke af

Are you confused by the soap in games on the big screen and the lack of vrr?

We prolly gonna see the upgrade next year or this winter I guess, finger crossed. Plus, Im hoping they re-invent the steam deck same as Legion Go with portable mouse option.

Would the community be OK with them releasing another upgraded version in a few months?

@@jerredhammonds nah, 10 month or 1 year at least should be fine

ye, this is the only case why you should buy GO - if you play fps shooters more. Otherwise it's just bad

Imagine playing fps games with a controller attached to a small screen.

@@danielring8060 as opposed to the other two with even smaller screens

​@@danielring8060imagine hating on someone else's preferences

@@NarutoUzumaki71069true that

yep fair

So ally is the best way to go?

I bought the SD OLED. But, yes... Horizon Zero Dawn is one of my favorites. I recently finished Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores in PS5....It's fantastic. I put 160 into it. I imagine it's coming to PC soon. Did you play Days Gone yet? It's also amazing.

I added Forbiden West to my steam wishlist, I don't think it's got an actual release date. I haven't played days gone. I need to finish RDR2 before i start a new game.@@bigbri4090

Honestly there is no wrong answer here. They're all fantastic, but I tried all three and the Ally works best for me. It's too easy to pick up and play the games I Play.@@victoriagomez9009

​@@bigbri4090in february actually

He's also forgotten to mention the ally completely fries SD cards! Quite a big over sight don't u think?

@@kalista37 I dont use sd card and I got my ally 5 months ago. I mean it is bad I agree but 512gb is enough to have like 8 games installed and play. you can avoid this problem.

Yea the ally also last 35 mins

Great point

⁠@@peacefulmindFFXVyou shouldn’t have to “avoid” something on a device that costs $700, get off the copium!

How's the battery life?

What if my gaming library is on GOG Galaxy, Epic Games Store, Ubisoft Connect, EA Origins, and Xbox PC. And I have fewer games on Steam. Do you still recommend the steam Deck?

​@@Respectfully10 I very much disagree. ROG ally is far better in almost every aspect. The only one letting it down is the battery life, I would say. It hasn't been a problem for me though. I tried SD and I never liked the OS. Windows is much better imo. Much more choices, supports every game pretty much. Not to speak of the "original" SDs screen. It is quite bad. Blurry image and very low resolution.

@MaxDrougge I was being rhetorical with my question. Your statements also show: owner bias / buyers' remorse. Legion Go is the best for someone who doesn't have a steam library because it has no hardware issues, better battery life, and recent updates are actually doing the rounds. Price point wise; for $699 CAD, I'd take the ROG Ally instead of the Steam Deck for obvious reasons (my library). No matter the device you take. You need a $30 USD, 100W power brick to run turbo mode on the go. I like to use it on the train/subway to work & back. That's a good session for the day.

@@Respectfully10 If anything, owners bias. But my comment is pretty objective if you have looked at some reviews of the 2. I wouldn't say the LG doesn't have any hardware problems. Also, having removable joycons is asking for trouble in the longer run. With the Ally you get a power brick sufficient for turbo in the box.

True - but you can play the Ally/Go on lower settings/lower resolutions (matching the steam deck's perf) and get similarly long battery

Steam Deck 2 needs performance bump (at same TDP) but more importantly the USB5 port for an eGPU. So you can take it on the go and then dock it when you get home.