Steam Deck OLED vs ROG Ally X Review: Did I Make The Right Choice?

Which handheld do you think is best?🤔

Also I made an error by saying RDNA3.5 when it should be RDNA3


Thank you to the commenter who corrected me!

Wait what i saw online shopping was rog ally way more cheaper than steam deck,i want steamdeck because it can custom built but its too expensive for me.. Rog ally was half price of steam deck (thanks to 52%discount) thats why im going to rog ally. and i like windows version because it can play more games. Battery will be no problem for me i have huge battery backup.

I’m in a weird place - have a gaming laptop, ps5 and steamdeck. I don’t travel much but love playing on handheld was thinking of upgrading the steamdeck lcd but wasn’t sure if I should just wait until next gen, get a rog ally or upgrade to Oled

I mean System is not a downside of rog neither an adventage of SD, you put 2TB SSD and make dualboot on Rog Ally Windows 11 and Bazzite OS and its perfect.
And battery life is better on ROG, saying that ROG has 25W on the go and it gives same battery life as SD Oled is misleading, you can set performance to 17W or 15W and then SD stands no chance.

I’ll wait until the next gen handhelds come out cause I know the current ones will be discounted in price

I have a Steam Deck (LCD though) and I prefer gaming on streaming device. I'm rocking Logitech G Cloud for that. Playing it way more often than any other handhelds I own, although it has some flaws, one of which is non-oled screen. It just works and works good. Where PC Handhelds fall - G Cloud picks up.
I don't use it for cloud gaming, doesn't have adequate ping for that, I use it with streaming games from my local PC.

Comparing to the Steam Deck the main benefits are - it is a much lighter device (463 grams vs 669 grams), it has solid screen (compared to LCD version better in every way, compared to an OLED worse blacks and no HDR and only 60 Hz, but is 1080p), it has stronger battery life (10 hours on average, and doesn't depend on the game), it is as strong as your PC in terms of performance (and probably you have plenty of power for 1080p gaming).

Bad parts are - of course you need to have PC connected to a WiFi (I exclude cloud gaming, your milage may vary), the input lag is kinda unnoticeable measured to approximately few frames, sometimes it is harder to first time launch game via streaming (it is not about streaming really, it's about that you have a controller not keyboard). And the last nasty part is - it's worse in controls compared to a god of ergonomics the Steam Deck - it doesn't have back buttons and trackpad, it's stick is weaker, and D-Pad is plain bad. However it feels good in hands, especially considering it's size and weight of the switch but with a better form and function.

A year ago I was pleasantly surprised that local streaming is a very viable option for gaming. And now my PC handheld is just stored in a closet. Sure if you don't have PC in your flat (not the author, he has PC on the background), then it is not an option for you. But if you considering playing any modern title or can't accept 1280x800 resolution, then you should check out G Cloud. I sure there's another alternatives, although phones are 20:9 ratio which sucks, and streaming handhelds are not popular, sadly.

100th similar comparison... 😨

I just got a really good deal on the Legion Go for $650 Brand new at Best Buy, I was supposed to get the "open box" but the salesman accidentally sold me the brand new one. SCORE!

What theme is that on the steam deck

Ally x is the best. Not a comparison depends how much dough you have

I thought of a Rog Ally when I wanted to get a handheld a few months ago, but the Steam Deck Oled just ticked everything I wanted (especially not windows handheld gaming). I have a PS5 and a good gaming laptop, so the console is for heavy-hitting games and laptop for PC only games and now can Remote Play on both. So, I just wanted a console feel with the PC deals and the dual touchpads are amazing for games that have mouse input and I can make virtual menus (the haptics on it are amazing). Plus the Oled has a longer lasting battery and I prefer to have HDR as it works with PS5 remote play and Valve did a great job with playing a game, putting it to sleep and resuming after turning on in seconds (boot up videos reminds me of the PSP and I love it).

Arrggghhhh!!!!!!

Man this decision is so hard 😭

If you dont have the money, the SD. Otherwise get the ally x, better hardware.

or... you know... look on the second hand market and get a deck lcd/rog ally extreme for 200 - 300 euro.

When i was looking into buying i was trying to decide between steam deck and rog ally. Eventually I decided on the oled steam deck cuz of the battery the battery on the rog ally didnt seem great and felt like that kinda went against the purpose of a handheld pc. Then the ally x came out and that things battery is tank from what ive seen but for the price of it like what $800 id rather just put that money into my actual desktop. Im really excited to see what asus and valve do with there successor systems.

You didn’t answer your question, did you or did you not make the right decision!

The ally x should have had a bigger, oled display and it would've been perfect. The problem with the original ally besides the battery is that the screen is a bit too small for some games.

Very fair review for both devices. They both have their pros and cons and I think it's really a case by case situation for which device is "better" depending on who is buying it. I went with the OLED Steam Deck because it's cheaper and I already have a good gaming PC + other consoles, so I don't need top of the line handheld performance. Steam Deck is more than good enough for what I'm using it for. Also cannot be overstated how stunning the OLED screen is. For a handheld I value vibrancy and inky black levels more highly over higher resolution.

Steam Deck OLED screen is amazing. No competition.

why do you treat the steamdeck like something that can't run windows?

For me it's 570 EUR vs 900 EUR so 330 EUR (360 USD) difference

The trackpad is a major plus for me, I play a lot of RTS and games like Roller Coaster Tycoon. And I find the trackpad really nice to use of a lot of shooters. Steam Deck for me. And that OLED display 👌🏼

What about which one is more future proof ?

Rog Ally X is clearly the better device. BUT :) it is 1065 USD here, and the Steam Deck 512GB LCD I bought on the sale for 385 USD. I do not have so much time to game ,so I could not justify the 3 times higher price, even if I could afford it if I want to. I have a lot of different monitors here at home, I have a Ultra wide screen with VA, so it has great colors with great blacks, and with my old mans bad eyes, I do not really see a big difference in colors. Not worth the extra 300 USD that the oled would have cost me.

Steam deck Oled is the best handheld console, LOVE IT ❤

Gotta catch 'em all! now i have switch oled and steamdeck oled, ally x is next

Ally x performance and battery life is a beast. Beats out any other advantage SD may have.

Ally x is a toy i which if steam deck oled limited edition was glossy and screen by samsung, BOE was actually not good as samusung

Steamdeck loses because you cant mod games! Sorry to break it to you but Steamdeck sucks 😊

So many pros so many cons on both. Coming from a launch day one steam deck if limited edition OLED was still available I’d choose a steam deck. Kinda wanna try out the ROG

As a normal user, I don’t need two similar devices, since I have steam deck I have 0% interest to buy ALLY. Content creators or devices collectors don’t need to concern which one is better.

I prefer the Windows OS, so i can mod my games and have more customization overall editing, workstation etc... I dont want it to feel like a console where im locked away, same reason i have an Android i guess 😅 im not a kid to be scrolling on menus or that "ease of use", I want to tweak everything im an adult. The Ally is for Big Boys PC type of people not the Console type 💀

Steam Deck OLED all day. Overall better value, better operating system, comes with a case, has OLED, slightly bigger screen, battery life is great, HDR, I won’t missing the extra pixels. I don’t need to play COD on a handheld.
Got my PS5 for that.

The audio of the steam deck sound better to me, the rog ally x audio sounds a bit weaker like adding a cheap speaker into a large cabin/housing at full volume. It's loud but lack the bass and treble that is needed to resonate.

Then again my own ears are not that great. 😂

SD OLD all day ❤

ROG Ally X 1 month of ownership squeaky trigger buttons and right trigger button already completely dead. On my second one now.

Was gonna grab an Ally X but realized it would be a mistake since the next gen graphics chips are about to come out....

This video is so informative!! Thank youuuu

Steam Deck it is (for me)

Main problem with with ROG ALLY is hw reliability. First: my card reader stopped working. They replaced motherboard. Now both analogs suffer from drift. Got them replaced. I have 5 months of warranty left. I hope nothing goes bad in future.

I actually own a steam deck oled, and I like so much that it has become my go to console over my series X and Nintendo Switch.

I’m actually on the fence about picking up the Rog ally X, yes it’s more powerful than the steam deck oled, but I don’t know if I can deal with a smaller screen with no oled,hdr and track pads.

And yes I actually use the track pads for some games, and dragging files for emulation.

Ally x speakers better

Both great consoles let's just appreciate then both

God, the limited edition oled steam deck just looks so good.

I got a steam deck oled yesterday it came in the mail. Personally for me if I’m playing a shooter online like cod I’m jumping on the actual desktop. I think it also comes down to if you have a extensive steam catalog of games already. Another thing that I think is not mentioned between the deck and ally is asus customer support, warranty claim issues, and repairabilty where I think the steam deck wins in all those categories hands down. That’s like my main reason why I never got an ally or x.

Man, i like the performance of the ally, but dont dont like asus. Spending 800 with a company that probably won't honor the warrenty at that price point, which is enough to build a really good budget PCs the biggest issue for me.

It’ll just always feel like ppl are making shit up to somehow support the steam deck and it can play barely any games that are more involved graphics wise lol.. ease of use means dick if it runs shit at only 30 fps haha with no VRR lolol..you can talk about oled and shit like that but if the game can’t fuckin run it well you just have a vibrant slow chugging game experience.. Steam deck isn’t it. Lol just a fact haha unless ur playin shit like hades

The controller thing sounds like he had a steam deck first lolol he used to bullshit controls lol