Having once upon a time been a top level Desktop Engineer for a Fortune 100 company that used Windows, I now am an exclusive Mac/Console user and haven’t really done much with Windows since Windows 7. But there are often games I want that are PC only, usually indies and puzzle/point and click adventure games.
The Steam Deck had a lot of downsides for me but the price was attractive. Almost bought it during the sale but then the Ally was announced and I preordered as soon as I could. It certainly won’t be a seamless experience, but I’m looking forward to being able to play just about any game that runs on Windows (I usually play Genshin Impact on PS5, but hate playing on mobile when I’m out and about and Steam Deck can’t play it).
Any other future owners? I’m really looking forward to be able to play Stray Gods, the musical game by ex BioWare writers and scored by Austin Wintory in August.
For the record, Genshin actually works well on the Steam Deck, both in terms of usability and performance.
Wasn’t looking to start a platform war here folks, just was curious if others were getting the ROG. If you’re not interested that’s cool, Steam Deck is great if it meets your needs! I especially prefer the symmetric sticks as a primarily PS5 user. It just doesn’t support some of my games and devices like the Ayaneo were too expensive.
I’m mostly looking for people who were crazy like me and took a shot with the Ally.
I highly doubt that I would own one.
Asus is jumping to the handheld device hype after Switch and Steam Deck. But Asus doesn’t have the best track record with post release support and customization. I trust them even less with the overvolting scandal that just happened a couple of weeks ago.
If you compare spec only, Ally clearly wins over Steam Deck. But if you consider post release support, aftermarket customization, userbase, Steam Deck is miles ahead.
As I’ve mentioned above, some games, two in particular, do not and cannot run on Steam Deck without installing Windows on it due to anticheat software, so from that perspective it will not meet my needs as capably as a Windows first device. I know the Steam Deck is good hardware.
I pre-ordered should arrive Tuesday. I have been using the Steam Deck almost daily for the past few months and generally love it. I’m really looking forward the XBox game pass without having to use via cloud, which has been laggy for me when away from home network. My biggest concern will be UI. Steam does this very well, have had zero issue navigating around and using keyboard even in desktop mode. Microsoft has always been hit or miss with hand held devices. I hope Asus is comitted to updates to armory crate to make usability get better and better overtime
ASUS makes ok hardware but post launch support is awful. Good luck getting it repaired as well. Valve made a much better product, even if it’s not got as high of specs.
Fortunately my retailer has never given me issues. If there’s a problem with the device that isn’t my fault, they replace it and they deal with Asus. Don’t think I’ve ever dealt with the manufacturer of a product I’ve owned when something goes wrong.
