Yes, the Ally brings some nice features to the table - the Z1 APU being the centrepiece (although it didn’t seem to impress Digital Foundry as much as the on-paper specs suggested it might). 120hz VRR display and an excellent and near-silent cooling system are other standouts.
For the cons: very short battery life, poor back paddle placement, some questions around QC on the face buttons. And the big one: as Windows has no gamepad-native interface, you’re stuck with Asus’ Armory Crate front-end which seems to be half-baked at best. I don’t think it’s the work of a moment to fix that kind of thing.
Asus has done a pretty good job of tarnishing its reputation of late. I’d feel like I never knew how long they were going to support it and what would happen if it needed repairs. Subjective, but I reckon it looks terrible, too.
I think my next handheld will again be from Valve.
For the cons: very short battery life, poor back paddle placement, some questions around QC on the face buttons. And the big one: as Windows has no gamepad-native interface, you’re stuck with Asus’ Armory Crate front-end which seems to be half-baked at best. I don’t think it’s the work of a moment to fix that kind of thing.
Asus has done a pretty good job of tarnishing its reputation of late. I’d feel like I never knew how long they were going to support it and what would happen if it needed repairs. Subjective, but I reckon it looks terrible, too.
I think my next handheld will again be from Valve.