I was one of the first to adopt the steam coverand I love it because it changed the way I think about playing in my Steam library. Part of that was freeing myself from the desk where I spend most of my waking hours, but also how SteamOS feels smooth to use. I love it so much that I’ve tried running it on my other AMD-powered handhelds in the past and always came back to Windows after being disappointed because one feature or another didn’t work.
Until now. SteamOS is now fully compatible with all AMD-based handhelds, meaning I can use it on my ROG Ally X. That gives me substantially more processing power than the Steam Deck, a better screen, and a much larger battery, making my collapsed couch gaming even more enjoyable. Sure, I lost the touchpads, but I rarely use them anyway. I’ve barely touched my Steam Deck since then and probably won’t use it much again.
The Steam Deck caught my attention
But it was SteamOS that kept me playing.
I have had an LCD screen steam cover for a long time and I’ve finished dozens of games in my backlog thanks to being able to play for short periods when I had the chance and take advantage of the game’s inherent pause. When it first came out, it was very different from anything related to PC gaming and much closer to the integrated experience of the Nintendo Switch.
And I was hooked. I installed settings, programs and plugins. I researched ways to run minecraft and other games that were not native to Steam. I installed emulators to play retro games I never finished as a kid and generally went crazy with all the possibilities on the handheld.
Then the rest of the industry rushed to bring Windows-based handheld devices to market, and I got hooked on them because of Game Pass and the large library of non-Steam games I have. It was a way to separate my games, with Steam on one device and Windows on another, but the Windows experience always made me wish it was smoother, and I spent more time updating various programs than playing games.
SteamOS then became available for other handhelds.
As soon as I put SteamOS on the ROG Ally X’s more capable hardware, I was hooked again. I could play games that had barely run before, thanks to the 24GB of RAM and with better visuals on the 1080p screen. Back then some features were missing, namely native TDP controlvariable refresh rate and the ability to use the back buttons and the two extra face buttons, but they’ve been added now and I find myself looking at my Steam Deck less and less.
9/10
- Dimensions
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290.8×121.5×50.7mm
- Weight
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715g
ROG Ally X has plenty of power for portable gaming
Outperforms the Steam Deck everywhere
Let’s face it, the Steam Deck wasn’t built with powerful hardware to begin with. Valve wanted to thread the needle between usability and affordability, and it did, but since then, all gaming laptops come with much more power and battery capacity.
Sure, the ROG Ally I currently have a 2TB SSD, but I really should upgrade it to 4TB, something Steam Deck can’t do, thanks to the smaller SSD form factor it uses.
But they are also other things. The ROG Ally X’s WiFi chip is much better than the Steam Deck, and the joysticks feel better to use (at least for me, who’s been used to Xbox-style controllers for years). SteamOS in desktop mode feels much snappier and games run better. I find the ROG Ally X’s thicker design is also better for long gaming sessions, even though it weighs a few grams more.
The only thing that doesn’t work is the fingerprint sensor.
I have to admit, it was fun to be able to unlock the ROG Ally X with the fingerprint sensor on the power button. I hate having to type PIN codes or passwords on a touchscreen device, and that eliminated the friction. Except there’s no friction in SteamOS because it boots right into game mode. And if I decide I want to go back to Windows for any reason, cloud installation from the BIOS works great. Except I don’t think it will come back because it works so much better with SteamOS.
SteamOS is fantastic, but it’s even better when you use more powerful hardware
Since SteamOS is fully compatible with ROG Ally X, I can use the operating system I prefer on portable devices on my favorite devicewithout compromising either of them. That’s a big deal, especially since the Ally Does Valve even need to create a Steam Deck 2 now that the OS works on any other AMD-based hardware? Or can they continue to add support for Intel and Nvidia hardware and then we can choose to use SteamOS on our preferred hardware? Only time will tell, but until then, I have about 1,200 games to play on my refurbished ROG Ally X.
