Should I eventually buy a steam deck OLED or a ROG ally

[AceHercules1196]

I can't afford one right now but I'm just wondering like the better performance of the ally would be great but then it doesn't have a OLED HDR display with a peak brightness of 1000nits but then the steam deck OLED obviously has the OLED display but worse performance

[H. P. Hatecraft]

What's more important to you? A better AAA experience for high end titles, or a better overall experience across the board? The Steam Deck to me sounds like the best overall handheld PC right now. But I'm going based on hearing others talk about their experiences. The Steam Deck OLED 512gb will be my first handheld PC.

[Jenaverse]

Tons of comparison reviews online and is really more of what you want out of a system. I picked steam for QoL with constant updates and bigger community. I’ve been really happy with my OG SD LCD minus the screen (spoiled by PSVita Oled and NSW Oled). I have been tempted by other handhelds but don’t want to bother with windows.

[geronimo]

For me the difference comes down more to the OS and what I'm going to be using it for. If I want performance i'll just play on my desktop. My Deck is reserved for older/lighter/simpler games and emulation. So in most of those cases I don't really care about performance.

What I do care about is having yet another Windows installation to update and maintain. I used to have a dedicated media center pc that I got rid of because I was tired of maintaining mumltiple Windows installations. So the ease of use and amazing integration of SteamOS is amazing for me. Add to that battery life and a subjectively more comfortable size and form factor.

A last point to consider is compatibility. Take your top 5 games you'll play on it. Are some of those Windows store or on Uplay, .... ? In that case an Ally or Legion will just out of the box work better with less hassle. (You can get a lot to run on the deck too using emulation, desktop mode or installing windows, but keyword hassle).

[ZombieKidzRule!]

Honestly, for me, it comes down to the track pads on the Steam Deck. I got a OneXPlayer before I got my Steam Deck. And for many of the games that I play, not having track pads is a deal breaker. Same goes for navigating desktop mode.

Many of the older games I play are designed for mouse and keyboard. There really isn't any comparison to using the track pad over a thumbstick for mouse control. At least not for me.

If the Steam Deck ever gets rid of the track pads, then I will have to reconsider my options.

[AceHercules1196]

引用自 geronimo：

For me the difference comes down more to the OS and what I'm going to be using it for. If I want performance i'll just play on my desktop. My Deck is reserved for older/lighter/simpler games and emulation. So in most of those cases I don't really care about performance.

What I do care about is having yet another Windows installation to update and maintain. I used to have a dedicated media center pc that I got rid of because I was tired of maintaining mumltiple Windows installations. So the ease of use and amazing integration of SteamOS is amazing for me. Add to that battery life and a subjectively more comfortable size and form factor.

A last point to consider is compatibility. Take your top 5 games you'll play on it. Are some of those Windows store or on Uplay, .... ? In that case an Ally or Legion will just out of the box work better with less hassle. (You can get a lot to run on the deck too using emulation, desktop mode or installing windows, but keyword hassle).

I wish I didn't have to use windows 11 on my PC to be honest but unfortunately because steamos/Linux lack support for things like RT and directstorage I have to put up with sh*tty ass windows honestly some of the issues I can come across in windows gets me so frustrated one time I even tried installing holo iso on my PC out of frustration at windows so if windows is way worse on a handheld than a desktop then I won't even bother with a windows based one because it would be more hassle than it's worth

[Drak3]

Skip the Ally, it's not great. The Legion Go might be a better option as far as Windows handhelds go, but I haven't seen much coverage on the Legion.

That said, the entry point of the Deck is $400 new, for a 256GB model now. IIRC, around $520 for the 512GB. The Ally starts at $600 (for the gimped Z1 model) and $700 for the full version of the Ally and the Legion Go.

[AceHercules1196]

引用自 Drak3：

Skip the Ally, it's not great. The Legion Go might be a better option as far as Windows handhelds go, but I haven't seen much coverage on the Legion.

That said, the entry point of the Deck is $400 new, for a 256GB model now. IIRC, around $520 for the 512GB. The Ally starts at $600 (for the gimped Z1 model) and $700 for the full version of the Ally and the Legion Go.

If I buy a steam deck it would definitely be the OLED version with 1TB of storage so the base price point doesn't really matter

[AceHercules1196]

Surprisingly there are 179 games in my library that are verified or playable on steam deck

[WarnerCK]

引用自 AceHercules1196：

because steamos/Linux lack support for things like RT and directstorage

What makes you think Linux lacks ray tracing? It's had it just at long as Windows has. Not that you'd particularly want to use it on any handheld. And Linux has always had better I/O than Windows - Direct Storage is Microsoft's attempt to catch up and should that ever get used by games to any significant degree it will almost certainly also work on Linux; there are in-progress things on Linux that go much further than Direct Storage.

[AceHercules1196]

引用自 WarnerCK：

引用自 AceHercules1196：

because steamos/Linux lack support for things like RT and directstorage

What makes you think Linux lacks ray tracing? It's had it just at long as Windows has. Not that you'd particularly want to use it on any handheld. And Linux has always had better I/O than Windows - Direct Storage is Microsoft's attempt to catch up and should that ever get used by games to any significant degree it will almost certainly also work on Linux; there are in-progress things on Linux that go much further than Direct Storage.

I'm not a Linux professional alright but no RT support is just what I experienced from steamOS/Linux I've not tried it in ages tho so maybe it's improved

[Series5Ranger]

If you prefer Windows and want 100% compatibility with all your games, either get an RoG Ally or Legion Go. If you want a tailor made for gaming experience and a bit more console like interface, and it plays all the games you'd want to play on a handheld, then the SteamDeck is a better choice.

[Mahjik]

https://youtu.be/cQ9iJ5V1FU8?si=FzIITU1LnvDblVsY

[nephalim]

Neither the Ally or Legion Go get good enough battery life for them to work as handhelds that outperform the Deck. If you are going to mostly be plugged in.... then maybe consider a gaming laptop instead.

[Haruspex]

I think the Deck is the better device overall, but if you want to play Destiny 2, COD, Fortnite, or any other Windows game with anti-cheat that doesn't work on the Deck, you will never be satisfied with it.

If these and a few others are games you really want to play on the go, get a Legion Go or ROG Ally. If not, get a Deck.

[deaddoof]

引用自 AceHercules1196：

引用自 WarnerCK：

What makes you think Linux lacks ray tracing? It's had it just at long as Windows has. Not that you'd particularly want to use it on any handheld. And Linux has always had better I/O than Windows - Direct Storage is Microsoft's attempt to catch up and should that ever get used by games to any significant degree it will almost certainly also work on Linux; there are in-progress things on Linux that go much further than Direct Storage.

I'm not a Linux professional alright but no RT support is just what I experienced from steamOS/Linux I've not tried it in ages tho so maybe it's improved

I believe RT was merged after many revisions

https://www.phoronix.com/news/RADV-Batch-Accel-RT

https://www.phoronix.com/news/RADV-RT-Default-Mesa-23.2

The feature was only enabled a few months ago. It might not make it for Steam OS 3.5.