Roc VS Steam Deck Pros and Cons

[Citizen Cook]

Should you buy a Roc or a Deck? If you already have a Deck should you upgrade to a Rock?
I’ve been thinking a bit about this lately. Here’s my list of pros and cons…

Roc Pros
1. More powerful hardware. Around 15-20% better depending on the game
2. Smaller profile. Slimmer and lighter than the Deck.
3. Optional GPU Dock. Can boost docked performance to greatly increase graphical grunt on larger screens.
4. Fast charging. The Roc has a much better charger and can fully charge the system much quicker than the Deck.
5. 1080p screen.
6. 120Hz refresh rate
7. Speakers. The sound on the Roc is said to be much beefier than the Deck’s.
8. Windows OS. Any PC game can be played and full desktop functionality with more programs and better emulation.

Roc Cons
1. Worse battery than the Deck, particularly on older software.
2. No track pads. I imagine it’ll be very difficult to navigate the Windows desktop with an analogue stick and finger.
3. Only 2 back paddles as opposed to the 4 on Deck.
4. Dodgy X button. Linus has reported that the X button repeatedly sticks.
5. Aesthetics. Subjective of course, but the Roc is hideous. The white colour is a turnoff and the RGB lights is a joke. (Thankfully they can be turned off however) even the vent cutouts look ugly to me.
6. Asus support. Asus are in hot water lately for their awful customer support with their motherboards. Others have noted that once a user is out of warranty Asus washed their hands of them. Valve on the other hand have garnered quite a good reputation for supporting the Deck in and out of warranty.
6. Price. The Deck can be bought for significantly less money. (However if you are looking for the most powerful hardware the Roc wins by a large margin)
7. Windows OS. Clunky and badly optimised for gaming. A poor user experience unlike the Deck that gives users a console-like experience suited to a gaming handheld.
8. No quick resume. Unlike Steam Deck, users can suspend their game and resume instantly.
9. Ergonomics. The angular hand grips dig into the palms.

[Haruspex]

Are you referring to the ROG Ally? ROG stands for "Republic of Gamers". It's sort of Asus's "Gamer" brand.

[Dynamonic]

The Steam Deck is definitely the best option for my situation. I play a lot of classic games which don't have native controller support, and so the trackpads and community controller profiles that go with that are an absolute godsend. I think the Ally catchphrase of 'PlayALLYourgames' is actually not realistic for that reason. In it's native handheld form, the Ally is going to be quite limited to games with native controller support.

I can see why the ROG Ally might be a very attractive option to those who are not in the PC handheld market yet though. It promises a lot on the box, and is certainly going to have a more visible presence on shop floors for people who aren't currently on Steam, or are not yet PC gamers.
I think any Steam Deck owners 'upgrading' to the ROG Ally, will be quite disappointed though, and will quickly miss what makes the Steam Deck so great; the trackpads, the extra buttons, the specially purposed OS, and most of all, the massive support it has received, and will continue to receive from Valve and the community. The experience on the ROG Ally won't really improve from launch, but the Steam Deck will only continue to get better.

Personally, the Deck will tick all my boxes until that day we get a Steam Deck 2! Even if it is a way off yet.

[Mahjik]

https://youtu.be/BKhQr_Tq_DI

[WarnerCK]

Originally posted by Dynamonic:

I can see why the ROG Ally might be a very attractive option to those who are not in the PC handheld market yet though. It promises a lot on the box, and is certainly going to have a more visible presence on shop floors for people who aren't currently on Steam, or are not yet PC gamers.

The Ally doesn't have anything for those people. If you don't already have a PC games library, the place you're going to get a PC games library is Steam. The Ally's unique selling point is people that are already invested in the Windows Store for Game Pass, which only has streaming support on the Deck. Games on Steam integrate better with Steam on the Deck; games on Epic, GOG, Amazon and Itch integrate better with Heroic on the Deck. General PC games and general PC stuff are better on the Deck (because trackpads). Windows Store stuff with native controller support that aren't streamed is all the Ally's got going for it, and the people that want that are firmly entrenched in the Microsoft ecosystem rather than newbies.

[Ralf]

I would rather have a 2k or 4k 240Hz oled in the Ally, you are going to upscale from 720p low anyway, people would think it's a portable RTX4090 and would sell like hotcakes.

[hiyall]

I was debating real hard if I wanted the ROG ally but ultimately decided to stick with my deck because valve creates things with a passion. The ROG ally will surely get updates but for how long? The steam deck life time updates is basically infinite since it is tied to steamOS. Valve listens to their community members and act quickly to work and push updates ASAP. I see the ROG ally as an attempt to enter the handheld market and that's it. There will probably be no passion behind updating and improving the device like valve is for theirs.

Also, I play on my desktop when I want a power house on a 21:9 screen and the deck has plenty of performance when I'm just laying in bed and playing

[Capivara]

Windows OS. Any PC game can be played and full desktop functionality with more programs and better emulation.

actually not, windows isn't made to use as a handheld, steamOS is, so you could have a worse experience using windows, without the trackpad, and emulations is better in linux, and faster

[Citizen Cook]

Originally posted by Harusp3x:

Are you referring to the ROG Ally? ROG stands for "Republic of Gamers". It's sort of Asus's "Gamer" brand.

Yes, sorry☺️

[ToysRsus]

The deck costs $400. Just sell a skin.

[[?]legit]

The biggest cons are the missing trackpads, and the 2 missing extra buttons on the back. Otherwise it looks like a solid device. I don't like the actual looks at all though.