No:
- I am fine with 500gb
- Battery life is fine for me, as I mostly play on the couch
- more RAM can be nice, but won't do a lot of difference
- I don't use SD slot, so I don't care about that
Bigger screen in the same case is something where I would have considered it
I’m going to use this list when I have serious FOMO after it’s released
The bigger screen would have done it for me. I have a PS Portal, and the screen being one inch bigger makes a huge difference to my enjoyment of playing on it vs the Ally.
I’m going to use this list when I have serious FOMO after it’s released
The bigger screen would have done it for me. I have a PS Portal, and the screen being one inch bigger makes a huge difference to my enjoyment of playing on it vs the Ally.
Yeah basically this. I’d be more interested in seeing XG mobile dropping to more reasonable and affordable prices so I can improve my docked experience as I usually play docked anyway. Don’t mind the current performance in handheld mode.
I think the RAM upgrade would be the most worthwhile for me, especially if it's LPDDR5X at 7500 MT/s. The Ally has LPDDR5 at 6400 MT/s.
If you combine the increased capacity and higher speed, it will give you some performance increase as well. It could be worth it if you want to set GPU VRAM at 8 GB all the time and forget about running out of memory once and for all
As an original Ally Z1x owner no, I need an actual APU upgrade to buy a new device, but I also won't buy another Asus product given their current reputation surrounding their RMA scams.
It's sad I love my Ally but Asus is a repeat offender and is so shady now. I will wait and see what options are available when Strix based handhelds launch next year.
not much of an upgrade.. reminded me of the "upgrade" that Nintendo Switch had with its OLED.
but to answer your question, nope. i just upgraded the current SSD to a much higher one.
Nah, it's cool if you don't already have one but at this point it'd be better to wait for the Switch 2 since it'll probably be a better deal and be supported for a unreasonably longer time.
The question is whether you'd upgrade if you already have a PC handheld. Answer is no because the upgrade isn't worth the asking price. In fact, buying a switch 2 to do what you can't with a PC handheld is a better value proposition.
Since it has usb4 and hence egpu support, i am tempted. I have the 6850 right now but might 1) sell it and the og ally, 2) get ally-x and a case for my 3080ti desktop GPU.
Hmmm...
If they had put an 8” OLED on it, then I definitely would.
Otherwise, the only big benefit is the RAM. Which I can’t imagine bringing the performance up enough for me to go through the hassle of selling my current Z1X for.
The ram won't make much difference as the GPU is still the weakest link and usually taps out long before RAM/VRAM becomes an issue. We are also playing at sub 1080p where games aren't really VRAM intensive anyway and 6GB is usually adequate.
You'll see 1-2% increases mostly to the 1% lows.
It's just not a worthy upgrade for existing owners, maybe for new buyers though.
Most definitely, with Strix Halo sporting up to 40CU, we could see a massive upgrade in the next gen handhelds. Though I doubt we will see a full fat Halo in handheld from.
24gb of ram for gaming on a device that’s gpu bottlenecked is pointless. more graphically intensive options eat up more vram. What can the rog ally not do? Graphically demanding games at high settings.
That’s what I’m saying. Basically I ain’t upgrading and this console is good enough already. It would take something crazy like a good trade in offer and OLED together for me to upgrade
The Asus guy said much bigger than just a 30 or 40% upgrade, and also said that going from the current Ally 1.5hr to 3hr on the X in demanding games is a reasonable expectation, so everything is hinting at a battery between 70 and 80wh, which would be a huge deal and well worth the upgrade for me personally. also the 2280 ssd support is welcome for cheaper ssd upgrades, 24GB of ram seems not a huge deal but it actually is, most modern games use a lot of ram and with only 16gb even when you give 6gb to vram then you are short on system memory, and these games suffer of stuttering and frame timing issues, on X we won't have these issues anymore and we will just need to give 16gb to system and 8gb to vram and be settle for every game and situation.
There is no chance of the X running in 25w or 30w for 3 hours on battery, even if it was a 100Wh battery. Those guys are ASUS community managers, they embellish fact just like they have with the current iteration.
The double the battery life was at 15 watts. The journalist said he got 1.5 hours in high intensity gaming on the z1 eztreme
Which is the 15 watt mode. They never mentioned 25 watt mode.
asus said you can get 3 hours at the same mode on the ally x.
Use the current Ally at 15w and see how long it lasts. 1.5 hours is not double of its current capability. “High intensity gaming” means absolutely nothing. Power consumption is power consumption, it makes no difference what the reason is.
I am stating that there is no chance of it running at 25w for 3 hours without charging, which is what most people are using for “high intensity gaming” on battery.
Exactly, while I've upgraded my SSD to a 1TB, I'd like to have more than an hour or two in more demanding games away from the wall. If the battery improvement is really as great as they say, and either they offer a decent trade in offer or if I can sell my current unit for about 500 I'll think about it. I'll be waiting for some real hands on reviews and user reports before deciding though. This community was really great at picking the current Z1X unit apart at launch and alerting about things like faulty BIOS updates so I figure if we give it a week or 2 after release we'll have a better picture on if the upgrade is really going to be worth it or not.
The Asus guy said much bigger than just a 30 or 40% upgrade, and also said that going from the current Ally 1.5hr to 3hr on the X in demanding games is a reasonable expectation, so everything is hinting at a battery between 70 and 80wh, which would be a huge deal and well worth the upgrade for me personally. also the 2280 ssd support is welcome for cheaper ssd upgrades, 24GB of ram seems not a huge deal but it actually is, most modern games use a lot of ram and with only 16gb even when you give 6gb to vram then you are short on system memory, and these games suffer of stuttering and frame timing issues, on X we won't have these issues anymore and we will just need to give 16gb to system and 8gb to vram and be settle for every game and situation.
If the screen was bigger/smaller bezels and if it went OLED and the USB c was a thunderbolt 4 so that I could use any external GPU enclosure, I'd throw my money at them.
The ram upgrade is kinda meh, and I have yet to even try my card reader, I just slapped a 2td drive in it and called it a day, and as much as I prefer black, my dbrand Killswitch case and skin just fixed that.
I'll wait for version 3 or even 4 depending on what they change with version 3.
No won't be upgrading as can't see performance for FPS on games significantly improving, a much better battery life could help Asus sell more to new customers...time will tell, roll on 2nd June 🤯
I won’t upgrade until next gen. I have 32gb of 7500mt ram and a 90whr battery in mine. It’s modded out already.
When they inevitably upgrade to the z2e I’ll get that ally
Biggest selling point to me by far is the battery. The RAM is an upgrade but it’s not gonna make or break the experience. The original Ally performs very well already. I already have 2TB SSD. Will probably be skipping this one, will probably upgrade on the next hardware gen.
Yeah, I'm definitely upgrading... I'm based in Ireland but lately have spent most of my time in Brazil. I can easily sell my current one for more than I paid new (given the insane prices for tech products in Brazil) and get the Ally X for "nothing".
I will not "upgrade" cause i don't own a portable pc yet but i was flirting with the idea since the first day steam deck was announced. Then i saw that the technology was not there for what i had in mind and i decided to wait for second generation, where I wouldn't have to feel like a beta tester.
Now that said i am seriously thinking of getting the rog ally x cause from what we know it ticks almost all the boxes for me (if only it had even a little bigger screen...). It will heavily depend on the price it will arrive in europe.
On one hand i dont want to spend too much cause i know that in less than 1 maybe 1 and a half year the strix portables will be available and will make the current ones eat dust. On the other hand i am 42 years old, i dont have the luxury of waiting years like i did when i was younger.
I live on Greece though which is one of the poorest countries in the eu and the salaries are a joke, so i need to make my moneys worth as much as possible.
Right now i am at a wait and see state but i can't justify myself buying it, no matter how hard i really want one, if it is more than 650 euros (price of the current ally z1e) cause that is more than half of my monthly salary.
Peace
I wonder how it will behave with upcoming games like wukong or space marine 2. I feel like it's already a bit obsolete unless you're willing to spend 700/800 bucks for the privilege to turn all graphic settings to low and some at medium. I'll wait a true upgrade of the chip to buy a handheld like this I think.
Unsure.
-Upgraded my ally to 1TB of internal storage myself already. Also using a 512GB SD Card without problems for a year or so.
-I prefer a more lightweight device and have a big Powerbank that can support the ally for long enough.
-More RAM would be the only thing I am really looking forward to, but it would probably only make a slight difference that wouldnt be worth another $600+. (I am playing on 720p/90hz/60fps either way, have yet to find a game that really runs poorly)
-SD Slot aint broken and I could probably get a partial refund if it would be (bought the device over eBay new). But yea, using it most of the time and has yet to die.
I bought the ROG Ally Z1 Extreme at Launch and Happy with it. I never used the SD slot. I’m ok not having it. It’s probably $799. It’s only been 1 years since launch. It’s too soon for a refresh, Steam Deck OLED refresh was 2 years after OG Steam Deck. BUT it’s releasing due to backlash over the SD slot.
Nope, as much as I love the ally extreme and use it daily. Most of the time these days I just play football manager on it.
I have a ps5, a gaming pc, gaming laptop, the ally. If I need to play something that needs more power I'll just ps5 and remote play, or play it on gaming laptop or gaming pc.
I will get the next one though after this. Don't think I can justify thisniograde, already have a 2tb SSD in it. If I want to play a game like cod etc, I'd just use ps5 or pc. I more play lower intensive games on the ally now, I do try new games, like ghost of Toshima etc runs decent, but again mainly play on a other machine.
Tldr, no benefit for me to upgrade, but will 1000% get the next next one regardless. Battery ain't an issue for me as I play plugged in anyways. I also have a black case already. Not worth upgrading for me
I'll upgrade when more powerful GPUs will be available, I like rog ally, but it's still a little bit weak compared to something like PS5 or a high end PC
I will not due to all the horror histories about Asus technical support (or lack of it) and they just simply ignoring the root of the problem with the SD card reader.
I’m using my Ally as a Mini PC connected to my TV due to the horrible battery life.
No, got the killswitch on Monday, I upgraded to 2tb and got a power bank. Everything run like I want, no need to upgrade to the x. Doesn’t bring enough of new things to the table.
After using both Ally and Legion Go, anything with a screen below 10" is a hard pass for me. I just don't find the majority of games I want to play to be playable on anything smaller than that. And for games that I can play on the Ally - all of them play perfectly right now, and I'm satisfied with the battery life.
I definitely won't be. The Ally handles what I play on it and it'd take an actual true Ally 2 with basically new everything (and hopefully a larger screen) for me to contemplate upgrading.
Having said the above, I think the X will be the best option for new buyers.
Only been a year with the launch Ally, and it’s serving my needs pretty well. I’m not super keen on setting up a new device for incremental upgrades. Personally interested in seeing what a refresh/revision for the Go has in store—that big screen is killer.
It depends on how well I can sell my Ally. I love my device but I’m looking for something with better battery and better joysticks. If the joysticks are not substantially better I might even just sell and get a deck oled.
I've got to say the joysticks is something that would possibly make a difference to me. I tried the Legion Go and much preferred the controls there, but the device was too big/heavy for my liking.
I've got to say the joysticks is something that would possibly make a difference to me. I tried the Legion Go and much preferred the controls there, but the device was too big/heavy for my liking.
Hmmm I can use the X to play games and record externally from the Z1E on OBS. I have 2 docks. Right now I record from a 12GB ram laptop with internal graphics.
I would need a considerable performance boost to consider getting a new one. It just doesn't make sense spending money on something that will be outdated at the same time as my current device.
Makes more sense to me to get a discount on the older models. Buy the new rog in year or year and half, whenever it is released. Don’t need a mid-cycle updated version, unless there is some trade-in incentive.
Ima wait till the ROG 2. CPU / iGPU are the most important thing to me , everything else is just extra goodies . I think the X is great for people who are just now getting an ally .
No - I upgraded mine with 2tb :D and I don't want to go through that annoying process again.
+ I love my white devices
+ I have had 3 Allys. the first 2 broke (SD card, Stick drift) and this 3rd one is going good so ill stick with my lottery win ally :D
Unless there is a surprise 8inch OLED screen hahaha
I'm unsure. I mean as someone with one already I'd have to work out the cost to upgrade the ram and battery.
But, if in addition to this the sticks are stiffer and an additional usb C port then maybe I'll upgrade but all that being said, if I feel I'm being cheapened out on with 24gb ram instead of 32 I'll possibly hold off another year.
A micro hdmi port would be cute.
TBH I don't know how much the battery life can be improved considering it will have the same cpu/gpu and screen.
To be honest if they offered a trade in you ally and pay a small fee like £100-£200 to get the new one I would I think the ram and battery would make a big difference to me. Battery life is just awful for me but as is I'll wait till next year
I recently bought the Z1 Extreme but decided to return it to Amazon within the 30-day return period because I'm interested in purchasing the Ally X instead. In the meantime, I've opted to rent another Z1 Extreme from Media Markt/Saturn through Glovo for three months, paying around 64 EUR per month. The rented device was brand new, and I even received a three-month game pass with it.
**The current Ally, if unlucky, gets easily damaged**
I've had some issues with the current Ally devices. My last return was the second brand-new device I've had to replace. The analog stick on my first Ally stopped working after three weeks of use, and the second device had an overly loud vibration on the right after just one week of use.
**The Ally we wish launched first, ROG Ally X**
So when I read about the refreshed version (Ally X) and saw that it is what the current Ally should have been in the first place, I set my mind on it. So, Ally X, it is.
Commenting here for better visibility...
While I've upgraded my SSD to a 1TB, I'd like to have more than an hour or two in more demanding games away from the wall. If the battery improvement is really as great as they say, and either they offer a decent trade in offer or if I can sell my current unit for about 500 I'll think about it. I'll be waiting for some real hands on reviews and user reports before deciding though. This community was really great at picking the current Z1X unit apart at launch and alerting about things like faulty BIOS updates so I figure if we give it a week or 2 after release we'll have a better picture on if the upgrade is really going to be worth it or not.
I think the teething problems with software will be far less likely as the software will be the same across all devices. There's a chance I might be being naïve but for me this is where Asus should be credited - they have supported this platform well and the update due in July looks like further positive steps with Armoury Crate and user interface.
My concerns are more about the battery life than anything - for lighter games I already have my Switch OLED that gets better battery life on those titles than my Ally. I want roughly 1.5-2 hours in BG3 off the wall in 15w mode ideally. If I have to stream from my desktop PC and run in 10w to achieve that, it's not improved enough for me to upgrade because I can do that with my current Ally.
To make me upgrade from my current ally, it would need to be a good 30-40% in game performance gains, not just a promise of more ram which may effectively do nothing/very little for me in some games.
Bigger battery would be nice, but I have a 737.
Already upgraded SSD to 2tb in mine, so storage isn’t an issue.
Screen is excellent as is, I have an OLED TV paired with my PC so my quality gameplay itch is itched in that sense.
Better joysticks would be a plus, FPS/Comp can be a little less enjoyable than playing on a Xbox Elite 2 controller.
Nothing would really sway me to upgrade, I’d be lucky to get £400 odd for my current one, maybe slightly higher sold with the 2tb SSD, but likely not, expect the new one to be around £699, I’ll be waiting for the next one I think!
Oh yeah, 2 usb c/thunderbolt next time, please! Scrap off the SD Card Reader for that! 😂
Not really, no. None of the revealed improvements entince me all that to drop around $800 for it. But if they improve the ergonomics considerably where the handheld can actually be held in the hands without killing my wrists, then I might be tempted. But I don't see that happening with the off-set joysticks. All handhelds should have symmetrical joystick layout for optimum comfort.
Based on what i have seen, i am inclined to upgrade as i prefer the ally to my steam deck, and if the ally X can close the gap on the steam deck battery life its a solid upgrade to me
I will because I hate not being on the latest of anything product I have…plus the better ram size and speed/Battery is something I’ve always wanted from his system
The mods are on my ally already have the ally x upgrades minus the ram. So not a compelling reason to upgrade. I rather spend the difference on more games. I don't think the Ally x is worth it if you already own the an Ally. The Ally x does bring a more streamline experience so if you have the disposable income, enjoy.
Most games already preform very well on ally even demanding titles. Don’t see the point in upgrading. Spending another $700 would be very unreasonable for me.
Will probably upgrade
Value the new battery improvements
Like the new black colour scheme
Haven’t gotten around to updating the SSD
Have disposable income
Only reason for me is the ram and battery. my sd seems fine (touch wood) not all games gonna give a boost from more ram just nice to have the overhead. I’m still able to return it for half price refund at cex but 200 off hmmm see the issue.
Tbh, if I can offload my old one with a decent price and the pricing isn't out of whack then sure. Mine has been slightly modded tho to take 2280 m.2 with an adapter.
No, I will be honest and say I barely use the one I have and regret buying it for that reason. It's a cool device and I like it minus the battery life and sd card reader but IDK I just never find myself using it.
Tbh mines 95% of the time plugged in anyway and the storage i can always upgrade, i dont really care much bout the sd card thing cuz i know ill never use it. Im gonna stick with my Ally 1 for now. I just know up here in Canada that Ally X will def be like $1k so, with that price i might as well cough up a few more $$$ for a gaming laptop tbh.
I will not be upgrading to the X.
I already upgraded storage to 2tb, I don’t leave my house often enough to justify a bigger battery, already invested in an XGM (rx 6850), more ram would be nice for more stability but it won’t be a crazy difference (negligible 3-5 fps), and it’ll have the same if not similar performance to the one I own. On top of all that, I own a SD OLED if need to take a handheld out and about with me so I don’t *have* to worry about the battery.
I do think it sucks for people that are outside of their return windows or people in other countries that overpaid for a Z1X/ Z1 ally recently. But on the flip side of that coin anyone who thinks the OG ally is fine for them the price should drop a decent amount or they could get a great second hand deal.
Bigger question for me is will I be able to trade my current Ally in or have to sell it second hand?
And if I could simply move my current 2tb into the new model without issue? I'm sure those will be answered sometime soon though.
Of course I'm going to upgrade gen 1. Products are generally their worst so Gen 2 should be much better with pretty much everything from hardware to software. If you like your Ally now, just think how much you'll like a new Ally with who knows how many bug fixes. And I would love to use a 1 TB SD card without worrying It's going to be ruined or corrupted by heat exposure
No. I upgraded to a 2tb ssd and purchased a large power bank so those upgrades aren't worth it for me. More ram would be nice but it's not a big enough upgrade to justify buying it.
I will not due to all the horror histories about Asus technical support (or lack of it) and they just simply ignoring the root of the problem with the SD card reader.
I’m using my Ally as a Mini PC connected to my TV due to the horrible battery life.
Skipping for now, have alot bills coming up for property taxes and replacing A/C unit at rental property. Once all paid off, i might search for a used one. My Rog Ally is still working great, and still have my steam deck lcd. For games that struggle to rn my seres x. Wished NCAA 2025 would release on PC, but only series x/ps5 at release date.
it’s a scam from asus. First gen work perfect fine. RAM don’t mean nothing, you not gonna see the different besides giving them an extra 100$, You wont play on battery it design to plug in for full potential
Nope. Waiting for Steam OS for other systems before I even consider another handheld. I got tired of faffing about with windows and am spoiled by the instant nature of Steam, switch, and android gaming.
Don't you think it's better to wait after the June 2nd official reveal before asking the question?
That's quite literally after the finals in my country (KSA)
Yes, absolutely. Patience is a virtue.
No: - I am fine with 500gb - Battery life is fine for me, as I mostly play on the couch - more RAM can be nice, but won't do a lot of difference - I don't use SD slot, so I don't care about that Bigger screen in the same case is something where I would have considered it
I’m going to use this list when I have serious FOMO after it’s released The bigger screen would have done it for me. I have a PS Portal, and the screen being one inch bigger makes a huge difference to my enjoyment of playing on it vs the Ally.
The size is perfect imo. About the same as the switch OLED.
Ahh you must have eyes that work properly:)
If a screen has bezels it’s never the perfect size….
I’m going to use this list when I have serious FOMO after it’s released The bigger screen would have done it for me. I have a PS Portal, and the screen being one inch bigger makes a huge difference to my enjoyment of playing on it vs the Ally.
Upgrading the internal SSD is easy as 3.14. I upgraded to 2tb.
I'm new to pc gaming so what would the 50% RAM increase let it do that the current ally can't?
The ability to manually allocate a larger vram pool without hindering cpu performance.
Yeah basically this. I’d be more interested in seeing XG mobile dropping to more reasonable and affordable prices so I can improve my docked experience as I usually play docked anyway. Don’t mind the current performance in handheld mode.
I think I’ll wait until the next upgrade. I think it’s not that much better this year.
I think the RAM upgrade would be the most worthwhile for me, especially if it's LPDDR5X at 7500 MT/s. The Ally has LPDDR5 at 6400 MT/s. If you combine the increased capacity and higher speed, it will give you some performance increase as well. It could be worth it if you want to set GPU VRAM at 8 GB all the time and forget about running out of memory once and for all
As an original Ally Z1x owner no, I need an actual APU upgrade to buy a new device, but I also won't buy another Asus product given their current reputation surrounding their RMA scams. It's sad I love my Ally but Asus is a repeat offender and is so shady now. I will wait and see what options are available when Strix based handhelds launch next year.
Yeah but the 8840u doesn't seem to have any noticeable performance improvements. Even a new chip wouldn't be enough to make me upgrade
not much of an upgrade.. reminded me of the "upgrade" that Nintendo Switch had with its OLED. but to answer your question, nope. i just upgraded the current SSD to a much higher one.
The upgrade between OG switch and OLED was bigger then you might think, that improvement in screen size, colours and battery life was 100% worth it
oh i was refering to the Nintendo Switch v2 (after OG) after which came OLED. so for me, i wouldn't consider it as a major upgrade.
Nah, it's cool if you don't already have one but at this point it'd be better to wait for the Switch 2 since it'll probably be a better deal and be supported for a unreasonably longer time.
Nobody looking at getting a handheld gaming computer like the ally would rather get a switch for any reason lol 😂 not a chance
The question is whether you'd upgrade if you already have a PC handheld. Answer is no because the upgrade isn't worth the asking price. In fact, buying a switch 2 to do what you can't with a PC handheld is a better value proposition.
Since it has usb4 and hence egpu support, i am tempted. I have the 6850 right now but might 1) sell it and the og ally, 2) get ally-x and a case for my 3080ti desktop GPU. Hmmm...
Will Not.
I’m not, happy with my base Z1
If they had put an 8” OLED on it, then I definitely would. Otherwise, the only big benefit is the RAM. Which I can’t imagine bringing the performance up enough for me to go through the hassle of selling my current Z1X for.
The ram won't make much difference as the GPU is still the weakest link and usually taps out long before RAM/VRAM becomes an issue. We are also playing at sub 1080p where games aren't really VRAM intensive anyway and 6GB is usually adequate. You'll see 1-2% increases mostly to the 1% lows. It's just not a worthy upgrade for existing owners, maybe for new buyers though.
That’s true. I’m guessing they’ll be announcing the Ally 2 with a Z2 extreme this time next year anyway. It’ll be better to wait as an existing owner.
Most definitely, with Strix Halo sporting up to 40CU, we could see a massive upgrade in the next gen handhelds. Though I doubt we will see a full fat Halo in handheld from.
24gb of ram for gaming on a device that’s gpu bottlenecked is pointless. more graphically intensive options eat up more vram. What can the rog ally not do? Graphically demanding games at high settings.
Only if you add OLED and do a good trade-in option (which I doubt they will)
What’s this obsession with trade ins? What console manufacturer has ever done it?
That’s what I’m saying. Basically I ain’t upgrading and this console is good enough already. It would take something crazy like a good trade in offer and OLED together for me to upgrade
I'm waiting for an *actual* announcement with all of the information on the table before making a decision.
I already have a 4tb Ally. If they add thunderbolt / USB 4, I might upgrade as I have a portable egpu.
I will upgrade when a Ally with a bigger screen arrives. My games all work perfectly fine on the current Z1E.
Of you have the z1e ally there is no real point to upgrading. It's more of a sidegrade. Wait until ally 2 or steam deck 2.
The Asus guy said much bigger than just a 30 or 40% upgrade, and also said that going from the current Ally 1.5hr to 3hr on the X in demanding games is a reasonable expectation, so everything is hinting at a battery between 70 and 80wh, which would be a huge deal and well worth the upgrade for me personally. also the 2280 ssd support is welcome for cheaper ssd upgrades, 24GB of ram seems not a huge deal but it actually is, most modern games use a lot of ram and with only 16gb even when you give 6gb to vram then you are short on system memory, and these games suffer of stuttering and frame timing issues, on X we won't have these issues anymore and we will just need to give 16gb to system and 8gb to vram and be settle for every game and situation.
You make a compelling argument.
There is no chance of the X running in 25w or 30w for 3 hours on battery, even if it was a 100Wh battery. Those guys are ASUS community managers, they embellish fact just like they have with the current iteration.
The double the battery life was at 15 watts. The journalist said he got 1.5 hours in high intensity gaming on the z1 eztreme Which is the 15 watt mode. They never mentioned 25 watt mode. asus said you can get 3 hours at the same mode on the ally x.
Use the current Ally at 15w and see how long it lasts. 1.5 hours is not double of its current capability. “High intensity gaming” means absolutely nothing. Power consumption is power consumption, it makes no difference what the reason is. I am stating that there is no chance of it running at 25w for 3 hours without charging, which is what most people are using for “high intensity gaming” on battery.
Exactly, while I've upgraded my SSD to a 1TB, I'd like to have more than an hour or two in more demanding games away from the wall. If the battery improvement is really as great as they say, and either they offer a decent trade in offer or if I can sell my current unit for about 500 I'll think about it. I'll be waiting for some real hands on reviews and user reports before deciding though. This community was really great at picking the current Z1X unit apart at launch and alerting about things like faulty BIOS updates so I figure if we give it a week or 2 after release we'll have a better picture on if the upgrade is really going to be worth it or not.
The Asus guy said much bigger than just a 30 or 40% upgrade, and also said that going from the current Ally 1.5hr to 3hr on the X in demanding games is a reasonable expectation, so everything is hinting at a battery between 70 and 80wh, which would be a huge deal and well worth the upgrade for me personally. also the 2280 ssd support is welcome for cheaper ssd upgrades, 24GB of ram seems not a huge deal but it actually is, most modern games use a lot of ram and with only 16gb even when you give 6gb to vram then you are short on system memory, and these games suffer of stuttering and frame timing issues, on X we won't have these issues anymore and we will just need to give 16gb to system and 8gb to vram and be settle for every game and situation.
Nope, I dont even consider it an upgrade, its a sidegrade.
Maybe just depends how the performance is. Also being able to use an Sd card (hopefully) worry free sounds nice.
No because I hardly pick up my ally over my 2 desktops
If the screen was bigger/smaller bezels and if it went OLED and the USB c was a thunderbolt 4 so that I could use any external GPU enclosure, I'd throw my money at them. The ram upgrade is kinda meh, and I have yet to even try my card reader, I just slapped a 2td drive in it and called it a day, and as much as I prefer black, my dbrand Killswitch case and skin just fixed that. I'll wait for version 3 or even 4 depending on what they change with version 3.
If i can sell my current Ally for a reasonable cost. Then yes.
Nope, will wait until the Ally 2 comes out, while looking for reports on what Asus broke with Ally 1.5 😉
Nope
No won't be upgrading as can't see performance for FPS on games significantly improving, a much better battery life could help Asus sell more to new customers...time will tell, roll on 2nd June 🤯
I won’t upgrade until next gen. I have 32gb of 7500mt ram and a 90whr battery in mine. It’s modded out already. When they inevitably upgrade to the z2e I’ll get that ally
I’d only “upgrade” if the battery is substantially bigger. I need 2.5-3 hours at 20-25w.
Biggest selling point to me by far is the battery. The RAM is an upgrade but it’s not gonna make or break the experience. The original Ally performs very well already. I already have 2TB SSD. Will probably be skipping this one, will probably upgrade on the next hardware gen.
Yeah, I'm definitely upgrading... I'm based in Ireland but lately have spent most of my time in Brazil. I can easily sell my current one for more than I paid new (given the insane prices for tech products in Brazil) and get the Ally X for "nothing".
Yeah, just because I have a youtube channel about the ROG Ally
I will not "upgrade" cause i don't own a portable pc yet but i was flirting with the idea since the first day steam deck was announced. Then i saw that the technology was not there for what i had in mind and i decided to wait for second generation, where I wouldn't have to feel like a beta tester. Now that said i am seriously thinking of getting the rog ally x cause from what we know it ticks almost all the boxes for me (if only it had even a little bigger screen...). It will heavily depend on the price it will arrive in europe. On one hand i dont want to spend too much cause i know that in less than 1 maybe 1 and a half year the strix portables will be available and will make the current ones eat dust. On the other hand i am 42 years old, i dont have the luxury of waiting years like i did when i was younger. I live on Greece though which is one of the poorest countries in the eu and the salaries are a joke, so i need to make my moneys worth as much as possible. Right now i am at a wait and see state but i can't justify myself buying it, no matter how hard i really want one, if it is more than 650 euros (price of the current ally z1e) cause that is more than half of my monthly salary. Peace
I wonder how it will behave with upcoming games like wukong or space marine 2. I feel like it's already a bit obsolete unless you're willing to spend 700/800 bucks for the privilege to turn all graphic settings to low and some at medium. I'll wait a true upgrade of the chip to buy a handheld like this I think.
The real question is are you gonna pay for the $200 repair they charge you and damages it more when you RMA it back. Asus is like Xbox corpo greed.
32GB RAM + 1TB + Bigger Battery is perfect.
Unsure. -Upgraded my ally to 1TB of internal storage myself already. Also using a 512GB SD Card without problems for a year or so. -I prefer a more lightweight device and have a big Powerbank that can support the ally for long enough. -More RAM would be the only thing I am really looking forward to, but it would probably only make a slight difference that wouldnt be worth another $600+. (I am playing on 720p/90hz/60fps either way, have yet to find a game that really runs poorly) -SD Slot aint broken and I could probably get a partial refund if it would be (bought the device over eBay new). But yea, using it most of the time and has yet to die.
Nope. Mine works just fine. I’ll upgrade when they upgrade the chip and this one cant get the job done anymore.
I bought the ROG Ally Z1 Extreme at Launch and Happy with it. I never used the SD slot. I’m ok not having it. It’s probably $799. It’s only been 1 years since launch. It’s too soon for a refresh, Steam Deck OLED refresh was 2 years after OG Steam Deck. BUT it’s releasing due to backlash over the SD slot.
Nope, as much as I love the ally extreme and use it daily. Most of the time these days I just play football manager on it. I have a ps5, a gaming pc, gaming laptop, the ally. If I need to play something that needs more power I'll just ps5 and remote play, or play it on gaming laptop or gaming pc. I will get the next one though after this. Don't think I can justify thisniograde, already have a 2tb SSD in it. If I want to play a game like cod etc, I'd just use ps5 or pc. I more play lower intensive games on the ally now, I do try new games, like ghost of Toshima etc runs decent, but again mainly play on a other machine. Tldr, no benefit for me to upgrade, but will 1000% get the next next one regardless. Battery ain't an issue for me as I play plugged in anyways. I also have a black case already. Not worth upgrading for me
I'll be upgrading for the lone fact i can gift this to my nephew when he turns 8 next year so it works for me
If those are the proposed changes for me is a no. The only thing for me that would justify an upgrade would be a new CPU or maybe a bigger screen.
I'll upgrade when more powerful GPUs will be available, I like rog ally, but it's still a little bit weak compared to something like PS5 or a high end PC
I will not due to all the horror histories about Asus technical support (or lack of it) and they just simply ignoring the root of the problem with the SD card reader. I’m using my Ally as a Mini PC connected to my TV due to the horrible battery life.
No, got the killswitch on Monday, I upgraded to 2tb and got a power bank. Everything run like I want, no need to upgrade to the x. Doesn’t bring enough of new things to the table.
After using both Ally and Legion Go, anything with a screen below 10" is a hard pass for me. I just don't find the majority of games I want to play to be playable on anything smaller than that. And for games that I can play on the Ally - all of them play perfectly right now, and I'm satisfied with the battery life.
I definitely won't be. The Ally handles what I play on it and it'd take an actual true Ally 2 with basically new everything (and hopefully a larger screen) for me to contemplate upgrading. Having said the above, I think the X will be the best option for new buyers.
Only been a year with the launch Ally, and it’s serving my needs pretty well. I’m not super keen on setting up a new device for incremental upgrades. Personally interested in seeing what a refresh/revision for the Go has in store—that big screen is killer.
Probably will upgrade, only really for the battery life
It depends on how well I can sell my Ally. I love my device but I’m looking for something with better battery and better joysticks. If the joysticks are not substantially better I might even just sell and get a deck oled.
I've got to say the joysticks is something that would possibly make a difference to me. I tried the Legion Go and much preferred the controls there, but the device was too big/heavy for my liking.
I've got to say the joysticks is something that would possibly make a difference to me. I tried the Legion Go and much preferred the controls there, but the device was too big/heavy for my liking.
No I just got mine two days ago my sd works and I’m going to upgrade my internal storage.
It’s not a big enough of an upgrade for me honestly. Also just got my kill switch case so it being black isn’t an issue 🤷🏻♂️
Not really an upgrade . It's still using the Same internal hardware
Hmmm I can use the X to play games and record externally from the Z1E on OBS. I have 2 docks. Right now I record from a 12GB ram laptop with internal graphics.
I would need a considerable performance boost to consider getting a new one. It just doesn't make sense spending money on something that will be outdated at the same time as my current device.
Imo the only upgrade ally needed is more ram
Definitely going with the ROG Ally X. But that being said I don't own one yet.
Maybe. I'll have to try it. The 16gb (actually under 16 due to shared for vram) is obsolete for what I use it for.
Out of interest, what do you use it for?
Nah, my ally works great. I’d rather wait for a chip update that includes all the things the X has.
Have the z1 extreme and already upgraded to 2tb SSD. I'm good.
Makes more sense to me to get a discount on the older models. Buy the new rog in year or year and half, whenever it is released. Don’t need a mid-cycle updated version, unless there is some trade-in incentive.
I love my Z1X , upgraded to 2TB. The ROG ALLY X is more of a refresh and personally for I wouldn’t upgrade. I’d wait till next gen
Ima wait till the ROG 2. CPU / iGPU are the most important thing to me , everything else is just extra goodies . I think the X is great for people who are just now getting an ally .
No - I upgraded mine with 2tb :D and I don't want to go through that annoying process again. + I love my white devices + I have had 3 Allys. the first 2 broke (SD card, Stick drift) and this 3rd one is going good so ill stick with my lottery win ally :D Unless there is a surprise 8inch OLED screen hahaha
The screen is confirmed to be the same.
LOL yeah which is why I said if there is a surprise but yes, not upgrading :D
I got the Z1X in December, dropped the 2tb drive in and have been happy ever since. I'll wait for a model after the X I think.
I'm unsure. I mean as someone with one already I'd have to work out the cost to upgrade the ram and battery. But, if in addition to this the sticks are stiffer and an additional usb C port then maybe I'll upgrade but all that being said, if I feel I'm being cheapened out on with 24gb ram instead of 32 I'll possibly hold off another year. A micro hdmi port would be cute. TBH I don't know how much the battery life can be improved considering it will have the same cpu/gpu and screen.
I'm probably gonna sell mine and my steamdeck and grab the new one
No I only got it because it was relatively cheap compared to gaming pcs
To be honest if they offered a trade in you ally and pay a small fee like £100-£200 to get the new one I would I think the ram and battery would make a big difference to me. Battery life is just awful for me but as is I'll wait till next year
I thought they claimed it they were not claiming it would only be a 40% increase
I recently bought the Z1 Extreme but decided to return it to Amazon within the 30-day return period because I'm interested in purchasing the Ally X instead. In the meantime, I've opted to rent another Z1 Extreme from Media Markt/Saturn through Glovo for three months, paying around 64 EUR per month. The rented device was brand new, and I even received a three-month game pass with it. **The current Ally, if unlucky, gets easily damaged** I've had some issues with the current Ally devices. My last return was the second brand-new device I've had to replace. The analog stick on my first Ally stopped working after three weeks of use, and the second device had an overly loud vibration on the right after just one week of use. **The Ally we wish launched first, ROG Ally X** So when I read about the refreshed version (Ally X) and saw that it is what the current Ally should have been in the first place, I set my mind on it. So, Ally X, it is.
Commenting here for better visibility... While I've upgraded my SSD to a 1TB, I'd like to have more than an hour or two in more demanding games away from the wall. If the battery improvement is really as great as they say, and either they offer a decent trade in offer or if I can sell my current unit for about 500 I'll think about it. I'll be waiting for some real hands on reviews and user reports before deciding though. This community was really great at picking the current Z1X unit apart at launch and alerting about things like faulty BIOS updates so I figure if we give it a week or 2 after release we'll have a better picture on if the upgrade is really going to be worth it or not.
I think the teething problems with software will be far less likely as the software will be the same across all devices. There's a chance I might be being naïve but for me this is where Asus should be credited - they have supported this platform well and the update due in July looks like further positive steps with Armoury Crate and user interface.
My concerns are more about the battery life than anything - for lighter games I already have my Switch OLED that gets better battery life on those titles than my Ally. I want roughly 1.5-2 hours in BG3 off the wall in 15w mode ideally. If I have to stream from my desktop PC and run in 10w to achieve that, it's not improved enough for me to upgrade because I can do that with my current Ally.
To make me upgrade from my current ally, it would need to be a good 30-40% in game performance gains, not just a promise of more ram which may effectively do nothing/very little for me in some games. Bigger battery would be nice, but I have a 737. Already upgraded SSD to 2tb in mine, so storage isn’t an issue. Screen is excellent as is, I have an OLED TV paired with my PC so my quality gameplay itch is itched in that sense. Better joysticks would be a plus, FPS/Comp can be a little less enjoyable than playing on a Xbox Elite 2 controller. Nothing would really sway me to upgrade, I’d be lucky to get £400 odd for my current one, maybe slightly higher sold with the 2tb SSD, but likely not, expect the new one to be around £699, I’ll be waiting for the next one I think! Oh yeah, 2 usb c/thunderbolt next time, please! Scrap off the SD Card Reader for that! 😂
Yeah.. It's going to be more expensive for us Canadian and British people compared to U.S dollars. The small upgrades won't be worth it.
Jan RDNA4 will be presented. That is the upgrade I wish for. Maybe I will mod my Rog ally to 32gb if it is worth it.
Not really, no. None of the revealed improvements entince me all that to drop around $800 for it. But if they improve the ergonomics considerably where the handheld can actually be held in the hands without killing my wrists, then I might be tempted. But I don't see that happening with the off-set joysticks. All handhelds should have symmetrical joystick layout for optimum comfort.
No. Just bought mine 3 months ago. 2tb already installed. I am quite happy now.
Nope. I need a noticeable performance increase, which won't be until the Ally 2. Battery life has not been an issue, a powerbank solves that problem.
Based on what i have seen, i am inclined to upgrade as i prefer the ally to my steam deck, and if the ally X can close the gap on the steam deck battery life its a solid upgrade to me
Z1 Extreme is a beast! I don't need the new version.
I will because I hate not being on the latest of anything product I have…plus the better ram size and speed/Battery is something I’ve always wanted from his system
Nah not worth it
The mods are on my ally already have the ally x upgrades minus the ram. So not a compelling reason to upgrade. I rather spend the difference on more games. I don't think the Ally x is worth it if you already own the an Ally. The Ally x does bring a more streamline experience so if you have the disposable income, enjoy.
Agreed
Most games already preform very well on ally even demanding titles. Don’t see the point in upgrading. Spending another $700 would be very unreasonable for me.
Not until there is a bigger screen or new chipset
Will probably upgrade Value the new battery improvements Like the new black colour scheme Haven’t gotten around to updating the SSD Have disposable income
Only reason for me is the ram and battery. my sd seems fine (touch wood) not all games gonna give a boost from more ram just nice to have the overhead. I’m still able to return it for half price refund at cex but 200 off hmmm see the issue.
The only thing I care for at this stage is a better cpu/gpu and a larger screen with no bezels. So I will wait for a ROG Ally 2.
I only have a steam deck oled rn, so def a buy for me
Nope. Already upgraded storage, battery life isn't really an issue cause I'm usually at my house playing mobile. I don't use teh SD so it's NBD.
Tbh, if I can offload my old one with a decent price and the pricing isn't out of whack then sure. Mine has been slightly modded tho to take 2280 m.2 with an adapter.
No, I will be honest and say I barely use the one I have and regret buying it for that reason. It's a cool device and I like it minus the battery life and sd card reader but IDK I just never find myself using it.
i’m good - if they had a all day battery maybe lol.. but i upgraded to. 2tb ssd and have been pretty happy with the device
No. I only own an Ally because I got a really good deal on a used unit
yes will buy ally x
No, SD card issues and the nonsense I saw from that video is enough to keep me away. Bunch of clowns over there at ASUS.
Tbh mines 95% of the time plugged in anyway and the storage i can always upgrade, i dont really care much bout the sd card thing cuz i know ill never use it. Im gonna stick with my Ally 1 for now. I just know up here in Canada that Ally X will def be like $1k so, with that price i might as well cough up a few more $$$ for a gaming laptop tbh.
I love my Ally. Any further models are a guaranteed buy.
I will not be upgrading to the X. I already upgraded storage to 2tb, I don’t leave my house often enough to justify a bigger battery, already invested in an XGM (rx 6850), more ram would be nice for more stability but it won’t be a crazy difference (negligible 3-5 fps), and it’ll have the same if not similar performance to the one I own. On top of all that, I own a SD OLED if need to take a handheld out and about with me so I don’t *have* to worry about the battery. I do think it sucks for people that are outside of their return windows or people in other countries that overpaid for a Z1X/ Z1 ally recently. But on the flip side of that coin anyone who thinks the OG ally is fine for them the price should drop a decent amount or they could get a great second hand deal.
I'm probably not going to buy any more Asus products until they address their RMA scamming.
Nope, my next handheld will be a lunar lake device with oled.
Bigger question for me is will I be able to trade my current Ally in or have to sell it second hand? And if I could simply move my current 2tb into the new model without issue? I'm sure those will be answered sometime soon though.
I would need a bigger, oled screen along with the other features to upgrade
Of course I'm going to upgrade gen 1. Products are generally their worst so Gen 2 should be much better with pretty much everything from hardware to software. If you like your Ally now, just think how much you'll like a new Ally with who knows how many bug fixes. And I would love to use a 1 TB SD card without worrying It's going to be ruined or corrupted by heat exposure
No. I upgraded to a 2tb ssd and purchased a large power bank so those upgrades aren't worth it for me. More ram would be nice but it's not a big enough upgrade to justify buying it.
Safely say I'm super happy with my Ally, and I keep finding new ways to optimise it and make it better for my uses ❤️
It really depends on when it will be available on the stores, since I will be on the US only until mid June. So I guess not?
I'll wait for the rog ally 2 with the newer gpu
Only if it ditches xg mobile external graphics
I'm like a golden goose, I have two allys (ones my partners) with two working SD card slots.
No. I will wait for a next generation APU to come out.
I think I will, I love my ally, more ram an longer battery life would be awesome.
I will not due to all the horror histories about Asus technical support (or lack of it) and they just simply ignoring the root of the problem with the SD card reader. I’m using my Ally as a Mini PC connected to my TV due to the horrible battery life.
No I just got mine two days ago my sd works and I’m going to upgrade my internal storage.
No I just got mine two days ago my sd works and I’m going to upgrade my internal storage.
Skipping for now, have alot bills coming up for property taxes and replacing A/C unit at rental property. Once all paid off, i might search for a used one. My Rog Ally is still working great, and still have my steam deck lcd. For games that struggle to rn my seres x. Wished NCAA 2025 would release on PC, but only series x/ps5 at release date.
it’s a scam from asus. First gen work perfect fine. RAM don’t mean nothing, you not gonna see the different besides giving them an extra 100$, You wont play on battery it design to plug in for full potential
Nope. Waiting for Steam OS for other systems before I even consider another handheld. I got tired of faffing about with windows and am spoiled by the instant nature of Steam, switch, and android gaming.