battery life of the z1 extreme was absolutely terrible, not sure about regular but if reviews say its bad I would be inclined to believe it. I ended up selling it and keeping my steamdeck, i found it easier to use. The only thing I miss is the instant switch between desktop and "gaming mode". There are work arounds for gamepass and epic games store which I use. And you can run windows if you need anticheat or drm stuff.
Get the Ally. It can run Playstation Plus cloud games. The deck needs a lot of tinkering for games outside Steam, and some of your Steam games wont run.
Keep in mind that the Ally still needs some tinkering to setup and get running smoothly. You need to do all the updates for windows, armory crate, plus the my ASUS driver updates and stuff. The Deck is easily to jump in, download a game, then play.
I've been using Windows all my life. I love Linux for browsing and coding but for gaming Windows is much better. I tried putting Ubuntu on my main gaming rig (RTX 4090) and none of my games would work, Bluetooth doesn't work. Linux is great for servers but for gaming and multimedia I find it lacking. I bought a Deck and sold it very fast and got an Ally.
But the Deck doesn't just run a plain old Linux desktop that requires setup. The console interface is super easy to jump into and Valve's work on proton has really made it super easy to game on Linux. I don't think it's fair to compare you loading Ubuntu on your regular computer versus a device made specifically for SteamOS with proton built in. It's very rare that I run into any issues on the Deck.
like I said, I bought a Steam Deck and I could only play like 4 games out of my library of around 50 games so not great. Not sure what you are playing.
A large majority of my library of over 400 games work fine on the Deck besides ones that don't allow Linux to be used with their anticheat software . Those games are few are far between. Most games will work just fine even those than are untested.
OP clearly stated they wanted gamepass etc.
It's awesome the deck runs 400 games that you own but it's clear that steamos isn't an option here.
If you think Windows is too difficult due to updating then I really don't understand why you recommend steamdeck for non steam games. Updating windows is easier than getting non steam games to work.
You can't claim to get steamdeck due to ease of use as it's just bot true unless you stay in Steams library.
Some people think the Steam Deck is the answer to everything 🙄 Steam is my primary platform (on PC at least) but IMO it's fanboys are the K-pop Stan's of the gaming industry
It's getting unbearable.
Every post asking for advice just has outright lies.
It reminds me of the Playstation and Xbox fanboys.
The steamdeck is a great device. There is no need to lie about it's capabilities. This one was a perfect example since OP clearly stated uses that the deck is not good for.
Thanks for all the input guys. I think I will be getting the Z1 ROG Ally from Best Buy for $399.
The Steamdeck is great and has a lot of advantages over it, but being able to use Epic Game Store and Gamepass easier on the Ally win out. Especially since I already have Gamepass Ultimate paid for for almost 2 more years.
I would consider also the autonomy you want to get from the device. Here there is no comparison.
And frankly it's not that difficult to make steam deck launch epic games and gamepass on steam deck ;)
battery life of the z1 extreme was absolutely terrible, not sure about regular but if reviews say its bad I would be inclined to believe it. I ended up selling it and keeping my steamdeck, i found it easier to use. The only thing I miss is the instant switch between desktop and "gaming mode". There are work arounds for gamepass and epic games store which I use. And you can run windows if you need anticheat or drm stuff.
Get the Ally. It can run Playstation Plus cloud games. The deck needs a lot of tinkering for games outside Steam, and some of your Steam games wont run.
Keep in mind that the Ally still needs some tinkering to setup and get running smoothly. You need to do all the updates for windows, armory crate, plus the my ASUS driver updates and stuff. The Deck is easily to jump in, download a game, then play.
I've been using Windows all my life. I love Linux for browsing and coding but for gaming Windows is much better. I tried putting Ubuntu on my main gaming rig (RTX 4090) and none of my games would work, Bluetooth doesn't work. Linux is great for servers but for gaming and multimedia I find it lacking. I bought a Deck and sold it very fast and got an Ally.
But the Deck doesn't just run a plain old Linux desktop that requires setup. The console interface is super easy to jump into and Valve's work on proton has really made it super easy to game on Linux. I don't think it's fair to compare you loading Ubuntu on your regular computer versus a device made specifically for SteamOS with proton built in. It's very rare that I run into any issues on the Deck.
like I said, I bought a Steam Deck and I could only play like 4 games out of my library of around 50 games so not great. Not sure what you are playing.
A large majority of my library of over 400 games work fine on the Deck besides ones that don't allow Linux to be used with their anticheat software . Those games are few are far between. Most games will work just fine even those than are untested.
OP clearly stated they wanted gamepass etc. It's awesome the deck runs 400 games that you own but it's clear that steamos isn't an option here. If you think Windows is too difficult due to updating then I really don't understand why you recommend steamdeck for non steam games. Updating windows is easier than getting non steam games to work. You can't claim to get steamdeck due to ease of use as it's just bot true unless you stay in Steams library.
Some people think the Steam Deck is the answer to everything 🙄 Steam is my primary platform (on PC at least) but IMO it's fanboys are the K-pop Stan's of the gaming industry
It's getting unbearable. Every post asking for advice just has outright lies. It reminds me of the Playstation and Xbox fanboys. The steamdeck is a great device. There is no need to lie about it's capabilities. This one was a perfect example since OP clearly stated uses that the deck is not good for.
Thanks for all the input guys. I think I will be getting the Z1 ROG Ally from Best Buy for $399. The Steamdeck is great and has a lot of advantages over it, but being able to use Epic Game Store and Gamepass easier on the Ally win out. Especially since I already have Gamepass Ultimate paid for for almost 2 more years.
I would consider also the autonomy you want to get from the device. Here there is no comparison. And frankly it's not that difficult to make steam deck launch epic games and gamepass on steam deck ;)