The reason why Deck OLED isn’t more expensive is for 2 reasons. First of all they make money on software, Steam, they most likely seen steam growth with the release of Deck. I know I bought more games on Steam since the Deck. 2nd of all the Deck APU was shrunk making it less expensive to produce, the APU is also a generation old, you have stronger ones like Z1 Extreme now. Releasing a refresh that’s superior is nothing new we had this with DS Lite, GBA SP etc. it’s just Nintendo basically got greedy with Switch OLED. If Deck OLED was way more powerful and they charge the same price is agree. £480 for something that’s a generational old isnt exactly a bargain when you have Asus and Lenovo offering things like detachable controls,.VRR 1080p, more power for £700 and they don’t make money on software.

Wow reading comments here blew my mind didn’t realise people go in debt to pay for a gaming device, I guess I should feel blessed I don’t have to be in debt for luxury goods. I think if I was broke though I’d stick to at least 1 gaming device and nothing else

Be honest would you have gone through with this if you knew about OLED Deck

Now that you have an OLED Switch coming those black bards will be basically turning off the pixels where it looks like larger bezels

For me it was the opposite I sold my Steam Deck got an Ally and never looked back. Part of the reason I was satisfied was I expected the worse after reading similar posts to yours. So let me break down my experience.

I am familiar with Windows, I’ve used Windows computers all my life, I even own a Gaming Laptop. I’m also IT literate but not some expert who knows how to code.

When I got the Ally I went through the initial Windows set up it was very smooth and easy to do. The next thing I did was follow a video from Retro Game Corps. This is a step by step guide and only took me half hour to do a set up and very basic and easy to do. Yes it’s cumbersome but not rocket science, you do updates between 3 different apps. There are additional optional optimisation that Retro Game Corps video also does such as disabling CPU boost and Core Isolation. I then moved on to create custom fan control and wattage settings. After some basic research I determined 18w was the sweet spot for battery, and 21w was the sweet spot for being plugged in.

I then went on to install all the stores like you would do in any Windows PC, this included Steam and Epic Game store. Finally I uninstall any software I didn’t need as well as disabling any software that auto starts. I also enabled hibernate and removed sleep as I heard hibernate works better.

One thing that really surprised me is how easy the interface on Windows is on a touchscreen. I just couldn’t believe the complaints. The touch is superior to steam deck, and I was satisfied using the touch screen and right analog stick to navigate. Compared to Deck I felt I was free and not chained up, I can install anything as I please, install mods, have games from different stores, no messing about with proton layers, no lutris, bottles it was just much easier and begginer friendly to me. I can also use Steam Big picture mode or Armour Crate and make thos auto start if I wanted to avoid Windows UI.

The 2nd thing that surprised me is the quiet fan. I’m playing at 21w and the fan is considerably more queiter than a Deck at 15w. The performance increase is insane and the flexibility was great and easy to tinker thanks to Armoury Crate. I can play a indie game at 1080p 120fps. I can play a recent AAA game at 720p with RSR enabled. With VRR I don’t have to worry about capping framersre there is no screen tearing or hitching at all. Also the games had less input lag than a Deck thanks to no proton later or V Sync. I also liked having the D Pad at an angle I found it more pleasent for 2D games and fighting games than the Deck. The system also felt way lighter to hold than a Deck. Maybe I was lucky but I have had no issues running any games everything just worked. From controls to performance.

The key negatives for me on Ally are the battery life and SD card issue. But because I got my Ally used and came preinstalled with 1TB I overlooked the SD card issue, the Ally is actually moddable where you can upgrade to a normal sized cheaper SSD, so now I’m tempted to upgrade to 4TB. The battery life issue for AAA games I play plugged in, this doesn’t impact me because I mainly play around the house and have an outlet next to my bed, my office and my couch. Ally isn’t better than a Deck and Deck isn’t better than an Ally. It’s down to personal preference. If you like Windows, something smaller and lighter, more power get an Ally. If you like Steam OS, trackpads, longer battery get a Deck.

Can you give examples which games perform better and optimise on Deck than Ally?

I’m going to give a different opinion to the norm

I like the ROG Ally because of the performance improvement and the VRR 1080p screen is great. VRR is a underated feature where you can leave frame rate uncapped and it looks smooth. The Ally also has less input lag as there is no proton later or V Sync enabled. I find the position of the D Pad better for fighting games as well as 2D games. The speakers are also best in market. It doesn’t have the smooth sleep mode as Deck but if you enable hibernate you get something that’s decent enough and works with 90 percent of games. Windows interface is surprisingly good, you can use Armory Crate or Steam Big picture mode. The touchscreen is more responsive and Windows is way better on Ally than Deck. The fan noise is also way quieter on Ally compared to Deck on 15w. Ally fan noise is quiet all the way to 20w. Being able to do mods, play from any store and have no comparability issues is great. Everything just works.

The only main issue is battery life where Deck is the king of battery life so if that’s important to you definitely get the Deck. But if you plan to play plugged in around the house the Ally is a no brainer. You can grab a bargain now I bought mine used for the same price as a OLED Deck 500gb, but my Ally was preinstalled with 1tb SSD. Another thing I forgot to mention is Ally has issues with SD card stop working. But there is a easy mid where you can install a full size SSD drive on the cheap. Opening up an Ally and installing an SSD is even easier than a Deck. There are people who have installed 4TB SSDs.

I bet there are some Deck owners who only bought 2 months ago and done some crazy mods, new transparent shell, hall effect sticks, upgraded SSD, quieter fan mod. Then all of a sudden there Deck they pimped out is no longer the best and the resale price ofa Deck dropped hard. Probably crying looking at that ugly screen turn on and regretting buying it.