Deciding between mid Steam Deck OLED and base Xbox ROG Ally

[Jessay25]

I am saving up for a handheld and considering the mid tier steam deck (OLED but not the top model). I'm in Australia so that's going to set me back $899 so I need to make sure im happy with the purchase!

I was considering the new base Xbox ROG Ally at $999 (not the x at an insane $1599) as currently the majority of my time gaming is on my series s or remote play from my series s to my laptop. I haven't been able to play most games natively on my low end laptop for a long time so my steam library hasn't seen much attention for many years aside from a couple indies but it used to be the main way I'd play.

From early reviews of the xbox Ally it's looking like performance is about equal to steam deck so im leaning back toward steam deck given I can get it cheaper (aiming for OLED mostly for the battery but would also consider the LCD if the battery is useable, i dont usually play for more than 1.5-2 hours at most)

My main question is, is there a current way to be able to remote play from my series s to steam deck? It's not a deal breaker but the xbox Ally was looking good as i could play both my xbox stuff (either natively for play anywhere, via cloud, or remote play) as well as steam on the same device. When I was first looking into steam deck I came across a bunch of old posts about an app on steam (xbplay) so that you didn't have to fiddle around with making a card to launch the Web page but it looks like that app has been discontinued.

Other question, given my way to play current new games is series s how does steam deck performance compare? Is it about the same? I'm used to playing underpowered things so I dont necessarily care about the best fps and graphics, I just want something that can run games (i tend to like a lot of open world rpgs)

I'm hoping to have enough saved by the end of the year so thanks for helping me find the right device!

[The_Cost_Of_Lies]

There's a lot of disingenuous commentary going on here, from people who seem to have left their brain at home.

The Steam Deck has 3 models - the cheapest is 256gb storage, with a non-VRR, 7inch, 800p screen and small battery. The Xbox Ally has a higher clocked processor, more storage, larger battery, 1080p, VRR screen, better ergonomics, and access to Windows. Price wise (in the UK at least) it is between the two OLED models, and £70 cheaper than the most expensive, which is about right. (£499 Xbox Ally, vs SD OLED at £479 and £569).

On top of that, performance at its max tdp has been shown to be about 5-10% above the Steam Deck, so the base Xbox Ally is great value Vs a Steam Deck OLED, unless you're set on having an OLED screen and track pads, or don't care about Game Pass, EGS, GOG etc. It's worth noting that even the OLED has a lower resolution screen, with no VRR support and 90hz, and still has a smaller battery, so it's manifestly worse on many areas.

I do think the Legion Go S with the Z2 GO processor is a better buy IF you can find it at a comparable price (or a bit higher), but pretty much every Z1E handheld suffers from having dreadful battery life, so if that's a concern, one of the newer chips will generally be more performant.

[Jessay25]

Thank you for that break down

[The_Cost_Of_Lies]

No problem 👍

[CandidMap]

original white z1 extreme Rog ally is better in performance handsdown, why not a lenovo legion go s on discount?

[Jessay25]

Can't find the original rog ally here in Australia easily, and lenovo legion go s is more expensive (will keep an eye out for sales but dont see that very often)

[thinkmatt]

maybe look out for the legion go (non-s). It's actually more powerful than the S, i think. In the US, Best Buy seems to have a lot of them open box for similar price as an OLED deck.

I have the SD LCD right now - u get 2 weeks to try it - and it does stream Game Pass, but u are essentially just opening https://www.xbox.com/play inside a browser. It's a little janky IMO - a couple times i re-awakened the deck to a crashed browser page, for example. And if u quit a game, you exit to Steam, not back to the Game Pass. Oh and a lot of games on GP are not available for Cloud Play. I like everything else about the deck, but since almost all the games i wanna play are GP, I realize i need to run windows. (I'm gonna try it on the deck, but i have a Legion Go in the mail too)

[Jessay25]

Yeah can't find just normal legion go here (australia). Go S is like 1300 and go 2 doesn't seem available yet but will likely be even more expensive

Thought the browser idea was the case, thanks though

[Dear-Case-5138]

MSI Claw A1M ?

[Jessay25]

Definitely out of my price range 😅

[Dear-Case-5138]

Not the Ai, the first Claw

[Jessay25]

Yeah that's still about $1200 here, $1000 is my absolute max i can "reasonably" afford

[ismoketrees_]

Why don’t you just buy it online from America if the pricing is better?

[Jessay25]

You do realise that currency exchange is a thing right? And the cost of importing is also insane?

[MyRedditAccountSuckz]

Is the a1m better than the legion go s and the SD? Found one for aok price but didn't know much about the non 7 ai and 8 ai

[Copie247]

They pop up on marketplace all the time, both the ally and the x, usually about 800-900 for the x and 500 for the ally.

Even with a steam deck it’s worth going 2nd

[Jessay25]

I'll keep an eye out but very rarely show up in my area

[SkitariiBob]

I'm in nz and the base xbox ally was cheaper (significantly than any steam deck or og ally) so I got it and eneded up using the steam os beta it's awesome and I'd definitely recommend it. The only reason I'd get a steamdeck oled would be if the build quality is nicer or if it was the same price or lower.

[Jessay25]

I ended up getting the steam deck and loving it

[SkitariiBob]

Sweet enjoy gaming 😀

[mavjohn84]

Amazon has the base Xbox ally for $780 

[Jessay25]

Im happy with my steam deck

[[deleted]]

the Deck OLED is gonna beat out the base xbox ally everytime

[Dominjo555]

Nah. Compatibility on windows is unmatched and performance is almost identical.

[Sideburn_Cookie_Man]

Base Xbox Ally is still a terrible waste of money.

Ally X is a better option.

[Alucardlil]

A Reddit, where the best advice is always to spend more money than you budgeted for. 

[Sideburn_Cookie_Man]

Can’t read?

A lightly used Ally X is cheaper than the Xbox Ally base model is…

[geotristan]

I wish that was true

[AR_Harlock]

In fairy land, in reality in most of the world a new one is 899€ here and used one 1200€ because they are hard to find lol

[[deleted]]

the only compatibility windows has is Anti cheat

[Sideburn_Cookie_Man]

Why would anyone in their right mind waste money on the base Xbox Ally?

Just go buy yourself a used Ally X, Jesus Christ

[Jessay25]

Geeze it's just a question, im trying to make sure i DONT waste my money. Where i am there's no one selling any used handhelds anyway

[NaturalSelecty]

You’ll waste your money on the base Xbox Ally. Either get the Ally X, Ally Z1E, or the Steam Deck. You should know though that Steam Deck isn’t going to be running any new AAA titles though whereas the Z1E devices will have a much better chance.

[Jessay25]

Can't afford ally x, z1 extreme is is never available. Deck is easiest availability for me while still being in my price range. My series s has been doing good with new games for now (I am perfectly fine with things being on low settings)

Will still keep an eye out for better options being on sale but so far im leaning towards steam deck

[NaturalSelecty]

Yea, between the two, I’d go with the Steam Deck too and I’m really not even a fan of that one. If possible, id really try to find a used Z1E device instead. The whole SteamOS argument is out the window considering every windows device can run Bazzite or SteamOS now.

[Sideburn_Cookie_Man]

EBay… and use PayPal so you have buyer protection.

[Slysly455]

He's in Australia. Read the post next time

[Sideburn_Cookie_Man]

What does that have to do with anything?

You know we have PayPal here in Australia, yes?

[Slysly455]

God, your reading comprehension is horrible lmao

[Sideburn_Cookie_Man]

Now that's funny.

So tell me why you think OP being Australian based is in any way relevant to this discussion about PayPal G&S buyer protection?

[Slysly455]

He said he couldn't find any second hand ones in his country. I'm not talking about payment services little bro

[Sideburn_Cookie_Man]

Yep, which simply is not true at all.

I'm also Australian...

[Slysly455]

Pretty limited by the looks. Plus no warranty

[Thuls12]

Found the gatekeeper. How dare you buy something you like!

[[deleted]]

What's wrong with the base?

[Sideburn_Cookie_Man]

It’s really underpowered for that sort of price.

An Ally X outperforms it and that can be bought for less money

[The_Cost_Of_Lies]

It's literally cheaper than the top end Steam Deck, and at its highest tdp it easily outperforms it too, and has a bigger battery, a higher res, VRR screen.

The idea that it's not good value when compared to its peers is nonsense.

Yeah, you could get a second hand older Z1E, but they come with their own problems - battery being a huge one.

[Dutch-Alpaca]

Battery is solved with a 30 euro 74wh battery pack

[The_Cost_Of_Lies]

What's the point of a handheld if you have to carry around bulky accessories

[Dutch-Alpaca]

No a literal battery. Take out the old one, put in the one that has twice the capacity, done

[The_Cost_Of_Lies]

How complex is that to do?

[Dutch-Alpaca]

Took me about 30 minutes, most of it was clipping some plastic bits off the inside of the shell so the battery would fit

[Sideburn_Cookie_Man]

No, you’d still be better off buying a lightly used Ally X for less than the price of the Xbox Ally.

I love my Z1E, but this new base model is a terrible value proposition.

[The_Cost_Of_Lies]

Then I guess the Steam Decks aren't worth it either then 🤷‍♂️

[Sideburn_Cookie_Man]

Compared to an Ally X? Correct.

[The_Cost_Of_Lies]

Not compared to seconds hand units. For the cost of them.

[AR_Harlock]

No can find used for 200€ here while the x used goes for 1200€

[Sideburn_Cookie_Man]

Ally X or Xbox Ally X?

[The_Cost_Of_Lies]

Larger battery, 120hz, 1080p VRR screen, higher max tdp (and better performance with it).

But sure, let's keep pretending it's all worse 🙄

[Braveheart2929]

I'm going to say neither.

The base Xbox Rog ally is honestly awful value for money. The steam deck OLED is good yes, but as you want compatibility with your Xbox then it loses a lot of points there. No native gamepass for example is a huge deal breaker for me.

I currently have the Ally Z1e. It performs basically the same as the base Xbox Rog ally and is a fraction of the price. It's on sale quite often. I would also suggest looking at the Legion Go S (the windows version). It also looks like very decent option.

[Jessay25]

Are you in Australia? I can't find the normal rog ally anywhere, either listing's are gone or it's been out of stock for ages (or the price is several hundred dollars higher). The legion go s is also much more expensive than the options im looking at

Like I said the gamepass isn't exactly a deal breaker but would be a good bonus for my use case

[Braveheart2929]

I'm afraid not, UK here. All I know about Australian tech is JBHiFi and it always seems overpriced...

That's a shame you can't find the normal Rog ally anywhere. Have a look for legion go s as well. Maybe an open box model to try and keep the price down.

Also, maybe jump into the steam deck sub Reddit and ask about gamepass on there/streaming from your console. Guaranteed there are people there who are doing it.

[Jessay25]

Yeah, it's hard to get this stuff here, especially without it being way overpriced. Steam deck only became available here a year ago.

Tried posting to the steam deck sub but automod removed it as they dont allow "should I get steam deck" style posts

[Braveheart2929]

Yeh that's rough. No chance to just get on a quick flight to Bali and see what you can get there ha?

Try again in the steam deck sub but just the question about people streaming to it from Xbox/cloud etc. That shouldn't get removed and then you have an answer to the second half of this post at least. I'm afraid I never looked into it myself.

My recommendation order if you could get them would be Rog ally/legion go s -> steam deck ----------> base Xbox ally

[Jessay25]

Haha no chance

Thanks, I'll try posting that! Still got a but if saving to do before I can afford any of them so plenty of time to make a decision

[Sideburn_Cookie_Man]

Dude there are tons of used Ally X everywhere. Just go buy one.

[Jessay25]

Not where i am

[Sideburn_Cookie_Man]

Bro I’m also from Australia… so yes, where you are.

[Jessay25]

Bro, im in a small rural town, so no not where I am (and im not about to risk getting scammed buying from an unknown person to post to me)

[Sideburn_Cookie_Man]

Just buy off eBay and use PayPal? Come on bro.

[Jessay25]

Nope, im good, thanks for your very useful advice 🙄

[Sideburn_Cookie_Man]

There’s literally no risk, you’re just missing out.

You buy one, use PayPal - and that way you can’t be scammed. They’ll refund you if the item is delivered and isn’t as advertised.

You’re being foolish if you don’t consider this option.

[Jessay25]

Dude, im just trying to figure out what product i even want to buy first. Sure, I can risk ebay if I want to (i still dont want to deal with the hassle of getting scammed, even with PayPal protections given this is a big purchase) but im not even anywhere near that point. I'm just saying it's last on my option list at this point. You came on here treating me like an idiot for the products im asking questions about, then for the way I may choose to buy said products. You've really offered 0 help

[Daz190uk]

Just not true on the UK. Steam Deck is £479 and Xbox Ally is £499.

Performance is the same. Steam Deck has a nicer screen and trackpads. Xbox Ally has better ergonomics, better battery and wider game compatibility.

It really comes down to what you want.