Steam Deck OLED vs Asus ROG Ally: Which handheld gaming console wins?

Looking for a handheld gaming PC but not sure which one to go for? You’ve come to the right place.

We’ve reviewed both the Steam Deck OLED, which received a 4.5-star rating, and the ROG Ally, which we awarded four-stars, and have compared our hands-on experiences with the two below.

Keep reading to see which handheld gaming PC comes out on top.

Price and availability

The Steam Deck OLED is the more affordable of the two, with a starting RRP of £479 for the 512GB model. Its RRP rises to £569 for the more substantial 1TB console.

On the other hand, the RRP of the Asus ROG Ally is £599 for 512GB of storage. Although more expensive than the 1TB Steam Deck OLED, it’s worth noting that it’s possible to find a deal on the ROG Ally.

Design

• At 608g, the ROG Ally is 32g lighter than the Steam Deck OLED
• The ROG Ally has RGB lights around both analogue sticks
• You can connect the ROG Ally to an external graphics solution via the ROG XG Mobile Connector

Weighing just 608g, the ROG Ally is lighter than the Steam Deck OLED which measures in at 640g. Although the difference may seem negligible, for a handheld device every gram counts. 

Despite being lighter than its predecessor, the Steam Deck OLED retains the Steam Deck’s overall design and dimensions, which we found to be more on the bulky side. In comparison, we praised the ROG Ally as it “looks lovely” and makes the “Steam Deck look outdated.”

The Steam Deck OLED also sports a larger display at 7.4-inches compared to the ROG Ally’s 7-inches.

While both handheld consoles are made from plastic, the ROG Ally is especially comfortable to hold thanks to the textured grip on both sides. We also appreciated Asus’ level of detail with the ROG Ally’s overall design and hailed it as a “more polished product” to the Steam Deck. 

Otherwise, the two are fitted with a headphone jack, microSD slot for expanding storage and a USB-C power port too. The ROG Ally also sports a ROG XG Mobile Connector which allows you to connect it to an external graphics solution. Although a nice addition, this does require you to buy a ROG Mobile accessory which is a hefty cost to consider.

Winner: ROG Ally

Controls

• Both have an Xbox-style XYBA button layout
• The ROG Ally has a shortcut button to the Armoury Crate SE app
• Steam Deck OLED features trackpads

The Steam Deck OLED sports a few thoughtful updates from its predecessor, including deeper grooves in the analogue sticks to prevent your fingers slipping off and improvements to the haptics and precision of the trackpads too. 

Although the trackpads “pale in comparison to a keyboard and mouse”, we still hailed them as the best substitutes you can hope for on a portable. However, trackpads on handheld consoles is still far from the norm with Asus forgoing the feature entirely on the ROG Ally.

Otherwise, much like the Steam Deck OLED, the ROG Ally’s triggers and bumpers also have grooved finish to avoid any accidental slips. 

While we found the haptic feedback of the ROG Ally to be admirable, providing a tactical buzz when pressed down, we did have some issues with the front-buttons as they require firm presses to register inputs.

The ROG Ally also boasts a variety of customisation options and even includes Macro keys which act as spare buttons that can have any desired input assigned to them. There’s also a shortcut button the Armoury Crate SE app which acts as a landing page for accessing Steam, Game Pass and settings shortcuts too.

Winner: Steam Deck OLED

Display

• Although it boasts an OLED panel, the Steam Deck OLED has a low resolution of 1280×800
• The ROG Ally has a Full HD resolution of 1920×1080
• Steam Deck OLED has a higher peak brightness of up to 1000 nits

As the name gives away, the Steam Deck OLED boasts an OLED display which results in more vibrant colours and truer blacks. We were impressed with the difference on offer here, with colours appearing much more striking in games when compared to its predecessor. 

In comparison, the ROG Ally’s LCD display has a contrast ratio of just 1000:1 which means it isn’t the best at displaying darker shades. However, it’s worth noting that the Ally does boast a Full HD display whereas the Steam Deck OLED caps out at 1280×800. 

We don’t think this makes a particularly huge difference, especially considering the size of the displays, however some will favour a crisper finish. There are also other handhelds available, such as the Lenovo Legion Go, which boasts a whopping QHD panel. 

The Steam Deck OLED can also reach a peak brightness of 600 nits for SDR content and a whopping 1000 nits for HDR, which trumps the ROG Ally’s peak of 400 nits. 

Finally, the ROG Ally supports a refresh rate of up to 120Hz which, despite sounding more impressive than the Steam Deck OLED’s rate of 90Hz, in practice this is only useful when a game is running at a frame rate above 60fps, which is not a common occurrence.

Winner: Steam Deck OLED

Performance

• ROG Ally has Turbo mode to boost gaming performance
• Although the ROG Ally is more powerful than the Steam Deck OLED, the difference is negligible
• ROG Ally can run games at 1080p

The Steam Deck OLED runs on a 6nm AMD APU while retaining the Zen 2 CPU and RDNA 2 GPU found in its predecessor, which results in a lack of significant boost to its performance. Although a solid performer with an impressive thermal performance, the Steam Deck OLED isn’t able to play demanding titles. 

On the other hand, the ROG Ally is powered by the Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor with integrated RDNA 3 graphics that offers support for FidelityFX Super Resolution. The Ally also boasts Turbo mode which ekes out extra power when enabled. 

While there are drawbacks, as it reduces battery life and causes the fans to get louder, Turbo mode makes the Ally’s gaming performance faster and more powerful.

Plus, as it has a higher resolution display than the Steam Deck OLED, the ROG Ally can run games at 1080p. 

Winner: ROG Ally

Games and Software

• Steam Deck OLD runs on SteamOS while ROG Ally runs on Windows 11
• SteamOS is more intuitive than Windows 11 – until you cant to play non-Steam games
• ROG Ally is user-friendly but doesn’t advise which games are compatible with the device

In this arena, there are lots of pros and cons to both the Steam Deck OLED and the ROG Ally. In lieu of Windows 11, which the ROG Ally runs on, the Steam Deck OLED instead boots up SteamOS.

While SteamOS is a simple and slick operating system, it works best when you want to play Steam games, especially as the digital store is built into the OS. 

Although it is possible to install other apps, we do wish it were easier to access third-party storefronts. Anyone with programming knowledge can access the Linux desktop to download extra storefronts to run games outside of the Steam ecosystem, however those unfamiliar will find this quite fiddly to navigate.

The ROG Ally instead loads up to a Windows desktop, akin to a standard Windows laptop would, which allows you to access third-party apps with ease. Although it should appear familiar to Windows users, we did find it fiddly and clumsy to navigate the desktop on such a small touchscreen device.

Unlike the Steam Deck OLED, the ROG Ally doesn’t offer any indication to which games are playable on the device which means you’ll have to do your own research before downloading a title. 

Winner: Steam Deck OLED

Battery life

• Battery life on handheld gaming PCs remains a bugbear
• The Steam Deck OLED has a more power-efficient chip from AMD
• We found some games could be played for almost five hours on the Steam Deck OLED, whereas ROG Ally can only manage up to 100 minutes

Before we start, it’s worth remembering that battery life will depend on the game you’re playing and your enabled settings. For example, we found the Steam Deck OLED could manage Football Manager with full-screen brightness and maxed-out performance settings for just under five hours, while Horizon Zero Dawn lasted two hours.

Even so, the Steam Deck OLED consistently outperformed the ROG Ally as it was able to reach the three-hour mark, whereas the latter could only manage up to 90 minutes of gameplay.

Enable Turbo mode on the Ally and we found that battery life will fall even further, dropping to just one hour. 

Winner: Steam Deck OLED

Verdict

While both the Steam Deck OLED and ROG Ally represent great handheld gaming PCs, the Steam Deck OLED is the winner here. Thanks to its stunning display, useful trackpads and better battery life, the Steam Deck OLED is ideal for most gamers.

Having said that, the Steam Deck OLED can be difficult to manoeuvre if you plan on gaming outside of the Steam store and has an uninspiring performance level. With this in mind, if you want to game across different platforms and with impressive speed to boot then you’ll be better suited to the Windows 11 ROG Ally.