The first console with AMD Ryzen Z1 APU released ASUS ROG Ally features Zen4 and RDNA3 architectures. The day has come, says AMD. ASUS has finally launched its ROG Ally gaming console based on AMD hardware. This is the first handheld console developed by ASUS and the first console to ever feature the AMD Ryzen […]
only 2 back triggers to learn to avoid and/or deal with
minus:
single usb-c
it’s on the top
no nifty touchpads
battery is definitely a bit stressed
cloud restore only works if your warranty is active apparently which i promise will be annoying
nightmare:
the windows 11 and asus trashware startup experience; i mean my god, i had to do the cloud reinstall to even login to the thing reliably
on first boot OOBE i tried to just login with my existing personal ms account which i guess was my first mistake, but it worked fine. i added a fingerprint and it also worked fine. i then added a PIN and it also worked fine. windows downloaded updates and demanded a reboot which is fine. it rebooted and i logged in with a thumbprint just fine. then armoury crate said HEY FIRMWARE UPDATE DEMANDS REBOOT so ok fine reboot and down the spiral we go. fingerprint doesn’t work. PIN fails, “something went wrong” with a side of 0xd0000225 over and over. check bios, v317. event viewer says something about some exe with “biometric” in its title failing repeatedly. looks like i have to update through armory crate again? oh, the asus app? does that require me to sign up? it sure looks like it does… ok no, just dark patterns. more updates. more failed login attempts and the most alerts from MS authenticator i’ve ever had in one afternoon. bios v319, windows and my asus and armoire box all claim everything’s as up to date as one can get, but you’re sure gonna have to get a notification and cancel a request to reset your PIN on each login
i genuinely thought it might be headed for a refund, but shift+f10 and OOBE\BYPASSNRO after cloud restore let me make a local account and it’s been smooth since, but i’ve barely installed we <3 katamari reroll on it
This is the main reason I won’t be getting rid of my Steam Deck for the Ally. Setup was super smooth, and for the most part everything just works. Barring a few issues with proton here and there, but I haven’t had many with the games I play. Windows on a handheld sounds like a craptastic idea to me.
plus:
minus:
nightmare:
on first boot OOBE i tried to just login with my existing personal ms account which i guess was my first mistake, but it worked fine. i added a fingerprint and it also worked fine. i then added a PIN and it also worked fine. windows downloaded updates and demanded a reboot which is fine. it rebooted and i logged in with a thumbprint just fine. then armoury crate said HEY FIRMWARE UPDATE DEMANDS REBOOT so ok fine reboot and down the spiral we go. fingerprint doesn’t work. PIN fails, “something went wrong” with a side of 0xd0000225 over and over. check bios, v317. event viewer says something about some exe with “biometric” in its title failing repeatedly. looks like i have to update through armory crate again? oh, the asus app? does that require me to sign up? it sure looks like it does… ok no, just dark patterns. more updates. more failed login attempts and the most alerts from MS authenticator i’ve ever had in one afternoon. bios v319, windows and my asus and armoire box all claim everything’s as up to date as one can get, but you’re sure gonna have to get a notification and cancel a request to reset your PIN on each login
i genuinely thought it might be headed for a refund, but shift+f10 and
OOBE\BYPASSNROafter cloud restore let me make a local account and it’s been smooth since, but i’ve barely installed we <3 katamari reroll on itThe more I hear about Windows these last few years, the more it feels like I got out just in time.
Gaming on Linux just keeps getting better, and doing anything on Windows just keeps getting worse.
the steam deck OOBE was genuinely fifty times smoother than this :|
This is the main reason I won’t be getting rid of my Steam Deck for the Ally. Setup was super smooth, and for the most part everything just works. Barring a few issues with proton here and there, but I haven’t had many with the games I play. Windows on a handheld sounds like a craptastic idea to me.