Which handheld console is best?

Are you looking for a new handheld gaming console but aren’t sure which one will best suit your needs? We’ve got you covered.

We’ve reviewed both the newly launched Asus Rog Ally X and the Steam Deck OLED and compared our experience with the two so you can determine which handheld console is better for you.

Design and Controls

There aren’t too many notable differences with regards to the design and controls of the two handheld consoles as both sporting a lightweight, plastic shell. However the Steam Deck OLED is slightly lighter at 640g compared to the Ally X’s 678g. 

Both are equipped with a microSD slot for expanding storage and at least one USB-C port for power or connecting to an external screen. However, the Ally X boasts two USB-C ports so both can be done simultaneously.

Finally, the controls across both devices are positioned to offer easy reach, with the Ally X especially boasting tweaks from its predecessor the Asus Rog Ally, and both feature Xbox-style ABXY buttons on the right hand side, analogue sticks and top bumpers.

Display

As the name suggests, the Steam Deck OLED boasts a 7.4-inch OLED panel that offers brighter and more vivid colours, richer blacks and improved contrast to a traditional LCD screen. Unfortunately, the Ally X is stuck with a seven-inch LCD panel and a low contrast ratio of 1000:1, which means it isn’t quite capable of handling dark scenes as well as the Steam Deck OLED.

Even so, the Rog Ally X does have a higher resolution (1920 x 1080) than the Steam Deck OLED’s 1280 x 800 and also reaches a 120Hz refresh rate whereas the Steam Deck OLED can only reach 90Hz. 

The Steam Deck OLED is also able to hit up to 600 nits peak brightness with SDR content or even a whopping 1000 nits with HDR content, whereas the Ally X only manages 400 nits. Although 400 nits may not sound as impressive, it’s worth noting that this level is still impressively bright for a portable gaming unit.

Performance and Software

The Rog Ally X is comfortably more powerful than the Steam Deck OLED, thanks to its AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor, which is built on the latest Zen 4 architecture with integrated RDNA 3 graphics that offer support for FidelityFX Super Resolution. 

In comparison, the Steam Deck OLED runs on the 6nm AMD APU chipset with the same Zen 2 CPU and RDNA 2 GPU as its Steam Deck predecessor. There’s also a lack of a Turbo mode which can be found in the Ally X and helps boost performance without draining the battery too much. The lack of this feature in the Steam Deck OLED means highly demanding games such as Returnal aren’t even able to boot up without crashing.

Otherwise, we were impressed with the thermal performance of both the Rog Ally X and Steam Deck OLED and found both handheld devices were able to stay cool even while playing heavy games. 

The Rog Ally X comes with Windows 11 which, although can be fiddly to use on a touchscreen, does allow for easy installation of games from any PC storefront such as Steam and Epic Games. In comparison, the Steam Deck OLED runs on SteamOS, which although it feels more intuitive than Windows 11, does become tricky if you want to play non-Steam games either via Linux or Game Pass.

Battery

The Ally X boasts a whopping 80Wh battery capacity which we found delivered the best battery life we’ve seen in a handheld gaming device. Although the Steam Deck OLED sports a fairly adequate 50Wh cell and can provide two hours of uninterrupted gaming, the Ally X offers just under three hours in Performance mode for two hours and 15 minutes when set to Turbo mode. 

It’s worth remembering that a larger cell usually means longer recharge time. The Ally X takes around one hour and 46 minutes to go from 1 to 100% whereas the Steam Deck OLED managed to hit this in just 90 minutes.

Price

The Asus Rog Ally X is the more expensive model of the two at £799 / $799.99 whereas the Steam Deck OLED starts at just £479 / $549 for the 512GB model.

Final Verdict

Both the Asus Rog Ally X and Steam Deck OLED are solid handheld consoles with their own pros and cons. While the Ally X boasts a mammoth battery cell and runs on the powerful AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor, its display falls short as it’s just an LCD panel. 

On the other hand, the Steam Deck OLED may not be as powerful nor boast a dedicated Turbo mode, which means some titles are unplayable, but its OLED screen offers vibrant contrast and can reach up to a whopping 1000 nits peak brightness. Plus it’s much cheaper than the Rog Ally X.