As someone who seldom has time to game in front of a PC or console anymore, a handheld is really starting to appeal to me. And the “uber launcher” approach that Microsoft has with the XBOX app (no more Playnite!) also makes it easy to manage your whole library from a central interface. I’ve already started launching Steam and Epic games directly from the XBOX app on PC, so I can see this working quite well on the handhelds.
Now to find R19k lying around somewhere so I can buy the Ally X. 
I’m in very much the same frame of mind. I played a total of about 4 hours this past week. 2 of those was in bed on my Switch last night…
I’m in two minds about the new Ally X vs a Steam Deck, though. The inner tinkerer (who is more outer than inner at the best of times) knows that the Steam Deck will have more potential in being able upgrade and try crazy things with it… but do I want to do that with my gaming device?
And yes, R19k is a decent investment! This reaaaaaally needs to make sense, because Santa’s pockets aren’t that deep in this house.
Same here. I’m not too concerned about the tinkering aspect, but rather the ergonomics and longevity. That’s why I’ve briefly considered some of the other handhelds (from MSI and Lenovo) but ultimately wrote them off due to longer term reviewers noting the bad ergonomics and concerns about support.
I’ve only read stellar things about the Steam Deck’s controls (and specifically touchpads) and I’ve briefly had experience with one (our niece who stays with us’ boyfriend has one) and, being Valve and the proprietor of SteamOS, the support for the Deck should be solid into the future.
On the other hand, Microsoft is going in hard on the ROG Ally and want to position this as the first “XBOX but not XBOX” device out there, meaning support should be great as well. The ergonomics should also be good, as it’s modelled off the current XBOX controller, providing a comfortable grip. And spec-wise, it’s obviously way more future proof than the Steam Deck. And who knows, maybe there’s an opportunity to install SteamOS on the Ally in the future, if it really is necessary? Microsoft claims to have optimised Windows now for gaming purposes with the Ally, and hopefully some of those changes filter through to regular versions of Windows 11 as well.
And then you haven’t even touched on the fact that, by definition, the games available on the Deck is a subset of the games available on the Ally… So it’s beginning to feel like the pro’s for the Deck are: 1) Definite long term support, 2) Comfort, while the Ally has 1) More games, but probably also long term support and comfort.
And my experience with ROG products has only been positive.
I think I’ll buy a steam sticker on temu, and plak it on the Ally, and then just run Steam Big Picture all day long.
I am seriously considering this as well, since I can still run Office and Outlook and other work stuffs on the Xbox Ally. I am not sure if you need to boot into a “desktop” mode, like the Steam Deck boots into a linux desktop, to get to the full Windows experience. Or is the Xbox experience just running on a clean Windows without the fluff and can still launch full apps?
Because if I can convince the office that I need this more than a new laptop, then I could be golden! Can you buy an 8 core, 16 thread CPU laptop with 20GB ram and a 1tb NVME for the same price? Possibly. Does it include a keyboard? Sure. Is it as cool as the Ally? Nope.
I kinda have… 
I was more alluding to the fact that Steam Deck does not support 100% of Steam games, because it’s not Windows, whereas the ROG will support every Steam Deck supported game. Thus, more games available on ROG, not just launchers.
It runs the apps it CAN run, better… But it does not run all the apps. You win some you lose some.
Most anti-cheat games are sweaty ass shooters, that you probably want to play on a real pc, to get a few hundred fps, to placebo you into thinking you’re a l33t fps gamer called pu55y_sl4y3r3000.
Obvs 