I believe this is an all time low. Costs less than half compared to the Ally X. I ordered one :)
CamelCamelCamel.
even if its au stock you'd say the same thing
its going back to asus au brains trust at homebush lol
but i dont understand why people keep comparing ASUS Australia to Murica, things are different here
ACCC exists
Have you ever tried to contest anything? I used to think like this but as soon as you push back all those government agencies seem to tell you they can't help and its a civil matter which means going through a tribunal and learning how that whole process goes except they have the advantage of knowing how to play the system because they have done it before a bunch of times, they also have legal help on retainer vs you trying to do it all by yourself because you don't want to spend more than whatever product you are trying to get fixed to get a resolution.
I'm not bitter or anything, but a lot of these Australian consumer rights will quickly evaporate as soon as you test them. I'm not saying they aren't useful sometimes but only if the business wants to play ball.
@denserham: Yes have contested something with JB hifi. One of their staff offered me a great discount on a product. When I went to pay for it the cashier saw something on the screen and called the manager. The manager said he couldn’t sell it for that price as it was too low and the sales person made a mistake to give me that price. I argued but he wouldn’t budge. I called consumer affairs from outside the store, lodged a complaint and stayed on the phone with me to tell me what to say when I went back into the store to speak to the manager again. It was a while ago but She told me to say to the manager 1) there’s a possible bait and switch here and 2) when the employee offered and I accepted it’s a verbal contract to sell. Basically she helped me explain the consequences to the manager and he relented and sold it to me at the offer price
@Mungbeans: JBHIFI and ASUS are at totally different ends of the spectrum, if you expect all companies operating in Australia to behave like JB you'd be sorely disappointed. It usually only gets worse when you deal with departments that mostly only can be reached via phone/email, they can keep stuffing you around indefinitely, not like you can go pester them in person.
Like sure, I understand that only people with bad experiences resort to leaving reviews on productreview, but there are mountains of bad experiences there from people regarding lacklustre post sales support. https://www.productreview.com.au/listings/asus. You can weigh up JB's bad reviews from "freedom is a constitutional right" crowd that complain about rent a cop in-stores vs ASUS's bad reviews of 4090 owners left in limbo when their GPUs fail in the warranty period.
@Mungbeans: That's not fully contesting the consumer rights IMO. In your scenario, the store manager finally caved in. Let's just say he is still being a dxxk and would not budge after you mentioned that bait and switch thing to him. What's your next recourse? Bring it to tribunal? You gonna just get riled up and couldn't sleep on that night but move on with your life the very next morning.
@denserham: I have dealt with ASUS and several other companies here before in general they respect the warranty, some of the laws here actually work…..
I also found a lot of companies do get scared if you mention about your ACCC rights, thats just my experience.
Also my point still stands, why are people using Muricans' experiences and trying to apply them in Australia? I dont get it, just because people here idolise the guy that made the hit piece youtube video of ASUS now suddenly they are bad everywhere in every country.
Yeah just got mine fixed via JB/Asus no problem
ACCC represent Australia’s consumer communtity as a cohort, not any individual consumer. So unless it’s a collective issue they won’t help.
I've had no issues with Asus Australia warranties at all. This includes replacing the Flow X13 battery, fixing the ROG XG Mobile connector that I borked immediately, replacing my Flow X13 motherboard that I fried when I disconnected the battery. All at no extra cost within warranty period. They're 3/3 in my books. Australian Consumer Law isn't anything to scoff at.
But you are buying from Amazon US, but i guess you can deal with Amazon AU for support if you choose too.
I believe Asus AU would cover 1 year on it as I have a Zephyrus G14 from eBay Korea that's under warranty for a year. But yes completely agree that Amazon US is a hassle to deal with.
That is super relieving to hear!
Before Black Friday 2024, I plan to have my microSD fixed and maybe the joysticks by then.
but but gamer's nexus told me they are evil so i need to spam it in every asus deal
My experience wasn't perfect, when I RMA'd my M16, due to some of the keyboard keys not functioning properly. It got returned to me twice with a massive overheating problem, I'm assuming because the cpu/gpu got repasted with the wrong thermal paste, or not at all, as well as the keyboard lights no longer functioning, and trackpad issues. In the end I sternly requested, and received, a refund rather than have it 'repaired' or replaced a third time.
My problem wasn't with Asus, or the staff there, but rather their registered repair teams that repeatedly borked my new laptop, and drew the process out over several months, which wasn't helped much by having to deal with Scorptec as a go between. I used the refund to get an Asus Rog Zephyrus 16 Duo 3080Ti instead, and it's been alsmost faultless, as has my October '23 edition Ally Extreme. I've used Asus ROG exclusively now for about 12 years, the M16 was my first real issue.
And, back on topic, this is an exceptional bargain OP, I got mine cheap with the $200 off and 10% off gift cards, but this puts that to shame, nice find!
Good luck with all the windows 11 bs that comes with it 😅
Man, I wish I could stay longer with Win 10 on my laptop, but with Msoft no longer providing security updates by Oct. 2025, I'm not sure if I should hold on to Win 10 beyond that, or just bite the bullet and update to Win 11.
For me it ruined a perfectly stable gaming pc with random freezing
@kaleidoscope: Interesting. I experienced random stutters when I first got my ROG G513QM. Turns out it had to do with the fTPM stuff related to AMD CPUs, and since it was not possible to turn off TPM from my laptop's bios, I had to "brute-force" my way into disabling it.
Not sure if Win 11 will fix this, but from your experience looks like I'm gonna hold on to Win 10 for a very long time.
Just reinstall with W11LTSC
Killer price. Wish I waited for this deal
Same.
Jumped on the boat for Steamdeck OLED a while ago.
is this much better?
Depends on what you’re after. Steam deck has killer battery life, better size and weight.
Runs full windows so easier to get other installers on it like Epic which have given out hundreds of AAA titles for free.
Good deal. Cheaper than used on eBay.
Put Bazzite on it and the experience is just as good as a Steam Deck except battery life.
Not a big dead since you already have a INIU 65w power bank.
Super cheap. I sold my second hand one for 700
when did you sell yours?
Late april
Waiting for sub 500…
Is this equal to a ps5, gaming power and available games etc?
Nope. Between a PS4 and PS4 Pro but with access to some modern games not available on PS4. Tens of thousands of games. PC and emulation.
Games wise this can play way more than a PS5 can. Basically any x86 compatible Windows game will run so that's a game catalogue from the 90's all the way till today. As for power, this is worse performance than a PS5, but you're still going to get a decent experience. But this has a design fault with the SD Card (poor quality component choice and possibly heat related issue due to being near the exhaust, ASUS says the fault was related to component choice) and battery life is really poor compared to the Steam Deck OLED or a Nintendo Switch. That being said, if you play some light titles on the 5 Watt profile, something like Shovel Knight, Terraria or old emulators like SNES if lasts a decent amount of time. Honestly if the ROG Ally X (new improved model) was this price, I'd jump on it because other than the screen that handheld leaves the Steam Deck OLED for dead. But it just released so we won't see any discount on that till probably easter next year or something, it's currently $1400+ and the Ally here for $740ish is usually $1099.
But I'm guessing we will see a new MSI Claw (competitor to this) with the new Lunar Lake CPUs and Battlemage iGPU sometime early next year and that might bring better performance than the Ally X for about $1200. Supposedly Intel will have far better graphics drivers and game compatibility with Battlemage because they restructured the way the architecture works so they need less software intervention and this is the main problem with the current MSI Claw currently.
Are you asking why a portable handheld gaming device (basically just a windows laptop) has inferior performance to one of the highest performing gaming consoles ever released? And they're the same price point?
@Captain Cheapskate: … I think it might be worth you upgrading your rank to Major or even Colonel Cheapskate. What on earth are you basing your price point on?
@DiscountForThee: I'm basing it on the quality of the gaming we ultimately experience.
deciding if its worth buying a PS5 for $699 + $95 PS+ subscription which includes minimum of 12 games a year and have an excellent gaming experience, or something like this Ally for $741, no subscription but have to buy games that you cannot sell later that delivers a PS4 like gaming experience.
and also considering if the ROG ally gives is a PS4 like experience, then would it be better just to get a PS4 at 1/3 of the cost of this?
@Captain Cheapskate: When you compare prices of handheld console with ps4 or ps5 you forget that handheld console includes a TV in it. So, add another few hundreds to your ps4 price. And like soneone said before - what about your experience of playing your home console somewhere outside?
@Captain Cheapskate: Its not 10 year old tech. Its 10nyear old hardware that isnt designed as mobile tech. You cant compate.mobile tech, and hardware designed for mains power performance.
@BusMan247: Nah Im coming at it from an experience point of view, because at the end of the day thats what we are paying for, an experience.
I'm thinking like If a Ps4 = good gaming experience for $250, A PS5 = excellent gaming experience for $699, and a ROG ally gives a good gaming experience that portable. from a bang for buck, or how much you spend vs quality of gaming you experience, seems like it should fall somewhere in the middle.
@Captain Cheapskate: Try getting a good PS4 gaming experience on a bus, or a great PS5 gaming experience in a plane.
Clearly the portability aspect is important. If you want to compare it to a console, the Switch is probably a better comparison. Dismissing the portability of this is missing the point, and if portability isn’t important maybe a desktops a better option.
You might also want to go look at cost of software, online play via PS Plus etc. Cost of content and services on a home console can be much higher than PC given the subscriptions for online play etc.
@Smigit: haven't dismissed the portability at all. Ive acknowledged many times, and yes the ability to use it on a plane or bus is great, but I dont catch buses, and when I'm flying, Im either watching a movies with my partner, working or socialising with people, so the portability a less of a value. its the quality of the gaming experience and the type of games available that take center stage. I personally dont like Nintendo games,
my kids already own a Switch, and he is a heavy gamer that catches a bus, but the switch has never left the dock, so he doesnt even take advantage of portability.
@Captain Cheapskate: console is sell at a loss since company get profit from games and subscription, thats not the same case with PC portable handheld.
Also making small form factor is always expensive, for example you can compare the price of gaming laptop vs gaming desktop, for the similar spec the laptop will always be more expensive.
also there are many free PC games so you need to take that into account as well
@Smigit: The guy must be trolling. Expects cutting edge power in a portable form factor for the same price. It’s always been the way the tradeoff for a small portable form factor has always been gen or even more behind the best consoles.
@Captain Cheapskate: I can't play a PS4 or Ps5 on a train, without streaming. I can use this on a train. Different use-cases. I have been extremely happy with my PS5, but I don't have much gaming time as life is busy, and these days the majority of my gaming time is on the train to and from work. Just because a dedicated console fits the use-case for one person, doesn't mean it'll suit the next.
playstation locks u into their ecosystem……………………………………………………………………………………..
Killer price
Just bought an Ally X today.
Looks like I’ll be holding off on flogging the OG Ally.
great price, I paid 850 for refurbished in june,
points for new buyers
1- this is a solid device for me however read up on some of the feedback around warranty claims
2- reccomend to not use the micro sd card for storage as it seems to be a design flaw
3- 512gb is not enough storage, the one you want is Western Digital WD SN740 1 or 2TB, which is posted here frequently when on sale
4- for some an external battery pack is necessary, dyor as the battery pack needs to have (30 or 60 cant recall) watt power delivery
5- suggest you buy your covers/cases/docks/accessories/screen protectors off aliexpress, your usb-c dock needs to support PD passthrough
For tinkerers
1- external gpu dock utilising the custom xg mobile connection , https://github.com/osy/XG_Mobile_Station, can use any desktop gpu with the device for extra performance in a docked configuration
2-https://www.allymods.com/, the website is down currently however there is tutorials/services offered to upgrade the internal ram and battery, really neat idea
Thank you for posting this. Im not intending to buy the Ally (but it is a good deal) but I do own an X13 and I was dreaming that somebody would reverse engineer the XG mobile connection and somebody went above and beyond with that github repo.
does someone actually have proof that ASUS Australia refused to cover warranty on something…?
Nice post. Any recommendations on Dock then and cases?
Anyhow is it difficult to change the SSD and what can you do with 512gb after taking it out. I thought laptops don't use those 2230 models…
For sure waiting for the next Western Digital WD SN740 discount
I heard battery life everywhere saying it's no good. But on low power profile maybe alright.
I originally thought of getting Steam Deck but it's very limited to Steam library. I want a handheld which plays all Windows games and I think this is it.
I also thought of getting a Oneplus 12r phone for gaming when on sale US import the price was also around $860 however can only play android games and not really sure if it's worth it only because of long battery life and charging times
Thanks, screenshotted for price protection. Should pay for a couple of years of the new $8 a month fee on 28D!
There's a new monthly fee for 28D cards? Always wish I got it early for the price protection. But people use them for no international fees as well?
From next month, yeah. There's other cards with no int fees that don't have a monthly fee, so unless you have price protection its a crap product now.
$8 a month just for no international fees is crap like you say! Big ozbargain regret not having the price protection 28d card when it was available.
Might need to look for an international fees free card as pissed off even my icloud payment gets me charged international fees.
I’ve been trying to get them to pay me my promotion money from the Suica x Apple Pay Mastercard deal for the past few months. They still owe me ¥800, which is funny because it’s roughly $8. I’m definitely cancelling before the fees kick in. Latitude sucks.
The grandfathered 28D was the best
Im glad seeing your comment. canceled my 28D right away.
Me too!
Does 28d care where its bought and where price found.
As long as it’s an Australian retailer within last 12 months.
I got refurbished for $760. This would need adapter for us to au plug.
This is new, you paid too much for refurbished
This is new however its a US device cant compare. You wont sell the US device later on for as much as AU device.
And I have one year warranty with Asus AU.
I doubt there’ll be any real difference resale wise. It’s a computer, region locking a bit a factor. USB-C is prevalent enough that the adapters not a biggie and you can probably get away selling it without even as buyers will have one. Either way warranty’s probably expired by the time one goes to resell.
I don’t think it’s overpaying for a refurb model but if the screen and chassis are new and it’s been checked over. Sounds like you got a good price to me.
Been on the fence for many months…i finally caved!
How is this compared to steamdeck oled? Similar price between the 2? And is the Ally X worth so much extra?
I haven't had a handheld since the gameboy days.
If you've got gamepass and games on Epic/GOG etc get this, if your library is just on steam I'd go with the Deck oled even though it's relatively "underpowered".
I guess games split pretty evenly between GOG and Steam. Is this the better hardware and windows? Steam works on this as well right or it's not so simple?
Ally X looks awesome but so expensive.
Had to cancel and re-order the old price expired not long ago! https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/859080
Amazon refused to give price difference, lucky I was able to cancel in time as old one was not shipped
That's a saving of $120…
Had to go thru Topcashback again as well.
Didn't have enough funds on the card which I originally ordered, had to transfer from another card as Amazon has an authorisation of $860 not released yet….
Thanks OP!
Waiting for the Xbox handheld.
Probably not a problem if you have this plugged in when playing, but that battery life…
Heat is a real issue on this one. Had one secondhand for $800, as card did not work. Replaced at JB got a brand new one, fried SD card in a week returned and got the refund. Software was a bit funny as well with overlays and things. Got a steam deck and I am happy for the last few months.
Legion Go deal was better.. No VRR but significantly larger screen, removable controllers.
Waiting for another deal for LeGo.. When.
I've conducted extensive research on handheld gaming PCs.
If most of your games are on Steam, then the Steam Deck OLED is a great choice due to its best feature, instant suspend and resume. It can also play games from other launchers like Epic and Gog, but there may be issues with games like Fortnite that use anti-cheat.
As for the ROG Ally, although Windows 11 has its issues, they mostly occur during the setup process. If a game runs on Windows, you can run it on the Ally.
This model has hardware faults, mainly with the SD card reader, but its price is incredible.
Personally, I'm going to wait until I have enough money for the ROG Ally X to future-proof myself better.
It offers extra RAM, a larger battery, and a sleek black design with double USB-C ports.
With Xbox Game Pass, you can install many great games directly onto the hard drive and play them.
How difficult is it to change the SSD? I can ignore the Sdcard slot as long as there's enough storage
Incredibly easy. There's a good amount of Youtube tutorial that's very easy to follow. Anyone can do it, no problem. Just make sure that the SSD is a M.2 2230 such as the WD_BLACK SN770M.
There's also a small device you can install in the Ally called "Rog Ally Handheld Transfer Board 90 Degrees M2 Transfercard SSD Adapter", if you want to use an M.2. 2280.
research means nothing compared to first hand experience here
This or Steam Deck?
Depends, do you have a massive steam library? or do you want to be buying games from Steam? or maybe life has you busy and you need to be able to suspend and resume gaming instantly.
then choose the steam deck.
if your games are spread between different launchers or you want to be installing games from the Game Pass. The ally is Solid.
There are so many factors that are loaded into that question to the point it isn't black and white as "Steam games for Steam Deck and Ally for everything else"
-Will this be your only gaming system or do you have a powerful pc or console to pair this with?
-Do you care about battery life?
-Do you want a seamless console-like experience or deal with Windows?
-Emulation plans?
And it goes on and on. Do your own research on what your needs and wants are is what I'd suggest.
The last thing I'll say is the OG Ally is an inherently flawed device inside and somewhat flawed out, owing to the poorly designed SD card slot and Windows/Asus software experience, respectively. Would I want to gamble $750 on a known flawed device? Probably not. But you can always ignore the SD card issues by never using it and if that's the case, this is a great deal (that comes with a lot of caveats)
Thanks for the advice. I ordered one and intend to upgrade the SSD and never use the SD slot.
Same. But I will hold off upgrading the SSD until I see a deal on 2230
@neonlight: Can anyone comment on the hassle of upgrading the SSD once you have it set up with a bunch of games installed? Any option to backup to external drive or network?
@krayl: Upgrading the SSD is very easy, as for backing it up. You're better off just redownloading everything, otherwise, you'll need an SSD Enclosure that supports m.2. 2230 and using software to clone it, such as Macrium Reflect. Too much hassle.
I was super close to ordering one, but the deal is over. This article is getting my interest
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/handheld-gaming-pcs/new-ste…
This one with SteamOS support would be a great combo. The higher res screen over the steam deck seems to be a real point of difference.
How about now?
Deal expired 1k now lol
Good luck with warranty…