I don't play while outside the house for extended periods, so battery isn't a concern for me. I mostly just wanted to be able to play my games on the couch, whether that was using the Ally as a handheld or by being able to dock it to the TV.
The biggest issue that keeps me from recommending it to anyone is that it is a windows 11 machine. That is both its strongest and weakest point. Turn it on for the first time, windows setup on a tiny screen with no physical mouse keyboard. And then there is messing with game graphics settings to eek out the performance you want. SD slot is complete garbage. Most likely a hardware issue that will not be able to be fixed. It stops reading cards and in some cases, destroys the card. It is fairly easy to upgrade the internal SSD though. ASUS has also been pretty quiet on graphics driver updates.
As long as you are cool with that stuff, its an awesome machine. Steamdeck has more of a 'just works' kinda console feel and kinda outdated hardware wise. Lenovo Go images just leaked today.
The biggest issue that keeps me from recommending it to anyone is that it is a windows 11 machine. That is both its strongest and weakest point. Turn it on for the first time, windows setup on a tiny screen with no physical mouse keyboard. And then there is messing with game graphics settings to eek out the performance you want. SD slot is complete garbage. Most likely a hardware issue that will not be able to be fixed. It stops reading cards and in some cases, destroys the card. It is fairly easy to upgrade the internal SSD though. ASUS has also been pretty quiet on graphics driver updates.
As long as you are cool with that stuff, its an awesome machine. Steamdeck has more of a 'just works' kinda console feel and kinda outdated hardware wise. Lenovo Go images just leaked today.