Modern computers
Many people own and use a computer in today’s day and age. The most portable of these computers are laptops. A new piece of technology was released in 2023 called portable gaming handles, the first of these being called the Steamdeck. While the Steamdeck wasn’t a full on computer, it did do some amazing things like play computer games on something the size of a Nintendo Switch. Later on, another gaming handheld came out called the Asus Rog Ally. This one was more like a full on computer with full Windows support and did everything an at home computer or laptop could do while being in a smaller compact form than a laptop and the power of a desktop computer. While this technology is mostly meant for gamers, this can also be very useful for people that want a smaller computer than a laptop and still play some of their favorite games on the go.
Uses
Like mentioned before, the uses for the Asus Rog Ally is mainly aimed towards gamers as it has many gaming possibilities. It has its own integrated app that people can use to access their games quicker and settings you can manually change in order to give it more power for certain games. On a technical standpoint, the software is daily user friendly and easy to access. On the other hand, you have the Windows operating system on it. This allows you to do stuff you would do on any at home computer. It’s all very simple to use with the Asus Rog Ally having two modes, handheld mode and desktop mode. Desktop mode allows you to use the button on the handheld to use it like any computer with the joystick being used as a mouse and the trigger for clicking stuff. It also has a keyboard you can pop up at any time for easy typing. Another thing that can make this thing easier to navigate is the touch screen on the system. The touch screen not only makes things easier to reach but it also allows you to type faster on the screen. Another cool thing you can do with the handheld is buy a doc for it, allowing you to plug in a computer and mouse and use an HDMI cable to connect it to a monitor allowing you to use it like a fully fledged desktop computer.
Internal hardware
The Asus Rog Ally comes with two models, the Z1 Extreme and the Z1. The Z1 is the type of computer chip that comes with the system. The Z1 is aimed towards adults that want a fast and powerful device to play all their favorite games on. The Z1 one is less powerful and could be aimed towards people on a budget and for people that want to play less straining games. This piece of tech alone is an amazing piece of tech with its high power capabilities and small form factor. The Z1 allows you to play most high end games at 45 FPS depending on your settings. This piece of tech can reach up to a maximum power of 30W which in a small device like this is a lot of power. It has two internal fans within it allowing the system to remain cool with almost no sound at all. The heat is spread out within the system using copper pipes which keeps the heat away from your hands.
Armory crate
The system comes with its own app called the Armory crate. Here you can access all of your games really easily without any need to go to the windows home and manually pick your game. Another thing this app is used for is changing almost every aspect of the device, how much power it uses, the battery life, the settings of games, the quality, how much of the device is being used. The app allows you to change how many watts the device is consuming allowing the user to decide the overall span of the device, you want it to take less power for small trips, you can do that, you want it to take a lot of power to get those crispy graphics on games, you can do that. The watts you can pick from range from 7W to 25W on battery alone, but if you’re plugged in, it can reach up to 30W for those demanding games. 7W to 10W is usually for retro games and just going through the web; 11W to 15W is for most games as most games can run pretty smoothly on these watts at lower graphics; 16W to 18W is where the sweet spot is for good graphics and still good performance; 19W to 25W is if you want really high quality and really good performance; 26W to 30W is for using it like a desktop computer and giving you the power for any and all things. You can also change the setting of games, lowering the amount of frames a game has can lower the battery consumption, also lowering the quality of the screen from 1080p to 720p can also reduce battery life and also allow you to increase settings elsewhere.
Concerns
Obviously with this new piece of technology there are some concerns. This is in a sense the very first of its kind and not as powerful as let say a desktop computer for the same price. The main selling point is the portability and the power it packs with the portability so if you want to play really high end games with all the bells and whistles a desktop is still good for many that don’t care about portability. The system can get hot when using high wattages of power but this can be easily solved by making your own fan setting making them run faster and keeping the system cooler with a little more noise. This system isn’t meant to replace your at home computer, but it is there for anyone that wants to play games on the go with powerful internals.