ASUS ROG Xbox Ally

[frank nymph]

its hilarious 😄

[wide pebble]

In a positive or negative way

I assume negative

[frank nymph]

negative 😄

[sage halo]

Was anyone expecting the top tier one to be below $999? Realistically speaking.

I'm not in the market to pick this up but the price makes sense considering the US market.

[silent nimbus]

Probably the people that think $400 steam deck is the rule not the exception

[soft island]

100%. I was as a non normie. For normies I bet it's worse

I mean I wasn't expecting $400. But maybe $500 for the lower model

[sage halo]

it's good to be steam and be able to take a loss on the sale of the steam deck knowing people will horde countless games on it and get an earning that way

[sage halo]

yeah, X-Bros gonna have a hard time with that 😛

[soft island]

Traditionally Ms has just been good at subsidizing their consoles. Making them affordable. Especially when sony will drop ps for some insane prices. I personally just figured MS would have more price control to make it a no-brainer and capture market

[sage halo]

an XBox Ally looks like a better deal when a 2TB Xbox costs $800

[soft island]

The fact that it's a Collab might mean they didn't tho. In which case attaching the Xbox name was probably a mistake

Yeah. I think it's also just hard to be disruptive when the current state of the US just makes everything expensive

[silent nimbus]

the price is pretty damn good in the UK

but US, CA, and AU its not so great

[soft island]

A lot of older stuff also just didn't go up in price. Probably because there's already stock here. So the sticker shock when looking at old vs new is probably triggering for most

Let me clarify a little. It's probably priced where it should be. Especially with AMDs monopoly and the recent pricing of its higher end chipset models. That said I personally fully expected MS to eat it to drop some damn that's crazy pricing

Hopefully it at least wakes up normies to the fact that the switch 2 pricing wasn't all that ridiculous (tho people with a brain realized that).

[sage halo]

My issue with the switch 2 were the cost of the games and the "physical carts" being just a means to verify the game online.

[soft island]

Nah. I get that. I mean get ready. Price hikes will show up for games elsewhere

The physical carts thing is weird. But games really no longer show up on discs either. There's always a download. It at least lets you still physically sell something. But yeah. Neither of those were great feeling

[frank nymph]

buckle up 😄

[soft island]

Yeah. Gonna get bumpy. For at least 3 more years too

[sage halo]

Yup, after getting a hx370 handheld I'm tapping out for the next few years.... hopefully 💀

[weary igloo]

I caved and preordered the X. It’ll be an upgrade over the Deck for me, plus access to game pass etc. It’s going to do what I want it to do, so i’m not worried about being disappointed

[charred kite]

Without tariffs, yeah, $799/849 would be where I’d expect it to land

Ultimately it is a in place upgrade over the outgoing X. Just annual YoY SOC upgrade so the price should have stayed the same.

[sage halo]

That's a bingo. But wait, I thought the companies were gonna stick the bill for tariffs 😂

[charred kite]

It’s a Tax on everyone

Except the people getting bonuses on profits and dividends on stock shares

[frank nymph]

the circle of life

[charred kite]

Not really

It’s like if the clouds took all the water from the ground and were like hell naw, you get a short light sprinkle the rest is to make big clouds even biggerer

[frank nymph]

was more on the tax on everyone but the profit minority i was getting that 😄 thats been the norm lol

[soft island]

Honestly if they threw in some free gamepass it'd go a long way

[hearty prairie]

Hate how Canada gets stuck with US tariff pricing even though we don’t have any

[silent nimbus]

Is it US tariffs or just the state of CAD

[covert furnace]

I was not expecting the XAX to be under $899 honestly so it's not completely insane. I don't know what anyone expected otherwise and in a world where several year old hardware has seen price increases, this is sadly what we've come to.

[charred kite]

Yeah I’m kind of surprised it got a price hike for an interative update

[soft island]

I expected MS to not post record profits for a month and throw us a freakin bone 😆

Theyve killed enough dev studios

Give the community a break. Lol

"sorry about all the fun franchises we killed, here's a handheld at reasonable pricing"

https://tenor.com/view/sorry-tony-hayward-south-park-s14e11-coon2rise-of-captain-hindsight-gif-22864498

[covert furnace]

https://tenor.com/view/phil-laugh-phil-spencer-xbox-gaming-lol-gif-16929857882736150446

[signal ridge]

I'll at least give them that neither of the Xbox Allys are consoles in the sense that they are closed ecosystems that one company uses to bleed you dry.

Steam Deck is the closest thing we have in this space to a console, and even it isnt locked like Playstation, Switch or (console) Xbox.

[soft island]

Yeah. Which is honestly why I probably wouldn't have had Xbox in the name

I mean sure, promote it as a collab

Really nothing Xbox about this Xbox besides the Xbox button

But throwing the name on puts it in the console lineup and she looking rough in that regard

[charred kite]

Locked*ish.

Installing from other storefronts is a pain in the butt and all over just a terrible experience

[signal ridge]

Goes alomg with MS seemingly wanting to get people on Gamepass as "Xbox".

[signal ridge]

I mean, you could just put Windows on it.

[charred kite]

I did

[signal ridge]

... And Gabe didnt send ninjas to abduct you in the night like that OTHER company would ...

[soft island]

Plus valve serves a noble cause, getting Linux compat rolling

[charred kite]

And child gambling

[soft island]

You mean 99% of devs?

What's wild is isn't the CS shit cosmetic anyway?

Like I hate to say it but since the Internet has existed people have been selling accounts and gear online

Pretty sure Fortnite account selling is pretty big too

[silent nimbus]

I remember when the steam deck launched there were people that bought it with CS skins

[soft island]

My buddy has some ridiculous stuff he just randomed into

But there's always been a black market, then grey market, now white market with gaming stuff

I just dislike games where you can pay to win

But your gun looking cool as shit ain't gonna make you play better

[fleet girder]

People are so priced out it's crazy

[silent nimbus]

People have been saying PlayStations and Xboxes are “basically PCs” for years. Now MS makes an Xbox that is literally a PC and people lose their shit

[sharp ingot]

Well yeah, people didn't say that they were basically pcs as a compliment

[soft island]

Haha yeah. It was never a compliment

Lol

It was almost always a dig at having exclusives or games only available on console that could easily be sold on PC as well

[signal ridge]

Y'know ... I don't think I actually care about consoles anymore. Not new ones, at least. If I can't play your game on the device I want to play it on (within the limitations of its hardware, of course), I won't play your game.

[soft island]

Yeah. I mean don't get me wrong. Im fine if MS sticks to services going forward. But like, if your gonna put your name on it, add some incentives

Like a year of gamepass and these prices are more reasonable

[silent nimbus]

MS should really have put their wireless protocol in the XAX it’s a pretty good protocol

Would give good options for wireless headphones with really low latency

[soft island]

Yeah. Just like anything unique to it besides the Xbox button and latest windows

It's just odd. Because I feel like they used to add weird/quirky things to their consoles back in the day

I mean I guess the shape is unique

[silent nimbus]

Huh, looks like XAX has a cooling chamber for the screen

[soft island]

Where'd you see this?

And that is kinda what I mean. If there's shit like this tell us. Heh

Makes me miss normal console hype releases at conferences/expos

Get some MS suit up there and brag about the cool shit

[silent nimbus]

https://youtu.be/bLqFmsNfN8c?si=w-RD1-y_ISMMGRzv

Nothing groundbreaking

Just and interesting tidbit

[soft island]

Yeah. Def interesting

Can make big differences when it comes to performance and longevity tho

[covert furnace]

That’s pretty dang cool, no pun intended 😎

[silent nimbus]

Man placing a preorder for a device 3 weeks out is such a stark difference from the 2 year wait times on AyaNeo devices

[signal ridge]

Assuming Ayaneo even ships it.

Think I just did an evil thing. Forced my Ally to run Borderlands 4. The Z1 Ally. Poor thing still hasn't cooled back down to close to room temperature.

[soft island]

To be fair their last couple have improved. But yes having tight delivery dates are very nice. Helps when you're a megacorp

[signal ridge]

Don't think you have to be a megacorp to get your shit out on time. Anbernic seems to do it just fine.

[silent nimbus]

Anbernic doesn’t even do preorders or crowd funding

They don’t take money till they’re ready to ship

[soft island]

The point was it don't hurt

Like if they're shipping in 3 weeks it's all done production anyway. At least the initial release

Probably working it's way through distro now

It's also gonna ship and get to you in 2 days instead of 2-3 weeks

[hearty prairie]

when do you guys think the media embargo will lift?

would like to see proper comparisons before buying

[silent nimbus]

Media embargo?

[soft island]

It's basically the equivalent to Anbernic sale if you think about it

[hearty prairie]

like seeing proper tests/comparisons from reviewers

they usually get them prior to launch

[silent nimbus]

I don’t think there’s a media embargo as much as nobody has it

This is what Russ said

[hearty prairie]

wish stores here had the claw/legion go so I can actually feel them in hand

[soft island]

Unfortunately I feel like with this stuff they drop embargos on launch day

[silent nimbus]

Yeah nothing within a 200 mile radius of me stocks anything besides the ally

I’m sure Best Buy will have Xbox ally demo units

[soft island]

Lego 1 used to have demo units in best buy

[silent nimbus]

Oh yeah I guess local BB did have a legion go S demo unit shoved in a corner

Back behind all the Legos and puzzles lol

Oh yeah

San disk is making “officially licensed Xbox ally SSDs and SD cards”

If you want to spend $300 on a 2TB sd card you now can

[signal ridge]

They did it for Switch, so ...

[covert furnace]

I forgot Sandisk changed their logo

[soft island]

Except that's not an express card

[silent nimbus]

Yeh but this is Xbox…

[signal ridge]

The OG Switch got some themed cards.

https://shop.sandisk.com/products/memory-cards/microsd-cards/sandisk-microsd-pokemon-cards?sku=SDSQXAO-1T00-GN6ZK

$179.99 for 1TB. With Snorlax. Only $100 more than the roughly equivalent Sandisk not-Snorlax card.

[soft island]

Yeah. But no one ever buys these not on sale. I got 1tb for like $90 I think

Personally the $10 was worth it for Snorlax, my main man

[silent nimbus]

I love how good my overpriced snorlax SD card looks inside of my device

[soft island]

Jokes aside I do like being able to identify size by color

[silent nimbus]

https://rog.asus.com/gaming-handhelds/accessories/rog-xbox-ally-2-in-1-premium-case/#global-where-to-buy/

[hearty prairie]

I just realised there's a Claw 8 and a Claw 8AI+.... is intel or AMD better?

[silent inlet]

Barely any difference.

[soft island]

Amd used to be just straight better, but the latest Intel are pretty comparable. More efficient at lower tdp. Weaker than amd at max power

258v lines up with hx370

[hearty prairie]

so I assume the claw 8 vs claw 8 ai+ vs the xax would all be pretty much similar?

[signal ridge]

Also typically more Intel compatibility issues than AMD but that has been getting better.

[silent nimbus]

Intel better on paper

Biggest hurdle is ARC drivers

I remember trying to play dragons dogma DA on the intel claw and it being a stuttery mess. I know it’s a driver issue cuz even the steam deck grinds that game into a find paste

[hearty prairie]

ideally looking for something with minimal tweaks required

[signal ridge]

XAX is going to have the new Windows game mode by default, so it's PROBABLY going to need the least tweaking to get a good experience.

Some of the "mess around with WIndows to disable stuff that intereferes with gaming" should at least be gone.

[silent nimbus]

I don’t want to recommend the Xbox ally X since I haven’t personally tried it. But from the FSE beta I’ve tried, and from what asus says, it does appear to be a very “just works” experience, much better than vanilla windows. If that’s not your liking you can always install something like bazzite

Being PC gaming, tweaking is always a possibility, but at this very moment steamOS and similar Linux distros are probably the most plug and play platforms

[soft island]

Yeah. But all windows handhelds should get the same treatment

Maybe not button layout. But honestly I'm not a fan of start and select being below other buttons anyway

Not that you can't just remap them

[silent nimbus]

Start and select placement is so arbitrary for me anymore

[soft island]

Yeah. That comboed with it only being 7" on an 8" sized shell

If they could have avoided both those I think it'd be a more solid device

[silent nimbus]

Eh after 6 months with a claw 8 I’m not so hot on 8” screens much anymore

They’re nice

But I like having a handheld that’s comfortable to hold in the hands

[soft island]

This at least looks like that

There's other good 7" devices for ergos that aren't as big tho

And steam deck is still solid despite being larger than 7

[charred kite]

They’ve got to fix a few things.

Open up the imagery to being user controlled, also you cannot currently add anything to the Game Mode stuff. So like Moonlight isn’t identified as a game or an app so you cannot use it from FSE

[silent nimbus]

Yeah beta software tends to be like that

[soft island]

Yeah. It's def not steam levels complete. It'll get there eventually

Anyone expecting it to launch with better is likely deluding themselves a little

[silent nimbus]

Like I said in a different server, steam BPM was pretty bad when it first came out

But it’s great now

[soft island]

Right. But we're comparing things now, not being fans

When you're 3 years late, make it work. Heh

[wide pebble]

Remind me again of how Steam games work with the new OS?

...Do they?

[soft island]

Yeah. You can link it

[wide pebble]

Is Steam easily accessed?

[soft island]

Not easily launchable. Basically will download the games to your local steam library and launch them. Of course you can also launch steam itself into big picture mode

[silent nimbus]

Download your Steam games and the Xbox app automatically detects and adds them

[soft island]

But the nav doesn't necessarily operate like steamOS nav

It's not context aware in that sense. Don't think Ms would go out of their way to do that

[silent nimbus]

I already main the Xbox pc app on my pc and it works great

[wide pebble]

I'd honestly rather wait before getting this, but I'm worried about it potentially getting scalped

[silent nimbus]

Waiting is always a good practice

Don’t worry about this getting scalped. The market isn’t big enough

[sage halo]

Alright. Who already got one? Someone from this discord has got to have it already.

[hearty prairie]

anyone from France here? saw they received them early

[soft island]

Yeah. Scalping isn't a concern. Think it's still available from some stores

[silent nimbus]

https://tenor.com/view/ogli-gif-17468683305861986751

Not me

[signal ridge]

Seems like Amazon goofed up in Europe and sent a few early. And US people can't buy it on Amazon anyway.

[charred kite]

Yeah Steam is easily launched. Xbox made a stub for it.

Even if you don’t have Steam installed, it’ll do the install link. I think it has Epic, GoG, Steam, and EA stubs there. It’ll either install them if they aren’t there or open the app if they are

As you install Steam or games from GoG etc they will appear as games whim FSE

[signal ridge]

(Well, you can buy the white Z2A Xbox Ally on Amazon, but not sure why we want that when the Deck OLED exists and is cheaper)

[charred kite]

1080p is pretty much the only reason

But I’d rather recommend a Z1E Ally since it’s more powerful and on sale usually for $50 less

You do lose some battery though

[signal ridge]

1080P with what's functionally equivalent to the Deck's APU isn't stellar, IMO.

[charred kite]

Yeah but streaming

I upgraded to the Go S just for the higher resolution while streaming

[signal ridge]

I guess you could make a case there - I was mainly talking playing games native and emulation.

[charred kite]

Yeah I agree playing things natively the Decks got an advantage. But the 800p display really sucks. It’s hard going back when you are used to 1080p and Microsoft is pushing streaming pretty hard both locally from an Xbox and the cloud.

I really hope they come up with some sort of GFE type native PC streaming. That would be sick

[silent nimbus]

Oled isn’t enough to make up for low res 800p and no VRR in my opinion

[wide pebble]

Main reason to get the Z2A Ally would be for ergo I suppose

Since you got them big handles

[silent nimbus]

And better screen

[wide pebble]

Higher resolution, definitely, but I'd be reluctant to say it's outright better, especially in the context of the Z2A model

Since with a lot of games, you're taking a performance hit by actually using the full resolution

I'd be inclined to go down to 720p because of that

There's definitely a sweetspot there for games that can run at full speed at 1080p from like the early PS4 era and earlier

[charred kite]

If only there was a screen resolution that would allow you to do 800p and something higher without compromises

[silent nimbus]

If only

[silent inlet]

And then you could just ignore the fact it can do 800p. Focus on the higher res, pretend older and non-AAA games don't exist, and say nothing runs on it

[wide pebble]

Genuinely, I don't know what you're getting at lol

[silent nimbus]

Lenovo legion go screen

[charred kite]

The Go screen was 1600p which is awesome for streaming at 2k but also great for intensive games at 800p

[wide pebble]

Ohhh

[charred kite]

Genuinely the only thing I miss about that device

[wide pebble]

Now I understand

[charred kite]

And at 1600p at 8.8”, if you did stream at 1080p to it from xcloud it didn’t look awful.

[silent nimbus]

Xcloud goes up to 1440p now too

[wide pebble]

I don't actually care that much for having 800p or 1600p specifically, because so many games don't support 16:10

[silent nimbus]

Allegedly

[charred kite]

Oh nice

[silent nimbus]

I’d honestly have to agree

[silent nimbus]

I’m testing it out as soon as I get home

[charred kite]

I have the opposite experience. If it doesn’t support 16:10 which is rare all I get are some black borders. With hr fit the extra real estate in the majority that do support it

[wide pebble]

Guess we're playing different games

[soft island]

Lul

[silent inlet]

Lil baby screen 👶

[warm belfry]

Itty bitty screen 😅 8 inch is where it is at

Hopefully Ally 2 🤞

[wide pebble]

The Legion Go screen is beautiful

[sharp ingot]

This is the ally 2 though

[wide pebble]

It would've been a much tougher decision for me to go with the Xbox Ally X if it wasn't for the Legion Go 2 being so obscenely expensive

I'm coming at this from an EU perspective though

The Xbox Ally X is quite a bit cheaper than other comparable handhelds by EU standards

But I know the US is getting rather shafted

[warm belfry]

Ally 1.75 😜

Ally 3.0 then 😄

[soft island]

It's like a baby who had a small head who worked out

https://tenor.com/view/bh187-family-guy-stewie-griffin-stewie-flex-gif-21484920

I mean I'll give it a couple day test run. But man. Really wish they'd gone at least 8"

Almost looks like a cell phone with grips attached

[wide pebble]

I don't think the bezels are that much different in size from the LCD Steam Deck's, and the original ROG Ally's a close enough size to that in general

So it really is mainly those handles that add so much bulk

[soft island]

Yeah. They def do. Of course if they didn't need ROG in massive print in the front they might have made them smaller

Def just realized my phone is 6.8" 😆

Pretty damn close

Put a g8 on it and we're there

[frank nymph]

ive been pairing my snapdragon 6 gen 1 phone thing i picked up this week with my controller and its fun 😄

[soft island]

Yeah. Starting to think the Winlator/Gamehub master race is right 😆

[charred kite]

Aspect ratio matters though. My iPhone is 6.9” but it has 30% less area at 16:9 then the Ally but it’s .1” smaller diagonal

[soft island]

Yeah. True. Just wild to think about tho

[lone prawn]

I think its a massive miss not making the Xbox Ally X have a 8inch Screen. And im someone who prefers 7inch screens and more compact design. But the fact that Xbox Ally X has massive grips at that point going 8inch wont make it less comfortable

Legion Go 2 and Claw A8 are goo unweidly for me and likely will be uncomfortable to hold

This round of systems have been a miss across the board let's hope Z3E handhelds do a better job

[wide pebble]

I haven't seen ROG Ally internals

But outside of the grips, the Xbox Ally is basically the same shape and size

So it makes sense they'd use that panel again

[signal ridge]

If you want grips but with 8" screen, the Legion Go S should fit the bill. They have a 32GB/Z1E model that's pretty solid.

[silent nimbus]

Or claw 8 ai+ with a better chip

[signal ridge]

I'm talking devices you can actually buy now. 🙃

[sharp ingot]

Legion go s isn't really worth it unless it's on sale

[signal ridge]

Most of these devices aren't with the recent price increases.

Legion Go S with Steam OS used to be way cheaper.

[sharp ingot]

Yeah the price increase was really disappointing

[frank nymph]

how much is it now for you guys?

[signal ridge]

$899 Steam / $979 Windows regular price. (32GB Z1E)

On "sale" for $799/$849

I mean, for $979 just get the XAX at $999 with the smaller screen but more efficient chip.

[frank nymph]

oof, fair... yeah the z1e version here in the UK is a lot. Z2go model tends to be in £300-350 range, i was tempted

[signal ridge]

I have the Z2Go Legion Go S. I actually like it a lot (it's as comfortable - or maybe even more comfortable - to use as a Steam Deck, and for me that's pretty high praise).

[frank nymph]

it did look and feel nice

[signal ridge]

Performance is the main issue obviously - but how much of a problem that is largely depends on what games you intend on playing on it.

[soft island]

Just got an open box z1e Lego s. Interested to try the 8"

[frank nymph]

how much you get it for?

[signal ridge]

Should be a good experience. The screen isn't as nice as the original Legion Go's (very few are without being OLED) ... but it is still quite good.

[soft island]

Think it was 640. Helps that I had some certs too

[ancient stag]

I'd still take z1e go s steam over the XAX, personally. It's not fugly, has a bigger screen, and the performance downgrade is not that big.

[soft island]

Yeah. Probably the right move. I still have one preordered. Really want to try the ergos next to some other stuff

If it turns out not to be all that great I won't be tempted in the future

[ancient stag]

You can also just install windows on the steam version and save yourself $80 (and get a better color)

[soft island]

Yeah. Right now I'm rotating F1 pro, ayaneo 3, Lego 1 and today Lego s

Trying to figure out that sweet spot

[ancient stag]

F1 pro is the best if you're ok with 7", IMO

I would take F1 pro over xax 200%

Haven't tried the aya 3 but it's heavier and larger than the f1

[soft island]

Yeah. It's bulkier. Modules are pretty fun tho

In the end if I could smash the 2 together it'd be perfect

[silent inlet]

How is it for Saturn/N64?

[soft island]

For 7"

[soft island]

The aya 3? Awesome. The 6 button module is great

I think if you want that flexible control option it's the only thing out there

My only hesitation is like, how long will they support any of it...

[silent inlet]

I was tempted to get it just for those systems

Aya are pretty good with support. All consoles get the same ayaspace updates.

[soft island]

Yesh. Software wise. More meant hardware. Like when it fails are you then buying modules off eBay for $200

[silent inlet]

Ahh, yeah, that's fair.

[charred kite]

Nice congrats! That’s about what I paid.

I did setup dual boot with FSE and it’s a great experience being able to easily use both OS strengths. It’s also neat that you can set Windows to hibernate during a game, boot back to SteamOS and play stuff then come back to Windows and it’ll resume the hibernated session.

[soft island]

Oh damn. Didn't know that. That sounds awesome

[ancient stag]

What's this, a way to dual boot with steamOS? Is there a guide

[charred kite]

Yeah in windows you just have to shut off fast boot or quick boot or whatever it is called

[soft island]

Ah. Gotchya

[charred kite]

https://youtu.be/yBHzVSDVEqw?si=0UxxsgoGfYlnlr1c

[soft island]

[ancient stag]

Thanks. I'm fine with steam rn but I might do a dualboot with windows when the lego 2 arrives so i can do windows performance comparisons

[charred kite]

Followed that guide to the letter. Only difference is when he says to boot to the folder in steamOS at the end from the boot menu, just select SteamOS and it’ll boot fine and let you toggle the last setting

[ancient stag]

Wonder if i can do it with a 512 external usb nvme

[charred kite]

If you have the SteamOS version, secure boot is already disabled. If you bought a Windows one you have to turn it off manually in the bios

[ancient stag]

I have a steam version

[charred kite]

If windows ever breaks the bootloader and you get grub. Follow this video. Just ignore everything with the booter he uses, you just gotta follow the partition fix part https://youtu.be/eUDbLkHDeGY?si=9T8IeF22OGZJv7PU

[soft island]

I'll probably end up partitioning it enough to have like 1 or 2 games on windows

[ancient stag]

I'll have to see how much i have to steam right now, probably not that huge. could throw like 300gb to windows

[wide pebble]

I'd like the Legion Go S Z1E if it wasn't for the fact that it still has a relatively small battery

[soft island]

Probably does alright with steamOS tho

I'd assume

[wide pebble]

I just think you really need a bigger battery to make the most of Z1E

Z2E at 17w being on par with Z1E at 25w, and the XAX having a much bigger battery means that there's a huge difference in battery life

[soft island]

Yeah. I mean I'll give it a shot

Battery life very dependent on how you play

If anything I need sleep to work better more than screen on performance

[ancient stag]

Battery life isn't amazing but it's enough for me. If you plan to be away from outlets and play for more than 2 hours, then yeah xax would be better in that regard.

[wide pebble]

I have a Steam Deck and mainly play in bed, but I still find it annoying how often I need to charge it lol

[soft island]

Yeah. I mean that's almost everything at this point

Really need a battery tech breakthrough more than incremental performance bumps

Manus also can't help themselves. As soon as the battery lasts 10% longer they chop 10% off it to make the device lighter and thinner

[silent inlet]

Ehhh, just buy a power bank if you want more battery

[soft island]

I just want new tech in general. I'd still carry a bank 😆

[silent nimbus]

Win 5 external battery situation looks interesting

Just buy a 2nd battery you ca swap out when one dies

[soft island]

It's not the worst idea. I just wish it was something you could slot in or had a door. Worried me to just have it dangling there off the back

[silent nimbus]

Yeah it’s not the prettiest solution

[soft island]

Yeah. Wish all handhelds went back to that + basic connector for batteries. Would make longevity so much better at the cost of a couple mm

[weary igloo]

has the recent game pass price hike and the avalanche of bad press made anyone else reconsider their XAX preorder? i want to get one for the spec bump over the deck, and for PC game pass. but its looking like game pass might not even be a thing long term, and if it is I definitely don’t want to pay anywhere between $17 and $30 a month for it

so now i’m wondering if it’s still worth it to get an XAX if game pass is off the table. is the spec bump over the deck worth it for me? i really don’t know at this point.

[soft island]

I mean you def don't need this for game pass. Could just stick with deck

Probably only worth it if you like the ergos and want to try the Xbox experience. Or have PC games that are lagging on the deck

[weary igloo]

I went ahead and cancelled my preorder. Something just doesn’t feel right with all this news coming out of Microsoft. The last time I felt iffy about a preorder and cancelled it was the PSVR2, and look at how good a decision that turned out to be!

I’ll watch reviews, and if there’s a good deal for the XAX over the next few months I might still jump in. I just feel too uncertain about the future of game pass and Xbox right now to commit to buying it sight unseen, day one.

[silent nimbus]

that's totally understandable

I canceled mine as well

but got the gpd win 5 instead

though the xbox ally X is really just an xbox in name only

[sharp ingot]

Based

[charred kite]

Which model?

[silent nimbus]

64gb/4tb model

ain't gonna half ass a 395 device lol

[weary igloo]

Yeah, I understand what kind of device the XAX is. I’m interested in it mostly because it’s a Windows PC handheld, with more power than my Steam Deck. I mainly wanted it for PC game pass, as well as better performance for PS3/360 emulation.

[weary igloo]

on one hand, this is nuts. that device is twice as expensive as the XAX. on the other.. I kinda get it.

[soft island]

I mean the real interest to me is the ai in the ai z2e and how that might unlock some coolness in the vrr and other things

Of course I'm pretty sure it's not available at launch

[wide pebble]

Isn't Z2E AI a distinct APU?

Or at least I thought it was

[deep prairie]

yeah it doesn't have the XDNA unit ripped out like the normal Z2E

[wide pebble]

Oh XAX has the AI version?

I thought it was just normal Z2E

[deep prairie]

I think so but I have only heard people say that not seen it on a spec sheet

I assume this has to do with the autoSR feature that uses the NPU, microsoft has shown that off on their ARM windows laptops

wouldn't worry about it myself, I think for upscaling I would stick to stuff that is integrated to the game with proper motion vectors

global FSR 1 on the deck sucked as well, spatial upscalers just aren't very important when any demanding game ships with temporal upscalers that destroy image quality way less

for tinkerers swapping FSR 3.1+ or even DLSS to the community established FSR 4 for older RDNA generations with optiscaler is an ideal solution

those all run directly on the GPU without any NPU support

[wide pebble]

I don't think I've played a game that's supported FSR 4 yet

At least on Steam Deck

[deep prairie]

yeah FSR 4 is officially only available for RDNA 4 GPUs, so the 9070 XT or 9060 XT for example

but AMD accidentally posted the source code on github a coupld of weeks ago so the community has tried making it work with older AMD graphics technology

it def runs a bit slower but the image quality is still better

hopefully AMD officially releases backported FSR 4 versions for older devices, I personally feel like it's a bit rough that we get handhelds that cost 1000-2000 bucks these days and they are stuck with mediocre upscalers

[wide pebble]

Sorry, I'm not really good for any of this

Does Z2E support FSR 4?

It doesn't sound like it

[maiden rune]

There's an unofficial fork/program that forces a "Lite" version of FSR4 to run on older graphics. Z2E is included I think. It's all really experimental.

[wide pebble]

Ah okay

Thanks for the clarification

[silent nimbus]

Is that will optiscaler?

[maiden rune]

Yep

[wide pebble]

How big is the difference?

Between it and FSR 3.1, I mean

[charred kite]

AutoSR is ARM only, no evidence of it coming to x86.

The AI stuff is just that, a dedicated chip for the useless copilot stuff

[deep prairie]

they have said they want to add that pretty sure

afaik from an interview somewhere but I heard it on the DF podcast

[charred kite]

Microsoft says a lot of things

[deep prairie]

sure, I agree

I mean their whole windows for handheld devices is just trying to recreate steamOS game mode, so I could see them trying to port autoSR since the deck has global FSR 1

I personally don't really care but that might be one of their copes to use the NPU version of the Z2E

AI is a big buzzword anyways and M$ is spearheading it

outside of autoSR I cannot think what they would use an NPU for realistically

[charred kite]

Have you seen the dedicated copilot button in gamebar

[deep prairie]

yeah they try to add copilot into everything, probably some poor guy has to boost the numbers of copilot users, I even had it pinned to my taskbar after a windows update just to uninstall it again xD

[charred kite]

The more they force AI into stuff the more it “gets used” and the more data and funding they get.

No one actually knows what they want to do with it, it’s just a fancy buzzword

Even Notepad got Copilot

[deep prairie]

yeah exactly it's fake user number boosting

tbf we had NPUs since the 7840U and I don't think I have seen any use for it

but then again I do not know much about AI workloads

anybody who does anything serious with AI uses the GPU usually

[charred kite]

Or a specialty chip like the 395

[deep prairie]

just seems like a checkbox really, I doubt it will do much good for an x86 gaming handheld, as I said even if autoSR arrives I would advice not using it and sticking to upscalers running on GPU / integrated to the game with motion vectors and all

[charred kite]

Upscalers built into the games will always be superior

[deep prairie]

yeah fr and on that you still want to use the GPU mainly for AI with all that shared memory for larger models

[deep prairie]

exactly

I mean if they port autoSR it will just be a checkbox on some AI leadership roadmap in a boardroom

I doubt people will use it much

[soft island]

100%. But I don't expect every dev to do that

Same could be said about good gameplay, plot, and everything else. I'm the end you'll have games that make the effort and those that don't and get dinged because of it. Just another aspect of game critique

Still excited to see it work on older stuff tho

XAX def has the potential for the most interesting tech at least

Of course MS loves abandoning stuff. So I wouldn't consider it guaranteed

[deep prairie]

what games are realistically super GPU heavy but have no upscaler inbuild? maybe shit like Elden Ring but I would rather mod in motion vectors than use autoSR (if it gets added) on it or driver level FSR

I get that it's not a bad thing to have an extra tool over not having it but as I said it seems like it just gets pushed because M$ loves anything AI

meanwhile MSI and Lenovo are not giving a fuck and use the Z2E non AI

it reminds me of the xbox series X where they talked about all the cool machine learning capabilities a bunch and then never did a single thing with it

[charred kite]

Really just older stuff at this point

[signal ridge]

I wonder if a lot of people are actually going to change possibly ordering the XAX because of Gamepass - or is a lot of the market for what's an upgraded Ally actually looking for something like a more powerful Ally with a streamlined Windows to make the thing more console-like. I'm in the market for this and I give not one shit about Gamepass (my PC stuff is on Steam and GOG), but I might be the minority.

[soft island]

Def the most likely outcome. I would never buy it assuming we'll get cooler stuff. But it has potential for it at least

[deep prairie]

I think I would rather use lossless scaling on that and render at 540p and use nearest neighbor upscale to 1080p for less artefacts than using a spatial upscaler but might just be me

[soft island]

Yeah. Just depends

I'm not a pixel perfect carer and always just want more real estate

https://tenor.com/view/real-estate-its-free-real-estate-gif-11276235

[deep prairie]

at the end of the day it's not a bad tool to have, I just think it will rarely be useful

[deep prairie]

yeah I guess it's not just scaling but stuff like FSR 1 had insane artefacts

to be fair autoSR had less but I cannot remember if it tries to generate motion vectors artificially by holding frames because it def doesn't interface with the game engine

maybe it jitters the frames around, dunno

I guess this is a very technical aspect that the normal user won't even ever think about xD

I would hope the Z2E can play most games that released prior to upscalers natively

[soft island]

The hope would be since this is a PC and not an Xbox that any new developments or tech we could install ourselves

[deep prairie]

for sure

there is a small niche of games without motion vectors that are GPU heavy enough where this could matter but it's not many

[soft island]

Could load up whatever SR you want

[deep prairie]

kinda funny but the community has been modding them in like with beamNG or Elden Ring

[soft island]

Heh

[deep prairie]

we will see where it goes, I have yet to see anything useful on NPUs and we had them for years now

maybe microsoft just wanted to require them for win 11 or some shit, nvidia and generally speaking GPUs are leading in any actual AI workload

from what I can tell, I am by no means an AI expert

[wide pebble]

This is also my position

It helps that the XAX is much cheaper in Ireland than its direct competition

Since it's €900 inc. VAT

MSI Claw A8 isn't available in Irish retailers, but if it was, I guarantee it'd be about €1000-1050

Since most of these companies just get the original price and then slap on the country's VAT rate

Ireland has 23% VAT, which really sucks lol

[lone prawn]

I realised wouldn't the MSI Claw A8 be better value than Xbox Ally X

In the UK I mean

Its only £50 more but you get a bigger screen

[silent nimbus]

If you value a bigger screen then yeah probably

MSI center M is pretty anemic tho last I used it

[hearty prairie]

ooh z1e legion go s is on sale for $900

solid discount $400 cheaper than the xax

is it difficult to get windows on steam OS?

[wide pebble]

Aussie or Canadian?

[hearty prairie]

Canadian

[wide pebble]

Anyway, regarding your question

I looked into the matter, and I found this
`I followed this video for the steam deck, that worked perfectly fine

Once I got windows installed, I had to bypass the internet required screen, it’s a pretty easy google search

Then I downloaded the wifi drivers from Lenovo’s website, installed them, downloaded Lenovo Vantage and Legion Space, and that’s it.

A problem I faced was that once I installed Legion Space, I wasn’t able to open it, but just pressing the “Legion R” button opened it up, it downloaded and installed properly.`

https://youtu.be/syYY9Gy0b5M?si=ePg250m0Rxzq5HaI

Seems it's basically the same process as here, though there are notes as I listed

[hearty prairie]

thanks!

might heavily consider it rather than $1300 for the xax

especially with the pc game pass increase

[wide pebble]

I'm waiting to see how the stock OS is at least

It seems pretty good on paper

Because I'd rather not have to acknowledge the existence of Game Pass at all lol

[soft island]

BB clearly making room for the go 2. I picked up a go s for like 560 open box

Go 1 was like 430

[sage halo]

Z1E or Z2 for the Go S?

[signal ridge]

No deals like that here right now ... except i could go get a Lego 1 open box for $473.99

[soft island]

Z1e

Yeah. They pop up sporadically. And then you have to have one in stock locally

[sage halo]

Damn. That's a steal right there.

[river snow]

Xbox live

[silent nimbus]

xbox dead

[ancient stag]

Dang I paid 670 used on here, nice deal

And yeah screw game pass. All my homies hate game pass now

[soft island]

i did buy a bunch of current cards and load it up 😆

guess i'm a traitor

[signal ridge]

I had gamepass briefly (free trials) to try cloud streaming a while back and it was okay, but not something I wanted to pay a premium price for. Was recently thinking of trying gamepass again, and then Microsoft goes and jacks the prices, making the decision to just keep ignorning gamepass quite easy. Thanks, Microsoft?

[silent nimbus]

Stadia was still peak game streaming

We need a direct connect controller for it to be viable

[soft island]

I still use my stadia controller. Is comfy and battery lasts

[warm belfry]

Ahhh my YT notifications are going nuts 😅 embargo is clearly over

https://youtu.be/_XhDRAq4YO8?si=8_k_cCUkOTCrsB4f

https://youtu.be/ltUv6p6lS80?si=eZRdqG5fXk1s1Jcy

https://youtu.be/Zmw_J3h59TY?si=TdpYVWXEhNJ-lrZu

https://youtu.be/Z0Fe3sYB4pY?si=cRlbSLwDRtqruIFL

https://youtu.be/A6HxG2kFpwo?si=siOEx8Vwnc3Cozt8

https://youtu.be/O_MgXYo-uf0?si=Ph9eFN68RJBVYUmi

[silent nimbus]

Jesus

Looks like review embargo lifted 😅

[warm belfry]

https://youtu.be/MuNqr5PfJ18?si=_2Grm1yD7psQL54a

That will do 😅 loads of others but you get the gist

[silent nimbus]

Unfortunately I canceled mine so a little less hype, but I’ll watch some of them

[warm belfry]

I got my own new toy 🤫

[silent nimbus]

Can’t wait for my win 5

[warm belfry]

One more

[silent nimbus]

Defo watching phawx first

Love that guy

[warm belfry]

https://youtu.be/eFvjTrYcQrw?si=kVZGvpnGRiUpai-o

Sorry one one more

[silent nimbus]

Lol

Definitely review embargo

[ancient stag]

Releases tomorrow, right ?

[silent nimbus]

Technically yes

[ancient stag]

I’ll summarize the reviews: more comfortable than an ally/ally x, 10-20% more performance depending on game. New windows mode. The end. lol.

[silent nimbus]

Yeah lol I figured

[warm belfry]

Techdweebs review points out a little area fingers catch on. So not 100% comfy

[ancient stag]

Haha I mean I haven’t actually watched any so I could be wrong. It’s only 6:30am here still drinking coffee and rubbing sleep out of my eyes.

[silent nimbus]

I’m sure phawx has some of his glorious charts

[warm belfry]

https://tenor.com/view/wake-up-cat-kitty-feed-me-get-up-gif-6798488748506560101

[soft island]

Def still wanna hold it. It after rocking legion go for a while, 7" just seems... Dumb

[silent nimbus]

Might drop by Best Buy and see if they have any demo units

[ancient stag]

7” can have its appeal for portability but the xax loses a bit of that with the shape.

[silent nimbus]

I enjoyed the big screen on my claw 8 but yeah it did take away from the portability

[ancient stag]

I’m currently a legion go s Stan as I find it a nice middle ground. But I don’t ever take it to work. My f1 pro I would toss in my backpack sometimes.

[warm belfry]

I can’t go back after experiencing lego2 oled

[silent nimbus]

Z2A Lego S would be killer

[warm belfry]

That i would buy

Travel buddy

[ancient stag]

Do you mean z2e?

[silent nimbus]

Nah the Z2A, the one that’s pretty much just the steam deck chip

[ancient stag]

That pretty much already exists with the z2 go Lego s

[warm belfry]

I thought you meant z2e as well 😅

These chips are confusing

[ancient stag]

Z2go gets same scores as deck at 15w. It’s nearly the same. I have owned both z2go and currently own the Z1E go s.

[silent nimbus]

Yeah but low watt performance

[ancient stag]

Z2go go s does pretty well there already

[silent nimbus]

Hmm

[ancient stag]

Anyway, maybe if someone returns an xax and I can snag an open box to play around with and then return I’ll try one but I don’t have any plans to own one long term.

I like the go s screen better than Ally screen

[silent nimbus]

Yeah I’m keeping my eye open for an open box base Xbox ally

[ancient stag]

Claw 8 screen is good too. But it’s a bit less comfy than the go s and more expensive these days.

[silent nimbus]

Yeah the Intel claw 8 wasn’t super comfortable

[ancient stag]

The go s is so nice to hold. Possibly the most comfy pc handheld I’ve used for me personally

The OneXFly/f1 pro is pretty good too

[silent nimbus]

I got to feel a Lego S demo unit at bestbuy and it does feel really good in the hands

[warm belfry]

Fingers crossed for 31st and you will like another screen 😅

It wont be long before someone 3d prints the same style grips for OG Ally X

Then just install insider windows for xbox mode and you are 90% there

[silent nimbus]

That’s what my first order of business is with my win 5

[warm belfry]

https://youtu.be/01_VNaUQIew?si=-tayeGGpVtFCQlMF

https://youtu.be/PgFeiwvqS0g?si=bRLdXi4ka0ILH2zH

[silent nimbus]

I saw the game verification system was live in the Xbox app last night too

[warm belfry]

Dave2D makes a good point that updates are a bit fragmented. Still have to use armoury crate to do bios and driver updates etc. Cant just stay in xbox mode

So for average users might be confusing

[charred kite]

Doesn’t armoury crate open as an application?

I update my Legion Go S bios without leaving Xbox FSE

[warm belfry]

Yeah but he is saying from a user perspective. It would be more seamless if there was one place all updates go through, user has to go to windows update and armoury create to do different updated

We are used to it. But someone new to x86 handhelds may get lost

[charred kite]

Oh, so it’s just being dumb

It’s still a PC for all its pluses and minuses.

At least it allows apps to open normally in FSE and doesn’t force you out

[soft island]

Yeah. Which they really should have worked out by now

[warm belfry]

Marketing doesnt help average joe thinking this is an xbox handheld not an x86

[soft island]

3.8 trillion dollar company can't create a new UI for updates

Yeah. That'll be the biggest issue

Feel like the open box bins will be overflowing

[charred kite]

You really can’t unless you give up some of its advantages and flexibility

[soft island]

Uh. Yes you can. Lol

It's a UI. That's it

Like you can call the same backend processes and just put a UI in fse

But this is how MS half ass approaches most UX so it's not overly shocking

[charred kite]

The UI is the Armoury crate application

[soft island]

So basically Microsoft's Collab is that they let them put a button and cool designs on it? Guess that makes sense

[warm belfry]

But you still have updates via windows updates menu. The updates are split between that and armoury create

[ancient stag]

Isn’t the ui the Xbox App now, not ACSE?

[silent nimbus]

Oh damn

[charred kite]

Only the overlay is in Xbox. The Amoury Crate app still exists for stuff like controller combos/modification as well as specific driver updates

[ancient stag]

And yeah going out to windows update is a different thing. It’s s easy as pc people to say don’t be dumb but for someone picking it up expecting an “Xbox” experience they may not know what they need to do.

[silent nimbus]

Xbox ally X comes with 3 months of gamepass premium

Not even full fat gamepass ultimate

[warm belfry]

I think there will be a flurry of returns for people thinking they can play xbox games on this

Which they can via streaming lol

[silent nimbus]

I actually don’t think so

[ancient stag]

There were tons of returns for the original Ally also because people didn’t understand what it was. This branding makes it even more unclear.

[soft island]

Eh. I know one who expected to be able to access games they bought on xbox

Cause like, that would make too much sense

[silent nimbus]

I mean you can just not all of them

[warm belfry]

Or people rebuy pc equiv games

[ancient stag]

Too few titles are play anywhere these days

[soft island]

So if they have a PC port it'll be available as a digital download? That's not so bad

[silent nimbus]

Yup

[ancient stag]

Only if it’s play anywhere. Not all games

[soft island]

Oh

[charred kite]

I think a lot of the returns was because it sucked though. Especially early on

[soft island]

That's confusing

[charred kite]

People didn’t really understand how power profiles and stuff worked.

They just wanted to play COD

[silent nimbus]

They have a play anywhere badge on the applicable games

[warm belfry]

And sd issues. My day one ally still has a working sd card slot. Only a matter of time though

[tacit mica]

enter my world of portable Windows gaming wonder
ok Xbox
$1000
no Xbox

[soft island]

Yeah. For someone whose only owned an Xbox I doubt theyve ever considered what that's meant 😆

[soft island]

https://tenor.com/view/bet-casino-gambling-victor-polizzi-john-magaro-gif-15213368

[silent nimbus]

Biggest issue with play anywhere is the longevity of it

Since we know they won’t be in the console space for much longer

[stone shale]

If you don't want to watch the whole video, at least check out this sick AF transtition edit I made in my Xbox Ally video. https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxYcWkeWc7N7hFWWWqtqRBGf0a7PF88tv3?si=EtULM2u0ugHdctxz

[silent nimbus]

Hell the next Xbox is pretty much just gonna be a PC with dedicated compatibility/backwards compatibility hardware or software

[soft island]

Yeah. Unfortunate if they don't offer some kind of bone to people who have massive digital libraries

[warm belfry]

Wasn’t there a rumour about them hiring the xenia guys? To try and do pc compatibility

[silent nimbus]

I remember hearing about that but not much beyond

As long as I can still play my digital copies of Asura’s wrath and lost odyssey

[signal ridge]

Okay, so they have obviously sent out all the Youtube shill units ... now they need to send out mine, dammit. 🙃

[lofty granite]

Thanks for including my video in the mix @warm belfry

[warm belfry]

Of course! 😍 retrogue love over here

https://tenor.com/view/youtube-subscribe-ring-notification-bell-gif-16916384

[lofty granite]

My paid unit is going to be at Best Buy tomorrow. I don't have a review unit on hand. My footage is from the event.

[feral matrix]

To be fair aren't consoles just really locked down mini PCs...

[lofty granite]

Petey love over here.

[silent nimbus]

At this point yeah pretty much lol

[soft island]

Yeah. With more effort spent on the UX

Was kinda figuring we'd see that same effort for this. But maybe it'd have to be in house designed

[signal ridge]

At least this "Xbox" is a mini PC that isn't locked down.

[soft island]

Guess that's the tradeoff. Could do both I guess

[silent nimbus]

Both ps5 and Xbox run on AMD x86 hardware

Plus Xbox runs the directX api and is where first X in Xbox comes from

[signal ridge]

Might have said this before, but I've pretty much sworn off consoles. Give me a PC (mini, handheld, whatever) with my Steam and my GOG and my emulators and I'm good.

[soft island]

I still enjoy the simplicity. Tho steamOS is pretty on par

[silent nimbus]

Speaking of GoG, my library just hit 200 yesterday

[soft island]

https://tenor.com/view/cheers-toast-salute-here's-to-you-heres-to-you-gif-3182433711752800466

[fierce moat]

https://youtu.be/AK20fjXjpP8

[feral matrix]

Yea well Normies wouldn't be here on RH discord

[fierce moat]

not surprised with performance, windows still trash

[regal pond]

can any charitable soul do a tl;dw for those who are mildly curious but don't care enough to actually watch any of the videos?

[soft island]

This is a review

Except ergos not exactly comfortable

According to some

[warm belfry]

I have 630 games in steam, 300 in gog and another 600 in epic 😅

I just wish i had time to play them

[silent nimbus]

How many of those epic games did you pay for

[soft island]

Amen

[warm belfry]

Only a handful 🤣🤣🤣

[soft island]

Haha. Only games I have in epic are free games

[silent nimbus]

Lmao

[signal ridge]

I think that's what did it for me ... Steam basically makes whichever PC I happen to be on into a console. A console that I'm not locked to a particular device with ... and upgrading my PC basically upgrades my whole library.

[silent nimbus]

I have an epic library but never access it

[regal pond]

I paid for one

[silent nimbus]

My mains on PC are GoG and Steam

[regal pond]

I regret it

[soft island]

Yeah. It really made this whole revolution a thing

[silent nimbus]

I do have a handful of Xbox pc games

[soft island]

I mean without it we probably wouldn't even be getting FSE now

[warm belfry]

Prime games has helped my gog library grow

[signal ridge]

This is the way.

[silent nimbus]

Like PSO2, Minecraft dungeons, and near all tomato

[silent nimbus]

Free games you actually get to own

Yeah a solid 50% of my gog games came from prime gaming

[signal ridge]

They even put some GOOD ones for free on Prime gaming every now and then.

[silent nimbus]

Oh yeah definitely

Silver box collection was on there a few months ago

Also the mafia games

[stone shale]

brb, telling them to lose yours off the side of a cargo ship

https://tenor.com/view/just-kidding-jk-reaction-dodgeball-ben-stiller-gif-4385534

[charred kite]

Yeah the console stuff is gonna be real difficult due to licensing

[stray socket]

So any of the reviewers talk about how well sleep mode works with the Xbox Fullscreen Experience?

[silent nimbus]

It’s still just windows so I’d assume no improvement

[regal pond]

https://www.polygon.com/rog-xbox-ally-x-review/

[signal ridge]

That's what is going to happen to my Legion Go 2, I'm sure (January "ship date" ffs)

[silent nimbus]

“Windows still sucks for gaming”

Do they know?

[signal ridge]

"We noticed that ads aren't being displayed". No shit.

[charred kite]

Phawx does

[stray socket]

Thanks, I already saw two reviews, and didn't want to start trawling through more for a device I don't plan on getting lol.

[signal ridge]

New sleep mode is wild.

[soft island]

I mean. Kinda agree. At least from a console players perspective 😆

[soft island]

Ah. Jesus protocol

In a year we'll be having PragerU ads

[silent nimbus]

Plug and play is nice, but mods are nice too

Plus a lot of my favorite games aren’t on console 😢

[soft island]

True. But gotta consider the massively large console player base

[silent nimbus]

Thanks to anti cheat I’ve considered buying BF6 on my Xbox

[astral thistle]

Will the windows improvements come to other devices at some point?

[silent nimbus]

Full screen experience will yes

[signal ridge]

I remember how "plug and play" Cyberpunk was on PS4.

[soft island]

To be fair. It was pretty ass everywhere at launch

[silent nimbus]

One of the best Google stadia advertisements

[warm belfry]

I refunded my disc. Which is never heard of

[soft island]

I remember people with max spec PCs streaming day one, and being like, wtf, as half the NPCs clipped in like 10 feet away

[soft island]

Wise

[signal ridge]

I loved how every time I parked my car filled itself with concrete.

[soft island]

At least they improved it

[silent nimbus]

I bought cyberpunk on ps4 for $5 after the delisting shit show

[soft island]

I swear they still have a randomized variable for performance

[silent nimbus]

Played it on my ps5 then

[soft island]

I'll replay the same scenario and get 70 fps one run and 50 fps the next day

[silent nimbus]

The cyberpunk glow up is pretty crazy tho gotta admit

[soft island]

Oh for sure

[silent nimbus]

I thought it was un salvageable

[soft island]

Say what you will about projekt red. But they at least didn't abandon it after a month

[signal ridge]

Any games other than Cyberpunk and No Man's Sky recover from a complete clusterfuck of a launch?

[silent nimbus]

Not to the same degree no

[signal ridge]

I was wondering if I missed another big recovery.

[silent nimbus]

I’m pretty excited for light no fires

[soft island]

Shit. What was that one mech suit game which was total ass and abandoned?

It's on the tip of my tongue

[silent nimbus]

I don’t recall

[soft island]

Anthem. Lol

That's it

[silent nimbus]

Oh lmao

Yeah

That

[soft island]

EA of course

[silent nimbus]

Don’t forget the goat

https://tenor.com/view/concord-logo-fps-concord-game-firewalk-gif-17400434102936676926

[wide pebble]

Seeing the problems with Full Screen Experience makes it easier to wait this one out

Hopefully someone will make a SteamOS build for it

[silent nimbus]

What’s the problem with FSE?

[stray socket]

I always forget how cool Phawx's thumbnail into video transitions are

[wide pebble]

I heard something about someone getting OneDrive pop-ups, but maybe it was hyperbole

[silent nimbus]

Isn’t that just a windows problem in general

I get harassed by pop ups for one drive and game pass all the time

[wide pebble]

Yeah but it's one of those things you'd really hope FSE did away with

[signal ridge]

Wait, people have onedrive installed?

[covert furnace]

Everyone has Onedrive installed, it's the first notification you get when you land on the Windows desktop

it's also the first thing I uninstall

[signal ridge]

It would be NICE if Asus shipped their system designed exclusively for gaming with Onedrive and Office 365 and all the other not-gaming stuff not actually installed (people who want those things can just add them back), but I guess Microsoft just can't let go of Windows being a "work" OS and let them ship a slimmed down version.

[warm belfry]

@covert furnace heya 🙂 have you noticed any xbox ally features that are device specific? Or does the xbox full screen mode feel similar to insider build?

[covert furnace]

Outside of Armoury Crate, the FSE is very similar

Video is up for the Xbox Ally: https://youtu.be/pg9GceF7no4

[warm belfry]

https://tenor.com/view/letgo-lets-goooo-pickles-lets-go-excited-gif-13808708

[ancient stag]

Top tier comment

[frank merlin]

https://tenor.com/view/salt-salt-intensifies-salty-gif-12158900

[soft island]

Lol

[ancient stag]

Dang just looked on BB out of curiousity

Two months if you want one now and didn't preorder

How many days do you think before xbox bros return it and the open box firesale starts?

[covert furnace]

Seems to be the theme for all of the x86 handhelds

MSI still can't keep the Claw 8 in-stock

[ancient stag]

Hell, how long has the claw 8 been out?

[covert furnace]

they make 1 per week

[ancient stag]

Hah, same thought

As far as I know I'm still getting my lego 2 on time.. but best buy just says "we'll let you know when it's ready"

Can't even preorder the lego 2 though, just says 'coming soon'

[charred kite]

Immediately

[ancient stag]

I'll just sit here refreshing BB.com Thursday and Friday while working from home

[charred kite]

Hand packaged and delivered too

I’m somewhat interested, I really love my Go S Z1E but do wish the battery was larger. Even though I primarily stream from my desktop 😂

[ancient stag]

I wouldn't take this over the go s z1e, but I might 'borrow' it from best buy just to test it.

[charred kite]

Legion Space sucks though. The shortcut keys for the Xbox button and stuff are a literal crapshoot as to if they will function. It’s super annoying

And TPD selections.

I cannot tell you how many times I’ll change it in legion space and it just not change

[ancient stag]

Oh, my go s is on steam lol

legion space is utter garbage

I just picked up a Go 1 again for some videos and immediately was frustrated with legion space

[frank nymph]

i went with the ally over the go 1 in the end

[warm belfry]

Ally x had some on bb within days of release

[charred kite]

I’m dual booting. Too many games in gamepass to give it up lol

[ancient stag]

I cancelled gamepass after the restructure and price hike

[charred kite]

With two kids it’s still worth it unfortunately

[ancient stag]

Instead I'm paying for GeForce Now, so if I need a windows game I can just use that in steam os, works great for me.

Been playing battlefield 6 on the go s using GFN

[charred kite]

Gamepass lets me share it among the three of us at the same time. If I got rid of it I’d have to pay for 3 licenses of anything we play together

[ancient stag]

Gyro for aim

[ancient stag]

Ah, makes sense. Mine isn't old enough to be playing gamepass games yet.

She just watches me play nintendo games

[charred kite]

Yeah mine are 10 and 13, so prime age for all the Minecraft stuff, flight sim, NMS, grounded, forza etc etc

[frank nymph]

fistbump on GFN 😄

[ancient stag]

I finally committed to a year plan. After dealing with headaches with moonlight/apollo, failed xbox series x expirement, thought about building another pc for living room.. just said f it, $200/yr would take 5 years to break even just with the price of the 5080 lol. And by then something better will be out.

thankfully I only get like 6ms ping to the nearest servers

[frank nymph]

oh nice 😄 I've been on founders since 2021. Found i dont really need ultimate

[ancient stag]

I have a 4k120 TV in the living room, so ultimate is nice for that

[charred kite]

Really, what sort of issues with Apollo/Moonlight

I had severe packet loss issues but it was an MTU setting on my router that fixed it. Something about jumbo packets

[ancient stag]

Lately frame pacing issues, even fully hardwired with minipc as client. It comes and goes, a few months ago I had flawless frame pacing streaming to the EVO and such. Now I'm banging my head trying to get the minipc smooth.

GFN is like butter

[charred kite]

Check your router settings

[ancient stag]

Oh believe me, I have been downt he rabbit hole of reddit posts and github posts, changing all the router settings, etc.

[charred kite]

Gotta set the MTU to the largest option, and in windows under the network card set jumbo packets or something

[ancient stag]

That's what I'm talking about - after hours of troubleshooting I just don't have time

GFN "just works"

[charred kite]

Yeah makes sense

[frank nymph]

i havent seen reviews yet on this btw, how's it looking?

[ancient stag]

And I'll get it working, and then something will change and I have to retroubleshoot. I've been a huge proponent of moonlight for a long time, it's just there's always some variability in it working smoothly

[ancient stag]

Been busy bullshitting here instead of actually watching videos but misterpetey linked several reviews above #1348770660192751739 message

[silent nimbus]

The only game streaming service I use is Amazon Luna

Xbox cloud is aight but only cuz it includes games with the subscription

GFN ain’t worth the price to me

Especially with the play time limits

Boosteroid isn’t solid enough for where I live

[ancient stag]

I have a kid and a day job, I ain't hitting 100h in a month, but I could see it being an issue for some

[silent nimbus]

Ye

I game a lot

And plus a cloud streaming service lets me play those games where/when I otherwise couldn’t

[frank nymph]

100h is a hell of a lot. I play a lot on GFN daily partially because i do a shitton of game reviewing but 100hours is still really high

[ancient stag]

Well GFN is that (cloud), but yeah

[soft island]

Watching @covert furnace 's review and damn does the steam deck still pull weight. Lol

[frank nymph]

that price to performance is still bonkers

[ancient stag]

Steam deck for 800p <15w gaming is still pretty undisputed

[silent nimbus]

I like Amazon Luna cuz A) it’s included with prime and B) I can play my gog games with cloud saves

[lofty granite]

Am I the only one here who is really looking forward to the base model?

[ancient stag]

Low TDP/indie/budget gamers still just gonna keep on plodding along on steam deck

[silent nimbus]

I’ve been eyeing it since it was announced

[soft island]

Yeah. I just keep expecting it to get trounced but I guess we need to wait for more 395s

[lofty granite]

Not true.

I would pick this up over Steam Deck.

[soft island]

Ehhh. Steam deck oled $50 cheaper and runs better

[lofty granite]

That’s a comparison I can’t wait to make.

[ancient stag]

I didn't say you. I said low tdp/indie/budget gamers (the majority of them was implied)

[frank nymph]

rog ally X and the big msi claw can go toe to toe with deck oled for Low TDP gaming i think

[silent nimbus]

$50 cheaper but worse screen

Smaller battery

[lofty granite]

It presents itself so nicely.

[ancient stag]

The number of people on steamdeck and that will stay on steam deck is still magnitudes higher than those that are on ally or will buy the xbox ally, IMO. I'm not talking about my personal preference at all.

[frank nymph]

best i dont talk up the deck oled given i write at steamdeckHQ, i'd look biased 😄

[lofty granite]

I mean that’s because the majority of the population buys one thing and sticks with it.

[soft island]

Your not gonna want to run a lot of 1080p on that...

[silent nimbus]

At least you have the option for the real light indies and game streaming

[ancient stag]

Right, which agrees with my initial point. That they will keep plodding along on deck.

[soft island]

120hz vs 90hz is also somewhat insignificant. Vrr maybe?

[warm belfry]

Lol i cant even imagine that

Looks at handheld collection

[frank nymph]

vrr is a nice adventage

[lofty granite]

Some who want 120Hz or 1080p or comfy handles might “side grade”

[frank nymph]

don't think we count in that 😄

[ancient stag]

I partially agree, but also, there are many people that don't care about resolution and will prefer the 90hz oled over a smaller 120hz lcd screen.

[soft island]

True. At 7 inches the need to bump it up to 1080 is also kinda eh. The additional realestate the SD's larger screen adds should also not be ignored

Plus yeah. Oled

[lofty granite]

Yeah I have 6 x86 handhelds right now.

[soft island]

I dunno. Steamdeck still a no-brainer for me at least. And especially for those who are less tech inclined

[ancient stag]

Right, some, not the majority. I never said that nobody was gonna go to xbox ally. Just that most people will still play steam deck, and it was in response to above comment from zeelobby in the first place.

[soft island]

Will have to see some longer battery tests. Larger battery is nice but your also running windows...

[ancient stag]

My whole point being, the steam deck still prevents a better value proposition for MOST people that don't need the things an ally or legion go offer. We still haven't reached a point where we are getting a huge performance difference over the steam deck at sub 15w, especially not at the price point of the deck.

[silent nimbus]

Idk I spent quite a few years with the steam deck and it is nice but, I strongly dislike like the controls layout, got quite annoyed with the poor pixel density, and overall lack of VRR

Just my opinion tho

[ancient stag]

Yeah, I don't currently own a deck, I am one of those people that prefer other devices. My points still remain heh

[frank nymph]

theres still not really a big generational performance leap yet except the win 5, which is a pricey boy

[silent nimbus]

Yeah I mostly speak for myself

[silent nimbus]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1035510457072615495/1391392087550857278/unnamed-1.webp?animated=true

[signal ridge]

I will pick up the Xbox Ally at some point (probably on open box), but I also can't see it being a serious choice over the cheaper OLED Deck.

[silent nimbus]

Win 5 gang

[soft island]

Vrr less important if you lock fps. Helps in many cases. Personally steam deck control layout is one of my favorites. But that's very subjective

[ancient stag]

If we ignore screens, ergo, battery, whatever, there still isn't a contender that can outperform the deck at low tdp, for a similar price, and have markedly better performance. That's just a hard fact, regardless of individual preference.

[frank nymph]

i went with a rog ally 1 with an upgraded battery for £250 while my oled deck was with valve for repair 😄 valve were awesome with my free repair ad all is good but im really liking the Ally

[lofty granite]

Awful hostile just because I said “not true” Derek. I ended up agreeing to your point in the end.

[frank nymph]

How on earth is that hostile?

[warm belfry]

But thats really us in this hobby wanting that performance. If joe bloggs came up to me in the street to ask me to recommend an x86. I would probs still say steam deck as it is so easy to pick up and go and I am a lenovo fan boy

[silent nimbus]

Locking fps seems like a non starter on a device as weak as the deck

Unless we’re locking 20fps

[ancient stag]

I'm not being hostile, just clarifying my point since you seemed to indicate otherwise.

[soft island]

Yeah no hostility there honestly

[frank nymph]

being hostile is calling someone a wankfuck, or going into the RG DS channel 😄

[lofty granite]

Ok. If you say so. I’ll continue to go about my day.

[soft island]

We do not speak of this place 😆

[signal ridge]

Oh, did I miss something in the RG DS area? 🤔

[warm belfry]

https://tenor.com/view/scum-wretched-villany-tattooine-gif-10985312

[silent nimbus]

I feel like I missed vital RG DS channel lore

[soft island]

I think if they could have matched steam deck price it would have been good. That said it's only $50 too

[silent nimbus]

You do have other boons like a standard nvme size

[soft island]

That's like. One family worth of meal at McDonald's

[lofty granite]

I do wonder if you can put the 80Whr battery in the base Ally.

[covert furnace]

Yea, that $50 could go either way right. Some might see more of an appeal in having the 1080p 120Hz VRR display, plus compatibility with games like Battlefield 6

[soft island]

Yeah. There's tradeoffs for both. They're pretty comparable

[silent nimbus]

Yup

[covert furnace]

this is a huge thing

so easy to upgrade

[silent nimbus]

All depends on what you value more

[silent nimbus]

Cheaper too

[lofty granite]

The battery isn’t taped or glued or anything. It’s just clipped in. Very replaceable.

[soft island]

I think enthusiasts might be better suited by the Xbox ally. But I'd still probably push starters towards SD

[signal ridge]

Steam Deck LCD was just on sale for $319. Hard to beat that kind of value.

[soft island]

I mean valid. Heh

My buddy just got one for his first x86 handheld and he's in love

It's a shame MS couldn't subsidize it a bit more

Wonder where all that ultimate pass money is going...

[covert furnace]

there is another interesting thing here, the Xbox Ally is currently the cheapest new Windows based handheld you can buy in the market

should help it out a bit

[covert furnace]

I would've loved it to be at least $549, just to put it neck and neck with SDOLED for price

[silent nimbus]

If this ends up working well we just might see price cuts

[signal ridge]

So the Xbox Ally chip is identical - or close to - the Deck's APU, correct?

[covert furnace]

Always 😅 I think it's gonna be a killer device for many when on sale/open box etc

[covert furnace]

Yes, slight advantage because it can be pushed to 20w

[ancient stag]

true, guess the go s got bumped up $50, huh.

[silent nimbus]

I know that’s what I’m looking for

[covert furnace]

Yea, Lenovo went in and changed the price on everything 😅

[signal ridge]

Looking for "Open Box, Fair" - which is the same thing as "Open Box, Excellent - but missing AC adapter"

[covert furnace]

never has failed me 😅 same goes for Amazon resale - Used - "Acceptable"

[ancient stag]

Yeah open box is usually fine regardless of which tier, though I have seen at least one person get a truly beat up unit

[warm belfry]

Amazon are pretty good with their refurbished stock. I have got ones that said scratches in description and basically turned up brand new

[covert furnace]

always this for me

[covert furnace]

I think BB is more accurate for sure

[warm belfry]

I got a “good” pair of airpod max headphones last year. Still had wrappers on the headphones inside box. Not a handheld. But a noteworthy experience

[ancient stag]

I've gotten fair/good ones before that looked 'excellent' to me, but it's just a luck of the draw with fair stuff I guess.

[covert furnace]

I typically look for open box first on Amazon 😅 I've definitely saved money that way

[signal ridge]

My OB-F Z1E Ally I got looked brand new - could hardly tell anyone had ever used it. No charger, of course, but who doesn't have some PD charger sitting around these days?

[wet aspen]

I've gotten an excellent condition open box tv from best buy before. I didnt have the feet for the tv to be able to stand.

Never again buying a tv from best buy

[ancient stag]

I remember the first ally I ever bought was open box, and the wifi didn't work when I got it home, thought it was defective. Turns out prior person just used a vanilla install instead of asus cloud recovery so it needed drivers.

[warm belfry]

They always do 20% off amazon refurbs to during prime day/black friday for additional savings

[ancient stag]

I throw away all the feet because I wall mount mine, lol. But yeah that would be annoying if you need them.

[wet aspen]

Also never buying a fridge from best buy either, they sent us one that was completely broken and didnt cool and ruined all our food

[signal ridge]

Also had good luck with Amazon refurb. Amazon has a good return policy for their stuff, but I have never needed to use it with the refurb.

[wet aspen]

Yeah, when we called them to say the feet were missing, they just told us we would have to buy new feet from sony. Which were like 100 dollars. And best buy did not offer to help at all.

[signal ridge]

Competition for the XAX? https://www.bestbuy.com/product/3-gaming-handheld-pc-oled-ai-9-hx370-32g-1tb-starry-windows/CZTW4GQCCV

[ancient stag]

My dishwasher is from there and it's fine, the first one had a dent but when I told them they dispatched drivers like the next day to deliver a replacement and pick up the damaged one.

[soft island]

There will always be open box at least

[ancient stag]

2 day shipping, huh? They must have stock in US warehouses then

[warm belfry]

I only had an issue with one refurb once which was for a gadget for my car. They just told me to keep it and just refunded me. I was only missing some cables that were probs a dollar or two to buy. Amazon are pretty good like that if issues

[soft island]

Yeah. That's the thing about best buy, it's usually a low effort to get things replaced/returned

[ancient stag]

This makes me sorta wary... more of a marketplace than actually sold by best buy thing?

[soft island]

Yeah. Marketplace stuff is deceptive

[signal ridge]

That's how all the Ayaneo/Anbernic stuff that shows up on Best Buy is. Sold by a reseller through the Best Buy storefront.

[soft island]

Not a fan of all retailers having one

[ancient stag]

hmm https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/19/best-buy-launches-third-party-marketplace.html

Looks like it started in August

[wet aspen]

Yeah, we had two fridge deliveries from them. The first one, the guys didnt want to put it through the door, so they took it back, and made us wait a full month before they got people to come back to deliver it. The second one got delivered fine, but didnt work, so they made us wait a week for people to come pick it up, and then said that it would be another 3 weeks before they could deliver another one. We ended up buying one from abt and it came in like 4 days

[ancient stag]

I wonder how returns from third party sellers via best buy are. If you can return to a store or what.

*"At launch, Best Buy’s marketplace will have about 500 sellers, Bonfig said. He said the company vetted applicants and whittled them down to the ones who can provide a high-quality customer experience. The sellers must match Best Buy’s return policy, he added.

Customers can return purchases either directly to the seller or to Best Buy stores, he said."*

I guess you can

[signal ridge]

The link says its the same return policy?

[ancient stag]

Yeah just read that part

[signal ridge]

That's actually ... good.

[ancient stag]

Idk... this kinda thing is pretty garbage in my experience. Walmart does it on their website and it's just drop shipped china junk like amazon/temu now

And confusing as a consumer, think you're buying from the real store and it's some lame third party lol

[signal ridge]

(The return policy specifically ... not a fan of random return policies on a single storefront)

[ancient stag]

yea

[wet aspen]

Yep, my mother bought a christmas shower curtain from walmart online a couple years old. We were livid when that piece of shit got delivered

[ancient stag]

Enshittification of all online retail. Etsy has turned in to temu, walmart has turned into amazon... etc...

Just every retail site that exists now selling dropship junk

Probably filled with ai bot/fake reviews

[signal ridge]

Interesting that it's a third party reseller selling the Ayaneo stuff. Would seem like an opportunity for Ayaneo to have their OWN storefront through Best Buy/Amazon for the US market.

[ancient stag]

Probably easier for them to have a third party importer handle that

[signal ridge]

Could get "NEXT LITE 7” 800p Gaming Handheld - AMD Ryzen 7 4800U – 16GB RAM with 512GB SSD - Windows" for $399.99. So I guess there's technically one Windows handheld you can buy new in the US now that's cheaper than the Xbox Ally.

[soft island]

I'm assuming if I did pickup it'll be ready when bb opens?

[solemn timber]

Towards the Activision purchase

[gritty cargo]

Software needs time to bake, but damn its super comfy and speakers / haptics are fantastic. Way too expensive (X model). Performance isn't game changing.

Overall I am enjoying it, but no one needs this for now. Tinkerers will have fun.

Base model is solid since you can run it at 4W and enjoy XB Cloud (which has gotten better, which has surprised me -- 1440P Warzone has been a ton of fun. 0.5ms decode)

Review will be out shortly for the X model (and I compare with the base as well, which might be the move)

[solemn timber]

If you're going to do a lot of streaming would it be worth it over something like the Odin3?

[gritty cargo]

FSE is very janky and crashy right now

Odin 3 will have 0.01ms decode

[silent nimbus]

Base Xbox ally seems to be quite the underdog

[gritty cargo]

And OLED

Yeah base is nice and lightweight in the hands too

Losing 20wh battery and performance, but I think its a damn comfy indie beast. More comfortable for long sessions over steam deck, and over MSI / Lenovo and the other Ally handhelds.

[silent nimbus]

That’s good to hear

[gritty cargo]

Like Rob mentioned, once we get Open Box at BB, that's the way to go

$400 - $500 range, fantastic

6 months from now the tech outlets will have a revised headline if MS doesn't shit the bed every step along the way

[ancient stag]

I mean... the track record so far this year isn't good

[silent nimbus]

Still kinda crazy they give you 3 months of gamepass premium instead of ultimate

[gritty cargo]

Rumor / conspiracy theory going around within the reviewer circle is originally the MSI Claw 8 was to be the XB handheld, but they wanted to get it to market faster so MS joined forces with asus, this was rushed.

Yeah would be nice to have ultimate, freaking MS

[silent nimbus]

Gamepass premium is still a pretty decent deal tho, not trying to discredit it there

At least compared to ultimate

[covert furnace]

ASUS also seems to be better at actually manufacturing handhelds 😅

[covert furnace]

I wish we could get an Xbox Series d-pad on one of these though for real

[silent nimbus]

Yeah MSI claw dpad was pretty much a clone of series X dpad

Except it was membrane

[gritty cargo]

Yeah they made the right move, this would have been double dead with MSI (says the MSI shill) 😂

[silent nimbus]

Claw 8 ai is still an amazing handheld

I still miss mine

If only MSI software wasn’t so anemic

[gritty cargo]

Still wins best speakers though! XB Ally is going head to head almost in that department, immersive, you feel it

Yeah MSI handhelds might benefit from this new FSE

Once its fleshed out more

No need to buy this

[silent nimbus]

Now that I think about it that really would make sense seeing as MSI was the first to the market with gamebar integration

[gritty cargo]

If you don't have any PC handhelds yet, this might be the move depending on your use case

[gritty cargo]

That's the main feature driving the theory for sure!

[silent nimbus]

https://tenor.com/view/conspiracy-charlie-day-crazy-always-sunny-in-philadelphia-qanon-gif-23738584

[gritty cargo]

XB Ally controls look and feel nothing like an XB controller

Ok reminds me of an og xb DUKE controller

[silent nimbus]

It’s too late for me now, I’m in the win 5 gang now

[frank merlin]

im doing everything to avoid this

[gritty cargo]

Yeah going over $1K is just tough for a handheld

But the GPD Win 5 was a delight to play with

[warm belfry]

That oled though 😜

[stone shale]

XB Ally ergo is probably the best of any of the x86 devices

[gritty cargo]

Yeah see, I am resisting the Go 2 for now, I might try it out at BB though

[stone shale]

and all they needed to do was give it dual shock grips

IF ONLY SOMEONE HAD BEEN SAYING THIS FOR YEARS

[gritty cargo]

The pre-prod experience was pretty rough

[frank merlin]

oh i can think of at least one reason why you should get the go 2 anyways 😉

[warm belfry]

He should. I 100% recommend it

[frank merlin]

and no, it's not to send it to me

[gritty cargo]

I have lockd my wallet in a vault, Andrew

[frank merlin]

good thing the key's on your watch band

[gritty cargo]

With "YOU DON'T NEED IT" spray painted across the front

Here's my review

[frank merlin]

I'm just curious about difference between Z2E and AIZ2E

[gritty cargo]

Here's the travel case if anyone is curious

And here's Zu singing Tenacious D if anyone is curious

[warm belfry]

Glad that little wallet hides the annoying slogan

[gritty cargo]

Load FSE on here, dual boot SteamOS/bazzite, best of both worlds

Add this OLED to the Win 5 and best of all worlds 😂

If money is no object

[warm belfry]

100% i only got my LeGo 2 a day or two ago. But thats the plan. But that oled is noice. Tough to look at anything else

[gritty cargo]

VERY fair. If I see an open box unit, it might need to be done...for channel of course.

[warm belfry]

https://tenor.com/view/go-do-it-yes-no-go-for-it-gif-17183104

[frank merlin]

dibs

[hearty prairie]

sooo as a new user, XAX or Claw 8 AI or Go S (Z1E, couple hundred $ cheaper)

[gritty cargo]

budget?

[hearty prairie]

first 2 are the same price ($1300 in Canada)

Go S is currently on sale for $900

Go 2 isn't available yet

[gritty cargo]

I'd save money where you can, get open box Z1E. I enjoy my Go S!

You can add on XB mode and/or SteamOS

[hearty prairie]

open box is still $1000

[gritty cargo]

New it is! 😆

Z2E isn't worth $400 more than Z1E

258V is to me, but its not very comfortable to use

[hearty prairie]

I'm the kind of person that would prefer to get it new, especially for my first experience in handheld gaming

claw isn't comfortable?