12 ms·

The ROG Ally seems like a really nice piece of hardware. Having said that, I cannot possibly stress enough how bad of a time you will have if it breaks and you

The ROG Ally seems like a really nice piece of hardware. Having said that, I cannot possibly stress enough how bad of a time you will have if it breaks and you have to deal with an RMA / ASUS customer support. You'd probably save yourself a lot of time and frustration by just throwing it in the trash and buying a new one or a Steam Deck if something goes wrong with it.

tiahura 3y ago
Use a cc with a generous warranty provision.
- muhfuhkuh 3y ago
  A travel card that uses Visa Infinite is your best bet here. I have the Capital One Venture X and one of my prime use cases for it (aside from travel upgrades and points transfer) is electronics purchases.
sfmike 3y ago
there's a lot of drama currently with how their bios update is the only fix to burning cpu's and it void's warranty so you lose warranty to fix their mistake. Based on that I won't be getting a ally even though really wanted to.
- messe 3y ago
  > there's a lot of drama currently with how their bios update is the only fix to burning cpu's and it void's warranty so you lose warranty to fix their mistake How is that even legal? Makes me glad I’m in the EU to be honest.
  - spuz 3y ago
    Asus states that despite their boilerplate warranty limitations for beta BIOS, they would honour the warranty in this particular case. https://www.asus.com/us/news/ihctikmgahafyrib/?tduid=969491bf92d2b4b64ea6c8e95d4e3dd9 https://www.asus.com/us/news/ihctikmgahafyrib/?tduid=969491b...
- heavyset_go 3y ago
  They've walked back on those claims and now claim that the warning was automatically added to any "beta" BIOS and doesn't actually apply.
Xelbair 3y ago
It's godawful even in EU, and that didn't change even one bit over the years. Long wait times, unhelpful people - even sales people! I wanted to change my order from mid-range model to high range model in their official store, and i got stonewalled and delayed by their sales. Last time, i sent my phone for repair, a 4 year old one. Quoted price for out of warranty repair was higher than the price of their newest gaming flagship phone. Previously i sent my tablet for repairs - a broken screen - it came back with used touchscreen that was faulty, had no safety sticker on it(so i assume they just slapped an used one from other repair), and I had to send it back again.
- geraldwhen 3y ago
  They do the same things in the US. I’ve received many broken graphics cards as RMAs from asus. They are the worst card company. From worst to best: Asus Nvidia MSI Zotac Gigabyte In all my mining, I never had a gigabyte card fail. Nvidia made me do chat support for an hour where they demanded I test the card in a separate desktop PC with fully different parts, and I had to send them the specs on the second machine in full.
  - gambiting 3y ago
    As a personal counterpoint - my founders 3070Ti broke and Nvidia was super good at replacing it, they sent FedEx to my house to collect it, and I got a replacement within a week - and that was at the point where you couldn't buy these cards anywhere so I was pretty impressed.
    - yurishimo 3y ago
      Because you paid 4x what the card is worth! I'm sure if every brand had those insane margins they would be happy to give out replacements like candy and help their public image.
      - gambiting 3y ago
        I mean....I paid the rrp at the time, which was £529. Maybe the card was overpriced for what it was, although I find it unlikely - it was obliterating much more expensive cards from the previous generation.
rxyz 3y ago
Basically, if $600-700 is nothing to you then go ahead and buy one. It's new and shiny, faster than a Deck and has a nice screen. Maybe it won't break before a new gen arrives If you want something that lasts, Steam Deck is a better pick
- _piif 3y ago
  Considering Valve's track record with the Index and its build quality issues I'm not sure I fully trust them to build something that's lasting either. It's only been a year, guess I will see if my Deck spontaneously falls apart eventually.
  - seaal 3y ago
    At least Valve has excellent support, I've had 4 hardware issues with my Index and Steam Support has always gone above and beyond to replace the hardware for me despite the one year warranty and the purchase being made 4 years ago.
  - zecg 3y ago
    Deck is excellently built (have been abusing it for 8 months now) and you can order spare parts from ifixit: https://www.ifixit.com/Parts/Steam_Deck https://www.ifixit.com/Parts/Steam_Deck
    - slmkbh 3y ago
      My only gripe is that they chose not to put the USB-C connector on a separate, easily exchangeable PCB. but other than that, best gadget in a looong time. And the advantages it gives to Linux gaming in general is very nice (I have gamed exclusively on Linux for 5 years, and it has never been better).
      - fendy3002 3y ago
        Out of the box linux gaming is amazing with steam and proton, and some open sources and indies are publishing native linux installer / executable. The hardest and most brittle part is the drivers, I find it hard and technical extensive to install drivers.
Hendrikto 3y ago
I just recently had an interaction with ASUS customer support, and I can confirm it sucks ass. That was my last purchase from them. Fuck ASUS.

tiahura 3y ago

Use a cc with a generous warranty provision.

muhfuhkuh 3y ago
A travel card that uses Visa Infinite is your best bet here. I have the Capital One Venture X and one of my prime use cases for it (aside from travel upgrades and points transfer) is electronics purchases.

sfmike 3y ago

there's a lot of drama currently with how their bios update is the only fix to burning cpu's and it void's warranty so you lose warranty to fix their mistake. Based on that I won't be getting a ally even though really wanted to.

messe 3y ago
> there's a lot of drama currently with how their bios update is the only fix to burning cpu's and it void's warranty so you lose warranty to fix their mistake How is that even legal? Makes me glad I’m in the EU to be honest.
- spuz 3y ago
  Asus states that despite their boilerplate warranty limitations for beta BIOS, they would honour the warranty in this particular case. https://www.asus.com/us/news/ihctikmgahafyrib/?tduid=969491bf92d2b4b64ea6c8e95d4e3dd9 https://www.asus.com/us/news/ihctikmgahafyrib/?tduid=969491b...
heavyset_go 3y ago
They've walked back on those claims and now claim that the warning was automatically added to any "beta" BIOS and doesn't actually apply.

Xelbair 3y ago

It's godawful even in EU, and that didn't change even one bit over the years. Long wait times, unhelpful people - even sales people! I wanted to change my order from mid-range model to high range model in their official store, and i got stonewalled and delayed by their sales. Last time, i sent my phone for repair, a 4 year old one. Quoted price for out of warranty repair was higher than the price of their newest gaming flagship phone. Previously i sent my tablet for repairs - a broken screen - it came back with used touchscreen that was faulty, had no safety sticker on it(so i assume they just slapped an used one from other repair), and I had to send it back again.

geraldwhen 3y ago
They do the same things in the US. I’ve received many broken graphics cards as RMAs from asus. They are the worst card company. From worst to best: Asus Nvidia MSI Zotac Gigabyte In all my mining, I never had a gigabyte card fail. Nvidia made me do chat support for an hour where they demanded I test the card in a separate desktop PC with fully different parts, and I had to send them the specs on the second machine in full.
- gambiting 3y ago
  As a personal counterpoint - my founders 3070Ti broke and Nvidia was super good at replacing it, they sent FedEx to my house to collect it, and I got a replacement within a week - and that was at the point where you couldn't buy these cards anywhere so I was pretty impressed.
  - yurishimo 3y ago
    Because you paid 4x what the card is worth! I'm sure if every brand had those insane margins they would be happy to give out replacements like candy and help their public image.
    - gambiting 3y ago
      I mean....I paid the rrp at the time, which was £529. Maybe the card was overpriced for what it was, although I find it unlikely - it was obliterating much more expensive cards from the previous generation.

rxyz 3y ago

Basically, if $600-700 is nothing to you then go ahead and buy one. It's new and shiny, faster than a Deck and has a nice screen. Maybe it won't break before a new gen arrives If you want something that lasts, Steam Deck is a better pick

_piif 3y ago
Considering Valve's track record with the Index and its build quality issues I'm not sure I fully trust them to build something that's lasting either. It's only been a year, guess I will see if my Deck spontaneously falls apart eventually.
- seaal 3y ago
  At least Valve has excellent support, I've had 4 hardware issues with my Index and Steam Support has always gone above and beyond to replace the hardware for me despite the one year warranty and the purchase being made 4 years ago.
- zecg 3y ago
  Deck is excellently built (have been abusing it for 8 months now) and you can order spare parts from ifixit: https://www.ifixit.com/Parts/Steam_Deck https://www.ifixit.com/Parts/Steam_Deck
  - slmkbh 3y ago
    My only gripe is that they chose not to put the USB-C connector on a separate, easily exchangeable PCB. but other than that, best gadget in a looong time. And the advantages it gives to Linux gaming in general is very nice (I have gamed exclusively on Linux for 5 years, and it has never been better).
    - fendy3002 3y ago
      Out of the box linux gaming is amazing with steam and proton, and some open sources and indies are publishing native linux installer / executable. The hardest and most brittle part is the drivers, I find it hard and technical extensive to install drivers.

Hendrikto 3y ago

I just recently had an interaction with ASUS customer support, and I can confirm it sucks ass. That was my last purchase from them. Fuck ASUS.