So, this morning my kid mentioned wanting a handheld after his mate brought over a Rog Ally X. I said I’d have a look and see what Santa could do. But there is just no way I’m paying £900 (Nor could) for one though (Certainly not this close to xmas as well). Had a browse online and wow, there’s way more options than when I got my old Steam Deck! Now I’m honestly lost. I’m not really into gaming these days or handhelds, so I’m totally out of the loop on CPUs and GPU's in this space. From what I’ve read, seems like you want a Z1E or Z2E? I can’t even tell if the Z2 is better than the Z1E, the info online is all over the place depending on the device. I’ll probably end up buying second hand I’m not paying silly money for a new one. Most used listings on eBay are in great shape, “like new, barely used” and so, from people most like my self who probably bought it and then just didn't play it, happened to me with the steam deck and a few friends . My kid plays his Switch non-stop, but he’s not into Nintendo games, so at least I don’t need to worry about that. He does use a tablet too, but I think this handheld should run Windows for the games he likes, seems like some have anti-cheat, which seems to be a pain on linux. (even though its getting better i see) Fortnite Minecraft Roblox Apex Hopefully someone here has some advice. My budget is under £400 for used (Or new, I cant seem to see the Asus rog ally anywhere yet for that price, but £100 more is getting me the newer one), ideally with a 1TB drive (though I could upgrade that later). I’m kinda leaning towards either the original Ally and getting the battery mod to boost battery life and keep Z1E performance, I also saw some heatsink mods too. But then, I don’t really want to be constantly messing around with mods on it and tinkering, i just want him to be able to use it, no issues etc, so the Legion GO S Z2 model looks pretty good and fits my budget, but people don't seem to like this model for some reason, mainly the price against a steam deck oled for the most part. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated!
If you play AAA PC games att reasonable performance none will have battery life, that is just the way. Though some of the lighter stuff like stardew etc can run for many many hours. I think my daughters record is 11hrs @ ~4w. A Rog Ally is a good shout if you can find it for a good price used, decent spec. £400 quid will pick up a brand new MSI claw A1M with ultra 7 (155H and Arc, 1Tb), just had a big price drop, only 16Gb though, it had a shaky start because Intel ARC drivers were an absolute **** show but they have got a lot better, it is now pretty competitive with Zen 4 based Radeon 780m(z1E) the z2 is basically the same as Z1E, like a rebrand, the z2e is zen5 based radeon 890M and is better but not massively so, I have owned them all Be careful Claw ultra 5 and ultra 7 are same price on amazon, buy the right one Lower spec ultra 5 claw a1m doing its thing obviously the ultra 7 would be a bit better. Obviously these are played at low settings, but low settings on a small screen is fine, its all about resolution scaling with these handhelds. unless you want to get spendy and and drop £1.5k Avoid Z2A and Z2 Go, much older chips AMD makes it sound new but it is Zen 2 with radeon 680M, it can game but to Steam deck level, which is not quite enough these days though would be fine for the four titles mentioned. I'll have a chat with my daughter she was talking about switching hers for a proper laptop for Uni as she does not want to be taking a gaming device to lectures apparently Other wise there is a few on CEX look at onexplayer, good brand, packs a lot of punch like the onexplayer 2 pro, 500quid will get you an 8" 7840u/780m/32Gb/2TbSSD, I realize it is over budget but that's a lot of machine, having more than 16Gb on a handheld is ideal as there is no dedicated vram. ONEXPLAYER 2 Pro Eva Edition First Look! A Next Edge Ryzen 7840U Hand-Held Another non mainstream brand is what my daughter has AOKZOE, I forget the model name now but it too is a 32Gb 7840u based machine with a massive battery.
Wow thanks for the detailed reply. Yeah working out what chips are good and not has been a pain, and the naming is all similar for the models old and new, Ill have a google and watch some reviews on the Msi one but im sure it was something to do with charging that i saw it was having bad review for, either stopping charging and just being dead or dodgy ports or something, i had seen them but there was a handful of models and wasn't sure if intel was up to snuff with amd with the gpu side of things. Never heard of OneXplayer (Damb that Purple Eva edition is nice), likely slightly out of the budget (Gotta draw the line somewhere, otherwise ill end up at the Ally x Used for £600 odd). Kiddo has small hands tho, the one player and msi look propper chonks, Mainly ebay I have been checking, but from what you said i should avoid this one ? as its the GO S Z2 ? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/286934240397 Looks like a few of the claws under £300 which is mental, or £400 new on amazon just now, ill check how the battery fends and benchmarks for sure on this. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/397255089058?_skw=MSI+Claw+A1M&itmmeta=01KA7935PGPTH7XESS1X89XJBN&hash=item5c7e3f9ba2:g:EM8AAeSwMN5pFF~D&itmprp=enc:AQAKAAAA0FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1e+xOFTJTQamkJtUUeMIwBac45MtEx8A6BWJIxygXpS434lZ8FWziej1npysWkaUZZyakvEqG/xXnnqHAI0GCPwG0fIq8tsgvITZbxJaETwUZChMc3cK4GQEAA2QSXeWrunHIeqA7Cp8+T5MmZFiXpKChuWcKydmDPXK2+1J7j70dt8Uy8MGlhvfB1VUXDKx5NHswcewP4ybktrUvJzWWPliMNYtLb2IgWD71f2Y8WzxDwvblcH9OKCdGkXua2E4GE=|tkp:Bk9SR7jbjOnRZg&LH_BIN=1 Which one is it your daughter has ?, and yeah laptops for Uni is probably better suited than a handheld. Have a laptop I don't use at home, with the work provided one for about the place and the Rig at home its become redundant lol. So you said you have owned them all, i know there is more to battery life and performance, which did you personally prefer for comfort ?, battery life, maybe one that charged faster than the others ?, just curious EDIT: Jesus didnt think cex prices were this good, when did they start offering a 5 year warranty :-o, wonder if that would be honered. https://uk.webuy.com/product-detail...D=94E9EEE5E67594EC934D65DF8E1254A6&position=1
I've owned most of the various handheld chipsets, not so much all the handhelds, I am not a mad man though maybe you could argue I am the amount of APU based gaming that has been done in the household is silly when I have a 5080 gaming PC, we'd have saved a stack if dough with a good gaming laptop, shhh don't tell the missus The claw is small 7" just looks chunky, battery life is its down fall, that Intel chip is fine for light stuff web, video etc, I have same chip in my other LG Gram over 20+ hours of use but if you do anything intense on it, it goes really fast and can be gone in 4 gaming. The handheld has ~40% less battery so 1.5-2 hours tops for a AAA game but that is par for the course at max power on these things. She has the AOKZOE A1 Pro, it'd likely be out of budget too as it is another 8" 7840u/780m/32Gb machine.
This the one she has ? , thats really decent, like £100 quid cheaper than the One X player for the same spec (relaise its out of stock at the moment) huge battery is defo something im looking for, wean does not play alot of tripple a games, but there will be a few here and there, I cant imagine fornite and minecraft pushing something like these for only an hour or so. Stardew is a good one as well, hes played that for hours, 11 hours is an absolute mental record on battery. https://uk.webuy.com/product-detail...D=01BAECAD16E0B9B496D636BF9560EFCE&position=5
OneXplayer do all the cool stuff ONEXFLY APEX ：World's Most Powerful 8" Gaming Handheld by ONE-NETBOOK - Indiegogo Super X Preview – ONEXPLAYER
Yup that is the one, that was a bargain for some one, Wow. she switched from a games/schoolwork APU based PC to this with a TB dock for school stuff, it was perfect for her.
Those are nice. Tad oot the budget. But very very pretty. Thoughts on buying a pre modded Rog ?, basically with the battery mod ?. Messaged the fella on this one, not the Jsaux battery, and looks like not shaved enough plastic off the rear plastic, slight gap at the bottom right. Thoughts? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/357888654899
I mean that battery will really help the Zoe only has 65Wh so 75Wh is strong. Ask to for a report of the charging history, for example my old gram had I think an 80Wh battery but after a couple of years would only put in 66 or something, it would give an idea is the upgraded battery is actually anygood. That gap could just be a by product of trying to get in, they are not the easiest to pry apart and not made robustly in anyway to try an keep them light. Price is good once it is in the rubber grip, you'd never see it.
I have had a CPU replaced under their warranty no quibble, I would rather buy there than eBay because of it personally, but they have to have the hardware, which is a bit hit and miss.
Good to know, i remember trying to return a hard drive a few years back for being faulty, told me it would take 20 mins to test a 1tb 5200rpm drive, and when i pointed out they were going a quick scan and it was some sectors showing on the full scan the woman gave me mega jip when i was like, no your incorrect id like a refund as per your no questions asked policy at the time. She was not a happy bunny. Yeah, i have asked the guy for that, not got it yet, when i asked about the battery i got this back "The battery is a C41N2280 from Amazon. I've also installed a 0.5mm aluminium sheet with a gap to improve the thermals of the battery."
BTW whilst I have mentioned the claw as I think it is better than it used to be and now at a much better price than the original £800, I can run a lot on the 155H, I think that due to drivers and the way Intel seem to EOL their still quite young iGPUs to maintenance line you are probably much safer picking up a AMD based machine because of the ARC driver risk. Intel Ends iGPU Driver Support for 11th–14th Gen CPUs: What You Need to Know | NoobFeed These older iGPU aren't even that old, this is poor form. It is suggested that ARC will have better support and dropping the old architecture is so they can focus purely on ARC as it is their architecture going forward but ....... you know there is Xe Xe2 Xe3 etc, at which point do they start dropping the earlier ones. Even AMD are guilty of this to a certain extent but much better, Nvidia as usual are the best in this regard, but they are not in the market so it is irrelevant.
Thanks for the Advice with these, After looking at all the benchmarks, and the devices, Decided id take a go at the Rog ally Z1E, I got some good vibes from the fella selling it the more i read online Confirmed the battery model, where he got it from Confirmed he had followed an online guide for install, even taped it up used the metal plates so it don't get hear from the memory units Done the calibration once installed (Fully charge, fully drain a handful of times Says its accurate to about 3 percent. Even opened it up again to show me pic, even trimmed the bit he missed and the case is flush now Only thing i think i might change is to the modcase as the cooling looks far superior, and maybe get a 1tb 2230 for it. Thanks again
