WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:07.440 IO has been making cool but expensive handhelds for the last few years now and 00:00:04.240 --> 00:00:12.320 the 3 is no exception. However, it's got 00:00:07.440 --> 00:00:14.639 one cool trick. Magic freaking modules, 00:00:12.320 --> 00:00:18.640 baby. These things are so cool. You've got two little things here and you just 00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:21.680 pop them out and you put new ones in. You don't want the thumb stick, you want 00:00:20.080 --> 00:00:25.519 something else, boom, slap it on. You want a trackpad? Boom. Slap it on. You 00:00:23.439 --> 00:00:29.519 want different AY buttons? Boom. Slap them on. Boom. It's modular and it's 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:35.680 pretty sweet. And this is the first time I'm actually going to look at it. So, I'm super excited because I am a 00:00:33.040 --> 00:00:40.399 handheld owner. I have an ROG Ally and I love it. But this might replace it 00:00:37.280 --> 00:00:41.680 because it looks freaking really cool 00:00:40.399 --> 00:00:46.160 actually. And I haven't even like taken it out of the box. At the very top, we've got a nice handheld. It does 00:00:44.719 --> 00:00:49.600 usually come with a protective film screen, but we've of course taken it off 00:00:48.079 --> 00:00:53.559 before doing our testing. Is there anything else in here? It's a pretty big 00:00:51.120 --> 00:00:58.320 box. We got a little Io card. We've just got a bunch of 00:00:56.039 --> 00:01:01.039 instructions and probably a warranty card in here. We got to take a look at 00:00:59.680 --> 00:01:07.360 what else is in the box. Under our warranty card, we've got three smaller 00:01:04.479 --> 00:01:10.720 boxes. I love smaller boxes. It's like one of those Russian nesting dolls. Uh 00:01:09.119 --> 00:01:14.720 it comes with a 65 watt charger. However, during our testing, we did 00:01:12.400 --> 00:01:18.080 notice that on the charge session, it was only pulling about 42 watts. Not 00:01:16.960 --> 00:01:22.000 sure if it's just because of early production models or some weird bypass 00:01:20.240 --> 00:01:25.720 mode was enabled, but something to be aware of. What else is in the box? We've 00:01:24.320 --> 00:01:30.479 got adapter. More adapters. All right. So, 00:01:28.560 --> 00:01:35.439 you're good to go no matter what plug you've got at home. And then this final 00:01:32.720 --> 00:01:41.360 box is I'm guessing a cable. This a nice USBC cable. C to shining C. I might say 00:01:38.479 --> 00:01:44.880 it's uh probably about 5 ft. This thing looks super sick. It comes in three 00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:48.479 different colorways. We've got the black one. Kind of wish we had retro, but 00:01:46.640 --> 00:01:52.320 that's all right. Analog Hall effect triggers, Hall effect 00:01:50.360 --> 00:01:55.600 joysticks. Buttons feel actually pretty good. And I mean, I can swap these 00:01:54.079 --> 00:01:59.040 apparently. I haven't done it yet. I'm really excited to like pop these in and 00:01:57.439 --> 00:02:02.799 out. See how easy it is to actually change one on the fly. We've got an 00:02:00.640 --> 00:02:06.799 Oculink port at the top here. We've got USB 4 on the top and bottom. So, no 00:02:05.119 --> 00:02:11.120 matter how you want to charge, easy enough. Uh, and then it looks like we've 00:02:08.640 --> 00:02:14.319 also got a micro SD card slot on the bottom here. So, you want to add some 00:02:12.239 --> 00:02:19.920 extra storage. Boom. Easy. and you're probably going to want to because it can 00:02:17.280 --> 00:02:24.720 come with up to four terabytes on board, but uh it costs a lot of money. We'll 00:02:22.800 --> 00:02:28.560 talk about that later. As for just fit and finish, it's otherwise pretty cool. 00:02:26.640 --> 00:02:33.200 This whole top appears to be glass, which looks really good until I touch it 00:02:31.599 --> 00:02:37.280 with my fingers, which like it's a handheld, so you're going to be kind of doing that all the time. It's already 00:02:35.680 --> 00:02:40.720 super smudged up here, but if you keep it in pristine condition, then I mean, 00:02:38.720 --> 00:02:44.879 hey, it looks sexy. And then last but not least, we've got a 3 and 12 mm 00:02:42.959 --> 00:02:49.440 headphone jack here if you don't want to use Bluetooth like me. Uh, and then 00:02:47.760 --> 00:02:53.840 actually what's cool is the two speaker grills are like kind of in integrated 00:02:51.680 --> 00:02:57.120 into the glass, I guess. Overall, it's pretty cool. It honestly feels like 00:02:55.519 --> 00:03:01.360 regular comfortable. I wouldn't say it's the most comfy handheld I've ever had. 00:02:58.959 --> 00:03:06.080 Um, but it doesn't dig into my palms or anything. These are like super rounded 00:03:03.280 --> 00:03:10.720 and soft edges on the bottom here. And I actually might use the buttons on the 00:03:08.720 --> 00:03:13.599 back for once. I don't normally I typically just ignore everything on the 00:03:12.080 --> 00:03:17.440 back except for the four shoulder buttons, but uh these are kind of nicely 00:03:15.200 --> 00:03:21.280 placed so they're really accessible to your kind of like ring fingers. The 00:03:19.280 --> 00:03:27.040 weight's not too bad. It's only got a 49wh hour battery, which compared to 00:03:23.760 --> 00:03:28.879 like an Alli X with 80 W hours, it's a 00:03:27.040 --> 00:03:34.159 lot less, but it's a little more than a regular Ally at 40. So that's not awful. 00:03:32.319 --> 00:03:38.640 Um and then what are these? What are these switches? What do those do? Oh, 00:03:36.799 --> 00:03:42.799 that's super cool. So you can actually change how much the trigger depth is by 00:03:41.200 --> 00:03:46.239 just kind of toggling these. Whether you want to go full force or you want to pop 00:03:45.040 --> 00:03:50.959 them up and just go, you know, little micro presses. If you buy it out of the box, it's going to come like this with 00:03:49.120 --> 00:03:56.480 these two guys here installed. But if you want more modules, you can buy some. 00:03:53.760 --> 00:03:59.360 And you know what? I love the Steam Deck trackpad. And the one thing I don't like 00:03:58.159 --> 00:04:06.159 about my Ally is it doesn't have trackpads on it. So let's let's try that. Let's try them 00:04:02.840 --> 00:04:07.920 out. Whoa, these are cool. And then if 00:04:06.159 --> 00:04:10.980 you want to just take him out, you go to space and you click the one-click 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:13.159 pop-up. What 00:04:13.159 --> 00:04:19.759 the That's some of the coolest I've ever seen. What the They've just got like 00:04:17.840 --> 00:04:23.280 little pogo pins on the bottom here to interface with uh these pins here. That 00:04:21.840 --> 00:04:27.600 makes sense. What do I want to use? These are two D-pads. So, I don't want a 00:04:24.960 --> 00:04:33.680 D-pad. Let me go with this D-pad here. I just pop it in. Okay, that was easy. And 00:04:29.840 --> 00:04:36.560 then I want a fighting stick six button 00:04:33.680 --> 00:04:40.400 layout. Okay, I can see in the software here 00:04:38.639 --> 00:04:45.040 that it's changed to hall sensing joystick membrane switch 8-way button, 00:04:42.479 --> 00:04:49.680 which yeah, looks correct. Oh, let me go back in the software. Hold on. There we 00:04:47.520 --> 00:04:53.919 go. And then it changed to membrane micro switchight buttons, which is like 00:04:51.680 --> 00:04:57.759 that was easy. It I literally pressed a button, popped them out, popped the new 00:04:55.199 --> 00:05:00.320 ones in, it detected right away. Um, super simple. I'm actually really 00:04:59.199 --> 00:05:07.520 impressed. But I don't really want to use these. So, let's uh try some other ones. 00:05:04.520 --> 00:05:09.280 After a word from our sponsor. Thanks to 00:05:07.520 --> 00:05:14.240 Le and Lee for sponsoring this video. Their Galahad 2 Light AIO cooler comes 00:05:11.440 --> 00:05:17.199 in 360 and 240 mm variants, making it a great companion for just about any 00:05:15.600 --> 00:05:21.280 build. Equipped with a high performance pump that reaches up to speeds of 3,800 00:05:19.280 --> 00:05:25.039 RPM, it'll keep your systems running cool even under heavy loads. Plus, it's 00:05:23.360 --> 00:05:28.800 available with nonRGB fans for folks who prefer a performance with a stealth 00:05:26.560 --> 00:05:32.880 look, or RGB for those who want their fans a little bit more bling bling. But 00:05:30.880 --> 00:05:38.400 don't worry, both have fans that spin it up to 2500 RPM. Check it out using our 00:05:36.240 --> 00:05:43.960 llink today. But I really want to try the nice D-pad they got here and uh the 00:05:42.080 --> 00:05:48.160 trackpad I was talking about earlier. And it's done. Wow, that's so 00:05:46.479 --> 00:05:51.039 quick. It's actually really cool. And I actually really like this case. Like 00:05:49.520 --> 00:05:55.120 this is, you know, if I put all these back, um, nothing's going to get 00:05:53.280 --> 00:05:58.080 damaged. This is like a hard plastic case. You'd have to like really step on 00:05:56.560 --> 00:06:01.199 this thing to mess it up. And if you don't like the black case, they got a 00:05:59.919 --> 00:06:06.479 white one for you. There's nothing in here, but they include the case. So, 00:06:03.919 --> 00:06:10.400 sure, I'll take some extra plastic. Another super cool trick, all these face 00:06:08.560 --> 00:06:13.280 buttons, you can reorganize them. You don't like be being over there, you want 00:06:11.680 --> 00:06:18.560 it on the bottom, take it out and swap it. Okay, let's play a game and actually 00:06:15.919 --> 00:06:21.919 try out the touchpad. I got to say, one thing I'm not a huge fan of is some of 00:06:20.240 --> 00:06:25.919 the button placement. Um, I don't like going down here onto the bottom for my 00:06:23.919 --> 00:06:28.720 start and select kind of options, hamburger button stuff. This just feels 00:06:27.600 --> 00:06:34.720 weird. Like, oh, I want to pause the game. Boom. Let me just like completely change how I'm holding the console to 00:06:32.720 --> 00:06:37.199 hit that button. I don't like it. I space. You're not going to use it as 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:44.479 frequently, so I don't really mind that it's down at the bottom, but to each their own. Just playing Returnal here. 00:06:40.639 --> 00:06:46.880 1080p low, and it's actually handling it 00:06:44.479 --> 00:06:51.280 pretty well. This thing's got a Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 in it, which is too many 00:06:49.440 --> 00:06:56.960 characters for a CPU, but you know what? It's pretty solid. Um, we actually 00:06:54.120 --> 00:07:01.280 tested better performance at lower wattage than the Alli X with the Z1 00:06:59.280 --> 00:07:05.520 Extreme. The other option, because you can get this with a different CPU, you 00:07:02.880 --> 00:07:10.400 can get it with an 8840U, which is pretty on par with the Z1 Extreme. So, 00:07:09.039 --> 00:07:17.199 you're going to get what you pay for in terms of performance. You will be paying more for the HX 370, but at just about 00:07:15.199 --> 00:07:20.800 every wattage, it actually seems to do pretty well. So, maybe you want that. 00:07:19.440 --> 00:07:26.800 There's no real other options in the handheld space for something better than 00:07:22.960 --> 00:07:28.639 an 8840U or a Ryzen Z1 Extreme. Another 00:07:26.800 --> 00:07:34.240 big skew that you can choose from with this device is OLED versus LCD. The LCD 00:07:32.160 --> 00:07:38.000 is going to have variable refresh rate, but it's pretty much worse in every 00:07:36.400 --> 00:07:42.160 other way. OLED just has incredible motion pixel response time. So, I'd 00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:46.240 probably stick with this, which is the OLED. I got to say, the force feedback, 00:07:44.400 --> 00:07:50.560 it's a little loud. It feels good in my hands. It's like it's kind of a nice 00:07:48.080 --> 00:07:56.160 like gentle rumble, but it doesn't sound very gentle uh out loud. The trackpad 00:07:53.680 --> 00:08:00.560 works. I don't like it for shooters, but I can confirm it's looking around. Is my 00:07:58.240 --> 00:08:04.160 camera well hitched a little bit, but like honestly, the performance is pretty 00:08:02.080 --> 00:08:08.400 rock solid and it looks good. And as for display testing for brightness, this 00:08:05.919 --> 00:08:13.599 thing did do over the claimed 800 nits of around 1,000 in both SDR and HDR. And 00:08:11.919 --> 00:08:17.919 then on top of that, it reached about 750 nits in full screen. So that's it's 00:08:16.479 --> 00:08:21.759 a small screen, but that's still pretty impressive, especially for OLED. Man, 00:08:19.919 --> 00:08:25.919 this thing does look really good. I've been told it sounds really good. So I 00:08:23.840 --> 00:08:29.440 want to find out for myself. I space is usually pretty good. Um, but this is one 00:08:27.840 --> 00:08:33.919 of those instances where it's being kind of annoying. And I don't know what's be if it's because of the modular 00:08:32.240 --> 00:08:37.279 controllers or whatever. But I mean, you can see me like I can turn it down no 00:08:35.599 --> 00:08:41.760 problem, but then up it's just not registering. So I'm going to use the 00:08:39.120 --> 00:08:45.920 touchcreen and just crank this slider. I mean, I say that and then I can't slide 00:08:43.919 --> 00:08:50.240 it. There we go. There's some kinks to work out. And I'm not saying that every 00:08:47.600 --> 00:08:53.680 other handheld is perfect, but Windows on a handheld does typically work a 00:08:51.839 --> 00:08:57.839 little bit better than that. Is space is okay. Um, but yeah, now I've got audio 00:08:56.240 --> 00:09:01.000 turn on. Oh, there's RGB mode. Where's the RGB? Show me the RGB. Oh, it's on 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:06.320 the thumb stick. That is 00:09:03.320 --> 00:09:06.320 good. 00:09:06.600 --> 00:09:12.720 Yo, these have no these speakers have no 00:09:09.760 --> 00:09:16.480 right to be this good. Let me turn down a little bit. Let me turn down a little 00:09:13.920 --> 00:09:19.519 bit. So, this is 44% volume. This sounds great. Honestly, the only time I'd ever 00:09:18.160 --> 00:09:23.120 use my headphones for this is if I'm like on the go, on the train, playing in 00:09:21.920 --> 00:09:27.040 the living room while someone's watching TV, you know, something like that. Cuz 00:09:25.200 --> 00:09:30.640 these are this probably the best speakers on a handheld I've ever heard. 00:09:28.720 --> 00:09:35.200 I typically have an RG Ally, so I'm using Armory Crate, which has its own 00:09:32.640 --> 00:09:37.920 problems, but for the most part, it does just kind of work. I haven't had any 00:09:36.640 --> 00:09:41.680 issues where like buttons aren't controlling different sliders and stuff. 00:09:39.839 --> 00:09:45.040 The navigation also seems typically pretty easy. Oh, now it's working. There 00:09:43.440 --> 00:09:48.760 we go. Okay. But it's going in like bursts. You see that? Like that's just 00:09:46.560 --> 00:09:52.880 weird. This is a pre-production model. The software's probably not quite 00:09:51.279 --> 00:09:56.720 done. There might be some updates to fix these things, but uh I wish it would 00:09:54.800 --> 00:10:00.320 just kind of work on its own out of the box. Otherwise, you know, settings are 00:09:59.120 --> 00:10:04.560 pretty typical. You got like airplane mode, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi on, off. One 00:10:02.160 --> 00:10:09.279 thing to note is that this does have three different power modes. Uh, and one 00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:16.000 big difference actually from previous IEOS is that you can't adjust how much 00:10:13.200 --> 00:10:21.279 RAM gets allocated to VRAM. You can only stick with the 4 gigs, which probably 00:10:18.480 --> 00:10:24.640 explains why our ROG Ally actually beat this thing when testing Grid Legends. 00:10:22.959 --> 00:10:29.760 Previous IO you could map up to, I think, 8 gigs. And that was pretty 00:10:27.519 --> 00:10:32.959 sweet, especially at 1080p when you're not playing 720 and you want to like 00:10:31.440 --> 00:10:38.720 actually take advantage of the really nice 144 hertz OLED display. I will say 00:10:36.800 --> 00:10:43.680 the controller stuff with the magic modules that just worked. It did seem to 00:10:41.360 --> 00:10:47.839 autodetect it without any issues at all. I like the little visual indication to 00:10:45.920 --> 00:10:51.360 show which modules you have on there. So, frankly, as long as they just keep 00:10:49.760 --> 00:10:55.120 kind of like patching it a little bit. One thing that's actually really nice that I just noticed while scrolling 00:10:53.680 --> 00:10:58.880 through the menu is it's got these Windows options down here like device 00:10:56.800 --> 00:11:01.920 manager, task manager, control panel. Those are actually really handy to have 00:11:00.480 --> 00:11:05.920 at your fingertips, especially stuff like display settings. It might get mad 00:11:03.920 --> 00:11:08.880 at me now because I'm in a game. Okay, but you know, when that happens, you 00:11:07.040 --> 00:11:11.839 know, you're on a handheld, just swipe up, close window. It's not that 00:11:10.480 --> 00:11:15.839 complicated. I get that everyone loves Steam OS and it is pretty good. Uh, but 00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:19.360 I personally find Windows on a handheld to be totally usable and hopefully it 00:11:18.160 --> 00:11:24.160 gets a little better. The only thing that really bugs me with my allies is that sometimes it like doesn't go to 00:11:22.399 --> 00:11:28.320 sleep properly, then the battery is gone. Uh, which is kind of a bit of a 00:11:26.720 --> 00:11:32.640 downside of this guy, the battery being only 49 watt hours. I get it. They don't 00:11:31.040 --> 00:11:37.120 want to pack more battery in to make it heavier or to make it thicker or to make 00:11:35.120 --> 00:11:41.120 it uncomfortable in any way. But like when a lot of the competition is up into 00:11:38.800 --> 00:11:44.959 80 W hours, which is quite a while, that's really good. When this thing is 00:11:42.800 --> 00:11:49.120 pushed to the limit at the highest power setting, uh, brightness turned up, 00:11:47.200 --> 00:11:53.600 you're going to get about an hour of gaming done. We only got 40 minutes of 00:11:51.120 --> 00:11:56.640 stress test. We only got 41 minutes in our stress test when everything's 00:11:55.279 --> 00:12:00.160 cranked. Like, that's pretty rough. I get that you're going to turn the sound down. You're going to turn the screen 00:11:58.640 --> 00:12:04.880 brightness down. Maybe you'll turn the wattage down a couple notches, but uh 00:12:02.320 --> 00:12:10.560 yikes. Especially when you compare to an RG Alli X, which doesn't cost as much as 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:15.519 one of these guys, that's got almost 2 hours worth of gaming off of the wall. 00:12:13.839 --> 00:12:18.800 You're not getting that here. And it's uh it's a bit of a shame. And if you 00:12:17.680 --> 00:12:24.079 want to push it a bit more, maybe you're on a long car trip and you need the battery to last all day, it's not going 00:12:21.920 --> 00:12:30.000 to. It'll do about 6 hours with everything set to low. And the Alli X 00:12:26.959 --> 00:12:31.760 measures almost 13. I'm not sitting here 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:35.120 trying to say, "Oh, go buy an LAX." They've got their own problems. I'm not 00:12:33.200 --> 00:12:40.240 getting into that. And I will say it's super freaking cool to have this 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:45.600 incredible, beautiful OLED display and these super modular controllers. But 00:12:42.800 --> 00:12:50.480 let's talk about the price because it's really, really cool, but it's really, 00:12:47.760 --> 00:12:57.760 really expensive. Retail price for the base model 8840U starry black, 16 gigs 00:12:54.000 --> 00:13:00.800 of RAM, 512 gigs of storage, $8.99. And 00:12:57.760 --> 00:13:02.480 then that goes all the way up to $13.99 00:13:00.800 --> 00:13:05.000 with the 64 gigs of RAM and two terabytes of storage. And then if you 00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:12.720 want the HX370, you're starting at 00:13:08.920 --> 00:13:16.560 $1,500 for the 32 gig 1 TB going all the 00:13:12.720 --> 00:13:19.519 way up to $2,100 bucks for 64 gigs of 00:13:16.560 --> 00:13:25.839 RAM, 4 TB of storage. To be fair, those top-end models on both the 8840U and the 00:13:23.079 --> 00:13:28.720 HX370 do come with the module kit. However, if you want to buy them 00:13:26.880 --> 00:13:34.079 separately, it's going to be about 140 bucks. So, it's a really tough pill to 00:13:32.240 --> 00:13:37.360 swallow. That pill gets a little easier to swallow if you want to pre-order this 00:13:35.680 --> 00:13:41.360 thing. On Indiegogo, there's early bird pricing and regular pricing, and that 00:13:39.120 --> 00:13:45.200 knocks 200 bucks off if you get the early bird, maybe only a hundred if 00:13:43.120 --> 00:13:50.560 you're just earlyish on Indiegogo. But the Alli X with 1 TB of storage costs 00:13:47.760 --> 00:13:54.639 800 bucks, and a Steam Deck is like way cheaper than that. Even the Steam Deck 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:58.720 OLED. That being said, this thing is absolutely mind-blowingly sick when you 00:13:57.360 --> 00:14:02.160 take into account the modular controllers and like if you want this 00:14:00.880 --> 00:14:08.160 exact layout like I've got with the trackpad here and you want to change it the next day, this is your only option. 00:14:05.839 --> 00:14:12.800 And so for you, it actually might be worth spending a few hundred more to get 00:14:11.279 --> 00:14:16.639 something like this. And if you want to spend a bit more money and get the HX 00:14:14.480 --> 00:14:19.920 370, that's going to be the best chip in handhelds, at least right now. It's 00:14:18.720 --> 00:14:23.920 going to get an upgrade in a couple years. you know what chips do, but right 00:14:22.160 --> 00:14:29.680 now this is the best. The best of the best. As for myself, I didn't upgrade 00:14:26.800 --> 00:14:34.320 from the Ally to an Ally X. I just the battery, it's nice, but it was kind of 00:14:31.600 --> 00:14:38.160 the only major upgrade aside from some uh slightly faster memory. But I'll be 00:14:36.480 --> 00:14:42.000 frank, especially if I can sell my Ally for a bit and then buy like the base 00:14:40.480 --> 00:14:46.000 model of this thing and then do some upgrading. I don't know how easy it is 00:14:43.760 --> 00:14:52.240 to open and upgrade any of the internals. Uh the SSD is probably doable 00:14:48.639 --> 00:14:55.360 at least. I'm tempted. I gotta say this 00:14:52.240 --> 00:14:57.199 controller thing is so freaking cool. 00:14:55.360 --> 00:15:01.079 Like if you like, who's ever seen this? Nobody. It's a world's first. Look at 00:14:58.480 --> 00:15:05.600 this. Look at this. I can do it again. That's That's great. Like, who 00:15:04.399 --> 00:15:12.639 doesn't? And you can like trick your friends. You can be like, "Oh my god, you broke my handheld. What 00:15:10.199 --> 00:15:16.160 the I just don't think it ever gets old." I don't think it's going to ever 00:15:14.160 --> 00:15:19.600 get old. Um, I do worry a little bit about like, you know, you do this a 100 00:15:17.760 --> 00:15:25.279 times, maybe these start to wear out a little bit, but uh, I think overall this 00:15:22.240 --> 00:15:27.120 is probably one of the coolest things 00:15:25.279 --> 00:15:32.639 I've ever seen. Oh, I turned I put it in upside down and it detected it. What? 00:15:29.600 --> 00:15:34.320 Yo, you can flip them upside down. Man, 00:15:32.639 --> 00:15:38.079 this thing is so sick. That's got to be the absolute coolest thing I've ever 00:15:36.240 --> 00:15:41.839 seen on a handheld device. But what do you guys think? Like, comment, subscribe 00:15:39.920 --> 00:15:45.680 on the video. Uh, tell us in the comments and check out the next one that 00:15:43.680 --> 00:15:48.560 I do. I don't know when it'll be yet because I don't know the future.