The arbiters of repair and replace, iFixit, have spoken: The Asus ROG Ally is a great device for repairing and replacing parts from home, setting it apart from the slightly more tricky to take apart Steam Deck.
As highlighted in iFixit’s short video taking the ROG Ally apart, completely taking the miniature PC apart doesn’t require much more than a set of screwdrivers and a spudger to ease some areas apart. The only real hitch in the entire disassembly was the display, which definitely isn’t repair friendly, but wasn’t too hard to take out anyway.
There are a number of areas where the ROG Ally scores higher than the Steam Deck. First is the battery, which is screwed into the ROG Ally, rather than glued into the Steam Deck. The lack of glue means you don’t have to use a heat gun to remove the battery, making an often routine replacement much easier.
The other major area is the thumbsticks, which come apart into separate components rather easily, and are a great deal more replaceable than the Steam Deck’s, which have to be removed as a single unit — though there is an easy and affordable option for doing just that. The bumper buttons are the final area where the Ally wins out over its rival, with those areas having been reinforced by Asus. In comparison, the bumpers were highlighted as a possible failure point on the Steam Deck.
However, while it may be easier to take apart and replace parts in the Asus ROG Ally than Valve’s Steam Deck, iFixit does point out that it comes with a pretty big caveat — availability. Parts for the ROG Ally are nowhere near as easily found as those for the Steam Deck, which, when paired with the software issues tied into Windows 11, makes the ROG Ally something of a harder sell than the Steam Deck.
However, the easy repairability also means the ROG Ally could be something of a modders playground. Expect to see aftermarket modifications for the ROG Ally take off in the coming years. As you might expect, this would be a huge deal for the portable PC crowd, as replacing components, and even the exterior plastics, would mean being able to keep a single ROG Ally unit going for years.
