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Only having been launched for a day now, early adopters of the ASUS ROG Ally have begun reporting various issues with joystick deadzones and input delay.
The issue, not too dissimilar from the stick drift issue, was first noticed on the /r/ROGALLY subreddit – which stayed live through the planned boycott. User HZ4C published an incredibly informative page on joystick deadzones issues they had found when testing out the ASUS ROG Ally and they made bold claims such as they believe “this will affect most if not every device.” This claim spans from the possibility that it’s a wide-spread software issue with ArmouryCrateSE, rather than a hardware issue. This is, thankfully, actually a good thing.
A widespread hardware issue with joystick deadzones would be near impossible to rectify, so at least with an isolated software issue it can potentially be fixed with a new update in the future.
HZ4C cross referenced the issue with other playtests of the ASUS ROG Ally, and found that a few reviewers had also commented on the issue, though many others had managed to miss it.
Determined to fix it, the original poster of the issue began looking for ways to test the deadzones of the ASUS ROG Ally, and was convinced that there was a “‘hidden’ deadzone even at 0%”. After loading up Steam Big Picture mode, HZ4C managed to confirm that there was in fact a 20% default deadzone after comparing it to that of ArmouryCrateSE’s calibrations.
However, despite their best efforts – no fix was found.
The issue has since been reported to ASUS ROG’s Community Manager, who has confirmed that the issue will be looked into as soon as possible. This is reassuring news, as some users on the Discord server have suggested that it’s a “complete deal breaker.”
Users in the main Reddit thread have said that “FPS games feel unplayable” while also “genuinely considering just returning it at this point.”
The issue regarding the controller joystick deadzones seems to have been missed by many reviewers and product testers playing games that simply don’t require as acute joystick control – but there seem to be many adopters of the ASUS handheld now slightly annoyed that they’ve invested in a product that they can’t really use. To be clear, the issue isn’t the most troublesome for many, but it definitely isn’t ideal for a few. In fact, some of the people who have ditched their Steam Decks for the ASUS ROG Ally might now be regretting their decisions.
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