Asus ROG Ally X Reviews Suggest It's The Best Xbox Handheld Yet

Once this thing goes on a sale, I'm getting it. Seems like a really thought through product compared to alternatives (minus steamdeck, but that is sort of feeling underpowered now).

Calling this an Xbox handheld simply because it runs windows is a huge reach. Is every single PC an Xbox then, since all of them running windows apparently fulfil this criteria?

This particular WINDOWS handheld is a pretty decent device, but is very expensive. I guess if you have the money - that extra battery life is key to this unit and definitely very desirable for a machine of this type.

I find these handheld PCs fascinating, but I'm looking forward to seeing the Xbox handheld, if real.

Forgive me for my ignorance, as I've been a console gamer forever with little PC gaming knowledge... but does this allow you to download your Xbox games right on the device along with PC games? Same with GP games too? I play a lot of Xbox Cloud Gaming and would love something like a Switch but with a different library of games not available on that console.

@Titntin That is a 'stretch' but I can also understand why too. Both Xbox and PC are 'Windows' based. MS too release everything on PC as they see 'windows' users as their Customer base and most, if not all their games are 'Play Anywhere' so if you 'buy' on Xbox, you get the 'PC' version too.

Game Pass Ultimate also lets you play across PC and Xbox as well. All saves and progression is carried over and with Direct Storage, you get the version for your hardware.

So in the 'absence' of a 'dedicated Xbox handheld console', these devices are the best and closest you can buy right now. MS too could make a Surface handheld PC instead of a handheld 'Xbox' - even brand it with 'Xbox' too.

Arguably a PC is an Xbox, but its also a LOT more as well - its a SteamDeck, a Media device to watch your favourite TV/Movies, a business machine etc etc. You just 'choose' to play on console because it suits the way you prefer to play games or your budget but if you have a PC, you don't need an Xbox console and haven't now for almost a decade.

@FraserG my hunch is that proper MS Xbox handheld is going to be targeting lower pricing, which might result in MS going out of their way to lock Windows down and disabling it being used as a regular PC (to avoid all complications steaming from that). Rog Ally for all it's faults in doing so can still be docked and used as any old PC.

Logitech G cloud is simple lighted cheap and smooth... its Better overall!

@FraserG - Thank you!

PCGamer also gave this a rave review.

@Titntin I understand your point but honestly my Rog Ally has completely replaced both my Series X/S as the primary way I play Xbox.

I only use the Xbox App/PC Game Pass so it definitely feels like an Xbox!

Random question, but does anyone here stream installed xbox games to their SteamDeck? ( have never used Xbox streaming, would it require installing Windows?)
The PS Portal is just bonkers fun, and i'd love to play my Series X the same way and have a initial release SD.

@themightyant Appreciate it! The Portal is flawless at home, and just okay on my hospitals wifi, so hopefully I can get the same or better mileage out of streaming Xbox on the Deck. Did you use any particular app on the Deck?

Ally X is kind of offensive as a product. An $800 upgrade to an existing product that's not actually any faster. yeah, ram, battery, other improvements, but ultimately it just seems like a veiled price increase.

I currently have the Legion (love it) as well as a non-Extreme (lower powered) Ally. Love them both for different reasons, but the $800 premium for this model just sits wrong with me, much like Asus pricing on most everything these days. It's the same SoC.

@kihaennem Err, G Cloud is a streaming device that can run light Android games, this is a PC. Radically different products.

@NEStalgia I too have a non-Extreme Ally, and fortunately I bought it on sale earlier this year. So (or at least, I would like to think, 'cause I haven't checked the prices yet) this new upgrade will make the "vanilla" models of the Ally a little cheaper and make it a better value proposition for those still on the fence. Because, when the Ally does work as it should (and is not randomly crashing due to Windows), it is really a great device, all things considered.

Personally I own the Lenovo Legion Go since December. Absolutely loving it. The size of the screen, the detachable controllers and the kickstand were the biggest reasons to get this one over the Ally. The only downside is the battery is empty so fast.
I love to see these handheld pcs getting more popular now. The Switch and Steamdeck prove handheld gaming is extremely popular and for the ones who prefer Windows handheld the Go and the Ally are great. I think we will see a lot more improvements on these handhelds the coming years,

Holy hell. $800. I get that gaming PCs are expensive. Just need a minute. To the points made here, I'd think that XBox handheld price point would have to be closer to Switch 2 price than this.

@HarmanSmith Yeah it would be nice if the X drove prices down a bit of the normal units. Not sure if it'll happen with Asus being Asus, though. Unfortunately Asus, and especially the ROG subbrand is kind of the Sony of the PC world these days. They unapologetically charge exorbitant prices over average sold on their brand image of superiority, yet often the inverse is true and they have more problems with their hardware than supposedly inferior competitors of late at least where mobos and GPUs are concerned.

I really like the Ally though. Annoyed they cheaped out and used pot sticks rather than Hall for an $800 (X) device though, and the price jump for the new and improved X really irks me. Rather than fixing their defective SD slot, they release a new model with a 20% price increase and 2 slots. But it's overall a nice device. I bought the Z1 cheap as an open box on a whim after deciding on Legion for my Z1E machine, and I don't really regret it, and sometimes wish it was the Extreme, too. It's great for JRPGs which is a lot of what my handheld use is for anyway. Also does great with Armored Core 6!

I have to laugh, I paid less for it than my Switch OLED and I'm just using it for Live A Live right now, and the game looks and runs soooooo much better than Switch

Legion....ok I paid $700 for the 1TB version, yes the battery sucks massively, but with the huge screen and removable controllers (@Lavalera Legion fans unite!) 1TB drive, hall effect sticks...... The $800 Ally X seems pretty lame other than the (huge) battery increase.

@lechugajr Yeah compared to consoles the price is extreme, and honestly compared to OTHER handheld gaming PCs the price is ALSO extreme. Asus went full Sony with the pricing of this. The base (non-extreme) model is $400 and you can get it cheaper than a SWOLED and it runs circles around the Switch. The X is basically a cheap laptop more than it's an expensive console.

Keep in mind the "extreme" versions are basically more powerful than a Series S, likely more powerful than a Switch 2, all in a pocket format. The noneextreme is more like "somewhere between Switch and Series S."

I still think $800 is too much for what you get though. It's the most expensive PC handheld there is and I don't think you get enough more to justify the price difference, unless you need the battery life, in which case they have you trapped and they know it. Price felt like a joke when they announced it, and it still does, but they have a target market, and that market is people who travel and need the long battery without plugging in, and they also figured those are the kind of people that don't blink spending $1000 for anything.

Don't see the appeal of these things but I suppose it's good for gamepass subs and the like🤷🥺

Wack it’s not 1440 with oled and Dolby Atmos speakers

I bought a ROG Ally and it hardly supported any Xbox games for Smart Delivery & it was a hassle getting the thing going. Settings and tweaking is nice but while I spent 4 hours setting it up I could've just been playing on a dedicated device like the Switch or an Xbox within 30 seconds without it dying in an hour.

If you have a PC and digital library there then this makes more sense but otherwise just put the money toward: a) a PC, b) a console and a Nintendo Switch for the same price. Honestly the best games for handheld are already on the Switch. Hoping the new battery life truly holds up. Think this market gets interesting in 3 years time.

@Kilamanjaro Yeah, that's not an Asus problem, that's an Xbox problem. "Play Anywhere/Smart Delivery" seriously sucks in a major way. Not only can they not get most 3rd party publishers to do crossbuy, they can barely get 3rd party publishers to list games on Windows Store at all. And even Bethesda games aren't Play Anywhere yet.

I have an ok number of games that carried over, but not a ton. Of course all Game Pass games do.

What setup did you have to do that took so long though? IIRC I just charged it up, turned it on, logged in with my same MS account as XB and downloaded Persona 3 Reload. Not much else to do other than Windows/MS store updates but that's the same on XB itself. Lots else you CAN do, but not much else you NEED to do.

@Banjo- as much as I'd absolutely LOVE to get one of these I just can't justify the $800 price tag. I know Xbox is working on a handheld Xbox console & I truly believe by the time it releases it'll be a slight more powerful version of the Z1 extremely ROG Ally which is a good thing because that means it'll be able to run ALL Xbox games even ones from the current generation. I also believe that the console will costs a lot less than something like the ROG Ally mainly because of how console subsidize when releasing.

If Microsoft can release a portable Xbox that has an MSRP of $399 or better I believe it'll be EXTREMELY successful. We're talking about a handheld device that's roughly twice what the Series S is. Right now the Z1 extreme Ally boasts 8.6 TFLOPS of graphical horsepower compared to the Series S 4 TFLOPS. Now it's important to remember that real world applications won't show the Ally outperforming the Series S due to a lot of factors.

On paper, the ROG Ally Z1 Extreme has roughly double the TFLOPS of the Xbox Series S. However, as mentioned earlier, TFLOPS alone doesn't dictate overall performance. The Series S's custom architecture and optimized software often yield impressive results despite the lower TFLOP count.

It's important to note that the TFLOPS figure for the ROG Ally Z1 Extreme is an estimate based on benchmarks and comparisons to other GPUs. The actual performance can vary depending on game optimization, cooling, and other factors. The Xbox Series S has a dedicated power source and can run at full power indefinitely compared to a battery powered device that has to keep itself in check.

All of that being said, a handheld Xbox console with roughly the SAME EXACT specs as the ROG Ally Z1 Extreme edition (only difference would be upgrade API, with Zen 4 CPU & possibly RDNA 4 GPU architectures) would yield a handheld device that would essentially be a current gen, Modern Xbox console that's capable of running any game you throw at it.

Microsoft has a unique opportunity hear, especially because the Xbox ecosystem is so EXTREMELY robust. My Xbox can do so much more than just play games thanks to the fact the OS is based off of windows 10. I would expect a handheld Xbox console to utilize the impressive Xbox OS allowing users to access their entire catalog of games, having access to streaming services, Video on Demand, Music services as well as fully Internet browsing support. That will set the Xbox console a massive step above something like the steam deck & Switch successor. What makes the steam deck so incredibly successful is users have instant access to their massive steam libraries which is the EXACT reason I believe Xbox would have a successful handheld Xbox. I've got tons of money invested into my Xbox library and to have access to that library immediately on an Xbox handheld would be a game changer & I think there's millions of Xbox owners who feel similarly.
Happy gaming ✌️

I really want an Xbox handheld to go along with my Switch and Series X. But I really don’t want to deal with Windows again. I did PCs and pc gaming from 1985 to 2013 when my last rig blew. I’m done fiddling with windows, registries, etc to get things to work good, and done with spending ridiculous amounts to keep up with gaming.

Switch has ruined me for gaming because I want exactly that in a handheld - good form factor, amazing battery, and plug and play gaming ability. For those reasons I’m leaning toward a SteamOS, just wish it had native GPU support. Not a huge deal tho, as I can still remote play and most games I want to play I can buy natively on Steam sale.

Just waiting for more news on Xbox handheld and Switch 2 before I make any jumps to get a Steam Deck.

so I have the rog extreme and it's awesome. The thing that I think some aren't getting is you get the Xbox stuff but also if you own steam games they work without any hassle also or the epic store or whatever ubi soft is calling their abomination these days.
I can only get the x from best buy where I'm living and they offered me 300 for my used rog towards this new one that's not a bad deal.

@BAMozzy Thanks for all the info, though you must know Im aware of all that as I have and use a decent PC. Even if I play Forza on it, I do so through steam 😊

Ok, if this the new way of deciding whats an xbox, then i guess every fire stick and samsung TV counts? Its quite clearly rediculous, but it would seem rediculous wins the day in the world of misinformation....

@Titntin And to a certain degree, all those Samsung TV's and Firesticks are. The fact is you don't need a Console these days to play Xbox just like you don't need a music system or TV these days to listen to music or watch TV on.

As for streaming, that is the 'closest' to being on an Xbox console without owning one as those games are running on 'Xbox' built into servers. Whilst you may not 'own' an Xbox yourself, those games are 'Xbox' games running on Xbox in the cloud...

The Purpose of a Console was to make Gaming affordable and for Nintendo, the longest running of the Consoles, it was a transition from Card games into digital games - first the Game & Watch handhelds. MS made the Xbox to make PC based games more accessible and help them 'reach' more people by making a DirectX Box. They had a history of releasing only on PC before they decided to make a console to 'reach' more people - MSFS for example is a LOT older than their Console and that wasn't their only game.

Now with Handheld PC's coming in at Console Prices and Streaming enabling anyone with 'internet' to play 'Xbox' without needing to buy Hardware, you can argue that the 'need' for a 'low cost Console' is becoming less and less important. Its no longer 'needed' to bring 'PC games' to a wider audience, to be that 'DirectX' box that was affordable enough yet also built to make PC ports easier as Gaming PC's were expensive.

The latest PC Hardware is still expensive but you can still play on 'older' hardware, cheaper hardware. With things like DLSS too, you can get 'better' performance and/or visual quality too and you don't need the latest RTX graphics card for those.

Obviously there are differences between 'each' - Streaming is limited on its library and limited by its infrastructure, PC's too can be somewhat 'complicated' compared to Consoles and Devs don't bother 'optimising' as well for, so of course they are not the same as the Console. But the reality is that the Console itself is not required - unless it suits the Gamer.

The Console is just a 'part' of the Xbox ecosystem - just like Steamdeck is part of the Valve 'ecosystem' - you don't need a SteamDeck to be part of the whole Steam community and you don't need an Xbox anymore. Not to say that the Console doesn't need to exist, just that its not the 'only' option these days - unlike Switch or Playstation, which is the 'only' way to play Nintendo or Sony's own games.

MS jumped into the Console business perhaps because PC's were too expensive to compete with Consoles, couldn't reach as many people with their 'few' games and so devised a low cost 'gaming PC' in a Console format - inc staples of PC's like Hard Drives and internet ports and now its 'part' of a bigger ecosystem, a choice for consumers who 'prefer' the ease and/or cost of Consoles - but you can still play Xbox on PC or via the Cloud if you 'prefer'...

I’m sticking with my Ally Extreme and waiting for either Ally 2, Legion Go 2 or Steam Deck 2 before I upgrade. Ally X is great but not at that price point and the upgrades are not worth it for me. Also, you can get an Ally Extreme for $300 online these days (one year from launch). For that money it’s an excellent piece of kit which became my main gaming platform (granted, I upgraded the ssd to 2 TB, got a modcase and a portable monitor- still paid less than the launch price).

I love my base rog ally and 512gb steam deck. I think I will wait for a new generation of either before I upgrade.

I'm hoping xbox uses these as inspiration for their handheld. I adore this form factor that combines pc gaming into a console experience. Hopefully it will run windows.

@NEStalgia well for starters to get these going you pretty much need a mouse & keyboard since the joysticks don't always work as a mouse cursor when you're on the dashboard & it takes forever to navigate with the touch screen. Then getting your graphics setting right per game is a hassle, always involves researching the best settings if you're new to it that takes longer. Then the battery is pretty much 20-30% gone by the time you're good to go after adjusting the settings , sure it's a one time exercise but it's definitely not optimized out of the box. Example: Halo Infinite multiplayer and the Hunt Showdown multiplayer have pretty bad default settings and then once you tweak them you're getting an inferior experience. The thing barely lasts a full match of Hunt and maybe 2-3 of Halo. Latency isn't great. It's too big to realistically carry without a backpack and battery life is poor for longer trips. I returned it after a couple of days, I REALLY wanted to love it. May as well have just put the money into a PC since I used a mouse & keyboard so often. If I want to pick up some great games for travelling I just take the Switch or Switch Lite. Cloud gamimg my with Xbox has been hit or miss but I have a Razer Kishi. I can play a lot of emulators off my phone for hours and hours with that popped on so my portable gaming needs are met without an ASUS. Still think it's better than most of the handheld gaming PCs out there so if the battery is improved then that's great for anyone picking this up. It's less focus on the games more on the portable PC. And my phone and Switch can do both of those fine minus the game libraries. The biggest benefit are the portable Steam, Epic, Microsoft, etc gaming libraries on the go but that's minor for me so hard to justify the price even with better sales on those platforms than on console. I can just play those at home on a better screen with better control on better hardware that's plugged into the wall. Moving 2 meters over to my couch to play handheld isn't a great USP for me. Think that answers the question. I'm glad you're enjoying it, I just couldn't justify it personally for the above reasons after getting hands on & downloading a bunch of games.

@Kilamanjaro The battery aspects I can definitely agree with, these things before the X have horrendous battery life for sure. Great for running low settings in power saver down clocked mode for "switch type"games, but yeah bigger games I think really would rather be plugged in. I can kill a battery in any 40 minutes if armored core 6 at 45+ fps so for truly cordless on the go play, yeah it's not ideal. (Then again neither was launch switch or og 3ds if we're honest. I ran those plugged in too....)

Though starting with x and the WoA snapdragons that battery issue might improve fast.

Disagree on setup though. I did just use the touch screen, no mouse, maybe spent an hour on setup except for a Microsoft account issue that I'd maxed out on Microsoft devices attached to the store, it still has my x1xs on there and all taking up slots. Using it as JUST a gaming box, was really just clicking through the setup, doing Windows and armory crate updates/drivers, and installing and logging into steam, Uplay, epic, Gog, that's the time consumer with all those stores, and done.

Game tweaking, yeah I get that sort of. I'm not bothered by it but I can see that as a bottleneck. Thing is for me, consoles have awful tuning out of the box to ne so ANY tuning is a good tuning in comparison. I'm not going crazy googling to min-max it, I just drop the settings until I get 45-60fps and go. The big thing to remember is you want your screen at 720p, then turn on RSR and let the upscaling take care of it. Stuff looks good. Not always easy to get 60 locked fps but 40+ is easy enough for most games. Even Elden Ring lol. I'm sure it can be better tuned to squeeze even more performance out of it, but, like you, I don't want to spend that kind of time dialing it in for perfection, and the fast and dirty way gets good results. That's the non extreme ally which is pretty impressive (my legion is extreme so that's quite a bit more capable of course. Right now it's just an FFXIV machine though 😂

Oh yeah I have a kishi too. It was ok. Then got g cloud and a retroid which was better before landing finally on the portable PCs. I admit though that pocketable is definitely not what these things do well lol