ROG Xbox Ally Revealed!
The leaked and rumored Asus ROG (Republic of Gamers) and Xbox handheld, the ROG XBOX ALLY (and X) were revealed today during the Xbox Games Showcase. Lots of speculation was circling the possibility of a Xbox branded handheld, and through the couple of presentations shown online—as well as a press event with a brief hands on—we are left with some answers and now even more questions.
I’ll break down for you what we DO know, as well as some reasonable speculation (clearly marked), a couple of wild but decent rumors (also clearly marked), as well as my own thoughts at the end.
ROG XBOX ALLY (and X)
First off, love the use of Genesis by Justice. It’s an all time favorite track of mine, so it got my attention.
Second, look at those chonky grips! Compared to the original ROG Ally and the Ally X, it’s quite the departure from the sharp angled lines Asus is known for. Somebody listened at the ergonomics meeting.
The OG Ally (released June 2023) and the Ally X (July 2024)
Xbox did a nice job of outlining the hardware specs of each handheld. Here is a listing of what they showed both in the reveal trailer above, and the behind the scenes below. Also added are confirmed numbers from the hands on presentation. For the sake of continuity, I will mark with *** any speculative or rumored specs.
Hardware
ROG Xbox Ally
- White Colorway
- AMD RYZEN Z2 A
- ***Rumor – just a rebranded chip based on the same as the Steam Deck OLED; 4 core Zen2 architecture with a GPU running RDNA2 (source)
- 16 GB Memory LPDDR5X 6400MT/s
- 512 GB Internal Storage NVMe M.2 2280 ***this means easy upgrading
- 60Wh
- 670g
- Wi-Fi 6E
- 2 USB-C ports x 2
- DisplayPort 2.1 / Power delivery 3.0 on both
- UHS-II microSD card slot
- Microsoft has said that this is to be a 720p machine
ROG Xbox Ally X
- Black Colorway
- AMD RYZEN AI Z2 Extreme
- 24 GB Memory LPDDR5X 8000MT/s
- 1TB Internal Storage NVMe M.2 2280 ***this means easy upgrading
- 80Wh battery
- 715g
- Wi-Fi 6E
- “Impulse” triggers
- 2 USB-C ports x 2
- With DisplayPort 2.1 / Power delivery 3.0 x1
- Thunderbolt 4 compatible x1
- UHS-II microSD card slot
- Microsoft said that this will “play easily” 1080p gaming
Both Machines use the same LCD panel – the one found on the current gen ROG Ally (and X)
- 1920x1080p
- 120Hz
- Freesync Premium VRR
- 500 Nits Peak Brightness
Software
The name of the new software is “Windows 11 with the Xbox Full Screen Experience”. This clearly needs a better naming convention; yet that hasn’t stopped Xbox, Sony, or Nintendo from use ridiculous names in the past.
One of the biggest takeaways from the behind-the-scenes feature that Xbox published today (you can watch it below), is that Microsoft really wants you to be able to all your gaming in one place. It doesn’t matter if it is Game Pass, Xbox PC, Cloud Games, or Remote Play; any games that can be played on Windows from “whatever store front or launcher” are part of the vision. ***not confirmed, but was seen at the hands on event: Battlenet, Steam, Epic Game, etc…
The phrase “any games that can be played on Windows” is important. This means that your Xbox One, or 360 games that you could play on your Series X, are not natively supported on this new hardware. HOWEVER, if you watch closely at the platform tags on the new game announcements, they ALL had ‘Xbox PC’ on them. This would seem to indicate that all Xbox games going forward are now going to be available on PC (at least the bigger titles). Check out this video on Xbox Play Anywhere:
After watching about 3 hours of content, and reading a bit more about the ROG Ally announcement, I want to echo a speculation (I cannot remember who said this, but thank you for putting it into my head) that I found fascinating when it comes to the software side:
***On the software side, the team that is working on the Xbox Full Screen optimization is not just going to benefit the ROG Xbox Ally but Windows as a gaming platform in general. This is in line with Microsoft’s push to make EVERYTHING with a screen an Xbox.
The work on Windows will benefit all who use Windows, not just those who game on Xbox (whichever you choose to use).
Conclusion
As a current Ally X owner—and as someone who takes advantage of Game Pass, Xbox PC, and Remote play—I find this announcement very exciting. In fact, I played a huge chunk of a co-op Baldur’s Gate 3 campaign with Scott and Kevin using remote play on my Ally X, and it was a wonderful experience. Now an upgrade that has vastly improved ergonomics, better internals, and a possible Xbox version of Windows. I am already scheming on how to save my pennies for the release, set to happen ‘Holiday 2025’. But the possibility of installing the new version of Windows on my current Ally X, maybe I won’t need to.
Price?
How can this be the end? What about the price, Paul? You left out that very important detail, and so did Xbox. The price could fall within a pretty wide range. If Microsoft decides to subsidize this handheld (which seems unlikely), then a $400 to $600 range could be on the table. That would put it into direct competition with the Steam Deck and the Switch 2. However, given the current prices of the Ally and the Ally X, $370 for the Z1 Ally, $650 for the Z1E Ally, and $899 for the Z1E Ally X 1TB, my guess is that the new models will probably land closer to $600 and $800. While that’s on the lower end of premium Windows handhelds, it’s still a huge chunk of change for the average consumer.
