Asus Teams Up with Microsoft to Launch First Xbox Gaming Handhelds: Introducing the ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X

Alright, buckle up. Here’s the thing with Microsoft and Asus—did they just make a handheld or what? I’m not entirely sure, but they’ve teamed up for this ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X duo. Kind of looks like they slapped an Xbox controller onto their ROG Ally, you know? Makes you wonder if this was a late-night “wouldn’t it be cool if…” idea. The grips? Big, chunky things like an Xbox controller—because, why not?

So, Asus was like, “Yo, we listened to folks who tried the original ROG stuff, and now we got this hybrid.” The new version even has these textured patterns and impulse triggers. Apparently, haptic feedback is all the rage. Personally, I still remember the time my phone freaked out in my pocket. Maybe it’ll be more fun on a game console.

Anyway, thicker and heavier than the last one. Okay, but Asus swears it’s the most “immersive” handheld they’ve ever made. Immersive is such a buzzword, isn’t it? The joysticks and buttons—same old, mostly. Oh, except there’s a shiny new Xbox button near the left thumb thingy. Press it, and boom, Game Bar. It’s supposed to be more useful now, so that’s something, I guess.

Now, let’s talk engines, or processors—AMD tossed out two new Ryzen Z2 jobs. The shiny edition, ROG Xbox Ally X, is rocking this Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme chip. Eight cores, some RDNA 3.5 graphic cores—sounds like sorcery, right? There’s also 24GB of memory, which is just numbers to me, but sure, more is usually better. They’ve gone all out on tech specs.

Port-wise, not much has changed. Except, one of the two USB Type-C ones got an upgrade to USB 4. I used to think those things were all the same. Oh, and a massive 80Wh battery. That should keep it awake longer than other gizmos out there. Batteries—hardly think about them until they suddenly show that dreaded 5%.

And hey, if you don’t want to sell a kidney, there’s the regular ROG Xbox Ally version. Not extreme—just, you know, regular. It’s got something called a Ryzen 2 A processor. Doesn’t sound as swanky as the other one. Four cores, our old friend Zen 2 (must be good? Who knows). Memory’s not as fast, battery’s smaller—generally, less of everything.

Display’s like a broken record—same 7 inches, same resolution, same brightness, same everything across the board. Not that I’m complaining; sometimes, consistency’s nice. Could do without the glare, but what can you do?

So, software-side, they’re plopping you straight into an Xbox kind of view, but Windows 11’s still hanging out underneath the hood. Meaning yes, you can dump in Steam, Epic, or whatever tickles your gaming fancy. ROG Armoury Crate’s had a facelift, and Game Bar’s got widgets now, because why not?

As for when you can actually get your hands on these—sorry, no price tags yet. They say “holiday season” in 28 countries. Holidays are vague. Could be December, could be Thanksgiving. Scavenger hunt for the units, maybe? That’s the news, hope it makes sense, or at least keeps you entertained.