Customer Ratings & Reviews

Was roughly packaged in factory but great device. Use it daily.

Overall, this is a great improvement from the original ROG Ally. The performance is great, the unit is quieter, and the form factor is much much more comfortable. The updates to Windows for the Xbox Full Screen Experience are a vast improvement from how it was before. All of that is irrelevant because the unit's build quality is junk. The plastic internal parts shattered around the metal screw threads and the entire face button board can no longer be secured into the internals of the case. And what could cause this kind of damage? Pressing the A button. I can't in any good conscience recommend a unit that breaks like this. I have no idea if this is a side effect of them moving their manufacturing or what, but this is not acceptable in a device that costs a thousand dollars.

Service was awesome every time I go to this best buy they treat me great.

Ordered open box “excellent” condition. After saying it was out for delivery for 4 days straight and arriving late I finally received my product. Now I know it’s open box but being define as “ excellent “ means it should essentially look new. Well when I opened the box there were like crumbs and residue all over the screen as if someone was eating over it.. and then also finger prints on the triggers and screen. It’s one thing if I ordered open box and it was labeled “fair” condition to receive it like that, but they base the prices on the condition so I think I paid more then what it shoulda been classed at.

GREAT DEVICE JUST GIVE IT TIME ‼️ MORE UPDATES AND PATCHES ON THE WAY

Very small screen for the price! I wish they would reduce this price .

As someone who travels for work, I rarely bring along my gaming laptop due to its size. The Ally X will change that for me. I found it to be powerful enough to play my favorite games, yet portable enough for me to take along. Gaming on the Ally X was an enjoyable experience for me. The games I tested all ran smooth (no lag), even on battery. Graphics were well defined, vibrant colors and brightness, even in bright lighting. I found the audio to be surprisingly immersive and vocals clear and the fan noise to be minimal, even at the highest graphic, and power settings. The RGB lighting around the analog sticks, seemed distracting at first but after playing for a bit, I barely notice them. Armory Crate comes preinstalled so you can adjust to your preference. The display on the Ally X is impressive, to say the least. I tested it through a full range of lighting conditions, dark room to daylight, and even while sitting in my car. In all cases the graphics were clear, colors accurate, and sufficiently bright… much better than some of the other handheld systems I’ve tried. The controls feel like a premium Xbox controller. Everything is easily reachable, and responsive. The buttons are a bit louder than I prefer, but not enough to be intrusive. The whole device is comfortable to hold, but is a bit heavier than I had expected and found myself resting it on my lap during longer play sessions. I found the Ally X to be a very versatile system and capable of more than gaming. It has excellent battery life, roughly 2 hours for demanding apps, and at least double with lighter use. Throughout my testing I’ve used it for streaming, performing a few minor updates to work projects, and joined a couple of Teams meetings while on the road. I wouldn’t suggest using it as a portable workstation, but in a pinch it really does come in handy! Lastly, I did experience an odd vibration issue that caused an annoying clicking sound to be played through the speakers. Thankfully, it was resolved by restarting the system and I’m happy to say I haven’t experienced it since. Overall, I found using the Ally X to be very enjoyable to use and fits my lifestyle better than other handheld gaming systems and the first to actually make me want to travel with!!

Is a little pricey but over all I would recommend it...

I’ve been using this handheld since launch day, and after nearly two weeks, here’s my honest take. If Asus had made this handheld without Xbox’s involvement, I’m convinced we would’ve seen an OLED and a bigger screen this year. Instead, the focus shifted toward Xbox ergonomics and the Xbox Full Screen Experience, which became the main selling point of this generation. I think Asus is saving the OLED upgrade as a selling feature for the next generation, and honestly, that feels intentional. I’m starting to regret buying the Xbox Ally X, and it’s mostly because of the display. I’m used to OLED screens—my phone and 4K monitor both have them—so switching to this LCD panel has been rough. The colors look washed out, and even with AMD variable brightness turned off, the screen still feels dull and uneven. The bezels are massive, and during gameplay, it almost feels like I’m watching a movie in letterbox format instead of playing a game. The small text in many games is hard to read and causes real eye strain. It’s just not enjoyable to play on for long sessions, only because of the screen because the ergonomics are great The build quality is also disappointing. The plastic creaks when I grip it firmly, and I’m not alone—other users on Reddit and Twitter/X are reporting the same issue. The Xbox Full Screen Experience honestly feels more like an advertisement than a launcher. Every page is pushing new games or subscription offers instead of focusing on the games I already own. When I power on the device, it doesn’t take me straight to my library—it shows me banners for newly released titles or Game Pass promotions. It feels like the UI’s main purpose is to sell rather than serve. For someone who mostly plays on Steam, it’s frustrating to constantly be redirected toward Microsoft’s ecosystem. The experience feels intrusive, cluttered, and disconnected from what a handheld gaming device should prioritize: quick access to your own games. VRR doesn’t seem to work properly either. It’s enabled in my AMD settings, but I’m still getting screen tearing in about 7 out of 10 games. The ABXY buttons are extremely clicky and noisy. Every press makes a sharp sound, and it doesn’t feel satisfying or premium. It’s distracting during gameplay and adds to the cheap feel of the overall build. Lastly, the Xbox UI performance is poor. It doesn’t feel like it’s running at 120Hz—the animations stutter, pages lag, and the interface feels more like 30Hz at times. Overall, this device feels rushed and overhyped. For this price, I expected a higher-quality screen, tighter build, and smoother software experience.

First off, its not an xbox, you cannot play any of the game you played on xbox unless there's a PC version. This is a Windows 11 computer, full stop. Controls feel great, loved the triggers, not sure about the face buttons, they were just okay. Powerful system but the thing that killed it for me was the screen, its just 7" and 16:9 and LCD, while my yrs old steamdeck is bigger 16:10 and OLED...staying with this ROG would've been a downgrade. Hold out till there's a Z2 Extreme option at 8".

Product worked for a few games and than stopped working randomly.

The ROG Xbox Ally X is an impressive handheld gaming device. On the surface it’s another handheld to compete with the rest, but when you start looking at the details, teaming up with the Xbox team added some nuances that set it apart including the Xbox UI and a stripped down version of windows. --==Performance==-- You can look at synthetic benchmarks if you want to compare numbers, but actual usage is impressive. After running updates, I spent some time getting familiar with the buttons and menus. I found navigating through the menus need more work to make it more intuitive. However, I will say, there’s a lot you can do within the Xbox interface as well as the fact it’s basically a handheld PC. The UI is snappy, but I did run into a few occasions where it would hang up and the controller wouldn't respond, then I had to use the touch screen. I spent some time playing Battlefield 2042, downloaded Hollow Knight through Xbox gamepass, and fired up the Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered to test out playing on the different platforms. Hallow Knight has been a ton of fun to play. The game loads quickly and I haven’t noticed any performance issues. Battlefield has been mostly great. It performed well and I didn’t have any issues with actual game play, but I do not think the game was designed for such a small screen. Spiderman was a lot of fun. It took me a little bit to remember all the buttons but again, performance was great and no issues swinging around the map. It’s worth noting I played almost exclusively on battery so performance was not running at the highest wattage, but this is how I expect most people will use this. You can go into the menu and adjust settings to be more performative for smoother gameplay or lower wattage for battery saving. I also used an HDMI to USB C cable to play on the TV, using a separate Xbox Controller I had on hand. I had to adjust some of the settings while playing Battlefield, but I was getting a consistent 30 FPS, which is bare minimum for playability these days, but considering this is coming from a handheld, I was happy with the results. --==Software and Design==-- One thing they did right with the design was the Xbox feel to the controller grips. It’s very Xbox-esque and very natural feeling if you use an Xbox controller for steam or Xbox is your console of choice. The RGB on the thumbsticks is a nice touch and there’s enough stippling to the grip to feel nice in the hand without feeling grip fatigue. The screen isn’t anything special but gets plenty bright and the touch screen is responsive. The fingerprint reader built into the power button is a nice touch for easy login. Two USB C ports are nice to see with a dedicated volume button on top and an SD card reader for easily adding extra storage. UI Design I think needs a bit more love. For me there’s just a lot that Xbox and ASUS allow you to do, which is great, but can be overwhelming and maybe confusing for some. The Armory Crate button is for most of your settings such as brightness, volume, performance settings, powering off or putting to sleep, changing resolution, and many other settings you can add to the quick access menu. You press the Xbox button and you actually just move over in the UI to the Home screen where you can quickly launch games or access your game and app library, including Steam, and access even more settings, some of which are the same as what’s found in the armory crate menu. You can also download and launch apps such as Steam or Edge Browser, which appear to act and function like the full PC apps. Speaking of PC apps, the Xbox software does run on a stripped-down version of windows 11, which you can use just like you would use a PC. I think one of the better things that comes from this is the use of co-pilot, Microsoft’s AI. When you’re playing a game you can hold down the button just to the right of the screen at the top, looks like 3 books with one falling over, it will invoke co-pilot and you can ask questions to help your way through the game such as how to defeat an enemy. --==Battery==-- Battery life is good, especially considering the performance. I can sit and play Hollow Knight for a few hours and still have plenty of battery left. I also launched Edge and loaded up youtube to watch videos. Spent an hour or so just watching videos and again, wasn't worried about plugging it in. --==Other Thoughts==-- I’m glad that it came with a charger, so many things do not these days and I’m not really here for it. I would have liked to have seen an easier way to upgrade the internal storage, while I can appreciate an SD card, throwing in a 2TB or even a 4TB HDD would be a worthy upgrade. The speakers are fantastic. They sound great and really push out some volume. If you have a USB C to HDMI cable, you can easily connect to a TV. I had one laying around and I was able to test this out and it worked great. No notable input lag to be found. It also easily connects to an xbox controller if you want a full playing on TV experience. I’d say one thing to note is there isn’t one, “update all” button to keep drivers and applications up-to-date. If Window’s updates, you’ll need to go there to grab those, if Armory crate has updates, grab them from there. I’m not sure if I had to, but I also made sure to use Steam to update my steam games, and I’m assuming you’ll use the Xbox app / home screen to update xbox games. Finally, just the overall experience as someone who comes from PC gaming. I have tried cloud gaming on a spec’d out Mac, and wasn’t impressed. I’ve used Steam’s “cloud play” and didn’t like how some games weren’t compatible. A portable handheld is the way to play your favorite games on the go, especially when you have a desktop or just don’t have the room to pack around a laptop. I grabbed a carrying case I could throw the charger and my USB C to HDMI cable in for easy mobile gaming. You can use the device as a large controller or even throw an xbox controller in a go bag with you and you can practically play anywhere you want to go. I gave a lot of grief on the software but honestly, you can get over this quickly if you’re willing to spend some time getting familiar with the menu’s, what button does what, and how to navigate best. For me it’s a mix between controller and touch screen inputs for the quickest input and navigation. You do get some lag from time to time, but I think this will get better over time as things are optimized. It's easy for me to recommend the ROG Xbox Ally X. The performance and battery I think are easy wins but also the feel of the controller and the versatility of integrated Xbox app all running on a stripped down windows so there’s familiarity with what you can do with PC gaming, especially with something like game pass or a robust steam library. PC gaming on the go is getting pretty good.

I think it was a cool gimmick device. Had a ton of problems with it from crashing/not starting games.

📦 UNBOXING: Inside the box, you’ll find the ROG Xbox Ally X, a paper stand, and a 65W USB-C wall adapter. And just like previous iterations of the Ally, there is no case or screen cloth included. Other than that, you’ll have your warranty card, manual, and safety info. 💪 BUILD: The Xbox Ally X uses the same construction materials as the 2024 Ally X. If you thought the Ally X was thick, well the Xbox Ally X is even thicker. However, I quite liked the thickness of the original Ally X as it felt more comfortable in my hand compared to the original 2023 Ally which could dig into my palms a bit. The Xbox Ally X takes things forward by introducing contoured grips like that found on an original Xbox series controller. The weight of the console increases to 1.58lbs which is probably not going to be great for everyone, but I found myself having no comfort issues while playing it on the couch for hours at a time. 🔌 PORTS, EXPANSION & UPGRADES: For its ports and upgradability, the Xbox Ally X thankfully makes no regressions from the Ally X, but it also doesn’t make any changes, either. It uses 1x Thunderbolt 4 Type-C port and 1x USB 3.2 gen 2 Type-C port on the top of the unit. Both of these ports support Power Delivery 3.0 as well as DisplayPort 1.4 output. This means a wide range of support for docks, Thunderbolt external GPU enclosures, and peripherals. I appreciate being able to charge via one Type-C input while using the other for a wireless headset dongle. Additionally, there is a 3.5mm combo audio jack as well as UHS-II microSD card slot. As far as upgrades are concerned, if you want to increase your SSD storage, you can replace the standard 2280 size m.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD by removing 8 phillips screws to get immediate access to the m.2 slot. 🎮 CONTROLS & NAVIGATION: The Xbox Ally X has the same tactile buttons as the original Ally X, but makes some changes to the shoulder buttons and triggers. The shoulder buttons sound a bit dampened so they’re not as loud. I don’t have any issue with this since they feel responsive to use. The triggers continue to use hall effect sensors like the original Ally X, but now they are dampened so pulling the triggers makes more of a thud than a click. Again, I don’t mind this at all. The rear macro buttons are slightly harder to reach compared to the Ally X, but still reachable. If anything, it means you’re less likely to accidentally press them. In the previous iterations of the Ally, I never felt that ASUS was trying to make them feel like an equivalent of rear paddles like you might find on pro controllers. This means they’re not designed physically to be used in games, as they just aren’t accessible enough to press both quickly and comfortably. On the left side of the screen, there is the Xbox button which spawns the Game Bar and gives quick access to settings, while a long-hold of the Xbox button will bring up the multitasking menu where you can switch between open apps using the controller or the touch-screen. With the latest Windows 11 updates, Microsoft has made more usability improvements to make the navigation experience on a handheld better, but it’s still nowhere nearly as polished as the traditional Xbox console experience. The Command Center button opens the Command Center widget from the Game Bar. It gives quick access to performance settings like power profiles, an FPS limiter, a real-time performance monitor, a 60Hz/120Hz refresh rate toggle, and 720p/900p/1080p resolution toggles. From a PC gamer’s perspective, I appreciate having quick access to these so I can dial in performance and visuals to my liking, but non-PC gamers might find the plethora of performance and graphical settings to be a bit daunting. Below that is the Task Button—the same button from the Xbox controller. On the right of the display is the Library button which will launch into the Xbox app’s Library section which lets you launch and manage your installed games from the Microsoft Store. It also lets you launch your games installed from Steam, GOG, and Epic Games. I can also appreciate that there’s a section “My Apps” that lets you install these other launchers. And also on the top, you have the volume buttons and power button that also functions as a fingerprint reader. For supplemental apps like Discord, you’ll likely need to leave the Xbox Full Screen Experience to download apps from the Edge browser, or use the Microsoft Store when applicable. There doesn’t seem to be a native way to add apps like Discord to the Xbox app, but you can add them to the ASUS Armoury Crate app and launch them from there or use One Launcher to integrate them with the Game Bar. This can make for a pretty disjointed experience for PC gamers, but Xbox gamers can use Xbox chat directly from the Game Bar. 📺 DISPLAY: The Xbox Ally X uses the same 7” 1080p IPS touch screen display that ASUS has been using since the original Ally. It can operate at 60Hz or 120Hz and also supports FreeSync Premium to reduce screen tearing. The display is plenty bright for daytime usage and gets reasonably dim for darker gaming environments. It’s a good display, but it’s the same display as the original 2023 Ally. I think the choice to use the same display across 3 iterations while getting more expensive makes me question where the extra money is going. 🎙️ MICROPHONES: Like the Ally X, the onboard dual array microphones are positioned just above the view and menu buttons. Not much has changed here. If you go into the audio settings in the Armoury Crate app, the Directional Recording mode can deliver high-quality microphone performance, but if you have a lot of background noise, then the Conference AI Noise Canceling mode will do significantly better, but may impact battery life. I had a vacuum running in the background, and the AI Noise Canceling Mode did an incredible job at isolating my voice—especially with the Voice Identification enabled. Whereas the Directional Recording mode is great for quieter environments. However, if you’re using the built-in speakers, you might prefer the noise canceling mode so that the people you’re chatting with don’t hear your game audio through the microphone. 🔊 SPEAKERS & HEADPHONE: Among PC gaming handhelds, ASUS had a great start with their speakers on the original Ally, and they continue to deliver some of the best audio performance on the Xbox Ally X. The two front-firing speakers deliver both loudness and clarity while minimizing distortion. It can get loud enough to annoy, and quiet enough that even the controller buttons will be louder. Headphone performance is also sufficient for most consumer grade headphones, headsets and IEMS. Not everyone wants to use a wireless set and have more batteries to charge, so it’s great that you can pull out a pair of wired IEMs while on the go. 🔋 PERFORMANCE & BATTERY: While plugged in, the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme can run at a 35W turbo performance profile while the Z1 Extreme would run at a 30W turbo performance profile. In my testing, the difference between the original Ally X and the Xbox Ally X is about 15-20% fps. More interestingly, the 17W power performance profile yields a ~30% performance lift when compared to the 2024 Ally X’s 17W profile, which is an impressive efficiency gain. This means that if you want to use the Xbox Ally X on battery, you should be able to achieve decent performance on battery. 3D titles will fare better depending on your settings, but I did find that for many titles, I could yield a 60fps average with low to medium settings, while some well-optimized games could yield 60fps with high settings. Playing newer games like MIMESIS, Windblown and Lost Castle 2, I had no issues getting a 60fps minimum while on the turbo profile plugged in, but on battery, I found that I could also use a 60fps frame limit and the 17W power profile to get a good balance of performance and battery life. Control Ultimate Edition is also playable with the right settings. Under the 17W power profile, I can yield 30-60fps on Low Settings with Reflections disabled, but going to the 25W power profile can yield better minimum framerates. It’ll really depend on how much action is happening on screen, but it’s certainly playable. Revenge of the Savage Planet, however, does not fare as well. With low to medium settings with FSR balanced at 1080p on the 17W power profile, I’m able to achieve a maximum of 30 fps, but bumping to the 25W profile on battery yields 30-40fps. If you opt to play while plugged in and on the 35W, you can yield much closer to a 40fps minimum which feels smoother, but it’s still not consistent enough performance. Your mileage may vary, but if you’re running under this 17W profile for 3D games and even lower for 2D titles, you should be able to yield a solid portable gaming experience for several hours with very quiet fan noise thanks to the 80Whr battery. And the fact that the Xbox Ally X can accept 100W chargers means it can charge quite a bit faster. 🧐 CONCLUSION: There was more reasonable justification for the price premium when the ROG Ally X came out, but to go from +$150 in 2024 to +$350 in 2025 for the top-tier model only to get a mildly better performance and better ergonomics? I’m not convinced that’s enough justification for the $999 price tag. The new Xbox Full Screen Experience is coming to all ROG Ally handhelds, so that won’t be a feature that is unique to the new Xbox Ally. However, I do think that if you’re an enthusiast who wants the best that there is to offer, I do think that Xbox Ally X is a good handheld. The ergonomic grips and the performance on battery is a welcome improvement, but those improvements alone do not justify the significant price increase over the original ROG Ally nor the ROG Ally X.

Overall really solid device. It definitely takes some time getting used to coming from a steamos device. Windows has improved, but it's still windows so all the fun things that come with it (updates, notifications, etc etc) It's very comfortable to hold, not too heavy and the buttons and triggers are very nice. I can play anything I throw at it. The 17 watt profile really surprised me. You can still get solid FPS on AAA games (above 30 FPS) and the battery will last much longer. I've been playing BG3, Starfield, Cyberpunk, Dragons Dogma 2 with no issues at all. The screen color and brightness is nice, obviously I wish the screen was bigger but what can you do. That's probably my only major complaint. I wish the screen was at least 8 inches. Overall, if you're looking for something that's portable and powerful, this is a great device. As a father, gaming can be difficult and this makes gaming when I can catch a break a breeze.

This is my first high-end PC gaming handheld and I have a lot to say about it. I was initially worried from some of the reviews of this device and wasn’t sure how well it would work for my purposes but overall I am pleasantly surprised by how much power, performance, and fun this little device can be. I only play on Xbox not PC and wanted to see what this was all about since it’s advertised as an Xbox. It’s nice to know if I wanted to play a PC game one day I have that ability. When I first opened the box I was very surprised at how big it is and yet so light weight and with the hand grips and ergonomics they built into this device it really helps feel great in my hands although the grips while decent could be grippier. I usually use an Xbox Elite series 2 controller and thought it was kind of nice they have two buttons on the back of the device to map buttons to but I felt the back buttons were a bit harder to reach compared to the paddles on the Elite controller but they still work fine. The triggers would have been better if they had built in trigger locks. Before I even turned the device on I updated the SSD which was pretty easy to do with the right tools and so I had to do the Asus Cloud Recovery which took some extra time and it took me almost a whole day to set up this device and go through all the different settings and Windows 11 features plus updates it has to do in multiple location like MyAsus, Armoury Crate, Microsoft Store and Windows Updater. It probably could have taken an hour for most people who are familiar with PC’s but once it’s setup it’s really easy to just pick up and play. I like the Xbox Full Screen Experience (FSE) it’s pretty familiar coming from what I’m used to navigating in the Xbox UI but it does have some glitching, lag, and some bugs I feel and sometimes I have to restart the device to get it to act right again but it’s not too often it happens. It’s able to play almost all my games and can play Game Pass games streaming them from the cloud which is nice and the one game I had a problem with that’s native to my console is Destiny 2, I was able to remote play it from the device but it was very bad graphics and sluggish to play, so bad that I ended up being basically forced to download the one main game I play on Xbox from the Microsoft Store and purchase all the DLC all over again but now I’m able to play anywhere when I’m home on the Xbox and away like at work with the Rog Xbox Ally X. There is still so much left to learn about this device and little shortcuts and button mapping system settings etc. that really isn’t in the manual but it’s been kind of fun figuring it all out. I downloaded a couple other personally owned games to the device and all of those games worked as expected and played just wonderfully with no issues. I really only had some performance issues like lag and FPS drops in Destiny 2 during intense action moments but I need to better understand the graphics settings options since there is so much customization you can do and every game is different. Everything felt so smooth and just like it would if it was a console so really fun to play. The screen controls and touchscreen are pretty easy once you get to know them and what they all do. I enjoy using the fingerprint sensor it makes it so easy to log in. I like the Armoury crate button (Command Center) and how easy it is to be able to adjust performance settings on the fly, or to set up RGB lighting with Aura Sync which has a lot of options like static, breathing, strobing, color cycle, rainbow, starry night, music, smart, or dark (off). There are so many ways to customize the lighting but it’s a fun process. The best button is the new Xbox button which shows the Xbox game bar where you can find friends and chat settings search for new games or jump back into games recently played. You also can long press some buttons and they have different functions. I like that it’s a touch screen too and wasn’t sure if it was at all and thought I needed a keyboard to type with or play PC games with but none of that was necessary. It’s a perfect little powerhouse of a mini PC and with the right setup could even replace a PC when used with a Dock connected to a TV you can plug in a keyboard and mouse if you wanted to and I set mine up on the big screen to see how it would work and it’s basically just like my Xbox I’m used to. When it’s docked I use my normal controller I was using and it is was a bit finicky at first trying to get the display to work right like the Windows projection mode choices like leaving the device screen on or only displaying the TV screen so once I figured it all out it worked just fine and it’s nice to also have the functions of a PC in the background if you wanted to or needed to use it as a PC. Going into desktop mode was easy and I don’t really need any of the desktop stuff but It was cool to go in there and tweak some things or uninstall all the Windows bloatware that it comes with and just keep the necessary apps I use. The one part I don’t really like is how you have to restart the device when you want to go back into the Xbox FSE but it boots really fast so it’s not that bad just kind of annoying if you needed to do anything in the desktop and then jump back into the game and while you can jump back in without restarting it’s just suggested to in order to improve performance and it basically shuts down all the windows stuff and focuses on the gaming which is what this is really all about. Some complaints I have with this device and nothing I can really do about it is I wish they would have put a better actual 100W charging block and cable included and not just the bare minimum 65W plug they give which is kind of big and doesn’t have retractable prongs. The small “dock” they provide too just felt cheap and I also wish it came with some kind of travel case. The battery life really isn’t that great and yes it lasts a few hours for gaming and it’s quite enough time to use it if needed I just wish it could be more with how some other laptops get about a days worth of battery but this is a gaming PC so it does use a lot of power and it’s meant to just be plugged in at all times. I don’t like that the screen isn’t an OLED screen and the bezels are pretty big but it is still a beautiful display but for the cost I think they should have done that upgrade as well as put in some anti-drift TMR joysticks like their new controller coming out soon or something that will last since you can’t easily take off the handles like some devices or replace the sticks as easy and we will see how well it holds up and if stick drift becomes an issue. For me, I just mostly use my Xbox controller and leave the device alone unless I absolutely need to use it somewhere that I can’t dock it. The D-pad could also have been made a little better or with metal components like with magnetic changeability like the Elite 2 controller or even the sticks being able to remove and clean just the thumb parts is nice or change the length. Overall, I feel this device is very niche and unless you travel or need this or want a mini PC to play with if you don’t already own a PC or Xbox and have limited room and are able to dock this you don’t really need this and it can be improved so much still maybe even wait for an OLED version and longer battery life but it’s a solid device and it’s fun to play but just crazy expensive as it’s almost like you can just buy an Xbox Series X or even a gaming PC since you can play Xbox games on a PC with Game Pass, cloud gaming and all that and have even better graphics and power at almost the same price. Really this is made for traveling and quick sessions during a lunch break at work or if you just can’t use your TV at home. This device does have a lot of great features and power and I can see why it does cost so much for what it is but when you add on all the accessories like a travel case or to make this work for docking like the dock, the new Rog Raikiri II controller, 100W charging block, a USB-C cable, the optional updated SSD choices you could spend another $700 and even more if you choose to add on an E-GPU, so definitely almost better to buy a gaming PC or gaming laptop but then you can’t upgrade it or just wait for the next-gen Xbox console which hopefully has both a console and PC built in because this truly feels like a public beta test of what’s to come in the future for Xbox.

The Asus ROG Xbox Ally X is a powerful and versatile Xbox-branded gaming handheld built by Asus that offers a customizable experience for gamers with a bit of patience. With its 7-inch 1080p 120Hz IPS display, AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme processor, and comfortable Xbox-style grips, the Xbox Ally X is an excellent choice for gamers seeking a portable device that can run their entire PC library on the go. Design The Xbox Ally X has a clean, stylish design that feels premium in your hand. It’s mostly black, with reflective blackish-gray Xbox patterns on the front and RGB rings around the analog sticks. Build quality is solid, with no noticeable creaking or flexing. The new Xbox-style grips are a welcome addition for users with larger hands, though I didn’t find them significantly more comfortable than the previous model. The offset analog sticks are a plus, and all buttons offer satisfying tactile feedback. Triggers and bumpers feel great, though the front-facing buttons are noticeably loud. Exclusive to the Xbox Ally X are Impulse Triggers, which add subtle vibration during gameplay. It’s a neat feature, but not essential. Overall, holding the device feels like gripping a wide Xbox controller, complete with rear mappable buttons for games that support them. Display and Sound The 7-inch screen is one of the Xbox Ally X’s standout features. It’s bright (500 nits), vivid, and sharp at 1080p. The 120Hz AMD FreeSync Premium display makes gameplay feel fluid and helps smooth out frame rate dips. Touch responsiveness is excellent, with no ghosting or smearing. While it’s not OLED, it’s arguably the best non-OLED screen on any handheld gaming device today. The speakers seem to have been upgraded as well. They sound incredible for such a small device, and you can actually feel a bit of bass through the unit. Dolby Atmos does a great job widening the soundstage. The speakers also get quite loud, so I don’t think anyone will be disappointed with the sound. Connectivity You’ll get Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity and Wi-Fi 6E for fast wireless performance. You’ll also get a classic 3.5 mm audio jack for wired headphones if you’d rather avoid any potential Bluetooth latency. For data and video connectivity, you’ll have one USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port that supports both power delivery and DisplayPort for an external display, and another USB-C 4.0 port that supports nearly everything including DisplayPort 1.4 with FreeSync and Power Delivery 3.0. If you’d prefer a simple way to expand your storage, the UHS-II microSD card slot makes it easy to add more space. Gaming Performance Powered by the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme, the Xbox Ally X delivers impressive performance for a handheld. It also includes 24 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 1 TB of PCIe 4.0 NVMe storage, which should be plenty for even the biggest games and can be upgraded if needed. I tested a wide range of games, and most ran smoothly at medium to high settings. Titles like Doom: The Dark Ages hit 60+ FPS and are optimized for the device when downloaded from the Xbox Store. Xbox pledges to optimize more games for the handheld in the future. Smaller indie titles are where the Xbox Ally X truly shines. Games like Ball x Pit, Slots and Daggers, Halls of Torment, and others from Steam or Xbox Game Pass run flawlessly. With a few tweaks to graphical settings, nearly any current game is playable at 1080p. FSR 3 and soon FSR 4 support help boost performance, and RSR is a useful fallback for games that struggle to maintain consistent frame rates. While the Z2 Extreme’s AI cores aren’t widely utilized yet, future updates may unlock more potential. Here’s the full list of games I tested on the Xbox Ally X, all running at or above 60 FPS with minimal tweaking: Brotato Yet Another Zombie Survivors Vampire Survivors Ball x Pit Greedland Slots and Daggers Doom: The Dark Ages Octopath Traveler II Forza Horizon 5 Farm Together 2 Diablo IV Path of Exile II Little Nightmares III South of Midnight Outerworlds 2 Arc Raiders PowerWash Simulator 2 When plugged in, you can enable 30W Turbo mode for a performance boost at the cost of increased fan noise and heat. It’s a great option for more graphically intensive games when docked or charging. Battery Life, Charging and Thermals The Xbox Ally X packs a massive 80Wh battery. You’ll get nearly 3 hours of playtime with demanding AAA titles, and even more with lighter games. Battery life will depend on screen brightness, volume level, and other variables, so these are just estimates. Charging is quick and straightforward with the included adapter. Thermals are well-managed. While the back of the unit gets warm under heavy load, the grips and controls stay cool. Fan noise ramps up in Performance or Turbo mode, and there’s a faint coil whine at certain times, but it’s subtle and unlikely to bother most users. Interface and Functionality This is where the Xbox Ally X both shines and stumbles, and why I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone. Xbox integration includes a dedicated button and a custom Xbox Full Screen Experience (FSE), which launches the Xbox app at startup instead of the full Windows 11 desktop. This saves resources and aggregates games from Steam, Epic, and other stores. You can launch most titles directly from the Xbox FSE, though their respective launchers still run in the background. The Xbox button opens a menu for switching windows, launching games, and adjusting settings. Asus’s Armory Crate complements this with hardware, display, and input customization. However, setup still requires diving into multiple apps, far from a console-like experience. Even with the Xbox FSE, onboarding a new user is tedious. You’ll need to manually install your game launchers, enter passwords and 2FA codes using the small onscreen keyboard unless QR login is available, and update drivers, Windows 11, and Armory Crate. Expect a few hours of setup before you’re fully operational. Once configured, you’ll have access to your full PC gaming library, unlike other handhelds that are locked to a single storefront. But this flexibility comes at the cost of simplicity. The Xbox Ally X is not a plug-and-play device. Overall Verdict The Asus ROG Xbox Ally X is a fantastic handheld gaming device, with caveats. At its core, it’s a Windows 11 PC, and that means dealing with all the quirks and setup overhead that come with it. Xbox really wants you to love this device and settle into their ecosystem, so they’ve included 3 months of Xbox Game Pass Premium that will stack onto any existing subscription in case you’re already a member. Xbox branding suggests a console-like experience, but that’s only partially true. While you get access to Xbox party chat, achievements, and Play Anywhere titles, you can’t play your full Xbox console library. Only around 1,200 games currently support Play Anywhere, though Xbox is working to expand that list. This could be misleading for buyers expecting full Xbox compatibility, and I take some issue with that. If you’re comfortable with these limitations and enjoy a bit of tinkering, the Xbox Ally X is a powerful and flexible gaming companion, perfect for couch play or travel. However, for more casual players who want a device for cozy games or simple access to their Steam library, there are other options I’d recommend over the ROG Xbox Ally X, many of which are available for half the price.

’ve been using the new ROG Xbox Ally X for about a week now, and overall, it’s pretty impressive. The build feels solid and premium right out of the box, but I will say… it’s big. Like, noticeably big. It took a few minutes to get used to holding it while gaming. The controller layout feels familiar — kind of like an Xbox controller — but my arms were like, “wait a second,” because they were spread way farther apart than normal. Muscle memory had to adjust a bit. The screen is definitely the hero. It’s bright, sharp, and games like Call of Duty and Madden looked smooth and crisp. Colors are vibrant, and the motion stayed clean even during fast action. The speakers really surprised me too — super loud and clear. When I hooked it up to my Samsung M8 monitor for a larger screen, I actually preferred the sound coming from the Ally itself. That says a lot. Once I got used to the form factor, I had no trouble playing for long stretches. It’s not exactly lightweight, but it’s balanced well, so it never felt heavy — just a little awkward at first. The triggers are responsive, and overall button placement is familiar and easy to get comfortable with. Battery life has been solid. I got several hours of real gameplay before needing to recharge, and when I did plug in, the fast charging kicked in quickly over USB-C. That’s a big plus when you’re out and about or traveling — charging won’t be a hassle. There are a few things I wish were different, though. The joysticks aren’t user-replaceable (at least easily), which makes me nervous about durability over time. They work great right now, but if one starts drifting a year from now, it’d be nice to have a fix that doesn’t involve sending the whole unit in. Honestly, I still don’t get why handhelds like this don’t use detachable controllers. We had a perfect design back in 2017 — not sure why we’re still locked into built-ins. When you boot it up, it starts in a console-style Xbox interface — which is cool, makes it feel like you've got basically a portable XBOX — but it’s still very much a Windows machine underneath. That means you’ll run into typical Windows stuff like updates, popups, driver tweaks, and all that. I actually spent about six hours doing updates and downloads before I could play my first COD session. Maybe it wouldn’t take that long with other games, but yeah — not the smoothest experience out of the box. Still, if you’re looking for a handheld that can actually run full PC games — not watered-down mobile ports — the Ally X with the Z2 Extreme chip is the real deal. It’s already my go-to device when I want play from the couch but can't fire up a whole setup because my daughter wants to watch cartoons.

I along with many others were under the impression this was a handheld xbox or at least could olay digital xbox games i own, it does not. It only plays xbox play anywhere titles which are just pc games.

I had the OG ally for a few years and wanted to upgrade. Not for hardware specs as the games I played ran great on the old Ally, I mainly wanted this because of the handgrips. It is nice to be able to play on higher graphic settings though. Pros: Easy to hold over the 1st gen Ally Nice to not have to upgrade the SSD Great placement for buttons Longer battery life. Played WoW on turbo for about 3 hours before the battery warning came up. I got this before Christmas and have yet had to do a hard restart or task manager option to force close anything. No lock ups or lag in gameplay. Two USB-C ports. Audio is great Personal Complaints: The Armoury crate, Menu, View and Command Center buttons were swapped compared to the 1st gen ally. It took a bit to get used to as I use some of those buttons for gameplay. I have a scuff controller, and the triggers have sliders that you can switch the action of the trigger to just be a button or a full trigger, wish the ally had those options as well. Now let’s address the cons that folks are saying about this though.... Doesn’t play xbox games----no crap, it’s not a xbox. It’s a PC. Took forever to set up---get better internet. Mine took roughly 15 minutes and I was on the windows desktop downloading games. Cheap plastic and makes creaking sounds—ok, maybe you got a messed up one. Mine doesn’t creak or make sounds. Its study and is well built. Small Screen—I guess but we are talking about being able to play games on the go and not having to drag an entire rig or laptop around with you. Some complain the bezel is too big, but I really don’t have a problem with it at all. Loud buttons—they can be if you are wanting dead quiet. Not loud enough to keep the wife awake at night. Xbox UI bugs—all these complaints seem to be user errors. I haven’t run into a single issue yet. Only thing I don’t like is when you first startup, it goes to the xbox UI and you have to press 3 buttons to navigate to windows desktop.