Customer Ratings & Reviews

If you are looking for a handheld PC look no futher! This thing is comfortable, can play anything at good frames and the sound is wow!

This is a wonderful handheld, worth every penny. This is also the first handheld I’ve owned since the PSP. I’m astonished at how beautiful The Elderscrolls Oblivion Remastered looks and performs on this device. Finally, I don’t have to be isolated to one part of the house anymore. And I can finally take my Xbox with me in the palms of my hands. This was a terrific move by Microsoft. I think microsoft should have offered a 2TB model, because there’s so many games that I want to install on the ROG Xbox Ally X.

If this is a first PC handheld, this is a very expensive purchase for a first PC handheld. That being said the ease of switching between PC applications for gaming such as steam epic Xbox is so easy. You’re really paying for the convenience of being able to access PC application environments for handheld with ease. My biggest detractor is having two USB ports both on top of the handheld. If you run this on turbo performance, that area has the fence that are dissipating the heat you will feel the heat and also with the way that is positioned if you play that in true handheld not tabletop mode, not dark mode if you have a dock, pure handheld mode, you have to constantly be cogs in of how much heat and noise comes from using the turbo that being said paying $1000 to have a tabletop mode based upon a piece of cardboard is really low budget to me. The Nintendo switch to add a fraction of this cost gives you a plastic table top mode attached to the handheld. That is my definite preference versus this piece of cardboard, but overall expensive is $1000 is, you’re paying for ease of use and you’re paying for potential should Microsoft come through in a stronger way with their cloud gaming and access to their Game Pass. Last thing is the Game Pass three months is not even a bonus if you already have Game Pass, this is negligible if you’re even able to use it. I have not been able to link it to my account without being prompted as if I was viewing a new account each time. So I haven’t utilized my three month bonus.

I've owned both the original ROG Ally (Z1 Extreme) and the original Steam Deck, and I can confidently say that the Xbox Ally X is my favorite handheld to date, with the Deck now sitting at a close second. Ergonomics & Comfort I never felt like I could truly get immersed with the original Ally, but the form factor on this new device is incredible. If you're a gamer with larger hands—someone whose comfort preferences lean toward premium, beefier setups like an Xbox Elite controller or the new 2026 Steam Controller—this is easily the most comfortable handheld on the market. The Display As for the screen, it hits a decent brightness level that keeps games looking vibrant. My only real qualm is that I wish the display was a tad bigger, but it’s a minor nitpick once you're locked in and focusing on gameplay. It really only becomes a noticeable issue when you're forced to read incredibly small text, especially since the Windows magnifier tool can be a bit finicky to deal with. Performance: Handheld & Docked The sheer power this puppy packs more than makes up for the usual Windows handheld quirks. I play everything from lightweight indies to demanding AAA titles. In handheld mode, I'm constantly surprised by how much I can throw at it right out of the box. If you're an FPS snob like me, you can watch a YouTube optimization video or two to dial things in perfectly, but the important thing is that you don't need to. Once you throw it in docked mode, it’s the closest thing you’ll get to a portable, high-end console that can actually fit into a sling bag. It's amazing what we're able to get out of these devices now. Value & Software When it comes to price, I bought this before the recent Steam Deck price changes, and I was already happy with my purchase. But now, with the Steam Deck OLED sitting at just $50 cheaper than this? I’m absolutely ecstatic. On top of that, it seems that Microsoft is making a pointed effort to constantly improve the UI and user experience. While SteamOS is still the gold standard for handheld software, the gap is closing, and the raw performance here makes it more than worth it.

First, let's get that title out of the way, absolutely no handheld is worth the money, when there are 2-in-1 devices that can game with similar performance and gaming laptops that can run better, both for a similar price. I could easily use a high-end Bluetooth controller for a similar price on a 16" screen that will sit right in front of me. This makes the Legion Go 2 Extreme pointless as a 16" OLED screen can be found on such devices. Now as for this device, I had it for about 2 months and while I personally think it is the best of the bunch, I still don't find the value in the device. Yes, the controller and grip are great, the screen size is ideal for portability, and it's pretty much the best Chip you're going to get in a name brand device like this for sure. The Windows Experience is great, but still not as nicely implemented as Steam OS. When you can get a hassle-free installation of Steam OS on this thing it is going to be a very good day. Now as for the controllers, Hall-Effect sensors are awkward in my opinion, as they have an unnatural feel when they're not a TMR variant and no the Legion Go 2 does not have TMR sticks. The storage is fine, and you will not notice any slowdown, but even more, you can install a full-size 2280 M.2 drive in this and bring it up to 8 TB if you want. I had a 4 TB in mine with no issues. Another issue is that I couldn't get an eGPU to work with the device and that was a severely limiting factor for me, and ultimately why I decided it was best to return the device. Bottom line, this is a nice device if your main goal is handheld gaming wherever you want to go, if you want it for more than that, then just get a laptop. However, if you're hoping to get a good handheld gaming device, this is probably the best experience out there for a truly handheld device (no, 9" portable gaming is not truly handheld). If you're okay with not going with a PC, then the Switch 2 is the best option all around, in my opinion and half the price.

Honestly this and a gaming laptop is all you really need in life. My gaming laptop is for home use and my RogXAX is for travel but im away for months at times so techincally its my main device and it does the job! Beautiful screen, good battery, great hardware, amazing handheld feel/control/eroganmic shape from Xbox, great speakers, etc. my only issue is the software/os itself. Its buggy, glicthy, not smooth, etc. i always have issues with it but its something that is fixable with updates and hopefully soon rather than later.

The good: super comfortable, potential to really be great in 6-12 months. OMG the speaker's sound is amazing. They did a great job with directing sounds to the left and right for gaming. The bad: The multiple XBOX/Armoury Crate/Steam combo I was running while also dealing with Windows OS was frustratingly non-intuitive. XYBA Buttons are extremely loud. TLDR: To be 100% honest, this did not live up to all the hype online. Battlefield 6 ran great, which made me at first love this thing. Then the new relationship energy died as most of my games are on Steam. Operation of the device using the Steam app from Armoury Crate on top of the xbox interface was the most non-intuitive experience I have ever had. I'd rather just boot up into windows and launch Steam. There is no rhyme or reason to the buttons you have to press to change apps or close games. Ok, so now I'll try a partition with dual boot into Steam OS....guess not since there's a secure boot mode that I, in my very limited PC prowess, could disable but still couldn't partition. I cry uncle, returned after three days. Also, I ran the same games simultaneously on a Legion Go S with Z1 extreme running Steam OS and they were so much smoother with a lot less tweaking to all the video settings.

I did alot of research on this before I bought it and I'm glad I did. I have a gaming laptop that I would bring to work and the set up and weight was getting old. So the fact I can do all the same stuff like game or stream shows with something way lighter and without all the set up is amazing. The only "compromise" from my laptop to this is the 1080p screen but honestly it still looks good.

It’s a very, very good to great performing handheld. Most games you throw at it form well, with some setting tweaks ect. Still is very much pc gaming at its core so don’t expect just a plug and play experience, like a switch or you’d get from a console. For me personally the initial updates weren’t as bad as some people online are stating. Approx 1-2 hours total for me not a deal breaker. Xbox full screen experience does streamline things some and makes switching launchers, games ect easy to do, However it’s very buggy at times. Sometimes control inputs just stop working, or switching apps/launchers causes the screen to crop weirdly, ect, or the most annoying is once in whole it won’t allow me to enter my pin and my fingerprint won’t work, but nothing a quick restart doesn’t fix but annoying non the less. I’m sure future updates will address this and the overall experience will get better, but If you’re expecting the flawless UI of consoles this isn’t quite yet there yet. My only 2 major complaints are the Buttons - they seem cheap and occasionally get pushed down and stuck under the actual chassis of the handheld and have to be finessed back up, not entirely a huge deal but on a $1k device this is kind of unfortunate, the buttons shouldn’t feel like a Amazon power A controller. Also no Hall effect sticks but they do feel good. No drift issues as of yet. The other is the screen size - didn’t really think much about it prior to ordering, but 7 inches is too small in my opinion - you won’t notice it to much if you don’t play on another handheld w/ 8in+ screen & go back and fourth but just going from switch2 or my PS portal then back to this you def feel how small it is. But its looks good and performs well enough for me. My other major complaint is/was with Best Buy return policy as of the day I purchased my unit. I preordered prior to 10/31 (the date Best Buy’s holiday gift return policy starts) thus I only had 15 days from delivery date to return this and for me that just wasn’t enough time with this device for someone who’s sitting on the fence with the device which was - I wouldn’t return it solely on any of the complaints I outlined, but with those small complaints +$1k I was def considering returning it and i just needed more time with the decide and feel really comfortable with my decision either way. (30 day return window doesn’t seem unreasonable to me) but here I am and I am now fully in on the device. I’ll close with this - if you’re a huge gaming enthusiast, subscribe to Gamepass ultimate (play anywhere is great), don’t mind tinkering a bit with tech, and want to play almost any game on the go and are familiar with PC launchers steam, epic, EA, this is a really good device. I’d recommend. But I wouldn’t recommend this as someone’s very 1st entry into the handheld market or for a gift from parents (who aren’t gamers) to a child ect that isn’t familiar with pc gaming. Get a switch 2 or steam deck oled, And again I say this not based on the performance or the couple of complaints I had - but you can get a similar not exact but similar performance experience on other devices for a much cheaper price point. Also, steam deck although dated tech at this point and you can’t play most multiplayer games on it, is much more user friendly for say a child or someone just wanting to dip their toes into pc gaming. Again it really comes down to the $1k that’s a hefty price tag for what you get here or the experience that ASUS and Xbox are trying to market this device as. Hope this helps someone make a decision. Great device, indie are amazing on it, triple AAA titles run smoothly, interface is slightly dumbed down for newbies, but buggy software, 7 inch screen, awful buttons, and that $1k price point make it hard must buy or 5 star review. Overall it’s a 4 and if you’re a gaming enthusiast and $1k won’t take food off your table it’s an easy recommendation.

Bought this as a Christmas gift for my husband after he had been talking about it months before the release. The shipping was faster than expected, even arriving before Christmas when the estimated delivery was a week after! My husband is OBSESSED with his ROG and uses it daily. He has expressed no issues. It runs great, great picture and sound quality. Overall, great product!

I’m going to get the biggest elephant out of the way. This bad boy is expensive. If you have bills to pay for yourself or others, don’t buy this. Take care of yourself or your loved ones first and foremost. For those that can take the hit but aren’t sure, I’d say get a Steamdeck instead. The Steamdeck does about 90% of what the Xbox Rog Ally X can do. And for those who have money to burn, it’s pretty solid but it needs a little improvement. Most of it being on the software side. Full disclosure, I paid for this using half my own hard earned money, the other half with BB reward certificates I banked up on my BB card. I wish it was more competitively priced but it’s a whale based market for this kind of tech. The only other issue as of this time but hopefully will be fixed in an update is it doesn’t currently play any of your legacy Xbox games in your library. It only supports select titles most of which are in the Series and some Xbox One generation. Now here are my positives. First is potential promise of backwards compatibility of your entire Xbox library. I have a couple titles that are supported from the get go. Titles like Gears of War remake and Death Stranding. Practically any gamepass game is compatible on the Xbox Rog Ally X. You can test what works with a number of titles with the 3-month trial that comes with it. In my opinion it should have been 6-months and the top tier but oh well. One advantage the Xbox Rog Ally X has over the Steamdeck is the ability to use a 2280 size NVME ssd. This allows you to install possibly up to 8Tb of ssd storage. It has enough room internally to install an NVME with a proper heatsink. It feels great to hold thanks to the ergonomics of the Xbox Series controller. It lacks the track pads the Steamdeck has but I’m not the biggest fan of them myself. I find the track pads almost too sensitive especially when trying to use desktop mode in Linux(ugh). That said, this is a windows pc. It boots into windows, you log in using a passcode or the same fingerprint scanner power button my Asus Rog laptop has. The system relies heavily on Asus’ Armoury Crate. It works pretty good but there is room for improvement. The other big appeal this thing has is the ability to use other game launchers in tandem with the default one. I have Steam in big picture mode and it does a good job of emulating SteamOS on the Steamdeck. Again, not perfect but it’s like playing on a Steamdeck with souped up specs. I also have GoG and Ubisoft installed if I want to try something else. The main two launchers I’m sure anyone will use are Steam and GoG despite it being capable of using EA, Ubisoft and Epic. Buttons are acceptable, face buttons are a bit long in travel but fine. Triggers are good and menu buttons are fine. I’m new to the Ally so I don’t have to retrain myself in the rearrangement Asus did with the menu buttons. Final opinions are if you’re dead set on getting this, maybe wait a year for possible updates to refine the user experience and hopefully Xbox legacy library games being playable. If you’re on the fence, get a cheap Steamdeck and maybe upgrade later on. Overall for what it does it does it’s fine but it needs just a few more minutes in the oven.

This device is awesome. Runs games at decent performance at 17w which yeilds great battery life. Grips are very comfortable and screen looks great.

My first handheld! I was thinking about Legion Go 2 or this one but after usage of 2 weeks I noticed that this was the perfect choice for me. Traveling with this beauty is really fun! I had some doubts about screen size and IPS panel but I never had any negative thougts about screen. Okay blacks are not inky blacks but colours are really looking beautiful and the most important thing for me no backlight bleeding on the edges. I have upgraded the storage to 2TB and I strongly recommend at least 2TB.

Super responsive, comfortable, resolution is great. Easy to use, a little configuration to make it run better. Battery life is great as well.

This thing is awesome! I bought a gaming pc for when I travel. This is all I use now is perfect and portable. Not only an Xbox but a compact computer. This is perfect for gamers in all forms to play who are mobile more often than not. The handheld itself is very quiet too oddly. Doesn’t overheat and the fans are quiet. As far as game play it’s buttery smooth which is crazy and the Xbox button for convenience only adds to the perks of having this! It’s rather quick in all actions too even switching interfaces and games.

The ROG Xbox Ally X is a premium handheld featuring an 80Wh battery, 24GB RAM, and a 1TB SSD, delivering top-tier performance and exceptional, ergonomic comfort. It runs Windows 11 with a customized, console-like Armory Crate SE interface, making it an excellent, albeit expensive, choice for PC and Game Pass gaming.

I owned the original Rog Ally ($600 new) with the Z1 chip / 16 gb RAM and 512 SSD. It was a fun little machine but very, very fiddly. More than once I had to spend hours researching on how to fix it when system updates would "break" things - desktop icons not working, problems connecting to external monitors, etc. More than once I had to do a deep dive into the task manager, command prompt coding or even BIOS settings to get things working again. The Rog Xbox Ally X. Despite my experience with the original Ally, I kept my eye cautiously on the Rog Xbox Ally X since it was released last year. When I came into some money from selling my OG Ally as well as an old iPad Pro, it knocked off about half of the device's eye watering $1000 price tag. An open box excellent find reduced the cost an additional $100 so I pulled the trigger. The device came in "like new" condition with its original packaging and charging block. No scratches, dings or dents. No complaints on that front. At the end of the day this is a Windows computer (and a pretty good one) that fits in the palm of your hand. It has 24gb RAM, the AMD Z2 AI Extreme chip and a 1TB on board SSD that can be upgraded to 2TB. I could tell right off the bat the Xbox Ally was way more stable than its predecessor. Boot up time to the login screen is practically nil. No weird interface bugs and glitches. When I plug it into my external 4k monitor, it automatically recognizes it, changes it to my primary display and disables the internal display on the Xbox Ally. It runs A LOT cooler than the original models. The battery life is A LOT better. On casual / indie titles running on Silent / 15w power mode, I haven't even come close to running low on juice before turning it off for the evening. I ran Wolfenstein II: New Colossus on 15w mode at high settings and it didn't break a sweat. I have not played any current gen AAA titles on it yet but I am betting you would get at least 2 - 3 hours of playtime before needing to charge. If you are all in on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate - which is the market ASUS is appealing to with this device - then the Xbox Full Screen mode does the job. It's basically the same Game Pass interface that you will find on the Xbox series X/S consoles. It also comes packed with ASUS' proprietary Armory Crate interface where you can tweak all of your device's settings - frame rate, display resolution, RSR, etc. etc. Despite the Xbox branding, the device supports all major gaming platforms - Steam, Epic, GoG, EA, etc. You can swap between platforms using Armory Crate. The Xbox Ally comes packaged with a power supply and a flimsy cardboard kickstand which, if I'm being honest, is a bit of a slap in the face for a $1000 dollar device. But a protective cover with a kickstand will run you all of $20 on Amazon so problem mostly solved. So my final verdict is that - if you have the money to burn - the Rog Xbox Ally X is a solid handheld gaming PC that is leaps and bounds more stable than its predecessor, has much longer battery life and isn't going to fry any memory cards like the last one did. If you can wait - the Xbox Ally launched holiday season 2025 and has seen no significant discounts since then. I would bet that come holiday season 2026 you will start seeing the $1k price point come down - especially with Sony looking to launch a PS6 handheld in 2027.

I'm 38 and got into handheld gaming by just taking a walk in best buy as a wait for a friend. I started with the legion go s then jumped to the MSI claw. The latter was just too big ( pause lol). This one however is perfect able to play all the games I wanted because it's windows but it's almost feels like steam because of the new windows game experience. It's very portable and light. The sound coming out the speakers are great. Worth every penny and it's new so there will be driver updates and it would get even better

The ROG Xbox Ally X is as comfortable as a handheld gaming device can be. The sound is amazing. It’s powerful and can play anything you throw at it. The only downside is the screen size and big bezels above and below the screen. They make the screen feel smaller than it is. If the next Ally X has a bigger screen it would be the perfect gaming handheld.

Plays games good has great speakers fun for on the go.