The ROG Xbox Ally X shocked me with how mild it felt the primary time I picked it up. Regardless of being one of many heaviest PC gaming handhelds, it doesn’t really really feel overbearing or burdensome. The controller grips on the edges would possibly make it look goofy however additionally they make it extra comfy, so the battery life will cease me from enjoying lengthy earlier than drained arms or cramping wrists. And none of it will matter if the worth isn’t proper.
An October 16 launch date for the Xbox-branded Asus {hardware} was revealed at Gamescom 2025. That was two weeks in the past. Now we’re 42 days from launch and there’s nonetheless no pre-order web page and even an official price ticket. The latter is seemingly underneath evaluate following the most recent U.S. tariff updates from President Trump’s White Home. But when, for no matter cause, it finally ends up costing double the worth of a Change 2 or Steam OLED as some leaks have urged it would, it’s going to have some large sneakers to fill. I’m unsure neat paddles on the edges, a brand new AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Excessive chip, and a slick UI overhaul alone will be capable of justify the experiment.
I went hands-on with the Xbox Ally X (the extra highly effective of the 2 upcoming fashions) at Microsoft’s workplaces final week in Seattle throughout PAX West and got here away with what felt like a glimpse of the place the tech big might take Home windows gaming sooner or later, in addition to numerous questions on the place it would really be come this fall. When he tried it at Summer season Recreation Fest earlier this 12 months, Kotaku‘s Kenneth Shepard lamented handheld gaming’s newfound obsession with replicating high-end PC and console experiences on the go. I got here away from my hands-on demo extra interested by how the PC gaming handheld might reshape the Xbox dwelling console expertise shifting ahead.
The Xbox Ally is Microsoft’s try and bolt a gaming OS onto Home windows so the common individual can flip it on and boot up a recreation with out ever having to navigate a process bar or desktop shortcut. Flip the hand held on and it boots immediately into the brand new OS layer working on high of Home windows 11. Unintentionally crash it by attempting to navigate round too quick or hitting a button if you’re not alleged to, as I did a number of instances, and that dreaded error window will pierce by means of the overlay like an undesirable virus alert.
The experiment gained’t be price it if Microsoft and Asus can’t determine a good price ticket, however it gained’t imply something in any respect if they’ll’t maintain the brand new UI steady sufficient to efficiently trick you into forgetting that the Xbox Ally, opposite to catchy advertising, remains to be really a Home windows PC. When it does work, the promise of the Xbox Ally shines by means of unmistakably: your PC recreation library made straightforward to navigate and play on already confirmed {hardware}. Tags for each recreation inform you if it might run at excessive settings or if it’s but to be examined.
A lot has been manufactured from how the Xbox UI will robotically pull in video games you already personal on Steam, letting you launch them from throughout the Xbox layer with out having to individually descend again into Home windows and open them manually. Can you purchase Steam video games immediately from throughout the Xbox layer as nicely? Microsoft hasn’t confirmed that but.
The thought might merely be that most individuals will purchase Steam video games on their precise PCs, then have them simply accessible after they transfer over to the Xbox Ally the place they’ll then even have Recreation Cross ready for them. The Xbox Ally is step one in a brand new race with Valve to see which firm could make accessing its competitor’s merchandise by itself units extra frictionless, and Recreation Cross on SteamOS remains to be a ache.
Maybe the largest coup for the Xbox Ally group inside Microsoft is a function that permits you to maintain down the devoted Xbox button to rapidly navigate between apps similar to you would possibly on a smartphone. It seems like an evolution of Fast Resume on console, by far Microsoft’s greatest contribution to the present console era expertise exterior of Recreation Cross. If solely each gaming handheld made it really easy to toggle between video games, Discord, and the online. If solely each gaming handheld even had Discord.
Talking of the Change 2, I introduced it to the demo for dimension comparability functions. I spent most of my time on the Xbox Ally enjoying Hole Knight: Silksong, a recreation I shall be shopping for on my Change 2 when it comes out this week. The unique recreation on the unique Change was a great handheld expertise, as evidenced by how few of Kotaku‘s workers on the time even performed it earlier than it got here to Nintendo’s console. The sequel solely prices $20 and won’t be testing any PC gaming handheld benchmarks. Do you actually need a $600, $800, and even $1,000 PC gaming handheld to get pleasure from it?
Over 150 million Switches bought proves there’s a marketplace for low cost gaming handhelds. Six million PC gaming handhelds bought, in the meantime, suggests there’s not but a marketplace for the high-end ones, a minimum of not one that may meaningfully revenue a public firm investing $80 billion a 12 months in AI. However even when a commerce battle in the end makes the Xbox Ally useless on arrival, a minimum of within the U.S., I’m glad to see firms attempting. There are quite a lot of cool concepts in there and I’d like to see how they might be utilized to console gaming sooner or later.
