The ROG Xbox Ally X stunned 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 perimeters may make it look goofy however in addition 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 this can matter if the value 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 below assessment 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 value of a Change 2 or Steam OLED as some leaks have suggested it will, it’s going to have some large footwear to fill. I’m undecided neat paddles on the perimeters, 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 places of work final week in Seattle throughout PAX West and got here away with what felt like a glimpse of the place the tech large may take Home windows gaming sooner or later, in addition to plenty of questions on the place it should really be come this fall. When he tried it at Summer time Sport 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 may reshape the Xbox residence console expertise transferring ahead.
The Xbox Ally is Microsoft’s try to bolt a gaming OS onto Home windows so the typical particular person can flip it on and boot up a recreation with out ever having to navigate a job bar or desktop shortcut. Flip the hand-held on and it boots straight into the brand new OS layer operating on prime of Home windows 11. Unintentionally crash it by making an attempt to navigate round too quick or hitting a button while you’re not speculated to, as I did a number of occasions, and that dreaded error window will pierce by way of the overlay like an undesirable virus alert.
The experiment received’t be price it if Microsoft and Asus can’t work out a good price ticket, but it surely received’t imply something in any respect if they will’t hold the brand new UI steady sufficient to efficiently trick you into forgetting that the Xbox Ally, opposite to catchy advertising and marketing, remains to be really a Home windows PC. When it does work, the promise of the Xbox Ally shines by way of unmistakably: your PC recreation library made simple to navigate and play on already confirmed {hardware}. Tags for each recreation let you know if it might run at excessive settings or if it’s but to be examined.
A lot has been product of how the Xbox UI will routinely pull in video games you already personal on Steam, letting you launch them from inside the Xbox layer with out having to individually descend again into Home windows and open them manually. Can you purchase Steam video games straight from inside 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 are going to then even have Sport Go 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 Game Pass on SteamOS is still a pain.
Maybe the most important coup for the Xbox Ally staff inside Microsoft is a characteristic that permits you to maintain down the devoted Xbox button to shortly navigate between apps similar to you may on a smartphone. It looks like an evolution of Fast Resume on console, by far Microsoft’s largest contribution to the present console era expertise outdoors of Sport Go. 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 Hollow Knight: Silksong, a recreation I will probably be shopping for on my Change 2 when it comes out this week. The unique recreation on the unique Change was a super handheld expertise, as evidenced by how few of Kotaku‘s staff at the time even played it before it came to Nintendo’s console. The sequel solely prices $20 and won’t be testing any PC gaming handheld benchmarks. Do you really want a $600, $800, and even $1,000 PC gaming handheld to get pleasure from it?
Over 150 million Switches offered proves there’s a marketplace for low-cost gaming handhelds. Six million PC gaming handhelds offered, in the meantime, suggests there may be not but a marketplace for the high-end ones, at the least not one that may meaningfully revenue a public firm investing $80 billion a 12 months in AI. However even when a commerce struggle finally makes the Xbox Ally lifeless on arrival, at the least within the U.S., I’m glad to see firms making an attempt. There are plenty of cool concepts in there and I’d like to see how they might be utilized to console gaming sooner or later.
