Microsoft and Asus have been working collectively over the previous yr to create not one, however two new ROG Xbox Ally handhelds. Each of those Xbox Ally gadgets, a part of the Challenge Kennan effort I reported on earlier this yr, embody a brand new full-screen Xbox expertise on Home windows that’s designed to be extra handheld-friendly and conceal away the complexity of Home windows to give attention to gaming as an alternative.
The white ROG Xbox Ally is designed for 720p gaming, and the extra highly effective black ROG Xbox Ally X targets 900p to 1080p gaming on the go. Like the present ROG Ally and Ally X, the brand new Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X share the identical 7-inch 1080p display screen, full with a 120Hz refresh price and VRR help.
The Xbox Ally makes use of a beforehand unannounced AMD Ryzen Z2 A chip, mixed with 16GB of LPDDR5X-6400 RAM and 512GB of M.2 2280 SSD storage. The Xbox Ally X upgrades the chip to AMD’s Ryzen AI Z2 Excessive processor, 24GB of LPDDR5X-8000 reminiscence, and a 1TB M.2 2280 SSD.
All of those specs make them similar to Asus’ present Home windows-powered handheld gaming PCs at coronary heart, however there are some much-needed modifications to the software program facet that would make the Home windows handheld expertise lots higher.
“We all know that to take this handheld expertise to the subsequent degree, we can’t do that alone,” says Shawn Yen, vice chairman of shopper at Asus, in a briefing with The Verge, admitting that some players have discovered it “irritating and complicated” to navigate Home windows with joysticks and button till now.
Microsoft and Asus have been collaborating carefully on these two new Xbox Ally gadgets over the previous yr, and Yen says Microsoft and Asus “share a joint obsession” on these new handhelds.
That joint obsession contains Microsoft making good on its promise to mix “the most effective of Xbox and Home windows collectively,” because of a brand new Xbox full display screen expertise on Home windows that’s designed particularly for handhelds. Not solely can the Xbox Ally gadgets boot on to this interface, the businesses declare you may simply get again to it utilizing a brand new devoted Xbox button on these handhelds — very like an Xbox console.
Microsoft doesn’t load the total Home windows desktop or a bunch of background processes on this full display screen Xbox expertise, placing Home windows firmly within the background and liberating up extra reminiscence for video games. As a substitute, you launch straight into the Xbox PC app, which incorporates all your PC video games from the Microsoft Retailer, Battle.internet, and what Microsoft calls “different main storefronts.”
This aggregated gaming library means you’ll see video games from Xbox, Sport Go, and all of your PC video games put in from Steam, Epic Video games Retailer, and elsewhere in a single interface very like what the GOG launcher affords. Earlier this week we began seeing components of this unified library seem within the Xbox PC app, and Microsoft says you’ll be capable of entry your full Xbox console library by means of Xbox Cloud Gaming or Distant Play to an Xbox console.
The concept is that you must be capable of seamlessly launch any sport you personal, whether or not it’s really put in in your handheld, streaming out of your Xbox Sequence X over dwelling Wi-Fi, or streaming from the cloud, although we’ve got but to strive that ourselves.
Microsoft has additionally made some further tweaks to the Xbox PC app and Sport Bar to make this all extra handheld-friendly, together with the power to log in by way of the Home windows lockscreen together with your controller, no touchscreen faucets required. You’ll additionally be capable of use this handheld-friendly Sport Bar interface to simply launch apps like Discord, or alt-tab between apps and video games, or alter settings with out having to fiddle with the touchscreen. You can read all about all the Windows changes in my deep dive look at this new Xbox PC experience right here.
These two Xbox Ally gadgets even have Xbox-like contoured grips. It’s as if Microsoft and Asus have taken an Xbox controller and squeezed a display screen between the grips, much like what Sony did with its PlayStation Portal. The grips have been designed like this to make it simpler to wrap your palms across the whole controls, so that you entry all of the buttons and triggers.
The Xbox Ally X even has impulse triggers like all fashionable Xbox controllers, so that you’ll really feel issues like terrain of roads throughout racing video games or the affect of bullets in a shooter, all because of the haptics on the triggers. Asus can be utilizing a USB-C 4 connector that helps Thunderbolt 4 on the extra highly effective Xbox Ally X, providing the opportunity of connecting a robust exterior GPU to it, alongside a single USB-C 3.2 port and a UHS-II microSD card reader. The Xbox Ally makes use of two USB-C 3.2 ports as an alternative.
Microsoft and Asus aren’t offering any benchmarks or an actual sense of efficiency for these handhelds but, and each use chips we haven’t examined. However apparently, they seem like specializing in battery life this time round.
“For this era a very powerful factor to us is effectivity. Effectivity is our new superpower,” says Yen. “The video games will be capable of play cooler and quieter, and on the similar time give you an extended battery life for gameplay.” AMD instructed us in January that the Z2 Excessive could be each its strongest and most effective handheld chip but, whereas the Z2 A is rumored to be based mostly on the Steam Deck’s much less highly effective however battery sipping Van Gogh-based chip.
Importantly, the Xbox Ally is utilizing a 60Wh battery, 50 p.c bigger than the pack that shipped within the unique ROG Ally, whereas the extra highly effective Xbox Ally X makes use of an 80Wh battery, tied with the Ally X and the most important you’ll find in a handheld as we speak. The Home windows tweaks may additionally enhance battery, with Microsoft claiming it’s already seeing 1/third the drain when these Xbox Full Display Expertise methods are idle and asleep.
In order for you additional efficiency, you’ll additionally be capable of dock these Xbox Ally gadgets to Asus’ XG cellular machine that provides up an RTX 5090 laptop computer GPU to overtake how video games play on these handheld gadgets.
These new Xbox Ally handhelds will launch throughout the vacation season later this yr, and Microsoft and Asus are planning to share pricing and preorder info within the coming months.