So far, the ROG Xbox Ally X is everything I want from a handheld gaming PC

It’s no secret that I’m not a PC gamer. The financial, time and knowledge investment required just isn’t something I want to deal with, especially as I get older and have increasingly less time to play games.

This is why I’ve loved the idea of a handheld gaming PC from the start. It’s a perfect mix of the ease-of-use, pick-up-and-play nature of consoles and the more advanced specs and customization options of PCs and Steam’s vast marketplace, all in a conveniently portable package.

And now, I think I’ve found my definitive handheld gaming PC. After briefly using the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X at the Xbox Games Showcase in June and going deeper with both it and its white, more entry-level Xbox Ally counterpart at Gamescom over the weekend, I’m confident in saying it’s pretty much the perfect distillation of what I want from this kind of device.

Here’s why.

Ease of use

Since I’m not a PC gamer, I’ll confess that I’m still not quite used to Steam. As a result, it’s not exactly my favourite marketplace to navigate, even after all this time. The breadth of games and the frequency of solid discounts are inarguably excellent, but the act of using Steam is still not the best for me. (Even the other day, I had to remind myself how to add a game to the library through the Deck, which, to me, is an unintuitive process.)

This is honestly a huge reason why the ROG Xbox Ally is so appealing to me. I can’t stress how handy it is to have the Xbox ecosystem, which I know like the back of my hand at this point, on a handheld device. For console users, it makes the transition to the ROG Ally remarkably smooth.

That’s because many of the games I already own on Xbox will be accessible on handheld through that same familiar store — no need to double-dip and get them on Steam. Xbox and Asus say they’re testing “thousands of games” to make sure they work properly on the ROG Xbox Ally, which is reassuring. The handheld will also have a Steam Deck-esque compatibility system wherein a game will be listed as “Optimized” or “Mostly Compatible” to denote how well it works.

The synchronicity between the two systems is also wonderful. It’s easy to imagine a situation where I’d start playing something on my Xbox, continue that game on a flight, and then resume once I’m back home. I think back to when I started playing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 on the Steam Deck during my long flights to and from Italy. I wanted that roughly 15 hours of flying to make solid progress on the RPG, but without a gaming PC, this also meant that I’d have to keep playing on Deck once I got home. With the ROG Xbox Ally, however, I could seamlessly go between handheld and console in games like Clair Obscur.

The Xbox infrastructure should, in theory, also make it easier in some ways to play games. Again, something that annoys me about PC gaming is having to troubleshoot when things go wrong. This was a problem for me with Clair Obscur on Deck, which just suddenly wouldn’t even start once I got home from Italy. I had to delete and re-download the game several times, try switching between my internal storage and a microSD card (that I also had to reformat). It was extremely tedious, especially when I was anxious to keep playing. Eventually, it worked, though it still felt like a hassle and a waste of time. Plus, I still don’t even know how I fixed it in the end anyway, in case it ever happened again.

In the meantime, console games are normally much more stable and, in the case of major game-breaking issues, are generally much better at launching updates that provide clear solutions. While there certainly could be technical issues with the ROG Xbox Ally, knowing that it at least functions like an Xbox at the outset has me more confident in its approachability. If nothing else, console players like me would generally have a better idea of what we’re doing with the device and, therefore, should be able to manage it better.

Games lineup

Before I get into the catalogue, specifically, I should briefly mention some specs.

The entry-level white ROG Xbox Ally features an AMD Ryzen Z2A processor, 16GB of memory, 512GB of storage, and a 7-inch 720p screen with a 120Hz refresh rate. The more powerful black ROG Xbox Ally X, meanwhile, sports an AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme processor, 24GB of memory, 1TB of storage, and a 7-inch 1080 display with a 120Hz refresh rate.

And with those specs, the ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X offer access to a robust assortment of games. Indeed, something I want to commend Xbox for here is the support for multiple storefronts beyond its own. Console players: do you want to play one of the 1,000-plus “Play Anywhere” games on Xbox and PC or use Xbox Game Pass or its Xbox Cloud Gaming service, or would you prefer to start fresh with Steam? Maybe you’re someone who uses other storefronts, like the Epic Games Store and Ubisoft. The ROG Xbox Ally can do all of this and more.

Something PC gamers are often (annoyingly) quick to point out is that many things are still “technically playable” through piracy and/or mods. Sure, that’s true. For instance, you can get Xbox Game Pass running on the Steam Deck, even though it’s not officially supported. But again, I want that ease of use of not having to mess around with too many settings, apps or downloads, so I can instead spend that time actually playing a game. That pick-up-and-play nature has always been one of the core appeals of any kind of handheld device, and that still applies to a handheld gaming PC. Therefore, I love that the Xbox Ally has all of these features natively.

Much excitement, with a couple of reservations

While I’m quite bullish on the ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X as a whole, some questions still remain. The most important one is pricing. We still don’t know the official cost of either device. For context, the Canadian pricing of the standard Ally is around $650, depending on the model, while the Ally X costs $1,099. It’s not hard to imagine that these new Xbox-branded devices would be even more than that.

I’ll also say that I’m not nearly as impressed with the ROG Xbox Ally at the moment. On the one hand, I always commend companies for offering multiple options for people, especially when one is cheaper and more entry-level. That’s important for a healthy and equitable ecosystem, and in this case, it echoes what Xbox has done with its Series X and S consoles.

But for now, at least, I question how worth it the base Ally would be. For one (lesser) thing, I much prefer the black finish of the Ally X versus the Ally’s plain white, even if, again, it aligns with the Series S and X strategy. On a deeper level, though, the Ally X’s superior specs might just be too hard to pass on.

I got a taste for this myself. In my maybe 10-minute demo, I was given access to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4, Forza Horizon 5 and Canadian-made Balatro. That last game was a particularly odd choice to demo since it’s a rather technologically basic card experience that can be played on literally every modern device. (Even if it was cool to see this little Canadian indie game being on grand display on the world stage.) In other words, the other two are the ones that would actually be meaningful tests of the hardware.

Unfortunately, I had issues with both. Forza was taking so long to boot up that I ended up skipping it entirely during my pretty short demo. And Tony Hawk, which I played almost the whole time, had some brief but noticeable instances of chugging. Given that this kind of game is all about well-timed button inputs to land stylish combos and rack up high scores, it’s not exactly ideal to have these kinds of issues.

Of course, we’re still under two months out from launch, and individual games could always need more optimization than others. But it’s not exactly reassuring that these are the two games that Xbox actually chose to demo so close to launch. The relatively underwhelming showing of both of them is even worse when you consider that they’re first-party Xbox titles, which you’d expect to be all the more optimized.

These issues are worth highlighting because I’ve so far experienced none of the sort with the ROG Ally X. (For context, I exclusively used the Ally X in June, while most of my time was spent with the Ally at Gamescom). On Ally X, my demos of Gears of War: Reloaded, Clair Obscur and Hogwarts Legacy all went incredibly smoothly. When testing these kinds of bigger games on different hardware, I always try to do things that particularly challenge the technology, like a massive setpiece or boss fight, and in all instances, those didn’t cause any problems. The chaotic explosions and gunfire in Gears remained sound, Hogwarts Legacy’s big environment-affecting wizard duels were consistently flashy and impactful, and Clair Obscur’s stunning French-inspired aesthetic and core parry-and-dodge-focused combat continued to be as fluid and responsive as ever.

Hopefully, these (by no means groundbreaking) issues so far with the base ROG Xbox Ally are simply due to optimization (either on the developer’s end or even with settings tweaks on the players’ side) instead of the core hardware. Because otherwise, the ROG Xbox Ally X is shaping up beautifully, and I can’t wait to get my hands on a launch unit. Assuming Asus and Microsoft have stuck the landing, it could very well be my definitive handheld.

The Asus ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X launch in Canada on October 16.