ROG Xbox Ally Is Good Hardware Let Down By Annoying Software

As someone who has spent the vast majority of my life playing handhelds with limited capabilities, being able to pull something out of my bag that can run Dark Souls 3, Cyberpunk 2077, or Skyrim without compromising what the game is and how it looks still feels magical. For me, handheld gaming PCs still aren’t commonplace enough to feel ordinary, so I don’t take for granted that I have, as the great Doctor Otto Octavius once said, “the power of the sun in the palm of my hands,” and by “sun” I mean my Steam, Xbox, and GOG game libraries.

Having said that, there are now enough of these devices that they’re starting to step on each other’s toes. The ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X are the latest entries into the handheld gaming PC world and, as far as toe-stepping goes, they’ve got steel-toed boots, and they are stomping.

As the name indicates, the ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X are new versions of those same Asus devices that have been available for a few years now, except they align themselves with the Xbox brand. The thing is, there’s not much new about them, they are effectively the same hardware with Xbox branding, and what little is new is executed to various degrees of success.

I’ve been using the Xbox Ally X and, don’t get me wrong, it is a powerful device that has allowed me to sit in bed and play both older and brand-new games as if they were running on a console or reasonably powerful PC. I’ve enjoyed making my way through Dark Souls 3 for the umpteenth time and also dipping into newer upcoming Xbox titles that run smoothly on it. That, like I said, is kind of amazing. But I’ve also been doing a lot of that on the original Ally from 2023, and 2024’s Ally X, for that matter.

And because of that, the Xbox Ally X has turned out to be the most ordinary and unsurprising experience I’ve had with one of these devices. I realize that I’m in a very privileged position in that I have access to a bunch of these portable gaming PCs and, in many ways, that means this isn’t for me. Instead, it’s for people who may not have made the jump into handheld gaming PCs and want to do so. But even then, I’m not sure I’d recommend the Xbox Ally or Ally X as a starting point.

Before we get into why, let me just be clear about what this is and what is unique about it. So, as mentioned, this is essentially the same ROG Ally X that Asus launched last year. The main difference in the internals is the processor: The Asus Ally X has an AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme, while the Xbox Ally X has an AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme. What that means for you is a small boost in power that, for the most part, isn’t significant enough to be a big deal.

Otherwise, it has the same storage capacity by default, battery, and 120hz 1080p IPS panel screen. The experience you have playing the same game on both devices is going to be nearly identical for most people.

The differences between them are more in the form factor and the software they run. For the former, the Xbox Ally X is much more comfortable to hold than the originals, as they are shaped to feel more like controllers we’re all used to using for extended periods of time, as opposed to being more rigid and angular like the original versions. The Ally X also has more of a premium look and feel thanks to the pattern on the face of the device. It takes some inspiration from the PS5 and has ROG and Xbox written in a minute font all over it so it almost looks like a textured style. It’s a small but nice touch. Most significantly, however, the Xbox Ally X uses the same Impulse Triggers as the Xbox Series X and S controllers. That means you’ll get much better haptics and feedback that not only feels better, but also can be catered to the on-screen action, so that it behaves differently depending on the gun you’re pulling the trigger for in an FPS or the type of car you’re driving in a racing game. This is something that I’ve definitely appreciated having.

The knock-on effect of this, however, is that the Xbox Ally X is a little heavier and bulkier (678 grams versus 715 grams). This a “your mileage may vary” situation that depends on how quickly you get hand fatigue holding something reasonably hefty for extended periods of time. The latter has been more of an issue for me, since it makes the device a little less portable than the original Ally X. The controller-style grip means that pretty much all my existing cases don’t work for it, and all of the new options are bulky.

If you’re an absolute freak and just want to chuck it into your bag to rawdog it, the shape of the device makes it extremely awkward. I carried it using a crossbody sling and never felt comfortable. When travelling, I usually keep my gaming device in my personal item bag. The Asus versions pretty easily slip in, case or no case, and I can still fit things in around it. But with this, it all becomes a bit unwieldy, so I’d be less inclined to take this one out and about in the same way.

The other major change comes in the form of software. The Xbox Ally devices run a version of Windows that enables it to be a little more lightweight. More importantly, it also includes a new dedicated Xbox full-screen experience that it boots into and optimizes Windows for gaming. The Game Bar, which PC players will be familiar with, is also integrated into the OS and accessed via a new dedicated Xbox button. Hitting it will give you quick access to a launcher that can open Steam, Battle.net, Epic Game Store, Ubisoft Connect, and other third-party applications, all of which integrate to give you an aggregated library.

This all sounds great… on paper. In practice, it often feels like a very basic wrapper that makes using the device feel like a convoluted mess. This is partly because of the way the Xbox Ally natively functions and partly because the Xbox layer, Steam, and Asus’ Armory Crate software are constantly running into one another, meaning it doesn’t behave in a predictable way.

My biggest gripe with the original ROG devices was that it boots into Windows–I can’t quite explain why but booting up a gaming device and then being met with a desktop PC style Windows login screen is really off-putting–and then the Armory Crate is a confusing, very unintuitive user experience on top. Together, they create a gaming experience that frequently reminds you that you are playing on a device that is a PC crammed into a tiny form factor and is running a bunch of software that has been beaten into a shape that kind of works.

On more than a few occasions, I would hit the Xbox button and not be sure what was going to happen. Sometimes the Game Bar would pop up. Other times it would pop up and then a Steam window would appear on top, fighting for attention. Occasionally I’d press the button and nothing would happen. Or I’d hit it repeatedly to make the window I want come up… eventually. More frequently, the Game Bar would open but none of the buttons would work, so I had to either use the touch screen or keep hitting the Xbox button until the Game Bar decided it is friends with the buttons again.

All this together makes me feel like I’m not playing on a piece of hardware designed and engineered to play video games, despite the fact that it is very capable of doing exactly this and, when it does, it is impressive. And when I’m in a game, whether that’s a Steam game or something I’ve grabbed off Game Pass and used the cloud save functionality to pick it up away from my console, it’s great. That is until I have to deal with the operating system: I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to swipe up from the bottom of the screen to bring up the Windows taskbar to force a game to the front or to close a game because it’s no longer responding or a game has launched, then the Xbox interface has popped up over it for no discernible reason.

It is undoubtedly frustrating, but easy enough to deal with once you realize that the vast majority of issues you encounter are likely due to pieces of software fighting one another, at which point it’s easy to just go through and start closing things. But I shouldn’t have to keep doing that; it is not the kind of experience I want to have and, for those who feel the same, there is a better alternative. I try to avoid criticizing things for what they aren’t instead of analyzing what they are, but in this case it’s difficult to steer the conversion around the Steam Deck to avoid it.

The Steam Deck and the Steam Deck OLED are both less powerful than Xbox’s Ally devices–at times it’s evident since some games run considerably better on the Ally even without diving into frame rates. However, the experience of turning the device on and playing a game is so much better that, for most people, I would recommend them as an alternative. They boot directly into SteamOS, instead of a Windows login screen, which irks me every time I see it. SteamOS is far more capable and better suited to the handheld format. It runs smoothly and, if you want to, you can install other launchers or import titles from other platforms into your Steam library. Admittedly, some games do require dual-booting Windows, but those interested in playing those games will likely be savvy enough to make that happen easily.

Valve’s offering, from a software perspective, has a Nintendo-like ease to its user experience. It’s intuitive, clean, and works exactly how you want and expect for the vast majority of the time. For me, I’m willing to sacrifice some horsepower to have that, instead of having to troubleshoot a tiny Windows PC every other time I turn it on.

The price factor also comes into play in a major way. The Xbox Ally X is around $1000, which makes it a hard recommendation for the average person who wants to play PC games trouble-free. If you’re a little more tech savvy and ok with having to fiddle with settings to dial in the experience on an OS and game level, the Ally X earns its keep through its power alone. Outside of a gaming laptop, it’s among the most capable at running video games from a technical standpoint on a device you can shove in a bag and easily whip out at a moment’s notice. And in that regard, it still has that spark of magic.

But that use case also applies to existing ROG Ally and Steam Deck devices, which can save you hundreds of dollars. If you spring for the Steam Deck OLED, games look fantastic even without the extra power. And when it comes to the software, Microsoft says, it will be available to all ROG devices in the future.

Where the Steam Deck feels like it can be a dedicated, primary, and only gaming platform that you’ll have a seamless and slick experience akin to a console, the Xbox Ally very much feels like it functions best as an extension of PC ecosystems, whether that’s Steam, Xbox, or any other. And that, to be fair, is a big part of what Xbox wants it to be–there’s a whole marketing campaign attesting to this. But in this case, the Rog Xbox Ally X is a case of “this can be an Xbox” as opposed to “this is an Xbox.” There are definitely people out there for whom the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X make sense, but handhelds have quite a few bars to clear for most.