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Will this new partnership between Xbox and Asus change the face of portable gaming? We're eager to find out!
"Hello everyone and welcome to another Gameractor Quick Look and a special one because I know a lot of you have been wondering what we think of this thing.
It is the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X and it is, well, what ultimately became the Xbox handheld."
"Rumors swirled for months, even years, and at the beginning it was that Xbox would make their own handheld.
Then they would make their own handheld but first make a hardware partnership with an OEM to make it for them and then it was only the OEM handheld."
"And that is what this is.
So I should stress right off the bat that there also exists a non-Xbox version of the Asus ROG Ally.
The brand new one."
"And you can tell because the old one simply didn't have these controller-like, sort of, hand grips here.
So that's a pretty easy way of telling.
But in this Xbox version, it is made in direct partnership with Microsoft."
"And that means that when you power this up, you are not greeted with the regular Windows 11 setup screen.
There is a dedicated Xbox-designed user interface that takes you from when the machine boots to everyday usage parameters, which is very unique because there's one thing that people have been making a lot of complaints about with old Allies, the Lenovo Legion Go, that kind of stuff, it is that they don't want to deal with Windows when they just want to use this like, say, a Steam Deck, but with broader app compatibility."
"How that works is something that you'll be forced to see in our full written review that we're working on right now.
But as that goes live, you'll also see this video where I have to just quickly tell you about what is inside this thing."
"First and foremost, yes, these hand grips, which are textured on the back, provide better grip for longer usage, which is great.
I think overall that it is very nice to hold in your hand, nicer than the Steam Deck, nicer than the old ROG Ally, and even nicer than the MSI Claw."
"That were many flaws with that particular device, but holding it was one of the greater things about it.
In terms of the screen, not a lot has happened here.
It is a 7-inch, 120Hz HD panel, 120Hz is obviously very nice, and it taps out around 500 nits, which should be plenty, I feel."
"It is Xbox optimized, as I said, meaning that Microsoft had a part in tuning, they had a part in building it, but obviously Asus know a lot already by shipping a couple of Allies themselves.
But if you want to install Game Pass games on day one, play through Xbox Cloud, or remote play through Xbox, it does all of the things that the Logitech G Cloud, for instance, did, because this is made in tight tandem with Microsoft, which is great."
"So that means that there is Windows 11 in here, but it runs that below the Xbox overlay, and you get access to Game Pass, which a lot of people really thinks are very important.
But it's actually fun because it straddles in between these ecosystems.
So for one, tuned by Microsoft, yes, also connects to the ROG XG Mobile that has up to an RTX 5090 in there, if that is what you want, which is cool."
"So again, hand feel, weight, screen, it's all good.
Inside you have the AMD Ryzen AI C2 Extreme, whether or not that lives up to what it's supposed to, well, that is, we don't know yet, I will ask Kim because he's the one currently reviewing it."
"And it also sports 24 gigs of LPDDR5X RAM that runs at 8,000 MHz, that should be good as well.
In terms of storage, well, the 1TB, this is the kicker for a lot of people, the 1TB version will set you back €900."
"A lot of stuff have gotten more expensive recently, and this too.
Whether or not it's worth it, we're going to have to see.
Stay tuned, we also have a full unboxing, if you're very curious about how it looks out of the box, we'll have our written review as well."
