ROG Xbox Ally X Review

Introduction and Technical Specifications

Introduction

Portability has become increasingly important in recent times. The sales success of the Nintendo Switch meant both Microsoft and Sony rushed to develop their own. The PlayStation Portal was Sonys version. We all eagerly anticipated the Xbox one, especially as rumours were that it would be a full on handheld. The reveal back in June certainly gave us pause. Not so much a portable Xbox, instead it was more akin to a Steamdeck. A portable PC. Being produced by ASUS Republic of Gamers brand had us fearing for our wallets.

Whilst it is hardly priced at the everyman there is so much flexibility and quality hardware in the ROG Xbox Ally that if you want what it offers, nothing else comes close. We worried when we first saw it that it was going to be locked to the Xbox infrastructure. However, based on Windows 11 – admittedly a carefully managed version that removes a lot of background and performance sapping nonsense – it’s just as happy with other storefronts. GOG, Steam, all happy to be run on the Ally. Heck if you’ve taken a nasty blow to the head and prefer the Epic Games Store even that works.

Should you have experienced Windows 8, the way the ROG Xbox Ally works is quite similar. There is a big Xbox app layer on top of the OS that allows you to control it easily with the handheld controls. What we particularly enjoy is that there is a setup behind the scenes that ensures great performance for the newbie. If, however, you are more than capable of tweaking your settings then being a full fat Windows 11 model means you’ve got all the options available to you.

Technical Specifications

We have the ROG Xbox Ally X for review, the more powerful of the two. Bigger processor, bigger battery, more RAM, more storage. It even boasts a Thunderbolt 4 connector which is absent from the vanilla ROG Ally. The short list of changes are as follows. AMD Ryzen Z2 A CPU in the Ally – 4C8T Zen 2 @ 3.8 GHz peak. Meanwhile the X has the Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme – 8C16T with a peak of 5 GHz boost clock. The Ally has RDNA 2 8CU boosting to 1.8 GHz. If you stretch to the ROG Xbox Ally X you can enjoy RDNA 3.5 16CU boosting to 2.9 GHz with 50 TOPS of Neural processing.

Clearly if you can afford the ROG Xbox Ally X then you’re getting more than enough extra performance to justify the additional £300 entry cost. A premium product with a premium speclist. With twice the storage of the Ally – 512GB on the Ally vs 1TB on the Ally X – you can take more games with you too.