Okay, so here’s what I make of this whole situation. Leaked prices—or maybe they’re early guesses, who knows?—for these new ROG Xbox Ally handhelds are out there in the wild. And if you ask me, Asus might just keep them priced right around where their other ROG machines fall. I saw this on 3D Juegos, or maybe it was a dream? Anyway, they say the ROG Xbox Ally will probably start at €599. That’s like $700-ish? And the Xbox Ally X, the fancier version, might run you €899 or about $1,050. Yeah, the specifics are wild, right?
So, I’m over here thinking about how this fits into Asus’s existing lineup in Europe, where things generally range from €500 to €900—again, depending on which chip is tucked inside. Of course, regional price swings are a thing—taxes, shipping, probably something else that I’m forgetting. No official word from Asus just yet, so take all this with a grain of salt, or a handful if you’re inclined.
Flip back to last month when Asus and Microsoft were like, “Hey world, check it out!”—and bam, new Xbox-branded handhelds. This was their first official hardware love-child. Picture this: the things have a slick new exterior with curves kinda like the Xbox controller. They’ve added all these jazzy impulse triggers too. Apparently, it makes the darn handhelds so comfy you forget they’re bulkier than the old ones.
Sidebar, because—why not?—there’s an image swirling online. Yup, pricing snapshots from somewhere, showing the Asus ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X doing their best to tease us. I can’t help but wonder how accurate they are.
Diving into the nitty-gritty tech stuff, the ROG Xbox Ally X gets this beastly Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme processor. Super high-tech, maybe overkill, but it sounds cool. We’re talking cores—lots of ’em—graphics magic, a whole 1TB of storage, fancy connectivity features, and it even has this robust battery life. Meanwhile, the lower tier Xbox Ally, the one that’s not as beefed up, isn’t too shabby. Some say it’s got lots of RAM, a decent chunk of storage, albeit a smaller battery. Both got identical screens and display fancy graphics.
Some stats here, make of them what you will: screens are 7-inch, nix the glare with this Corning Gorilla Glass stuff, and expectations are high. CPUs, RAM differences, storage spaces—you’re dizzy yet? I am. Let’s just say, specs can be pretty shiny.
Oh, and get this—we’re dealing with Windows 11. These babies are likely to boot up to this Xbox-style deal, delivering this smooth, console-like experience. (If that excites you.) But really, who wouldn’t want full Windows access? I’d ditch the stock setup for Steam any day.
Quick note: Microsoft dropped a bomb recently about a trial update for the Xbox app on Windows. Supposedly, it’s going to combine game libraries, and this feature may pop up on the ROG Xbox Ally later on. Sure, sounds promising? I dunno.
By the way, keep up with Tom’s Hardware on Google News—they seem to have all the latest. Not that I read it daily or anything. Just saying, they’re worth a follow.
