As someone that primarily games on Xbox, I had cautious optimism about the ROG Xbox Ally X. The idea of being able to take my Xbox library on the go was very appealing, but more than that, it would be a convenient way to play online co-op and multiplayer games with my wife in the same room without having to get another Xbox console and drag out another TV. I was shocked by the absurd $1,000 price tag for the ROG Xbox Ally X, but figured, in the long run, I would still get enough use out of it to ultimately justify the cost. That may still be the case, but as of now, the ROG Xbox Ally X has given me serious buyer's remorse.
The ROG Xbox Ally X has been presented as an Xbox handheld, when that is clearly not what it is. The ROG Xbox Ally X is a ROG Ally with the Xbox branding slapped on it and the Xbox "full-screen experience" built in. It seems like it's aimed at Xbox fans, but it isn't really. If you are someone that has built up a large library of games on Xbox consoles, don't make the same mistake that I did and pick up the ROG Xbox Ally X assuming that you can truly access that library on the handheld without having to resort to cloud streaming.
The ROG Xbox Ally X is Already Selling Out
The ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X sells out on some storefronts mere hours after pre-orders went live, despite widespread concerns about its price.
ROG Xbox Ally X Isn't a Real Handheld Xbox Experience
Despite owning games like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 and Borderlands 4 on Xbox, I can't download them on my ROG Xbox Ally X. Instead, I have to stream them through the cloud. Since the Borderlands 4 split-screen experience isn't ideal, I was hoping to use the handheld to play on a screen of my own while my wife could stick with the TV. The cloud streaming works fine enough most of the time, but there's no denying that the experience would be more stable and better if I were able to download the Xbox game I own on the Xbox-branded handheld. It also means I can't play a lot of my Xbox games on the go, which is one of the main reasons to get a handheld in the first place.
Another game I hoped to play on my ROG Xbox Ally X is Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, the enhanced collection of the original Mass Effect trilogy that brought the classic games to modern platforms with spruced up graphics and other improvements. I own Mass Effect: Legendary Edition on Xbox, but besides that, the game is available through Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, so I figured, surely, there would be no obstacle here. The catch is that since ROG Xbox Ally X is effectively a handheld PC running Windows, you can only download the PC version of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition. This requires an additional download of the EA App, and also means I can't access my console saves. Now, I can stream the console version of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition through the cloud, but again, that sort of defeats the purpose of a handheld.
From a technical standpoint, the ROG Xbox Ally X is a powerful machine that has worked great with almost every game I've tested it on. There was an older Steam game I tried to load that oddly caused the system to crash, but otherwise it's been smooth sailing so far. It's a well-built machine with impressive performance, but the problem is it doesn't serve the purpose that one would expect from an Xbox-branded handheld, and that is incredibly disappointing.
In the future, I hope to get more use out of the ROG Xbox Ally X, mainly thanks to Game Pass. The Xbox Game Pass November 2025 lineup has games where the ROG Xbox Ally X will come handy when it comes to playing co-op, like with Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and its 4-player co-op campaign and the upcoming co-op survival game Voidtrain, which looks like a lot of fun. I'll eventually get my money's worth, but if you are a big Xbox gamer and are looking to the ROG Xbox Ally X as a proper handheld version of that experience, you are going to be sorely disappointed.
- Brand
- Xbox / ROG
- Operating System
- Windows 11 Home
- Processor
- AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme Processor
- Display
- 7” IPS, 500 nits, 16:9, 120Hz refresh rate, FreeSync Premium, Corning Gorilla Glass Victus + DXC Anti-Reflection
- Resolution
- FHD 1080p
- Original Release Date
- 2025