ASUS has officially launched the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X, two new handheld gaming consoles built in collaboration with Xbox. These are still powered by Windows, but these handhelds might finally address many of the issues that plague other portable Windows consoles. So are these the Xbox handhelds we’ev been waiting for? Read on to find out.
ASUS ROG Xbox Ally & ROG Xbox Ally X: Hardware
Talking about the hardware first, the two Xbox ROG Ally series sport a 7-inch IPS LCD panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, 1080p resolution, and Gorilla Glass Victus for protection. Under the hood, the base Xbox ROG Ally is equipped with the AMD Ryzen Z2 A processor, which is based on the RDNA 2 technology. It houses a 60Wh battery pack, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of internal storage, and two USB-C ports (USB 3.2 Gen 2 and DisplayPort 2.1 support).
On the other hand, the ROG Xbox Ally X packs the Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip that is paired with 24GB of RAM, 1TB of internal storage, and a USB-C port with USB 4.0 and Thunderbolt 4 compatibility. A larger 80Wh battery pack powers the higher end variant. Both models feature a microSD card slot for storage expansion, replaceable M.2 2280 SSDs, WiFi 6E, Bluetooth 5.4, and 65W charging.
Did we finally get an Xbox handheld?
But setting the specs aside, the software optimizations are the greatest strength of these handhelds. When the first batch of Windows gaming handhelds dropped, the issues with porting Windows to a portable form factor became quickly apparent. While the new ROG Xbox Ally series still runs on Windows, these basically offer an Xbox full screen experience. In other words, it functions and feels more like a handheld Xbox console.
But that’s not all, the new modifications to the software allow the system to minimize background activity and end all non-essential tasks. This makes the system more power efficient and enables it to divert more power to the games. According to a Microsoft executive, simply turning off the desktop wallpaper, taskbar, and a few other Windows processes helped free up 2GB of RAM.
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The new handhelds also feature a dedicated Xbox button that summons the Game Bar overlay. It includes ASUS Armory Crate integration. Furthermore, the new ROG Xbox Ally series also gets an optimized lock screen and task switcher for controller input. But among its various advantages, the Windows handheld brings access to Steam, which is the largest gaming library in the world.
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