Microsoft x ASUS ROG Xbox Ally Handheld PC Signals New Era of Portable Gaming

Microsoft and ASUS just dropped a possible game-changer at the Xbox Games Showcase 2025, unveiling the ROG Xbox Ally and its turbocharged twin, the ROG Xbox Ally X—handheld gaming rigs that mash up PC power with the slick Xbox vibe, all in a package you can toss in a backpack. These aren’t just portable consoles; they’re built to deliver the full Xbox experience whether you’re gaming on a flight, at a café, or kicked back on your couch.

The ROG Xbox Ally series is all about blending portability with serious grunt. The base ROG Xbox Ally rocks an AMD Ryzen Z2A processor, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and a 60Wh battery, while the Ally X cranks it up with an AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip, 24GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, and a beefy 80Wh battery—the biggest you’ll find in handhelds today. Both sport a 7-inch 1080p touchscreen with a buttery 120Hz refresh rate and FreeSync Premium for tear-free visuals. “The Xbox experience grows with you,” Sarah Bond, president of Xbox, said during the showcase, hyping the device’s knack for adapting to whatever you throw at it.

Comfort’s front and center with the Ally’s design, and ASUS leaned hard on Microsoft’s controller expertise to nail it. Picture an Xbox controller sliced in half, with a screen slapped in the middle—ergonomic grips and smarter weight balance make it a dream for marathon gaming sessions, fixing gripes about the original ROG Ally’s clunkiness. An Xbox button on the left fires up a full-screen Xbox app that feels like a proper console dashboard, not a Windows desktop nightmare. “It looks like an Xbox, it feels like an Xbox, it plays like an Xbox,” Microsoft boasted.


The real magic is the custom Windows 11 setup, fine-tuned for handheld gaming. Unlike other Windows handhelds that make you wrestle with a laptop OS on a tiny screen, the Ally boots straight into a sleek “Xbox Experience for Handheld,” prioritizing games while slashing background bloat to free up to 2GB of RAM and cut power use by a third. Your Xbox, Steam, Epic Games Store, and other PC storefront games live in one tidy library—no app-juggling required. “We’ve got to pull all this together into a simplified user experience with the versatility of Windows,” Microsoft’s Jason Sones said, summing up the push for a no-fuss gaming flow.


Battery life steps up big time—the base Ally’s 60Wh pack is 50% better than the original ROG Ally, and the Ally X’s 80Wh rivals the handheld champs. Cloud gaming and remote play keep you in the game via Xbox Game Pass or your home console, and upgradeable SSDs (1TB to start on the Ally X) mean storage won’t hold you back.


The AMD Ryzen Z2 processors are a massive jump, with the Ally X’s Z2 Extreme hitting 35W to crush demanding games like Hollow Knight: Silksong, launching alongside the Ally in 2025, or hefty AAA titles. The Ally X’s neural processing unit (NPU) pumps out 50 TOPs, earning it Copilot+ status for potential AI tricks down the road.


Unlike handhelds locked to one ecosystem, the Ally series plays nice with nearly every PC storefront—Steam, Battle.net, Ubisoft Connect, you name it. That means indie hits, PlayStation PC ports like God of War, and Xbox Game Pass gems like The Outer Worlds 2 are all fair game. “Every game included in the showcase will be playable on the Xbox Ally,” Bond noted, though it’s unclear if every title runs natively or leans on cloud streaming.

Price and release details are still hush-hush, but the rumor mill pegs the base ROG Xbox Ally at $599-$699, based on the original ROG Ally’s $649 tag, while the Ally X might hit $799-$999, matching its premium specs and the current ROG Ally X’s $799 price. Both are slated for a holiday 2025 launch in over 30 countries, including the U.S., UK, Japan, and Australia, with more to follow.
[Source]