Windows-powered handheld gaming devices had been around for quite some time – but thanks to the likes of the Nintendo Switch, the Steam Deck, and of course – the original ROG Ally. It was actually announced on the first of April 2023, and many thought it was a prank – including me. There were – and still are – a lot of people who are hungry for these types of devices. I originally was kinda skeptical of the whole idea of a handheld Windows gaming device but I quickly grew fond of it and use it on a nearly daily basis. I also brought it with me to travel as well.
Fast forward to today, we have the brand new ROG Xbox Ally X. I’m rather surprised that ROG and Xbox partnered together to create this handheld device. It looks very similar to the ROG Ally and Ally X, but of course, with these two protruding grips. Since I have used the ROG Ally for such a long time, I can tell you that this new one is just better in every single way.
Design
Starting with the design of this new handheld device. It has a very different look, mainly because of the two grips at the sides. I’d argue that while it looks weird, this is much better in terms of comfort. The grip allows my pinky and also my ring finger to go into this little gap and properly grip it as my fingers wrap around it.
The grips also have some texture behind it, which says “ROG” repeatedly in tiny little writings, and I can feel it with my fingertips. This also improves the grip, particularly for sweaty gamers like me.
The triggers are – I think – the same as the ROG Ally X. The shoulder triggers are curved down into the side, and the triggers are contoured in such a way that it is comfortable to press yet our finger will not slip off from it.
At the back, there’s really no major changes. The M1 and M2 keys are small – which follows the Ally X’s design – and that’s about it.
Looking at the front, the position of the joysticks with RGB and face buttons remains the same asymmetrical design – and I absolutely love this. Though, it seems like the face buttons are a bit stiffer compared to before – but it might be a bit softer after pressing it constantly for a few months, as gamers often do.
We also have a new Xbox button at the left side as well, and this brings up the Xbox app.
Another thing I want to highlight are these 4 buttons. They’re… swapped when compared to the ROG Ally. The top went to the bottom, and the bottom went to the top. This isn’t a big deal, it’s just that it messed up with my muscle memory. Pressing the triple line button is a bit annoying as the right joystick kinda gets in the way.
The front faceplate also has a bunch of tiny writing that says ROG XBOX. It’s not distracting at all, and I think it’s a nice touch.
Screen
Now, let’s talk about the screen. It’s also basically the same as the previous generation, as it is still a 7-inch IPS LCD touchscreen that goes up to 120Hz refresh rate with AMD FreeSync Premium for VRR – and a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels.
In our test, this screen can actually go up to 480 nits while having great sRGB color gamut coverage and supremely good color accuracy because of the super low ΔE numbers.
One great thing about this screen is that the screen protectors are interchangeable. The screens on these two devices are identical!
The speakers are located beside the screen, which is a great position. The speaker quality I think is better than the previous one. I can’t tell, but you can have a listen in the video at the top of this review.
Ports
The ports at the top are a huge upgrade over the ROG Ally. We have double USB-C ports – one of them is a 10Gb/s USB-C port, and another is a USB 4 40Gb/s port. This combo is great as it caters both speed and accessibility, as I can hook up more stuff to the ROG Xbox Ally X and tinker with it. Then we have the volume rocker, microSD card slot, and also the combo audio jack alongside the power button that doubles as a fingerprint reader.
The microSD card won’t burn this time because it is placed around the fan area.
Performance
Now, it’s time to talk about the performance. This new ROG Xbox Ally X has this list of specs:
- AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme
- AMD Radeon 890M integrated graphics
- 24GB of LPDDR5X RAM at 8000MT/s
- 1TB of NVMe SSD
I have to highlight that the 24GB of RAM is shared between the system memory and the GPU VRAM. We can dedicate a specific amount to the VRAM, or just set it to auto and let it do its thing. I personally would just leave it in auto. It works well the way it is.
Now, let’s dive into the graphs and numbers. All these tests are done with the Turbo mode while plugged into the charger, so it can boost up to 35W of power when needed.
The new ROG Xbox Ally X gets a boost in performance when we compared it with the past data we collected for both the ROG Ally and ROG Ally X with the Z1 Extreme chipset.
From what we can see, it yields around a 12-15% better performance compared to the Z1 Extreme across multiple different tests that we’ve done, which is what I would expect from a new generation of chips. It’s actually quite a significant boost as games like Zenless Zone Zero absolutely struggled to run on the ROG Ally ever since the 2.0 update, but the new Z2 Extreme managed to sustain a good frame rate.
Surprisingly, Forza Horizon 5 plays magnificently at the high graphical preset and is above 60fps consistently