I have been a fan of gaming handhelds for as long as I can remember. My first handheld was a Gameboy, quickly followed by a long series of other devices, including more recently the Nintendo Switch, the Steam Deck, and the ROG Ally.

While the Switch continues to be a great console for Nintendo and its fans, it is simply too closed a platform for me to embrace. Meanwhile, the Steam Deck has delivered innovation to the handheld PC segment — so much so that it has reinvigorated the entire category. The success of the Steam Deck has exposed Microsoft’s failure to successfully address the handheld form factor with Windows; indeed, it has struggled to improve the interface and overall user experience. I also recently reviewed Lenovo’s take on SteamOS — the Legion Go S — and found that Lenovo’s hardware paired with Valve’s software is a great combination, and another challenge to Windows gaming.

And then there is ASUS. Back in 2023, ASUS worked closely with AMD to launch the Z series of chips for handheld gaming platforms. I would argue that the ROG Ally was one of the most capable and refined devices of that generation, although even it had plenty of issues. In fact, while that generation of chips did some good things for handheld gaming experiences, it also really held back the ROG Ally in terms of real-world performance, thermals, and battery life — major factors when the device is in your hands for hours at a time. The ergonomics were also only okay, and it was clear that there was plenty of room for improvement. That’s why ASUS made the ROG Ally X with a larger battery and some other minor improvements before launching the ROG Xbox Ally X.

How Does the New Xbox Ally X Stack Up to the Old One?

To give credit where it’s due, I am glad that Microsoft took an interest in the older Ally model and worked with AMD and ASUS to bring the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X into reality. While I could compare the Xbox Ally X to other high-end handhelds such as the Lenovo Legion Go 2, I am more interested in seeing how far the ASUS platform has come from just a few years ago. The original Ally X used AMD’s top-of-the-line Z1 Extreme, now upgraded to the new generation Z2 Extreme, which delivers roughly 15% to 20% better performance — or similar performance as the Z1 Extreme at about half the wattage. ASUS claims that the improvement reaches up to 30% against the Ally X for certain titles like Indiana Jones and Doom.

The RAM on the new model has increased 50% to 24GB, and it has been sped up to DDR5-8000 from DDR5-6400 MT/s. The added memory bandwidth improves AI performance and gaming performance. The battery has also doubled to 80Wh from 40Wh, which addresses one of my biggest problems with handheld Windows gaming PCs.

One interesting spec that hasn’t changed is that the display is still 120Hz 7-inch 1080P with 500-nit brightness and VRR (variable refresh rate). This is where I believe Lenovo’s Legion Go 2 shines with its larger, higher-resolution OLED display. I take it that ASUS and Microsoft didn’t think a larger or fancier panel was necessary to improve the experience. That said, there are certainly some consumers who assign more importance to the display than other specs, and I believe that a better panel could help to create some differentiation in the market.

For the new model, ASUS also updated the USB port configuration with a USB4 and USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, meaning that you can easily charge the handheld while also connecting peripherals like AR glasses. The previous model only had a single USB-C port and XG Mobile Port for connecting to an external GPU enclosure, which I think is a very niche application. That said, unlike some of its competitors, ASUS still has not moved any USB-C ports to the bottom of the device, which would make it much easier to dock the handheld or connect peripherals.

The new ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X also comes in a little heavier at 715g versus 608g. But considering that the battery capacity has doubled, that is reasonable. The starting price has also climbed from $699 to $999, moving the platform upmarket while funding the improved battery, memory, and processor.

The Xbox Ally X Gaming Experience

The first thing you notice when you pick up the Xbox Ally X is that it’s really comfortable to hold. This is because ASUS worked closely with Microsoft to get the ergonomics as close to an Xbox controller as possible — and it really shows in the overall comfort of the device. The handheld doesn’t feel too heavy or imbalanced. The sticks, buttons, and directional pad all feel solid and are enjoyable to use; the locations of the buttons and sticks have mostly remained the same as the previous generation, albeit with higher-quality sticks and buttons.

The one big addition is the Xbox button. This is how you launch the Xbox user interface, and it’s designed to simplify and improve the overall handheld gaming experience. The Xbox button gives you quick access to your games, game libraries, and settings. There’s even a simplified way to access ASUS’s Armory Crate Command Center where many of the device’s deeper settings are buried. This includes enabling FPS limiters, AMD RSR, resolution settings, and power operating modes (13W, 17W, and 25W). I think this new interface is a huge step in the right direction; users need simple and easy-to-access interfaces, and I think the Xbox button and interface deliver that. In fact, I’d love to see it on more PC handheld devices, although right now it seems that the Xbox Ally X is the only device that has it. If you still need access to the legacy desktop and interface, it’s as simple as a single swipe from the bottom of the screen to access.

While I didn’t find myself using the memory card slot on this device, there is always the option of adding more capacity than the installed 1TB drive for access to more games. That said, it will be slower than the onboard SSD and might only make sense for emulated games or something that isn’t as sensitive to storage speeds. I did enjoy connecting multiple pairs of AR glasses to the ROG Xbox Ally X to enhance my gaming experience and noticed that they all benefitted from using the USB-4 40Gbps port. (None of them worked as well using the USB-C Gen 3.2 port.) At CES 2026, ASUS showed a pair of XREAL AR glasses with a 240Hz refresh rate connected to the Xbox Ally X. I got to try them on, and it made for a maximalist mobile gaming experience.

As I used the Xbox Ally X, I was probably most impressed by the battery life and standby power. The ROG Xbox Ally X enables you to go from an hour or so of gaming on most last-gen handhelds to anywhere from three to five hours depending on which title you’re playing. This is a much more acceptable level of battery life. I also like that the device’s performance and battery life are configurable to match the user’s desired experience. I would also add that the handheld has a great ability to stay asleep and use nearly zero power, plus it wakes and goes to sleep extremely quickly — addressing one of my complaints about the last generation. Thermals were also much improved with this device, with idle temps being very reasonable both at the front and back of the device, and load temperatures still being quite reasonable even right at the vents. The hottest I ever saw it get was 44.8°C at the fins, up from 36°C at idle. Also, based on the FLIR thermal images, the grips of the handheld never got noticeably warm, which you could not say about the previous generation.

What’s Next for Handheld Gaming?

While I do believe that AMD has helped usher in a new era of handheld gaming with the Z2 processor family, only the Z2 Extreme is genuinely a new chip. The rest of the Z2 lineup involves a lot of rebadging and rebranding of the Z1 series. There is some important industry context here: With limited competition in this niche from Intel and Qualcomm, there’s been little incentive for AMD to push the performance envelope, especially in such a new category where the risk is high.

That said, Intel did announce at CES 2026 that it would debut a handheld-specific version of its Core Ultra 300 Series (in the Panther Lake processor family) later this year. I believe that if Intel is intent on finally being an ongoing player in the handheld gaming space, that will help improve the pace of innovation and increase the expectations of users in terms of both performance and battery life.

As far as the Windows experience on handhelds goes, there’s still plenty of room for improvement, especially in ease of use. The Xbox Fullscreen Experience is fine, but I feel like it could be more customized to the user and leverage AI to make the gaming experience better via improved settings optimizations. I do love that it’s really easy to combine your different game storefronts on the Xbox Ally X — something that has always been a pain point for gamers. But the next step should be recommending games based on what the device knows about you. I would also like to see what Microsoft’s Gaming Copilot can do to improve the user experience beyond game recommendations. Being candid, I would love to see it operate more like an agent from NVIDIA’s G-Assist.

All in all, I think Microsoft and ASUS made the right decision to partner on this device, because Microsoft really understands the software and gaming experience, while ASUS has a track record with hardware and a strong ongoing partnership with AMD for silicon. This is the most optimistic I have been for handheld gaming on Windows, and I know that there’s much more to come this year, including from silicon partners like Intel.