This weekend, at the Xbox Game Showcase, Microsoft and Asus debuted the first look at the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X gaming handhelds. The two PC gaming handhelds are made in collaboration and are an obvious spinoff from the core ROG Ally devices from Asus’ catalogue.
Both models offer a seven-inch 1080p display, with a 16:9 aspect ratio and support of up to 120Hz refresh rate. Asus and Microsoft also confirm the displays offer 500 nits of brightness and feature Corning Gorilla Glass Victus as well as FreeSync Premium.
While retaining a lot of what Asus has brought to the table by way of its ROG Ally handhelds, the Xbox Ally is slightly redesigned to reflect Xbox’s design philosophy. The handhelds feature more economical handles. Xbox Ally measures in at 290.8 x 121.5 x 50.7mm and weighs 1.47lbs, while the Xbox Ally X is 1.58lbs. For comparison, the ROG Ally is 1.34lbs.
During the reveal trailer, it’s confirmed that both models offer ‘HD Haptics’. The base Xbox Ally supports Hall effect analog triggers. However, the Xbox Ally X features “impulse triggers for enhanced control.” The Xbox Ally has two back buttons, offering button remapping as well as 6-axis IMU. The two handhelds support both a 3.5mm headphone jack as well as Bluetooth 5.4. You’ll also find Wi-Fi 6E support.
The Xbox Ally is leveraging AMD’s Ryzen Z2 A chipset. It comes with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. The Xbox Ally X, which is positioned as the more premium unit, features the AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme processor, 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. In addition, both models support microSD storage, providing expansion options beyond the baseline.
During the reveal, Xbox head Sarah Bond confirmed that every game shown during the Xbox Game Showcase would be playable on the Xbox Ally. However, it was the long-awaited Hollow Knight: Silksong that took up a lot of the focus.
Unfortunately, we don’t know what either handheld will cost just yet. At launch, the Xbox Ally handhelds will be available across Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the US.
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