Microsoft's handheld spin on Asus's ROG Ally device has finally had its price revealed. The ROG Xbox Ally X, due out next month on October 16th, will retail for a whopping $999.99 ($1,299 CAD/€899/£799/$1,599 AUD. The less powerful regular model Xbox Ally will retail for a less hefty $599.99 ($799 CAD/€599/£499/$799 AUD). Microsoft has waited to announce this, citing the US tariff situation as something that needed to be watched until they could put a price tag on the device. Pre-orders are now open through Microsoft, Best Buy, and ASUS. The Xbox Ally X will feature an AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme CPU, 24GB of LPDDR5X-8000 RAM, a 1TB M.2 2280 m.2 drive, and a 1080p 120Hz screen. The standard Xbox Ally comes with a Z2 chip, 16GB of LPDDR5-6400 RAM, and a 512GB m.2 drive.

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[dh3lix-pooch]

People will inevitably treat this like a console and gawk at the price even though it's a handheld laptop.
Microsoft (even though Asus is fronting the hardware) can't reliably profit on game sales with this thing since it's an open platform. It's a PC so it gets a PC price, you're paying for the power with the form factor, if you can get a better PC or a laptop for that price, good for you they're your priorities. If you want a steam deck, it's getting a bit outdated and valve is in a position to actually continually profit from it so they'll always be cheaper.

This gentleman got it right.

 

[adriana1]

i think its not a sucsess... yes its powerful but 1000 doller is powerful too my opinion

 

[MPRTwice]

it's no ally of mine.

 

[Bladexdsl]

your better off to get a normal rog ally without the xbox branding and win 11 BS

 

[ldeveraux]

Hahahaha
Also, hahahaha

 

[SuffahBish]

Yeah. I think I'll stick with my Steam Deck. I'm not paying a grand for any handheld. I don't care how powerful it is. Thank you very much Microsoft and Asus.

 

[Reecey]

Why does Sony and Microsoft think by putting high performance parts inside a console or handheld will sell.. if the games aren’t good fun and grab your attention then what’s the point. It’s no good having a fantastic looking high resolution game with all the trimmings if it’s total crap and your span attention lasts between 10-15mins then you turn it off

For an example could you imagine using this huge new high profile Xbox handheld you get the latest call of duty playing it on the go that would be a complete head fck you would look a right tit

I agree the Switch 2 is quite big but at least the joy cons do look nice and discreet. This Xbox Ally controllers look huge like some big ass arm grips straight out of a gym

 

[Axido]

Yeah. I think I'll stick with my Steam Deck. I'm not paying a grand for any handheld. I don't care how powerful it is. Thank you very much Microsoft and Asus.

If the Steam Frame is what it's rumored to be (a standalone VR headset with the ability to play both your traditional and VR library), that's probably the next thing I'd buy. The handheld market is saturated and the gains from hardware upgrades are hardly worth the price.

 

[SuffahBish]

If the Steam Frame is what it's rumored to be (a standalone VR headset with the ability to play both your traditional and VR library), that's probably the next thing I'd buy. The handheld market is saturated and the gains from hardware upgrades are hardly worth the price.

The Z2A chip in the base Xbox Ally is only 15% faster than Steam Deck but it's nearly twice the price.

 

[LightyKD]

Seriously? That ancient trash with tech from 8 years ago, vs most modern and latest tech?
Sure, ill just buy me that door stopper you call steam deck instead of zen5 + RDNA 3.5 powered console with 24gb or 32gb of ram

Post automatically merged: Sep 26, 2025

This device has nothing to do with xbox, its just cooperation for the windows.
Its not an "xbox" device but a Windows 11 device.
People usually buy them as add-on for their PC, there is no need for miracles for Mclasic or anything like that, its not for gaming on big screen.

Post automatically merged: Sep 26, 2025

There are more expensive handhelds
Legion Go 2 = 1350$
GPD Win 5 1500$ to 200$ [has AMD 385 and 395 soc, that has GPU with desktop performance.
and so on i can list a lot of over 1000$ handhelds

If it looks like an Xbox, acts like an xbox and plays like one, guess what, its an XBox. Everything else is semantics

- The device has xbox design all the way to the XBox button on the front

- You can access your XBox Live account, Gamepass and cloud saves from this device

- The front end is damn near the same as the one from the XBox console

- Your Play Everywhere games STILL use the same save from your XBox.

So after all of this, how can anyone say it's not an XBox. And before you shout Windows 11, guess what, the XBox Series consoles run on a modified version of Win 11.

 

[Axido]

If it looks like an Xbox, acts like an xbox and plays like one, guess what, its an XBox. Everything else is semantics

- The device has xbox design all the way to the XBox button on the front

- You can access your XBox Live account, Gamepass and cloud saves from this device

- The front end is damn near the same as the one from the XBox console

- Your Play Everywhere games STILL use the same save from your XBox.

So after all of this, how can anyone say it's not an XBox. And before you shout Windows 11, guess what, the XBox Series consoles run on a modified version of Win 11.

Does it have backwards compatibility with OG Xbox and Xbox 360 games?
Answer: Nope.

Does it let me play all my Xbox One and Xbox Series game purchases natively or only a limited subset of them?
Answer: Only a subset. More than 90% of Xbox games do not support Play Anywhere (not "Everywhere" btw).

Even if I'm generous and don't ask about physical games (that point of mine has been ruined by the Series S already), this is not a full-fletched Xbox, but a rebranded Windows PC more than any actual Xbox console is.

If your whole remaining point is that other Xbox consoles run some kind of Windows themselves, you should make sure that it's at least the same kind, which it is not.

You really fell for that "This is an Xbox" ad campaign, didn't you?

 

[SuffahBish]

If your whole remaining point is that other Xbox consoles run some kind of Windows themselves, you should make sure that it's at least the same kind, which it is not.

And while the dashboard on the One and Series consoles is actually Windows 11 Core (basically a stripped down IoT version) the actual games don't run on that OS (but the apps do). When you start a game on the One or Series consoles it basically fires up a VM and the game runs in this VM on a custom OS just called "Game OS". The backwards compatibility modes work similarly. When you launch a 360 game it actually boots an x86-64 compiled version of the real 360 OS (modified to disable the dashboard) in a VM and runs the game.

 

[Axido]

And while the dashboard on the One and Series consoles is actually Windows 11 Core (basically a stripped down IoT version) the actual games don't run on that OS (but the apps do). When you start a game on the One or Series consoles it basically fires up a VM and the game runs in this VM on a custom OS just called "Game OS". The backwards compatibility modes work similarly. When you launch a 360 game it actually boots an x86-64 compiled version of the real 360 OS (modified to disable the dashboard) in a VM and runs the game.

Exactly. I'd totally consider it to be on par with the real deal if it had this functionality, even if games had to compromise more than they already do thanks to the aforementioned Series S.

 

[BlueFox gui]

don't fuck with us xbox fans, we already get fucked by the brand

 

[LightyKD]

don't fuck with us xbox fans, we already get fucked by the brand

Damn! I can feel the struggle with that statement.

 

[MartenMario64]

Heck, for that price, you could buy both the 512GB Steam Deck OLED and a Switch 2.

JESUS AND PEOPLE THOUGHT NINTENDO HAD BAD PRICES? THIS IS MUCH MUCH WORSE

 

[Skv0ra]

People will inevitably treat this like a console and gawk at the price even though it's a handheld laptop.
Microsoft (even though Asus is fronting the hardware) can't reliably profit on game sales with this thing since it's an open platform. It's a PC so it gets a PC price, you're paying for the power with the form factor, if you can get a better PC or a laptop for that price, good for you they're your priorities. If you want a steam deck, it's getting a bit outdated and valve is in a position to actually continually profit from it so they'll always be cheaper.

Sure, its sort of a laptop in disguise, but can it laptop as well as it "games"? ASsUS and heat management design haven't ever met, haven't even walked down same street, so in my eyes it would be a VERY awkward of a "laptop" for people potentially thinking they'd kill two birds with one grand.

At the same time, folks who even think about consoles are still the market share who cannot justify getting a gaming laptop/pc and thus have a budget of <$600, so spanking on $400 more for, well, no real visible benefit to them just won't end well in my eyes.

 

[SK91]

Sure, its sort of a laptop in disguise, but can it laptop as well as it "games"? ASsUS and heat management design haven't ever met, haven't even walked down same street, so in my eyes it would be a VERY awkward of a "laptop" for people potentially thinking they'd kill two birds with one grand.

At the same time, folks who even think about consoles are still the market share who cannot justify getting a gaming laptop/pc and thus have a budget of <$600, so spanking on $400 more for, well, no real visible benefit to them just won't end well in my eyes.

That's pretty much why the normal model is at that $600 price. It'll probably take some investment to make it a good laptop experience, probably closer to a PC what with a monitor, mouse, and keyboard but this thing is built to play games so it should operate the OS pretty smoothly. As for heat it should be pretty user tweakable. There's already the original Ally models to base this off of what with TDP adjustment and you may even be able to adjust fan curves if that's a problem. APUs should be easier to cool overall