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.

Source

 

[NinStar]

"It was perfect, but no, you just had to blow it up. You and your pride and your ego."
- Mike Ehrmantraut

 

[Plume]

Fairly priced considering what's inside and the form factor to be honest. If you want the ROG Ally X, that is. Their cheaper model isn't really worth it if you compare it to a Deck.

Although... As much as I love my Steam Deck (Outside of the terrible screen... Early LCD models. :<), its hardware is getting a bit dated, and depending on how recent/high-end are the games you intend to play on it, likely won't hold well unless you play at gross resolutions with ugly upscale and fake frames.
It runs a lot of games just fine, just feels like it needs a bit of a refresh. Hopefully Valve will release a fairly price Steam Deck 2 at some point.

Still, unless the UI made a ton of progress and this has a proper gaming mode that doesn't continue to strain the hardware outside of the games you're running, the Steam Deck is a better experience overall. Wonder how that thing would run on SteamOS.

 

[The Catboy]

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

Hear me out, buy 2 Steam Decks ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

 

[Dark_Ansem]

eh???

 

[subcon959]

Forget the actual price, which isn't high for the hardware inside, the frustrating part is how other companies just don't get why the Steam Deck was successful.

 

[Ondrashek06]

LMFAO, another nail in Microsoft's coffin.

 

[yoyoyo69]

Everyone is talking about the price (and they're very ight to do so), but I haven't seen anyone mention that Microsoft also expect customers to pay for a subscription too

The subscription in question has already had several price increases and will no doubt have many more.

Microsoft have lost the plot

 

[sexually_inactive]

All those saying just get a Steam Deck are forgetting that this is way more powerful than the Steam Deck is. Personally I'll pass because I don't have much time to play it.

 

[G33ksquad]

All this fancy hardware across the board but no games that have really made me go WOW or OOOOOHHHHHH, not even a YIPPPPEEEEE.

Also that price and you may still get stick drift.

 

[Greninji88]

Anyone planning on buying this??

 

[DaFixer]

Price is a bit high, but i'm interested to buy one off those handhelds.
Steamdeck is nice, but I have the idea that it a bit outdated.

 

[eriols]

Not worth it. Will stick to my steam deck and rtx 4090 laptop that I bought for 2000 euro (second hand)

 

[AlamosIT]

 

[Axido]

All those saying just get a Steam Deck are forgetting that this is way more powerful than the Steam Deck is. Personally I'll pass because I don't have much time to play it.

At the current state of their handheld Windows (which is just a frontend without any improvements under the hood) I'd not go with raw numbers. SteamOS outperforms Windows on a regular basis, so if you want to get the most from an Xbox Ally X, you better scratch that "Xbox" part off its name and install a proper operating system on it.

 

[Robert Newbie]

Forget the actual price, which isn't high for the hardware inside, the frustrating part is how other companies just don't get why the Steam Deck was successful.

I've been enjoying the arguments on both sides. On the one hand, the ROG Xbox Ally X is a powerful handheld, but on the other, it's priced high.

It's interesting that, as @DiscostewSM said, you could afford a Switch 2 and the mid-range Steam Deck option at that price.

I genuinely don't know if there are Microsoft fans in the same vein as Nintendo fans. If there are, many people will give the ROG Xbox Ally X a try, but I don't see consumers doing their research picking Microsoft's handheld over the Steam Deck or Switch 2.


TL;DR: Video games are already extremely expensive. Why spend $1,000 USD when you could spend less on Nintendo's and Valve's offerings?

 

[p1ngpong]

"AHAHAHAHA THAT FERRARI COSTS MORE THAN MY HONDA CIVIC ROFL LOL!!!!!"

>most replies this thread

 

[kingaz]

Price anchoring is a marketing strategy where companies present a more expensive and a cheaper option side by side, making the cheaper option look like a deal in comparison even if the cheaper option is still more expensive.

What's wild with Xbox is that even their cheaper handheld option is price anchoring for their competitors. Switch 2 and especially steam deck seem like steals now. And thanks to their second set of price hikes, even post tariff ps5s look better by comparison to xboxes.

I honestly think the Xbox One broke them. They had all of these plans to evolve with the changing games market and none of them worked out. And now they've become a black hole for studios and threaten to remove the tiny amount of completion they've been able to muster against Nintendo and Sony.

 

[x65943]

"AHAHAHAHA THAT FERRARI COSTS MORE THAN MY HONDA CIVIC ROFL LOL!!!!!"

>most replies this thread

To call the rog Xbox ally a Ferrari is not quite right

Perhaps more like a cybertruck

Expensive, nice tech inside, but deeply misguided and a product in search of an audience

 

[subcon959]

To call the rog Xbox ally a Ferrari is not quite right

Perhaps more like a cybertruck

Expensive, nice tech inside, but deeply misguided and a product in search of an audience

Ferrari aside, I think your Cybertruck analogy is better suited to something with a Ryzen AI HX 395 inside. The Z2 Extreme of the Ally X is going to be fairly mainstream in the PC handheld market.

 

[Axido]

And the award for the least logical comparison goes to...

"AHAHAHAHA THAT FERRARI COSTS MORE THAN MY HONDA CIVIC ROFL LOL!!!!!"

>most replies this thread

I'm not into cars, but unless you really hate Ferrari you shouldn't implicitly call them the Microsoft of cars.