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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[DinohScene]

I'd love to have one but I don't see myself using it.

 

[Scarlet]

I might be the only person here that’s pleasantly surprised. Admittedly it’s because $1000 is not £1000 for a change though lol.

Wonder if these will depreciate in price like the original Ally did.

 

[AtsuNii]

Ofcourse there is an inflated price, all the hype is all over handheld "pcs" will drive up the prices. Happened before, will happen again with things that get hyped. Markets will eventually correct their prices when it matures a bit and the hype dies down.

 

[Noctosphere]

Plot twist : it's a limited edition
Second plot twist : they will be sold for 2500$ on ebay

 

[Japermen]

I'd love to have one but I don't see myself using it.

rofl.

This thing is gonna flop so hard.

 

[Cris1997XX]

1000 dollars? The hell are they smoking over at Microsoft? With that amount of money I'd be able to get a Steam Deck OLED, a 2TB SSD, bigger RAM sticks and a couple of full price games

 

[tglaria]

I find that the lower powered version looks just enough.
Most old games run aceptable on the Z1 Extreme ROG Ally, so performance should be similar.
Price is similar.
Since the steam deck, there's been intereset in optimization in games so they can run on these lower powered devices.

Probably, for most people, the lower powered device is good enough and not that expensive (still pricier than a Steam Deck though)

Ok, just learned that the lower powered version, that uses processor Z2A, is a 4-core zen2 cpu, while the Z1 extreme is a 12-core zen4 cpu (also there's a difference in GPU).
A ROG Ally Z1E is a better option than this one.

I just found out that GPU in ROG Xbox Ally X is likely equivalent to outdated GeForce GTX 1650, so good luck to try play Borderlands 4 with constant 30 FPS.

My gaming laptop with GeForce RTX 3060 struggled to play Borderlands 4 smoothly, so got tons of shutter for while, so I had to increase the size for shader cache to lower the shader. It is very unoptimized game.

On the previous generation: yep, not as smooth as I would like.
Should run a bit better on the ROG Xbox Ally (X or not)

 

[RyanTheArchivist]

I might be the only person here that’s pleasantly surprised. Admittedly it’s because $1000 is not £1000 for a change though lol.

Wonder if these will depreciate in price like the original Ally did.

Thats just how PC hardware goes. The second the successor releases the hardware from the year prior suddenly drops in price significantly.

Post automatically merged: Sep 26, 2025

So now the fun question. How many minutes of battery life does it have when playing a game that is actually taking advantage of the full hardware?

 

[Veho]

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.

They have a $599 model so they do have some idea.

 

[Skelletonike]

I'm content with my Switch 2, Switch OLED and Steam Deck (got the 512gb version it on launch, later on upgraded the sticks to hall-effect ones and added a better ssd).

 

[djnate27]

rofl.

This thing is gonna flop so hard.

On the bright side, one day they'll be available on clearance for a lot cheaper. Someone will just have to be smart enough to keep the firmware updated when support ends.

 

[Kioku]

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.

I don’t understand the failure to grasp this. It’s a PC first, gaming platform second. Even if it’s poorly marketed as the latter.

 

[AlexMCS]

Anyone planning on buying this??

Not with theses specs. My 2 year old, used Ayaneo 2 was cheaper and has 64GB RAM and 2 TB SSD and the ryzen 6800u.
Only the CPU is marginally better, which won't matter for the type of gaming expected here.

The Ayaneo 3 is evenly priced and much better.
I wouldn't but a single "mainstream" handheld PC considering the Chinese offerings.

 

[RyanTheArchivist]

Not with theses specs. My 2 year old, used Ayaneo 2 was cheaper and has 64GB RAM and 2 TB SSD and the ryzen 6800u.
Only the CPU is marginally better, which won't matter for the type of gaming expected here.

The Ayaneo 3 is evenly priced and much better.
I wouldn't but a single "mainstream" handheld PC considering the Chinese offerings.

Yeah this is definitely going to be one of those "Brand recognition" products.

 

[DiscostewSM]

So now the fun question. How many minutes of battery life does it have when playing a game that is actually taking advantage of the full hardware?

Are you talking about maxing out the chip? The ROG Xbox Ally X has an 80Wh battery, and if it's pushing 40W on full load for the entire system, then expect about 2 hours. But if the load is only about 8W for the entire system, then make that 10 hours.

In terms of what you get for the amount of power draw, it depends. From what some folks with access to the Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme have seen (used in the ROG Xbox Ally X but also in the MSI Claw A8), the main benefit comes when not pushing it too hard. Sounds kind of counterintuitive, because people want to get the most out of a device as they can. The Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme fixes a problem the Z1 Extreme had, which when it came to lower TDP, even the Steam Deck surpassed it. Makes sense when the Z2 in the lower-priced ROG Xbox Ally is essentially a rebadged Van Gogh from the Steam Deck.

So what can it do? At low TDP, it's a major boost over Z1 Extreme, but at higher TDP, not so much.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Handhelds/...w_tdps_the_z2_extreme_is_a_generational_leap/

TDP / Total System Power / Game	Z1E	Z2E	Diff in %
4-5W / 8W / Dead Cells	43 FPS	83 FPS	93%
9-10W / 15W / Unknown Indie game	42 FPS	67 FPS	59 %
12-13W / 19W / Black Myth Wukong	26 FPS	33 FPS	27 %
17W / 25W / Black Myth Wukong	40 FPS	46 FPS	15 %
25W / 35W / Black Myth Wukong	46 FPS	50 FPS	9 %
13W / 21W / Ghost of Tsushima	25 FPS	35 FPS	40 %
25W / 38W / Ghost of Tsushima	43 FPS	50 FPS	16 %
28W / 40W / Expedition 33	30 FPS	34 FPS	13 %

 

[LightyKD]

View attachment 529759


just get a steam deck.

i think that Microsoft has officially lost it: With making the Xbox Series X/S more pricier than ever and this being $600/$1000, investing in the company where than be cheaper and more viable alternatives is just making the company look more stupid and dumb.

I would normally agree that the Steam Deck is the better investment BUT, I also know that there are some people that are entrenched into the XBox ecosystem. We need to let those people enjoy their moment in the sun. If I was "all XBox" I would "make it work" with the 600 dollar model of the XBox Ally. Get a tiny power bank for portable play and a MClassic for docked and with the right game settings you can make a few tiny miracles.

I make those tiny miracles every day with my Steam Deck. It drives me nuts when PC master race idiots come barging in, nagging about buzzwords when were talking about portables. I feel that any person that wants a portable as a main is a person that is either willing to make compromises, make settings adjustments or wants things to "just work". For the XBox gamers out there that are getting this device, congratulations. I truly hope Microsoft sticks with it and that you have a blast this holiday season! Welcome to the portables club!

Those of you that are not buying this device, please understand that you were probably never the intended audience and feel free to move on. It's that simple.

 

[Hexenhammer]

View attachment 529759


just get a steam deck.

i think that Microsoft has officially lost it: With making the Xbox Series X/S more pricier than ever and this being $600/$1000, investing in the company where than be cheaper and more viable alternatives is just making the company look more stupid and dumb.

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

I would normally agree that the Steam Deck is the better investment BUT, I also know that there are some people that are entrenched into the XBox ecosystem. We need to let those people enjoy their moment in the sun. If I was "all XBox" I would "make it work" with the 600 dollar model of the XBox Ally. Get a tiny power bank for portable play and a MClassic for docked and with the right game settings you can make a few tiny miracles.

I make those tiny miracles every day with my Steam Deck. It drives me nuts when PC master race idiots come barging in, nagging about buzzwords when were talking about portables. I feel that any person that wants a portable as a main is a person that is either willing to make compromises, make settings adjustments or wants things to "just work". For the XBox gamers out there that are getting this device, congratulations. I truly hope Microsoft sticks with it and that you have a blast this holiday season! Welcome to the portables club!

Those of you that are not buying this device, please understand that you were probably never the intended audience and feel free to move on. It's that simple.

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

One thousand dollars. This is the most absurd price for a handheld I have ever witnessed.

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

 

[AngryCinnabon]

When the Steam Deck 2 inevitably (whenever that may be.) comes out I bet it's going to either rival or surpass what this can do for a fraction of the price. Just a feeling I have.

 

[Lodad]

LIterally a spring loaded controller grip for my phone beats it all. If I'm away from home, I don't need to be playing games, so if I want handheld I just stream it locally.

 

[JakobAir]

I wonder if the battery life is more than several minutes and how quick it can warm up my house in the winter before the battery conks. Hopefully it can keep pace with the Sega Nomad.