During Xbox's gamescom 2025 broadcast, the company announced the release date of the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X. The handhelds will be available on Ocotber 16, with details of pricing and pre-orders to be revealed in the coming weeks. A new trailer accompanied the announcement:

​

Both devices offer the following features:

• Xbox full screen experience: a dedicated experience purpose-built for gaming, powered by Windows 11, and inspired by the console user experience. With new modifications that minimize background activity and defer non-essential tasks, more system resources are dedicated specifically to gameplay.
• Dedicated Xbox button: opens an enhanced Game Bar overlay for Windows 11, making it easy to return home, browse your library, launch or quit games, chat with friends, access ROG’s innovative Armoury Crate SE, and more.
• Aggregated gaming library: gives you quick access to games from Xbox, Game Pass (where available), and installed games from Battle.net and other leading PC storefronts.
• Ability to play natively, via the cloud (where available), or via Remote Play from your Xbox console anywhere in your home.
• AMD processors that deliver premium gaming performance—the AMD Ryzen Z2 A processor in the Xbox Ally balances performance and power consumption to maximize battery life without sacrificing gameplay quality, while the AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme processor in the Xbox Ally X provides the best level of performance and visual settings.
• Through our investment in Xbox Play Anywhere, with support for over 1,000 games, a single purchase means you can play with Xbox, including your progress and achievements, across Xbox console, PC, Xbox Ally (where available), and other Windows handhelds—at no additional cost.
• Gaming Copilot (Beta) via Game Bar, a personalized AI gaming companion that helps you get to your favorite games faster, improve your skills, and offers context-aware support based on what you’re playing.

The Xbox Ally X, which is designed for a more advanced handheld experience, includes 1TB of storage, 24GB of high-speed RAM, 80Wh of battery, and impulse triggers for more immersive play. It's also the first handheld to leverage the AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme chip, which brings the following features:

• Automatic Super Resolution (Auto SR): A system-level feature that uses the power of the NPU to upscale games running at lower resolutions—delivering high-resolution visuals and smooth framerates across a wide range of games, with no additional changes required from game developers.
• Highlight reels: AI captures your standout gameplay moments—like epic boss battles or victories—and generates short replay clips for you to share with friends or on social channels.

Xbox also announced a new initiative, the Handheld Compatibility Program. This indicates games ready to play on a supported handheld, made possible by Xbox's collaboration with game studios to test, optimize, and verify games for handheld compatibility.

​

At launch, players will be able to see handheld compatibility directly in their game library to quickly find titles that are ready to play: 

• Handheld Optimized: This indicates games that are ready to go—with default controller inputs, an intuitive text input method, accurate iconography, clear text legibility, and appropriate resolution in full-screen mode—so you can spend less time adjusting settings, and more time defeating that next big boss.
• Mostly Compatible: This indicates games that may require minor in-game setting changes for an optimal experience on handheld.

Games will also feature a Windows Performance Fit indicator to reflect expected performance on a supported device. When a game is both “Handheld Optimized” and carries a Windows Performance Fit “Should play great” or “Should play well” badge, it signals compatibility and performance fit—giving you added assurance before you play.

SOURCE

 

[Axido]

Cool, but I'll wait until we know more about how much overhead their customized version of Windows will have compared to SteamOS.

 

[belmont]

Not initially available in my region and other eurozone countries for some reason...

 

[Obveron]

I like the extra plastic bulge for the hand grips. My biggest issue with handhelds is comfort while using the thumbsticks.

 

[ChibiMofo]

The future of Xbox, and therefore the future of gaming is about to arrive.

RIP Sony.

 

[Citizen_404]

NGL, the Linux distro's for these handhelds (I use ChimeraOS, others use Bazzite) is so good, you would definitely not even think about using Windoze.

It will be interesting to see what this so-called "special" Windoze is. Where did they put the Co-Pilot button on the handheld?

 

[Reualed]

With what team?
For context, most of the windows devs are gone. What's left is some of the office team, and the web team.
I don't know how you're going to mangle windows into a more power efficient state with 100 years of code debt.

 

[Bladexdsl]

they just ruined the rog ally with windows 11

 

[RyanTheArchivist]

View attachment 523157​

During Xbox's gamescom 2025 broadcast, the company announced the release date of the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X. The handhelds will be available on Ocotber 16, with details of pricing and pre-orders to be revealed in the coming weeks. A new trailer accompanied the announcement:

​

Both devices offer the following features:

• Xbox full screen experience: a dedicated experience purpose-built for gaming, powered by Windows 11, and inspired by the console user experience. With new modifications that minimize background activity and defer non-essential tasks, more system resources are dedicated specifically to gameplay.
• Dedicated Xbox button: opens an enhanced Game Bar overlay for Windows 11, making it easy to return home, browse your library, launch or quit games, chat with friends, access ROG’s innovative Armoury Crate SE, and more.
• Aggregated gaming library: gives you quick access to games from Xbox, Game Pass (where available), and installed games from Battle.net and other leading PC storefronts.
• Ability to play natively, via the cloud (where available), or via Remote Play from your Xbox console anywhere in your home.
• AMD processors that deliver premium gaming performance—the AMD Ryzen Z2 A processor in the Xbox Ally balances performance and power consumption to maximize battery life without sacrificing gameplay quality, while the AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme processor in the Xbox Ally X provides the best level of performance and visual settings.
• Through our investment in Xbox Play Anywhere, with support for over 1,000 games, a single purchase means you can play with Xbox, including your progress and achievements, across Xbox console, PC, Xbox Ally (where available), and other Windows handhelds—at no additional cost.
• Gaming Copilot (Beta) via Game Bar, a personalized AI gaming companion that helps you get to your favorite games faster, improve your skills, and offers context-aware support based on what you’re playing.

The Xbox Ally X, which is designed for a more advanced handheld experience, includes 1TB of storage, 24GB of high-speed RAM, 80Wh of battery, and impulse triggers for more immersive play. It's also the first handheld to leverage the AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme chip, which brings the following features:

• Automatic Super Resolution (Auto SR): A system-level feature that uses the power of the NPU to upscale games running at lower resolutions—delivering high-resolution visuals and smooth framerates across a wide range of games, with no additional changes required from game developers.
• Highlight reels: AI captures your standout gameplay moments—like epic boss battles or victories—and generates short replay clips for you to share with friends or on social channels.

Xbox also announced a new initiative, the Handheld Compatibility Program. This indicates games ready to play on a supported handheld, made possible by Xbox's collaboration with game studios to test, optimize, and verify games for handheld compatibility.

​

At launch, players will be able to see handheld compatibility directly in their game library to quickly find titles that are ready to play: 

• Handheld Optimized: This indicates games that are ready to go—with default controller inputs, an intuitive text input method, accurate iconography, clear text legibility, and appropriate resolution in full-screen mode—so you can spend less time adjusting settings, and more time defeating that next big boss.
• Mostly Compatible: This indicates games that may require minor in-game setting changes for an optimal experience on handheld.

Games will also feature a Windows Performance Fit indicator to reflect expected performance on a supported device. When a game is both “Handheld Optimized” and carries a Windows Performance Fit “Should play great” or “Should play well” badge, it signals compatibility and performance fit—giving you added assurance before you play.

SOURCE

They revealed everything but the price lol

 

[ZeroT21]

Not showing the pricing for these handhelds can only mean bad news

 

[Kioku]

All I care about is this "gaming focused" OS. When can I install it on my desktop?

 

[Viatesin]

Not showing the pricing for these handhelds can only mean bad news

550 and 900

 

[HarveyHouston]

I'm waiting for the software side of things to show up in my Windows Update, even though I don't have a Windows handheld.

 

[Exnor]

I even might consider this IF was not for having to deal with windows 11. F**c that MS!

SteamOS that and depending on pricing, we might have a deal.

 

[Retrojunkies]

So its still just a handheld gaming o
Pc running windows 11 ans an uodated xbox app which we all have anyways.

To run pc ports and emulate older consoles which we already have.

It wont get dedicated games or xbox games microsoft cant be bothered to port to pc or third parties.

Cool, but I'll wait until we know more about how much overhead their customized version of Windows will have compared to SteamOS.

Games built for windows now linux, so there alone is an improvement, no proton or fixes to make the game run.

 

[Xzi]

Such an ugly design, and there's absolutely no incentive to buy in to the future of the Xbox ecosystem after all the studio closures and game cancellations. Well, I guess there's Game Pass, but I doubt that'll function very smoothly when away from the house without an internet connection.

 

[Retrojunkies]

Also got to love how many times it says (where available) when talking about the games you'll get.

Just cut to the chase and say it, the game library will be what GamePass gives you, ohh but we will also scan your drive and pull in other storefront games.

You know what Microsoft..... again your too late, we already have front end loaders that do this.

This is a pathetic excuse of a cash grab, but all the braindead xbox fanboys are blindly praising it as an xbox handheld console.

Lmao, poor dumb bustards.

 

[sith]

was it not said that the release of the ally x will coincide with silksong?? confirmed silksong release oct 16???? !!!!

 

[ZeroT21]

Also got to love how many times it says (where available) when talking about the games you'll get.

Just cut to the chase and say it, the game library will be what GamePass gives you, ohh but we will also scan your drive and pull in other storefront games.

You know what Microsoft..... again your too late, we already have front end loaders that do this.

This is a pathetic excuse of a cash grab, but all the braindead xbox fanboys are blindly praising it as an xbox handheld console.

Lmao, poor dumb bustards.

It's just MS slapping a xbox logo on existing pc handheld hardware

 

[LightyKD]

I'll just stick to my Steam Deck, running Windows 10. I don't trust Win 11 and copilot at all. As for Steam OS, I have no clue if it has proper NTFS support or if games are now easy to install to USB storage via game mode.