Review: Asus ROG Xbox Ally X

Two and a half years ago I reviewed the original Asus ROG Ally and I ended the review with “Maybe the 2025 version of the ROG Ally will have improved battery life but this one isn’t quite there.”

Well it’s 2025 and this one has vastly improved battery life, so does this mean that it’s time to buy a portable gaming PC?

ROG Xbox Ally X Quick Look

• AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme Processor
• 24GB LPDDR5 RAM; 1TB SSD
• 7-inch FHD (1920 x 1080 pixels)
• IPS touch display with 120Hz variable refresh rate
• Runs Windows 11
• Weight: 715g

It’s not an Xbox

Right off the bat, it’s the branding of the Xbox Ally X that’s the big problem. I went to play some games and organise my thoughts about the console over some breakfast at a local restaurant and I had two interesting conversations.

The first guy spotted the hardware from across the room having owned the original Ally and came to find out if it was better. The second guy asked me what it was and after saying the full name he asked if it was playing games from my Xbox at home over the cloud or if I could install them locally.

He looked so confused when I told him that it was a gaming PC like the Steam Deck and didn’t play Xbox games unless they were available for PC.

There’s a new Windows experience, which is exclusive to the Xbox branded Ally X but its less powerful sibling the regular Xbox Ally. To put it simply, they don’t load the Windows desktop at start and instead boot into the Xbox Game Bar which saves an estimated 2GB of RAM, and since the system memory is shared with the GPU, 2GB extra is actually a fantastic saving.

But there’s a conflict between Asus and Microsoft’s software with some features in the Game Bar and some in Asus’ Armory Crate app. It’s quite frustrating but nothing compared to the frustration of the Xbox button not opening the Menu in Steam’s Big Picture Mode like it would on any other gaming PC with an Xbox controller plugged into it even though the icon looms large in the corner.

Why brand it an Xbox and not just the ROG Ally X2? Sigh

What’s still the same?

Setting up a new Windows PC for gaming for the first time just takes ages. It took me 40 minutes and five restarts to get through the initial setup and updates to get to the main login screen. It then took me another hour in full Windows Desktop to download the myriad apps that the game publishers force you to download to access their games.

Steam (obviously) works the best since you can almost mirror the Steam Deck experience, but Epic Games, Ubisoft, EA Origin and Blizzard haven’t bothered to make the experience any better on a gaming handheld in over two years.

The display hasn’t changed since the original Ally even though this is technically the third generation of this product. It’s still the same 7-inch 120Hz IPS display which isn’t bad but it just doesn’t compete with the OLED panels of some of the competition that’s out there.

Both the Steam Deck and the Nintendo Switch have shown us just how good an OLED is for portable gaming and it’s now an obvious drawback to what is otherwise an excellent panel.

What’s different in the new Asus ROG Xbox Ally X?

There’s so much more battery. Considering how much of an issue this was with the first-gen device this is a massive deal.

Despite the capacity of the battery having doubled to 80Wh, the overall weight of the Xbox Ally hasn’t increased in what I would consider any meaningful way so this is a definite win. I was getting about 4-5 hours of AAA (Assassin’s Creed: Shadows) gaming in on a single charge on the higher power profile and so much time playing Indie games on the more frugal settings that I stopped really checking.

I found the Xbox-controller-like design very comfortable to hold for long periods of time but the weight might be an issue for others. There are only two responses to picking up the Xbox Ally X that I’ve encountered, “Wow! It’s much lighter than I thought” or “Why is it so heavy?”

If you, like me, need every detail of the hardware, software and gaming benchmarks I can strongly recommend this epic video from The Phawx.

Pricing

You can buy one from many online and in-store retailers for R18 999 or directly on the Asus SA website, which is almost 20% more expensive than the launch price of the original model.

Final Verdict

This is the gaming PC to buy if you want one. It’s also a brilliant way to get into PC gaming if you’ve never played PC games before. If you don’t know that you need an Xbox Ally X immediately after seeing it then I would suggest you spend some time digging into your other options. A gaming laptop, a console or even a full gaming PC might actually be what you should buy. This is the closest I’ve come to committing my own money to buying one but I still think I’m one more generation, perhaps in the display department away from getting one. Talk to me after I go away in December without my PC and my tune might have changed though.