IGN chose the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X for review and without any hesitation dubbed it the best portable gaming PC on the market right now. They made a quick but bold judgment and gave an open and shameless endorsement to the portable gaming king. However, it seems that the reviewers are right and I am subtley biased towards this conclusion.
Two significant points in the review are “user-friendly Xbox Full-Screen Experience” and “first-rate performance from the AMD Z2 Extreme” processor. Such a mix, according to the review, transforms the mobile unit into a monstrous gaming device for user performance and pleasure during travel. However, what precisely is the Xbox Full-Screen Experience? From the exchanges in the comments section, it looks like it is in fact Microsoft’s strategy of rendering Windows 11 more akin to a console regarding control and user-friendliness. Some consumers dismiss it as pure marketing fluff but others advocate for its practicality. Obviously, the typical gamer divided opinions exist, you know how it goes.
Still, replies have this whole thing a bit tangled. If Anthony could switch from playing Battlefield 6 on his Series X in the living room to the ROG X while traveling, he would have the perfect case to make. That is actually a very good question regarding cross-save functionality and cloud gaming integration. The response seems to be… convoluted. Xbox Play Anywhere allows a few games to be transitioned thus you can keep playing from the last point you played, but according to the commenter BillHindmarchJR, only around 20 out of his 235 Xbox games really have that feature. Ouch.
In addition, the question about the character of this device, whether it is truly an “Xbox” device or merely a Windows handheld with Xbox logo gets the whole debate started. RGVetGaming reported that all the normal Windows 11 bloatware has been pre-installed – Microsoft Recall, Copilot, Teams, OneDrive – and the users will have to go through the entire Windows setup process. This is certainly not the plug-and-play that most console gamers have been accustomed to. It is more like a handheld gaming laptop than a pure console experience.
Price is a another major topic of discussion. A thousand bucks is “it better” be really good, as opined by BlairWitchHunt3. KillerStephen took it as a reference to graphics cards being ridiculously priced, thus giving the price some perspective, when he commented on the price. On the other hand, NottzSoSimple said that the Legion Go is “so much better than this and cheaper,” which started some debate about specs versus value. Seth responded to another critic that the Ally X has got better chips, speakers, sound, ergonomics, and AI upscaling. The fanboy wars are real people!
The thing is the gaming community has different opinions on the device which is quite interesting. To some it is a dream come true to play the steam, GOG, and Epic games along with Xbox titles as calcran4401 pointed out. Oothers think the branding is a bit excessive with pufferpoodle even saying “the person naming these machines needs to be fired.” And I am totally with pufferpoodle, “Asus ROG Xbox Ally X” is a tongue twister – harryb69 humorously suggested the name “Xbox family Computer” or Famicom which actually could be not so bad.
Mixed is the performance area too as Communist_Lyfe said it “doesn’t even perform like a switch 2,” still this comparison seems to be… debatable at the very least as Switch 2 is not even out yet. At the same time, EdwardPlay63434 jokingly said that one would have to sell both kidneys to afford it which indeed mirrors the feeling of most of us about the premium gaming hardware nowadays.
The main thing that can be concluded is that the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X is, incognito, trying to be the ideal portable gaming solution all at once. It is a venture to link console-like simplicity with PC-like flexibility, though it might not go so smoothly with either group. Console gamers might find the Windows features annoying while PC lovers might still want to have their own portable rig.
It is clear that a big risk is being taken by Asus and Microsoft with this partnership and, according to IGN’s glowing review, they might just be lucky. However, that price tag and the ambiguity about what this device exactly is going to be will make the competition between the market and established products such as Steam Deck and other Windows handhelds quite interesting to watch.
The handheld computer space is getting more crowded and competition is getting fierce which, despite making it more complicated to choose the right device, is still a good thing for gamers like us. The hype surrounding the Ally X may be uncertain but it has undeniably made its presence felt in the portable gaming market.
