First, a bit of background with a disclaimer. I have been writing about video games in some capacity for over a decade and playing much, much longer than that. My handheld gaming experience extends back to the Game Boy, through the Nintendo DS, diverted by the PlayStation Vita, and as a regular player of the Nintendo Switch (and now its sequel). However, I have not been a Steam Deck or even much of a gaming laptop guy, and while I love gaming, I don’t get deep under the hood regarding specs, which can often be the breaking point for someone considering a machine like the ROG Xbox Ally X, Microsoft’s new handheld gaming deck that comes with a notorious $1k price tag. There are numerous sources that have tested this system and its AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme chip in ways that don’t mean as much to someone who writes for an entertainment site and not a gaming one. This is a good one that breaks down the FPS across certain games on the system, and the results generally seem impressive across the board, but those details may be a factor for you in ways I can’t unpack.
With that out of the way, I can get into my personal experience with the most impressive handheld gaming system I’ve ever used. Coming out of the box with Windows 11 installed and a familiar Xbox UI, there’s a remarkable ease of use to the Ally X that’s wonderful. You should know that, like a lot of systems and games nowadays, the Ally X had a few early glitches. I had a game that wouldn’t register as owned by me despite being on Game Pass (“Silksong”) and an issue wherein vibrations led to a metal sound in the fan, but both have been resolved, and it’s now a consistently impressive and entertaining machine, one that’s addictively easy to pick up and play for an hour before getting back to real life.
So how did I “test” my Xbox X? Most of the gameplay has been “Hollow Knight: Silksong” through the Xbox UI and “Hades II” through Steam. While I also played bits and pieces of “Gears of War 5,” “South of Midnight,” “Keeper,” “The Outer Worlds 2,” “Evil West,” and even “Fortnite” to see how different kinds of games feel on the Ally X, it’s the two platformers that have been dominating my attention.
Two of the best games of the year, “Silksong” and “Hades II” fit this system like a glove. While I often find shooters a bit tricky on handheld systems—call me old, but I need the TV in front of me not between my hands to be accurate with a reticle and feel like I can move quickly enough to respond to an enemy—platformers and similarly structured Metroidvania games have always been better on a handheld. Maybe it’s just the memories of playing actual “Metroid” and “Castlevania” games on Nintendo handhelds (yes, I’m old), but the joy I’ve gotten from “Silksong” (well, joy mixed with outright rage at a game that’s sometimes ridiculously hard) and “Hades II” have been highlights of the last month. Taking these two games—one through the Xbox interface and one through Steam—anywhere is to casual gamers like me the real draw of a system like the Ally.
It helps to be able to play them on a system that feels as sturdy as an Xbox controller. The grips on the handles really replicate the feel of an actual controller in your hand instead of the flatness of the Switch model. And the interfaces, while they might take getting used to for people accustomed to the simplicity of the Switch, are actually relatively user-friendly. There’s a button the left side of the device that allows you to jump into any of the interfaces with one click, including the Xbox UI, the Steam one, Epic games, and Armoury Crate, wherein you can adjust settings to maximize performance for your gameplay.
The system also includes a full Windows 11 experience, which means you can surf the web and use other Windows apps. Given our focus at the site, I also watched Netflix and YouTube TV on my Ally and they both had crisp presentation, another great thing to do with this device. Of course, it’s primarily a gaming machine, but the fact that it can basically be a handheld entertainment system too shouldn’t be ignored, especially if you’re looking for a way to take streaming libraries and live TV on the road.
You should know there are some hiccups to the gaming library. Apparently, not all games purchased on an Xbox are allowing for play on the Ally, including the recent “Battlefield 6.” Other than the weird glitch with “Silksong,” I had no problems accessing the games mentioned above, but they were primarily through Game Pass, which appears to have no access issues. Even the games received in advance that I technically “own” like “Outer Worlds 2” and “Keeper” (both really fun, by the way—more on them later this month) were also technically Game Pass games.
Of course, there’s also the price. In today’s collapsing economy, four figures for a handheld gaming system does seem like a steep ask for people who might just want to play “Silksong” and “Hades II.” With that in mind, the Ally X does feel like a system for people who are already hardcore gaming laptop or desktop gamers, people looking for a way to take their already robust Steam and Xbox libraries on the road. The truth is that this is an incredible machine, but also one that costs about as much, if not more than some strong gaming laptops. Although it does feel like most people buying an Ally X will already have one of those and are trying to expand their gaming empire instead of just starting one.
If you’re one of those, and the price tag doesn’t push you away, it’s hard to believe you’ll be disappointed in system that truly did give me flashbacks to playing handheld games for the last four decades of my life. When I was a kid, there was something so magical about the idea of taking what was in arcades or even on my TV and holding it in my hands. That magic remains in the ROG Xbox Ally X, a system that may not be the future of handheld gaming as much as a reminder of what you loved about its past.
The company provided a review copy of this hardware. It’s now available.
