The Xbox Handheld is HERE ROG Xbox Ally

Hey, it's Justine, and today in front of me, I have the brand new ROG Xbox Ally and the ROG Xbox Ally X. This is something that has been rumored for quite a while, and I don't think that I expected it to be this cool, because the second that I picked this up and put this in my hand, it felt like I literally had an Xbox controller that I stretched apart and slapped a screen in it, and it feels amazing. So I've been such a huge fan of the ROG Ally handheld devices, and with each new version so far, they've made some huge improvements. After using these for the last few years and being so used to kind of like this angular form factor to then go and use this super familiar and comfortable Xbox controller style grip, it was really incredible. I couldn't turn on these devices, but previous to this, I did get a chance to briefly try another device that was running the full screen Xbox experience. Now, when you power it on, it no longer feels like you're booting up a small version of Windows. It feels like you're turning on a tiny version of your Xbox. They made some new modifications that minimize background activity to reduce any non-essential tasks. So it can dedicate more of the system resources to gameplay. That means that we'll have more memory and higher frame rates. There are some slight differences between the two devices. The X has the HD haptics and is running an AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme processor with a seven inch full HD 1080p 500 nits display. It's also got 120 Hertz refresh rate, 24 gigs of memory, and one terabyte of solid state storage. There's also two USB-C ports. One is a display port with USB-C power delivery 3.0, and also Thunderbolt 4 compatible. It has a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack, a micro SD card reader, and it weighs 715 grams. It also has a little more battery life over the regular version. So this has an 80 watt hour battery. Now the regular has an AMD Ryzen Z2 processor, 16 gigs of RAM, and a 65 watt hour battery. It has a 512 gig solid state drive. There's no haptics or Thunderbolt 4 support. The good thing though, between the two of them, they both feel very similar. The buttons all feel the same. The display looks very similar. You're gonna have a little less power and a little less battery life. So what's really great is they have the dedicated Xbox button. So when you press this, this brings up your game library. So there's no fumbling around, trying to mess around with Windows. That was one of the difficult things is when you had Windows open, it was kind of difficult to navigate because you had a controller and not really a mouse or a keyboard. They've also got the dedicated library button. So when you press that, that'll open up all of your games so you're able to access them quickly. And we have our A, X, Y, and B buttons. Everything feels just like it would as an Xbox controller. And when you're holding this too ergonomically, it just feels so perfect in your hand. And if you've ever used the ROG Ally previously, I never realized how much of a difference it makes until actually using this version, that it really feels just like a controller. Like this is what every handheld should feel like. If you're familiar with Arm Recreate from the ROG Ally, this feels kind of similar with the full screen interface. Now when you click the library button, this gets you access to everything from Xbox, Game Pass, Battle.net, and others. It also has support for over 1,000 games with Xbox Play Anywhere. Now the real takeaway is this dedicated Xbox button, which quickly takes you into that full screen Xbox experience. My biggest complaint with ROG previously was sometimes I'd be playing and I would end up in a full on tiny mini little Windows environment and it was kind of difficult to navigate with a controller. But with these improvements, it already feels so much more of what you would expect in an Xbox handheld to feel like. I'm also kind of excited to check out the new XG Mobile, which is compatible with both versions. This is the first one to feature a Thunderbolt 5 connection, so it'll double the bandwidth of the previous version, giving you the power of an Nvidia 5090. So you can dock your ROG Xbox when you're back at home. I have always loved mobile gaming ever since I was little. Like going on those family road trips, not only was the vacation memorable, but playing video games in the backseat was just, that is such a core memory. And now as an adult traveling for work and also for fun, being able to take my games with me without sacrificing the quality and the comfort is really something that I'm looking forward to. I would love to know what you guys think in the comments below. Does this exceed your expectations of what you thought the Xbox handheld would be? I'm looking forward to hearing what you guys think. I cannot wait to actually get my hands on this and play a little bit longer than a few minutes. Make sure you subscribe and check back here for more.