Teaming up for the first time, Microsoft and Asus have unleashed the ROG Ally Xbox—a handheld promising both Xbox and PC libraries in your backpack. After a hands-on demo at Summer Game Fest and poring over leaks, the question looms: can this €599–€899 beast outshine the likes of the Steam Deck OLED or Nintendo Switch in 2025? Spoiler: there’s no one-size-fits-all answer.
The Ally Xbox merges Asus’s well-tested handheld chassis with an Xbox-native UX and full Game Pass integration. Inside, AMD’s Razor Z1 or Z1 Extreme chip drives a 7″ 1080p 120 Hz LCD, backed by 16–24 GB LPDDR5 and up to 1 TB NVMe. Its performance headroom is undeniable, yet heat, noise, and battery life trade-offs, plus a premium price tag, force hard choices for potential buyers. Read on for deep dives, extra benchmarks, and a buyer’s decision matrix.
| Model | Base (Z1, 16 GB, 512 GB) / X (Z1 Extreme, 24 GB+, 1 TB) |
|---|---|
| Processor | AMD Ryzen Z1 / Z1 Extreme |
| RAM | 16 GB or 24 GB+ LPDDR5 |
| Storage | 512 GB or 1 TB NVMe |
| Display | 7″ 1080p IPS LCD @120 Hz |
| Battery | 49 Wh (est.) |
| Weight | ≈620 g |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 6, BT 5.2, USB-C w/ DP 1.4 |
| Price | €599 (Base), €899 (X) |
Instead of dropping you into Windows, the Ally Xbox boots into a slick Xbox shell. Controller navigation, game-focused menus, and full Game Pass browsing feel native. Under the hood, Asus and Microsoft have also added bonus features: a system-wide performance slider, per-game profiles with custom clock curves, and theme-color presets.
Dig deeper and you’ll find UI customization panels that let you adjust DPI scaling, toggle HDR emulation, and even select between DirectX 12 Ultimate presets—some titles unlock DX12-specific ray tracing and Mesh Shading modes. A handy ‘Quick Settings’ overlay grants instant access to fan speeds, brightness steps, and FSR upscaling toggles without alt-tabbing.
Apart from my Starfield (50–60 fps @1080p Medium), Forza Horizon 5 (60 fps High w/90% scale), and Sea of Thieves (60 fps Ultra) benchmarks, I ran additional workloads to see how the Z1 Extreme flexes:
Compared to my Steam Deck OLED (30–45 fps in Starfield, ~25–30 fps Elden Ring) and AYANEO 2 Pro (45 fps Sea of Thieves), the Ally Xbox X leads on raw numbers. Yet hitting those peaks triggers fan curves and thermal guardrails—so the real-world balance between performance and comfort becomes a strategic choice.
After 20 minutes in a roadside cafe, surface temps near the vents peaked at 48 °C. Asus’s vapor chamber and heat-pipe array route hot zones away from your palms, but the rear shell still feels toastier than most notebooks.
The fan can hit 5,500 RPM under full load, producing a high-pitched whine reminiscent of ultraportable gaming rigs. That noise is detectable in quiet rooms and can mask subtle audio cues in competitive shooters.
Dialing down to 30 fps cap or switching to Medium presets drops fan noise by 40% and surface heat by 10 °C. You can also tweak the fan curve in firmware: a ‘whisper’ mode holds temperatures around 40 °C at the cost of 20–30% lower frame rates. In short, it’s a love-it-or-hate-it balance between raw horsepower and desktop-style cooling demands.
The 120 Hz IPS panel delivers smooth animations and quick pixel response, but deep blacks and HDR pop are still OLED territory. Color accuracy out of the box hits DCI-P3 ~92%, and you can choose from presets like ‘Cinema’, ‘Vivid’, or a manual RGB slider in system settings.
In bright sunlight or café seating, the 550 nit peak brightness struggles—shaded areas work best. Adaptive brightness calibration in firmware helps, but there’s visible washout under direct rays. For indoor streaming or cloud play, its speed is stellar; for beachside gaming, less so.
On the handling front, Asus refined the original Ally grips with subtly elongated curves and deeper trigger paddles. My hands found the layout intuitive after 10 minutes, though extended marathon sessions still taxed my wrists more than the chunkier Steam Deck. Xbox fans will love the offset asymmetry; mobile veterans used to slimmer handhelds might call it hefty.
Real-world runtimes hinge on game choice and power profile:
On-the-fly toggles for refresh rate (60/90/120 Hz) and CPU power (15/25/35 W) let you squeeze extra minutes. A Quick Charge USB-C adapter delivers ~30% in 15 minutes—an essential trick for red-eye flights.
At €899, the X model is in PS5 Digital territory, while the €599 base undercuts itself by shedding RAM and storage. Factor in EU taxes and official dock bundles, and you’re flirting with a four-figure total.
In contrast, Steam Deck OLED (€449), rumored Deck Pro (€549), and a potential Switch 2 (€399–499) hit lower price points. The Ally Xbox’s pitch is clear: pay a premium for peak PC and Xbox title performance, plus a console-grade UX. Whether that resonates depends on your wallet and tolerance for heat and fan noise.
Putting it side by side:
No single champ emerges: Deck wins on value and quiet, AYANEO caters to power users craving QHD, Switch focuses on exclusives, Portal on remote-play, and Ally Xbox on raw console-style experience at a premium.
| Criterion | ROG Ally Xbox | Steam Deck OLED | Switch OLED |
|---|---|---|---|
| AAA PC/Xbox Performance | ★★★★★ | ★★★☆☆ | ★☆☆☆☆ |
| Battery Life | ★★☆☆☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★★ |
| Noise & Heat | ★★☆☆☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★★★ |
| Software UX | ★★★★☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★☆☆☆ |
| Price/Value | ★☆☆☆☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★☆☆ |
In the 2025 handheld arena, the Ally Xbox makes a bold statement—premium price, premium performance, and premium trade-offs. For enthusiasts, it’s a powerhouse; for everyone else, great times await on the Deck or Switch.
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