I was skeptical about the ROG Xbox Ally, but this one feature has me excited

I wasn’t impressed when the Asus ROG Xbox Ally was originally unveiled. While the promised performance gains that the AMD Z2 Extreme chip could offer over the Z1 Extreme-powered Asus ROG Ally X sounded appealing, this new handheld seemed like little more than the latter with Xbox branding and some reworked controller grips. The fact that it would be a Windows 11-based handheld was also a turn-off, especially since Valve allows SteamOS on other platforms.

Now that both the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X have been fully unveiled during Gamescom 2025, my skepticism is waning. In fact, you could say I’m optimistic about the upcoming handheld. I like that Xbox is working with its game studio partners to test and optimize the best PC games for handheld compatibility, and that the Z2 Extreme model will utilize AI upscaling to deliver sharper graphics and smoother performance. And if rumors are true, the $599 starting price isn’t as high as it could have been.