On the eve of the system’s release, tech reviewers across the internet are sharing their thoughts on the new ROG Xbox Ally, Microsoft’s long-anticipated foray into the portable gaming market.
Announced back in June at the annual Xbox Showcase, the ROG Xbox Ally isn’t exactly what we all expected. It isn’t a handheld console like the Switch, but instead, is an Xbox-branded handheld PC made in collaboration with the Taiwanese computer company Asus. The white Ally retails for $599.99, while the significantly more powerful black Ally X costs $999.99.
The reviews that ran on Wednesday are a mixed bag, but there are three consistent points being raised. One is that the systems are apparently somewhat underbaked at launch, with significant barriers to setup and some early adopter quirks. Another is that the units are ergonomic and comfortable, with textured grips that mimic the current design of the Xbox Series X|S wireless controller.
The final note is a repeated emphasis that you are not getting a console experience with either edition of the Xbox Ally. At the end of the day, it’s a Windows 11 PC, complete with (currently nearly useless) Copilot functionality, and crucially, does not play Xbox console games. It only plays the PC versions thereof.
Here are some of the reviews:
- Eurogamer, Tom Orry: An impressive handheld PC wearing an Xbox mask
- Engadget, Sam Rutherford: An extra life for Xbox
- Windows Central, Rebecca Spear with Jez Corden: I tested the Xbox Ally X for dozens of hours, and it’s almost everything you want in a handheld — future updates could make it the full package
- Tom’s Hardware, Andrew E. Freedman: Getting a grip on Windows gaming
- Radio Times, Alex Raisbeck: I don’t really know who this is for
- The Verge, Sean Hollister: This is not an Xbox
The distinction between “gaming PC” and “console” is more significant than you might think, and it comes down to an issue of tinkering. The big benefit of a console over a PC for gaming is the “it just works” factor. While this gap has closed considerably in recent years, consoles’ comparative ease of use has been a consistent point in their favor for the casual gaming audience. If you want to play a console game, you launch it; the end. You don’t have to worry about whether or not it’ll work unless something has gone dramatically wrong.
The Xbox Ally, as a portable PC, requires more setup and finagling than that, which could be an issue. If what you like about console gaming is that jump-right-in immediacy, the Ally does not have that for you.
Granted, critics reported that their review units didn’t come with a final build of one of the Xbox Ally’s marquee features, the Xbox Full Screen Experience. This is meant to unify your entire PC collection into a single seamless dashboard, so all your various software libraries – Xbox, Steam, Epic, etc. – are all available at once.
Right now, however, the Experience doesn’t really work, which will have to be ironed out with day-one or post-launch software patches. The lower-powered, cheaper model of the Ally is also distinctly more cheaply made, with reports that it occasionally refuses to charge and that it’s inherited the traditional Windows problem of constantly waking itself up from sleep mode for no obvious reason.
That’s the interesting thing about the Xbox Ally in the end. Microsoft has been insistent for the last year that an “Xbox” is not a discrete unit of hardware. Rather, it’s a particular software experience that can be run on anything from a tablet to a TV.
You can meaningfully argue, then, that the Xbox Ally isn’t actually an Xbox because it isn’t a console… and Microsoft would agree with you. It’s fuel for the rumors that the next generation of Xbox, which is supposedly coming in 2027, will be a particular software program running on an ultra-specialized PC.
That, in turn, would mean that Microsoft actually is planning to exit the console market, but in a bizarre way; it’ll stop making consoles, but will make something else that it’ll just call a console. It’s like walking backwards out of a party, while insisting that isn’t the same as leaving.
