Xbox in the palm of your hands
Handheld PCs have become more popular over the past few years. Ever since the introduction of the Steam Deck, it feels like other companies have continued to throw their hat in the ring. ASUS is no exception, but this new Xbox branded version is not their first outing. The name ROG Ally may sound familiar, and that is because there was already a version out there. This new model is essentially the follow-up, but with Xbox front and center. Combining these two things is a great idea. Focus on the massive Xbox library with an extremely powerful handheld and it sounds like a match made in Heaven. The end results are a little more mixed than that though.
First off, this review is for the lower-end model of the Xbox ROG Ally. I was not able to test the more expensive X model. These are easy to decipher using the standard Xbox color scheme. White means the lower end, while black represents the big dog. I would have loved to see the performance of the X to compare. That being said, the white model is no slouch. It is fairly comparable to the Steam Deck with a bit more juice, so I used my Steam Deck to make comparisons in most cases.
MSRP: $599.99
Price I’d Pay: $599.99
Let’s kick off with design. I have never been a huge fan of handheld gaming devices, I find they cause my hands to cramp over extended play sessions. The Xbox ROG Ally is definitely the most comfortable I have been using one. While it looks ridiculous, the side grips are kind of a game changer. It really goes a long way in making longer sessions more comfortable. The screen is also slightly tilted, and I didn’t notice it at first, but in practice it makes a difference.
The triggers and shoulder buttons are easy to hit, the back buttons are not intrusive, and the face buttons feel fine. I am still not a fan of the d-pad. There are two new buttons in addition to the view and menu buttons, one is a dedicated library button, which is awesome, the other opens up Armoury Crate. The Xbox button serves as a navigation button. Overall the design of this device is exceptional.
The screen itself is nice, even if it is a standard LED as opposed to an OLED. It clocks in at 7-inches and has plenty of screen space to see everything. The system defaults to 720p out of the box, but you can bump it up to 1080p. The screen also supports VRR above the 40fps threshold. This is an important distinction as this model will not run most games above this. So, the VRR is not as important on this model. Sure, some games can hit this, but I had to drop the settings so low, it didn’t matter. When it works though, it looks fantastic.
One of the biggest issues with this version is the paltry 500GB storage space it includes. With the size of AAA games these days, that is like 3-4 games max. You can expand it with micro-SD cards and other expansions if you want to crack it open, but by default, I was constantly deleting and re-downloading games. Cloud streaming is available, and it works, but I still feel like Xbox Cloud Gaming is still not where I want it to be for serious play time. Heck, I feel that way for all streaming. There is just too much inconsistency, and I usually only use this feature as sort of a demo replacement. See if I like a game before downloading it.
Audio is actually impressive on multiple fronts. We have a standard 3.5mm jack on the device, and with a good set of headphones, it sounds really good. Nice surround hearing bullets and sound effects all around me. I could also connect Bluetooth headphones, and it works as well as can be expected from Bluetooth. Surprisingly the speakers on the system sound really good for a portable device. I had to turn it down most of the time, but as with Windows, the levels are all over the place.
This brings us to the biggest issue this device faces…Windows. When I first got my unit, we had to run through some updates, as is expected with any new device. This is a full-on Windows experience though, and quite frankly it was worse than on a PC. I ran into several issues with drivers not installing. It took forever to get this thing updated, and that really is the caveat to being on Windows.
While it is designed for the Xbox experience, the bones are still Windows. This means updates are in multiple places, and the reliability of the Microsoft Store actually updating my apps is hit and miss. I had to run them multiple times, reset the device over and over. Install more updates via Armoury Crate, it was painful, and even after all this time, I still have issues with updates. It feels like every time I boot it up, there are new updates, and I somehow have issues installing them. Why do I need MS Teams on a gaming device?!?
Alright time to talk gaming. I spent a couple weeks playing a variety of things. Everything from brand new AAA titles down to classic indie and retro titles. The experience was great for the most part when actually playing the games themselves. I played Ninja Gaiden 4 and Indiana Jones, both ran well. Indy sticks to around 30fps, which is fine for a portable device. NG4 impressed me the most with its nearly 60fps at lower settings. The response time felt great. I played a few games across Steam as well, funny enough a review game I was working on from Steam worked on the ROG Ally, while it didn’t boot up on the Steam Deck, ironic.
Speaking of other storefronts, one of the things I really like about this device is having all my stuff in one place. I installed Steam, GOG, and Epic Games to name a few. This let me install my games from these storefronts, and then in the Xbox app they showed up in one place. That is awesome. Booting from there loads the app, the game kicks in, and off we go. It works flawlessly most of the time. Issues arise when the apps are not built for a controller. The ROG Ally does not have a trackpad and instead uses the analog stick to simulate a mouse. Sadly, it doesn’t always work. The system sometimes locked me out and I had to use the touch screen, which is not ideal.
It is little things like this that constantly dampen my experience. When the streamlined features work, they are amazing, but they aren’t quite there yet. There are still some issues where things don’t work as expected, and that sucks. Being mainly a console gamer, the Xbox branding makes it seem like this will mimic a console experience, and it is not that. This is a Windows PC gaming experience, and players need to know that coming in. This device will not natively play your Xbox library, but it can be streamed. The Windows experience is still lacking, and they have a ways to go before the Xbox app is as smooth and refined as SteamOS, which is still the gold standard.
So, who is this device for? I think this is a great alternative to the Steam Deck for people who have the bulk of their library within the Xbox ecosystem. Play Anywhere is awesome, and being able to incorporate Steam and other storefronts is cool. Still, the UI and software is still quite a few updates away from being able to take down the king. I enjoyed this device more than I thought I would, I just wish Windows could iron out its accessibility issues. Getting into the games is a chore, but once I was in, this device excelled.
Review hardware provided by publisher.
