Just over a year after the launch of the ROG Ally, Asus is releasing an improved version of its portable device, the ROG Ally X. The Windows-based machine will ship from July 22 for $800. I’ve been playing with the portable console for a few days now, and there’s already a lot to like – especially on the hardware front.
Valve’s Steam Deck, released in 2022, helped bring handheld PC gaming to the mainstream. It wasn’t the first company to explore the form factor, but Valve nailed the right combination of specs, portability, and price.
When it became an instant hit, PC makers picked it up. Lenovo released the Legion Go, and Asus had its own take on handheld PC gaming with the ROG Ally. There are other niche makers, too, such as Ayaneo.
The device features a bright 7-inch display with a resolution of 1080p and a refresh rate of 120Hz. Like a Nintendo Switch, the display is flanked by your standard array of gaming buttons and joysticks.
Unlike the Switch, the controls aren’t frustratingly small. The ROG Ally X feels like a full-sized controller in your hands. The joysticks look and feel like the ones on a modern Microsoft Xbox controller. The A/B/X/Y buttons are large and clicky. The analog triggers have a lot of travel, too.
I wasn’t entirely convinced by the D-pad, though. It feels mushy, a bit like the D-pad you’d find on a budget third-party controller. The View and Menu buttons are also hard to reach. They’re right next to the screen, forcing me to stretch my thumbs to pause a game.
There are two additional macro keys on the back of the device. I configured them as View and Menu buttons, and that helped. You’ll also find a Command Center button on either side of the display for on-the-fly performance tweaks, and an Armoury Crate button for bringing up Asus’ game launcher.
The ROG Ally X’s main software interface, the Armoury Crate SE, is passable at best. It functions as a game launcher, centralizing everything you’ve installed from Steam, the Epic Games Store, Ubisoft Connect, and so on. It can also change your device’s settings, from the joystick LEDs to gamepad profiles.
If you put as little time into it as possible, it does its job. But it has bugs (a game I installed with GOG Galaxy mysteriously disappeared from my list), it can be frustratingly slow to open a menu, and I had a few crashes.
The same goes for the command center. It’s an indispensable tool for adjusting settings on the fly, like switching from Silent to Performance or Turbo mode, but it can sometimes be slow to respond to your interactions.
The device is comfortable to hold — for short sessions, at least. The biggest problem with these kinds of PC gaming handhelds is that they’re heavy. They also get warm, especially when you’re playing a game.
Before testing the ROG Ally X, I spent hours playing with the Logitech G Cloud, an Android handheld designed specifically for cloud gaming and remote play. It’s an extremely satisfying experience because the G Cloud runs silently (it’s a fanless device), you don’t have to worry about battery life, and it fits easily in your hands.
We’re still at the beginning of this massive shift in PC gaming from full-fledged tower PCs to nimble yet capable handhelds. Over time, gaming handhelds will become smaller, lighter, and quieter. They’ll feel more like Android-based handhelds. For now, though, experiences like G Cloud remain limited.
The ROG Ally X, on the other hand, feels like the pinnacle of handheld gaming. When Nintendo released the Game Boy 35 years ago, it felt like you could play NES games on the go.
Likewise, the ROG Ally X feels like a good gaming companion for long days of travel or daily subway rides. Despite its weight, I had no problem immersing myself in games for several hours at a time.
An indie game machine
When it comes to performance, Asus has kept the same APU for the ROG Ally X, the AMD Z1 Extreme. However, the RAM has been increased from 16GB to 24GB. This makes a difference in gaming performance, as the memory is shared between VRAM and system RAM.
The handheld comes with a user-replaceable 1TB NVMe storage card (in the 2280 format). The battery is twice as large (80Wh) as its predecessor, and the proprietary eGPU port has been replaced with a more standard USB Type-C with USB 4 support.
The machine performs particularly well with games that don’t require a top-of-the-range PC, such as Jusant, Cocoon, or Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. The ROG Ally X can easily render 60 to 120 frames per second for those games at 1080p without using the 30W boost mode.
For AAA games, you’ll have to make some compromises. I was able to get around 45 frames per second on the High graphics preset in Marvel’s: Spider-Man by enabling RSR, AMD’s resolution upscaling feature. As for games that really struggled on previous handhelds, there’s no magic here. You’ll have to use low settings and aggressive resolution scaling in The Last of Us: Part I to get 30 FPS, for example.
If you’re really into strategy games or simulation games, the ROG Ally X might not be the best form factor for those games. You can at least hook it up to a monitor and use a mouse and keyboard if that’s the only PC you have.
As for battery life, it really depends on the type of games you play and the power mode you select. You can play Baba is You for a long time in “silent mode”. However, using “boost mode” for The Last of Us will significantly impact your battery life. Unfortunately, I haven’t had enough time with the device to do any thorough testing, but I’m sure many reviewers will be releasing benchmarks this week.
As a gaming console, the most surprising thing about the ROG Ally X is that it’s a PC running Windows — at least on paper. Sure, you can install whatever you like and use it in a desktop environment. But running Windows without a mouse and keyboard is a frustrating experience. That’s fine if you want to install a game launcher and play a few games, but a proper laptop (or even a smartphone) is more convenient for everything else.
Similarly, since it is a PC, you can install: all games available on Windows. But some will run better than others, so you’ll need to adjust your expectations. You can also tweak the settings to get more battery life or better looking games.
The ROG Ally X has a console-like form factor. But don’t expect a polished, console-like experience – this is no Nintendo Switch competitor. In many ways, the ROG Ally X, or at least this handheld form factor, can be considered an early preview of the future of PC gaming. A console-shaped future that functions like a PC.