I’ve had my hands on the new ROG Xbox Ally First, the screen is now a fuller 7.4 inches instead of the original Xbox Ally’s 7 inches. In reality, this means that Asus has reduced the bezels to make the screen feel fuller. This is essential if you want to get the most out of Asus’ Nebula OLED panel.
Even in a dim and packed conference hall, the X20’s screen felt surprisingly bright and clear. This is likely due to the claimed 1,000-nit peak brightness in HDR and 600-nit peak brightness in SDR. The screen supports VESA DisplayHDR True Black 1000 and 120Hz refresh rate, with AMD FreeSync for variable refresh rates.
Even among other OLEDs, the Ally X20’s screen stands out. The $2,000 Legion Go 2, with an 8.8-inch OLED display, is brighter, meaning it offers beautiful views at the risk of glare. The Xbox Ally
Asus has also replaced its old joystick with the TMR stick. This means that the new device uses tunneling magnetoresistance technology, a type of magnetic sensing that greatly reduces the chance of inaccurate inputs caused by stick drift. Those sticks also feature metal caps, and they felt smooth when moved under my thumb. Asus also told me it added RGB effects that track the stick’s movements.
Asus has also made several minor changes to the shell of the device. For one, the back now has rubberized grips that make it feel more comfortable in the hand. Controls now include a “transforming D-pad” that lifts and spins if you want to more easily get a feel for your diagonals. There are also more subtle changes like the face buttons, which are now lower-profile than before, so the “B” button no longer hangs over the edge of the grip.
All these changes to the screen and shell will not affect the performance of this device. It’s still using the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme APU from last year. Performance on the original system was pretty solid for most games you played, even major AAA titles. It’s still packing 24GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD.
New systems built around Intel’s ARC G3 Extreme have already shown they can outperform AMD’s most recent handheld chips. Unfortunately, any device with that chip won’t be cheap. MSI tells Gizmodo that it expects the upcoming Claw 8X AI+ with Intel to launch with an MSRP of $1,500. Meanwhile, Asus has only shown its X20 bundled with the ROG XReal R1 AR glasses. There is no price associated with this bundle, but those glasses alone are worth $850.
Asus told Gizmodo that the company was analyzing “a la carte options” to differentiate its handhelds from the glasses. Let’s hope they do, because if the ROG Xbox Ally X20 can come in under $1,500, it might be worth a look. According to the company, the handheld should become available sometime later this year.
Even saying that $1,400 for a handheld is acceptable in the year of our Lord 2026 feels like getting pricked with a hot needle. Asus has somehow managed to resist the temptation to price the ROG Xbox Ally that system is the best now Since Valve raised the price of Steam Deck OLED, get your money back Last month. But it seems that in this cycle, any mobile gaming device you buy may cost a lot.
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