ROG Xbox Ally X announced: new Z2 Extreme, ergonomic design and Xbox Experience

The much-rumored ROG Ally 2 — successor to the ROG Ally X — has just been announced as the ROG Xbox Ally X. But instead of offering a sole option, this year ROG is also offering the ROG Xbox Ally with slightly cut-down specifications to provide an option to more value-focused gamers. Also, in case it isn’t clear enough in the name itself, the ROG Xbox Ally series is developed in partnership with Microsoft, with the new Xbox experience and a redesigned grip apparently inspired by the popular Xbox Controllers.

ROG Xbox Ally X — Ryzen Z2 Extreme for AAA gaming

As mentioned earlier, the ROG Xbox Ally series comes in two flavors: the ROG Xbox Ally X and the ROG Xbox Ally, with both featuring slightly different specifications. For starters, the ROG Xbox Ally X will feature the full-fat AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme, which is essentially an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, complete with a 50 TOPS NPU. Not to be confused with the Ryzen Z2 Extreme announced at CES 2025, which lacks an NPU, as evident with the lack of the AI mention in its name.

Mated to 24GB LPDDR5X-8000, the ROG Xbox Ally X is expected to deliver strong performance in most games at 1080p. Last but not least, it shares an 80WHr battery pack with the ROG Ally X, but is expected to deliver better battery life thanks to the more efficient “Strix Point”-based architecture versus the “Phoenix”-based Z1 Extreme in the last-gen ROG handheld. Overall, the ROG Xbox Ally X tips the scales at 715g, making it the heaviest ROG handheld yet.

ROG Xbox Ally — Ryzen Z2 A, optimized for battery life at 720p

Then we have the ROG Xbox Ally, which features a newly announced AMD Ryzen Z2 A processor. This is an efficiency-focused chip, which is even more cut-down than the AMD Ryzen Z2 and Lenovo-exclusive Z2 Go. In terms of specifications, it will feature 8 RDNA 2 GPU cores and 4 Zen 2 cores. While clock speeds are not shared just yet, this might just be the same chip as found in the Steam Deck. Which means that it will be slower than the first-gen ROG Ally featuring the Ryzen Z1 Extreme.

It’s paired with 16GB LPDDR5X-6400 RAM, which is yet another specification shared with the Steam Deck. As we know, SteamOS is a vastly more optimized OS for pure gaming, so I do wonder how the ROG Xbox Ally will perform. ROG is reportedly targeting a 720p experience for the ROG Xbox Ally, so perhaps FSR will play its part here since the ROG Xbox Ally comes with a 1080p 120Hz display, just like its beefier brethren. The battery has been cut down to 60WHr, splitting the difference between the first-gen ROG Ally and second-gen ROG Ally X, but it still weighs about just as much as the ROG Ally X at 670g.

Xbox Experience — a glorified launcher?

We all know most ROG Ally users are using Steam’s Big Picture mode to make their game library more navigable. That’s not to say ROG didn’t do their job — the Armoury Crate SE is by far the best UI for going through vital system settings and even launching games on any Windows-based handheld. But now, Microsoft is throwing in the gauntlet with the Xbox full screen experience. In addiition to booting directly into Xbox instead of Armoury Crate SE, the ROG Xbox Ally X and Xbox Ally both feature a dedicated Xbox button that allows you to access the newly enhanced Game Bar overlay that’s integrated with Armoury Crate.

While this is not the oft-rumored Windows 11 Handheld that’s built from the ground up for controller use, Microsoft is claiming new modifications that minimize background activity and defer non-essential tasks, more system resources are dedicated specifically to gameplay. We will see how that goes once we get to try it out for ourselves. As it stands, Windows 11 is overly bloated and often is the reason why Windows-based handhelds suffer such poor performance and battery life when compared to the likes of the Steam Deck. But on the flip side, running Windows 11 means you get to enjoy all your games, or at least any game that’s supports controller input.

ROG Xbox Ally X and Xbox Ally — pricing and availability

ROG has yet to announce the pricing of the upcoming ROG Xbox Ally series, but they are slated to be widely available during the holiday season. It is unclear when it will be available in Malaysia and for how much but do stay tuned as we will be updating this article as soon as we find out more.