There’s no question the ROG Xbox Ally compares well to many of these rivals in the space – but at the price point, you’d expect it to.
Unfortunately, the very thing that makes the Xbox Ally X stand out compared to its rivals – the fact that it natively runs Windows – is at the same time its biggest tension point.
On the one hand, it allows for some fun things. It was entertaining to bring up Copilot while playing a game and ask for advice on what to do next – and to be told in a conversational way to talk to a character on-screen in front of me.
But you have to deal with Windows, which was hardly developed with a games console in mind. I had to sit and wait for several updates to install before I could even play the thing – hardly every child’s dream on Christmas morning.
Simply put, it’s lacking that bit of extra polish you might expect at a premium price.
But I do think the people Microsoft is targeting with this product are hardly going to be turned away by a lack of polish. Especially as it has no real impact on the games.
The question is whether the allure of Game Pass on-the-go is going to be enough to justify the price of admission.
If the goal was to make something that feels like a handheld Xbox, Microsoft has certainly delivered on its promise – but has it come to market too late?
