After having officially unveiled its handheld gaming PC that it built in collaboration with Asus, Microsoft has now released a new video giving us a deeper look at the ROG Xbox Ally. The video focuses on some of the features of the handheld system, with an emphasis on how much it offers a console-like gaming experience without the player needing to fiddle around with Windows settings.
The first half of the video focuses on the lower-powered non-X variant of the ROG Xbox Ally, which will be powered by an AMD Ryzen Z2A chip rather than the Z2 Extreme chip powering the ROG Xbox Ally X. The handheld system will be seemingly available only in white colour, and will have 16 GB of LPDDR5X-6400 RAM, 512 GB of storage thanks to an NVMe drive, and a 7-inch 1080p display with a 120 Hz refresh rate and support for variable refresh rates thanks to FreeSync Premium.
More time is spent on discussing the ROG Xbox Ally X in the second half of the video, with one member of the development team even going as far as describing it as “the best handheld I’ve ever tried.” Along with the Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip, the ROG Xbox Ally X (available in black colour) is equipped with 24 GB of LPDDR5X-8000 RAM, and 1 TB of NVMe storage. Much like the Xbox Ally, the Xbox Ally X also has a 1080p 120 Hz display with VRR support.
“This is your absolute behemoth,” said Xbox’s Roanne Sones about the ROG Xbox Ally X. “All the bells and whistles. You’ve maxed out your storage and performance of the product and the chip.”
Gabriel Meng of Asus’ ROG division also described the Ryzen Z2 Extreme as a powerhouse of a chip, referring to it as “the absolute best” when it comes to offering up performance for a handheld gaming system while still having reasonable power draw to help with managing battery life.
Interestingly, the video also gives us a look at what is essentially an incredibly early prototype for the ROG Xbox Ally and the ROG Xbox Ally X. The prototype was built in a cardboard box with all the wiring and circuit boards being laid out in a way that would allow developers to test the hardware. All of these are also plugged into a screen to make sure that the hardware could offer the power needed to run intense games.
Members of the ROG Xbox Ally development teams also spoke about how the company approached Microsoft to form a partnership that would essentially allow Microsoft to handle the software side of things when it came to making Windows run efficiently on the portable hardware, while allowing Asus to focus on the hardware itself.
“Hey, let’s have Microsoft come in and revamp the software in [the ROG Ally]; turn it into an Xbox without getting rid of everything that makes Windows great,” said Asus ROG team member Whitson Gordon about the partnership. “Let’s turn this into a console worthy of the console. Worthy of the name Xbox.”
Both the Asus ROG Xbox Ally and the ROG Xbox Ally X will be coming to store shelves later this year.
