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PayPalMicrosoft and Asus have now put the ROG Xbox Ally X and ROG Xbox Ally up for pre-order, ready to take on Valve's Steam Deck.
We continue to see handhelds move in the wrong direction on pricing though. The ROG Xbox Ally X is USD $999.99, but the ROG Xbox Ally is a more reasonable USD $599.99. The problem is, Valve's Steam Deck just cannot be beaten on the price to performance ratio, especially with it currently having a 20% discount making it truly worth grabbing.
Even having the higher specifications on the Xbox Ally X, with the Z2 Extreme chip, the performance difference really isn't going to be worth that price tag. Especially so for the plain Xbox Ally, with a similar chip to the Steam Deck (and powering a higher resolution screen too). However, the anti-cheat problem on SteamOS / Linux is not an issue for Windows - so that might perhaps entice a few more buyers.
Microsoft do have another issue here though — confusion. No doubt with the Xbox naming, there will be plenty who go in expecting traditional Xbox games to work, but they won't since like the Steam Deck it is just a PC. You may not think this is an issue, but I can guarantee it will end up as one. The masses are not particularly well informed when it comes to buying hardware - anyone who has worked retail or technical support will know it well.
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Could be some nice devices to install Bazzite Linux on though. How long do we think it will be before Bazzite gets support for running on the ROG Xbox Ally X and ROG Xbox Ally? It will be interesting to see if Microsoft / Asus have made it difficult to install another OS on it.
Both devices launch October 16th. See the announcement for more info.
We really are entering a new world when it comes to gaming though. Valve truly laid the groundwork here for handheld PC gaming, and now everyone wants a slice of the pie. I do think these are the first actual proper competition for the Steam Deck, since there's an entry model and backing from Microsoft. Plus, Microsoft's work to bring all stores under one roof with their newer UI for handhelds that will debut with the ROG Xbox Ally - we're in for some turbulence here.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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BladePupper 3 hours ago
confusing branding: check.
lower tier is greedy upsell: check.
most expensive 'XboX' in history: check.
meager specs: check.
Not only this but the reception of these things from preview event was rather mixed. Lackluster performance and bugginess of the UI was criticized. Along with the fact that 16gb shared RAM and 512gb on the low-end model is not nearly enough for modern games. The Steam Deck might just get by with 16, but Windows itself is so bloated these days, it already eats 8 when doing nothing. They're effectively trying to sell you a Windows Steam Deck here for 600 bucks. How is that thing supposed to drive a 1080p display? Again we see a pattern here, no lessons from Valve were learned, neither in price, specs, or marketing. What a waste of sand.
Maybe they still have enough brand recognition to pull it off but this whole thing just feels so confusing.
dziadulewicz 2 hours ago
and NO touchpads as in Steam Deck which is still the best bang your buck.
and even more stupid are the windows users who are disapointed on how microsoft treats then (with ads on the OS, the whole TPM issue, among other things) and still fall for that.
Last edited by elmapul on 26 Sep 2025 at 11:09 am UTC
It would have been way more interesting to see how people actually use it, hold it in their hands, especially with those gamepad handles, maybe transitioning from an XBox Controller to the Xbox Ally, how they operating it, showing the UI.
Depending on your (Linux) needs, the Rog XBox Ally (X) might be interesting if it lasts much longer than the Steam Deck. I'm wondering about eGPU support? Looks like it does have VRR support, which is really great to see and will help with battery life. E.g. I can run Fall Guys on the Ally X (2023, 40Whr) using Cachy OS and 8W TPD and VRR. With that I can play Fall Guys smoothly for about 1.5 - 2 hours. Which is not bad for the small battery. Using it with 15 TDP like the Deck does, I can't play for an hour even on the Ally.
Yet, I'm still good with the 2023 Ally, I have an eGPU for it and I can play VR (also Steam Link VR) on it using Cachy OS. That's just awesome and I can postpone any upgrades for quite a while.
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