Microsoft and ROG will release the ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X handhelds on October 16, with pre-orders in the coming weeks and pricing still unrevealed. The devices rebrand the ROG Ally with Xbox buttons and a new UI to simplify playing Game Pass, GOG, and Steam games on the go. The base Ally uses a Ryzen Z2 APU with four Zen 2 cores, eight RDNA 2 GPU cores, 16GB RAM, and a 512GB SSD. The Ally X upgrades to a Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme with an 8-core/16-thread Zen 5 APU, 16 RDNA 3.5 GPU cores, an integrated 50 TOPS NPU, 24GB RAM, and a 1TB SSD. A Valve-style compatibility verification system will be included.
Microsoft and ROG's team-up is a sort of stop-gap attempt at a portable Xbox, a concept Microsoft has recently be touting in ambiguous terms. This crossover with the already popular ROG Ally Windows 11 machine sees the device rebranded with Xbox buttons and, more importantly, with a new UI that should make it reasonably simple to play your Game Pass, GOG, and Steam games on the subway.
The current ROG Ally comes with an AMD Ryzen Z1 processor, and costs $650. However, the basic Xbox version will be a step up, featuring the brand-new Ryzen Z2 with "four Zen 2 cores with eight threads and eight RDNA 2 GPU cores," which sure sounds like a lot of threads and cores. It'll also have 16GB RAM and a 512GB SSD (which isn't close to enough-that's like two Calls of Duty).
Meanwhile, the Ally X will beef that up to an AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme, which as you can see both has AI and is extreme. It features "a new 8‑core/16‑thread Zen 5 APU with 16 RDNA 3.5 GPU cores and an integrated 50 TOPS NPU," and let's all pretend we know what that means and feel impressed. It also bumps the RAM up to 24GB, and offers a 1TB SSD for up to four Calls of Duty at a time.
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