I pledged no allegiance to any faction during the console wars. But I'll admit I felt, and still feel, most at home in the Xbox ecosystem. It's the achievements, it's the controllers, it's everything. So I couldn't help but feel envy through the years as Nintendo, PlayStation, and even PC diehards all got handheld devices before Xbox. (Sorry, but Cloud Gaming isn't it.)
However, Asus is giving us something very close. In partnership with Microsoft, Asus has updated the ROG Ally, adding official Xbox branding. Enter the Asus ROG Xbox Ally, a new handheld gaming device aimed to rival the Steam Deck and the Nintendo Switch 2. Released less than two months ago, the device is already seeing a solid discount. Originally priced at $600, it's now 18% off, dropping to $490-a savings of $110 this soon after launch.
Many companies have tried and failed to produce gaming handhelds that run Windows, and it's not hard to see the appeal. You could take all of your games with you, install mods and custom software, or even plug into a hub and get some work done. Lenovo is taking another swing at the Windows handheld game with the Legion Go 2, undeterred by mixed reviews on the original Legion Go and streamlined Legion Go S.
Ayaneo is continuing the theme for its Next lineup of devices, making these handhelds as big and powerful as possible. The Next II packs a 9.06-inch OLED display with a 2,400 x 1,504 resolution and a variable refresh rate that can be adjusted between 60 and 165 Hz. Ayaneo's latest premium handheld should handle any game you throw at it thanks to an AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 chip and a massive 115 Wh battery.
Lenovo Legion Go 2, the Windows-based gaming handheld announced last week at IFA Berlin, will get the new Xbox interface present on the Asus ROG Xbox Ally devices. The Legion Go 2 will be the first handheld outside Asus to come with the custom OS experience that aims to keep Windows operations in the background, Lenovo confirmed Friday after the revealing the device. The Xbox full-screen experience, announced alongside the ROG Xbox Ally handhelds, will come to Lenovo's new handheld next year.
I wrote that no one should buy MSI and Intel's original handheld gaming PC. I literally called it an embarrassment, and the company blacklisted me after that. MSI stopped pitching me news, and stopped answering my emails, even after the company began to write off its dud of a handheld. So you can imagine my surprise to find: MSI and Intel have gone from worst to nearly first.