ROG Xbox Ally guide – release date speculation, specs, and more

Following months of speculation, we finally got the big reveal for the ROG Xbox Ally during the June 2025 Xbox Games Showcase. The handheld is launching with two models, the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X, and thanks to some pretty impressive hardware, it could be the Steam Deck rival we’ve been waiting for. In this guide, we’ve put together all the details we know about the consoles from Microsoft and Asus so far, plus some speculation, so you can start thinking about whether you might want to pick one up for yourself.

If you already know everything you need to know about the ROG Xbox Ally, be sure to check our rundown of one of 2025’s other most anticipated handhelds with our Lenovo Legion Go 2 guide. Or, if you’re wondering what Valve might have up its sleeve to combat a new wave of Steam Deck alternatives, take a look at the latest with our Steam Deck 2 guide.

While we don’t currently have an exact ROG Xbox Ally release date, an Xbox blog post detailing the two handhelds confirms that the launch is coming before the 2025 holiday season in select markets. Those select markets include the US, the UK, Europe, and beyond, with a full list available at the very bottom of the Xbox blog post revealing the handhelds. We’ll be back to update this page when Microsoft or Asus shares a release date in the future.

ROG Xbox Ally specs

If you’re already up to speed on some of the best handheld consoles on the market, you might notice that the specs of the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X are very similar to the Asus ROG Ally and Asus ROG Ally X, respectively. While it might make the handhelds a little more tempting to anyone who already owns that hardware, it’s good news for the rest of us, as both Asus handhelds offer stellar performance, and I can say that for a fact, having tried both of them out.

ROG Xbox Ally price speculation

It can be confusing when a brand launches two similarly named devices, but the main difference between the ROG Xbox Ally and the ROG Xbox Ally X is in terms of hardware specs. The Xbox Ally X’s 80W battery is bigger than the Xbox Ally’s 60W cell, which, presumably, means the X offers a slightly longer battery life. The X comes with an AMD Z2 Extreme processor, which is a little more powerful than the Xbox Ally’s Z2 A chip, but both should be capable of running the best Steam Deck games without tanking the performance settings.

As well as having a bigger battery and more powerful processor, the Xbox Ally X also beats out the slightly less premium model by packing 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. For content, the Xbox Ally comes with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, which, while not as impressive as the X, should still provide pretty rapid load times and enough space for more than a few games.

In terms of design, there’s little to separate the two handhelds, outside of the fact that the Xbox Ally is white and the Ally X is black, with both boasting 7-inch 120Hz refresh rate displays and contoured grips inspired by Xbox’s home console controllers. That said, the ROG Xbox Ally X has impulse triggers, which are a pretty big deal for fans of FPS games who need ultra-responsive controls, as well as a 3.5mm headphone input. It’s also slightly heavier than the base model, weighing 715g.

That was our guide to everything we know about the ROG Xbox Ally so far. For more portable gaming goodness, be sure to check out our guides to the best gaming tablets and the best retro handhelds while you’re here. Or, if you haven’t yet, see our Nintendo Switch 2 review to see what we made of 2025’s biggest new console launch.