ROG Xbox Ally Handheld: Release Date, Price, Features & Everything We Know So Far

The ROG Xbox Ally handheld was officially announced at the Xbox Games Showcase 2025, and as we build up to its release later this year, we've put together this all-new guide sharing everything we know about the handheld so far.

As you may recall, we had a guide before the device was announced that's now way out of date, and we've since published a bunch of articles on the ROG Xbox Ally here at Pure Xbox, but this is our chance to gather everything together in one centralised location - a place for you to come when you want the latest details on the ROG Xbox Ally handheld! As you'd expect, we'll be updating this guide whenever we get new information to share.

So, down below, you'll find everything we know so far on the ROG Xbox Ally release date, price, features, supported games and more. If you still have questions for us, throw them in the comments and we'll do our best to answer them.

What Is The Name Of The Xbox 2025 Handheld?

Xbox is calling its 2025 handheld the "ROG Xbox Ally". There are actually two versions of this device, with the standard one just being called the "ROG Xbox Ally" and the more premium version being called the "ROG Xbox Ally X".

These names might sound confusing, but they're basically just following the naming scheme that ASUS has used for its ROG Ally devices in the past - with the word "Xbox" thrown in the middle.

Is This An Xbox Console Or A Windows 11 PC?

It's kind of both, although it leans much more towards being a Windows 11 PC. Just like the older ROG Ally devices, the ROG Xbox Ally handheld will run Windows 11 and serve as a powerful PC, but Team Xbox is working to make the user interface feel more like a console.

They're also tweaking the operating system to ensure that Windows essentially gets placed in the background unless you want to use it, meaning you can focus on playing games instead of messing around with Windows 11.

What's The Difference Between The ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X?

The standard ROG Xbox Ally handheld comes with an AMD Ryzen™ Z2 A Processor, 16GB of LPDDR5X-6400 RAM and 512GB of SSD storage. The processor is expected to be comparable to the one in Valve's Steam Deck, although it's still early days and we don't have all the details about how well it'll perform yet.

Meanwhile, the ROG Xbox Ally X comes with an AMD Ryzen™ AI Z2 Extreme Processor, 24GB of LPDDR5X-8000 RAM and 1TB of SSD storage, along with the addition of impulse triggers. As the premium model, this is expected to deliver fantastic performance - but inevitably at a higher cost than the standard ROG Xbox Ally.

We've highlighted the full specs for both versions of the 2025 Xbox handheld elsewhere on Pure Xbox:

Is There A Price For The ROG Xbox Ally Handheld Yet?

Microsoft has yet to officially announce a price for the ROG Xbox Ally handheld, stating that it'll be revealed "in the coming months". However, a report from YouTuber eXtas1s has given us an idea of what to expect in terms of price.

In their report, they mentioned that the standard ROG Xbox Ally is set to have a price of €599 in Europe, while the ROG Xbox Ally X will have a price of €899. This could change, but it's information they "corroborated" at the time.

They also advised that the US prices for the ROG Xbox Ally handheld may be $100 cheaper than in Europe.

Interestingly, a recent interview about the lack of an OLED screen in the ROG Xbox Ally included a mention that ASUS is trying to keep the price of the Xbox handheld similar to what ROG Ally owners have been used to, which again suggests the cost will hover around the $499 - $799 mark for these two new devices in the US.

A follow-up report from Windows Central predicted that the ROG Xbox Ally X model could rise as high as $899 or $999 in the US, however, as well as highlighting how "Microsoft hasn't yet fully committed to a price point".

Will The ROG Xbox Ally Play My Console Games?

As mentioned, you should think of the ROG Xbox Ally as more of a PC than a traditional console, which means this Xbox handheld doesn't support native console games. If you're desperate to play the console versions of your games, you'll need to stream them with Xbox Cloud Gaming or the Xbox Remote Play feature.

However, you can still play loads of native Xbox games via the Xbox PC app on this handheld, including anything that you're entitled to for "free" via the Xbox Play Anywhere program. There are over 1000 games in this program, and if you've got any of them, they'll instantly show up in your Xbox PC app library at no extra charge.

Beyond that, you can also play games natively via PC Game Pass, on Steam, on the Epic Games Store, and so many other places. We've talked about what games you can play on the ROG Xbox Ally handheld elsewhere on Pure Xbox:

What Can I Expect From Performance & Battery Life?

The standard ROG Xbox Ally, as mentioned earlier this guide, has a processor that seems to be comparable to the Steam Deck. In theory, anything that runs on the Steam Deck should run fine on the ROG Xbox Ally as well, although it's far too early to say whether that'll end up proving the case - we need to see it in action!

The ROG Xbox Ally X is more comparable to the current ASUS ROG Ally X (the names are confusing, we know), which is one of the most powerful handhelds on the market today, and comfortably handles most games that are thrown at it.

Battery life is impossible to measure right now, but we do know that the ROG Xbox Ally has a 60Wh battery and the ROG Xbox Ally X has an 80Wh battery. The latter is exactly the same as the ASUS ROG Ally X, which runs AAA games in Turbo mode for around two hours, and gets a lot more juice out of lower settings / less demanding titles.

What Is The "Xbox Full Screen Experience" On This Handheld?

As mentioned earlier, Xbox is implementing a custom version of the Windows operating system alongside a new user interface to make the ROG Xbox Ally as optimised and console-like as possible. When you turn on the Xbox handheld, instead of being greeted with a Windows 11 desktop, you'll see what they're calling the "Xbox Full Screen Experience".

This is the name for the new dashboard that they're testing out, and it's designed to not only make navigation as simple as possible, but also to eliminate unnecessary background tasks to boost performance in games.

Are There Any Reviews For The Xbox Handheld Yet?

It's way too early for the ROG Xbox Ally handheld to have any final reviews yet, but some people have been sharing their early previews since it was revealed, and the vast majority of them have been positive.

First impressions have been based on a very short hands-on period with Gears of War: Reloaded, and everyone says the game is running great on the ROG Xbox Ally X. Very few people have had a chance to see how the user interface works properly though, and basically all the impressions are for the "X" version of the handheld alone.

We've highlighted some of the previews for the ROG Xbox Ally elsewhere on Pure Xbox:

What's The Release Date For The ROG Xbox Ally Handheld?

The release date for the ROG Xbox Ally handheld is officially set as "Holiday 2025". This means we're getting it at some point towards the end of the year, and a more specific date will be revealed in the coming months.

A report from YouTuber eXtas1s has mentioned that the release date for the ROG Xbox Ally is likely going to be announced for the second half of October 2025, while pre-orders will begin sometime in August.

Windows Central has also verified that the ROG Xbox Ally is set to release in late October 2025.

Before the pre-orders for the ROG Xbox Ally handheld begin, you can sign up to be notified of when they go live on the Xbox website. We'll obviously let you know when that happens too.

So, there we go! That's pretty much everything we know about the ROG Xbox Ally handheld so far, and as mentioned, we'll keep updating this guide as the weeks and months roll on. It won't be long until the launch!

How are you feeling about the ROG Xbox Ally handheld as things stand? Tell us down in the comments below.

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