After an announcement with great fanfare by Xbox, the Gamescom 2025 finally offers us the opportunity to take charge of the Rog Xbox Ally. And the future of the Windows platform seems much better now.
When Microsoft essentially confirmed that it no longer focused on the old philosophy of console manufacturers, but now wanted “everything to be an Xbox”, he did it in style. How ? By announcing two new portable consoles from the same time, the Rog Xbox Ally, manufactured in partnership with Asus and optimized by Microsoft.
We had to be patient, but that’s it: Gamescom 2025 finally allowed us to take them in hand, and to establish a little more properly the potential of these new products. The least we can say is that we come out of this ever more intrigued handling.
Thick, yes, but not heavy
The first thing we needed to establish is quite simple: the weight of consoles. While we got into the habit of the large format of a steam deck or the thickness of the Rog Ally X, the first images of the Rog Xbox Ally gave the impression that these portable consoles PCs would be particularly heavy and bulky.
Good news: they are not particularly heavy. At 670 grams for the classic version and 715 grams for the X version, more imposing battery requires, they even manage to be lighter than the Rog Ally X of 678 grams. However, the heaviest model seems lighter for a simple reason: the much more inspired format of the controllers, with its integrated handles, which largely facilitate handling and general comfort.
On the other hand, this format naturally forces new problems. If the thickness of the Rog Xbox Ally X is similar to that of the Rog Ally X, the format of the new console will necessarily be a problem. We can’t wait to see how the manufacturers of shells and bags will get out of it to avoid creating real suitcases of transport.
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Otherwise, nothing really changes. The buttons, triggers, joysticks and connectors are simply the same as before, always with USB-C 4.0 compatibility on the Rog Xbox Ally X that the classic model limited to USB 3.2 does not share.
Windows finally optimized?
The real novelty for these consoles is actually to be seen on the side of the operating system. After a few years of Steamos existence, Microsoft finally responds with a Windows optimized for these small formats. How ? By installing Windows 11 in full, certainly, but with a short tour in its bag.
When the ROG Xbox Ally starts, Windows will not take care of it. On the contrary: it only loads the features it necessarily needs for video games, without surplus or frills. A Windows in its simplest device in short, which allows to keep the absolute compatibility of the platform as much as to gain system resources for performance. According to Microsoft, 2 GB of RAM are naturally released thanks to this change.
Above all, Windows adapts a little more to a navigation made at the controller. The most notable is resolutely navigation between different applications, the Alt+TAB in short, which can activate by remaining pressing the Xbox button and by easily navigating between different windows as we would on mobile.
The Game Bar already observed on the MSI Claw A8+ now incorporates the classic buttons of the Armoury Crate interface, in particular the management of performance modes or the definition of the display to name only these features. And unlike the console powered by an Intel SoC, the application responds to the finger and the eye.
Finally, we find a “bookstore” button, which allows you to arrive directly on our game library displayed in the Xbox application. Because yes, it is she who de facto becomes the interface of the console in the absence of exploring, and if it now incorporates the games installed on the console that matters to the platform (Steam, Epic, Battle Net, whatever), all this is not without limitation. Mainly the fact that many of these applications are not compatible controller; You will always have to count on the touch screen in which case.
A coherent experience at the moment, yes. But without being able to test other launchers than that Xbox, or see the behavior of additional additional applications for players as Discord, difficult to have a final opinion on the question. One thing is at least safe: Windows finally seems to have a chance to be competitive in the face of the ease of use of Steamos.
Performance and release date
Be careful however: the two ROG Xbox Ally are far from equivalent. The Rog Xbox Ally X promises to be the flagship, propelled as it is by the Ryzen Z2 Extreme, 24 GB of RAM, 1 TB of storage and a battery of 80 Wh. And if we have not yet been able to truly test its capacities, we are still expecting performance up around 20% after being able to test the Radeon 890m on laptops.
But here it is: the Rog Xbox Ally is compared far from modern. The Ryzen Z2A which propels it actually offers a performance profile equivalent to that of a Steam Deck OLED, as a bonus to be combined with 16 GB of RAM, 512 GB of storage and a battery of 60 Wh. At least, the SOC consumes much less for use, which should allow the console to be as autonomous as its more powerful sister.
All this is only conjecture. To really determine it, we will have to wait for the October 16Official release date for Rog Xbox Ally on the market. At what official price? It has not yet been determined, but leaks place them at € 599 and € 899 respectively, which seems coherent for their performance profile and the product category.
One thing is certain: this lightened Windows could be the key so that PC portable consoles under the Microsoft OS are no longer frustrating to use on a daily basis, leaving a boulevard at Steamos of the Steam Deck. As for whether the Asus products will be the best representatives, or simple sweet developments of an already well -known concept … We will need the opportunity for a complete test, but our curiosity is well stung.
