Less than a week after the official launch of Nintendo’s Switch 2, Microsoft and Asus have unveiled some details about their rumored handheld Xbox gaming device powered by Windows 11. The ROG Xbox Ally and high-performance ROG Xbox Ally X are due to hit the market in time for this year’s holiday season, promising easy cloud access to “all of the games available on Windows,” including popular “games from Xbox, Game Pass, Battle.net, and other leading PC storefronts,” all from a single streaming device. The twist is that the new hardware bypasses the typical Windows boot requirements in lieu of streamlined access through an “aggregated gaming library.”

Both handheld models “allow players to play natively, via the cloud, or remotely with their Xbox console in another room,” Microsoft explains in an announcement touting Asus’ technical expertise with mobile hardware combined with an optimized version of Windows 11 designed to be easy to use on these new devices.

The Verge describes the white ROG Xbox Ally as “designed for 720p gaming” while “the more powerful black ROG Xbox Ally X targets 900p to 1080p gaming on the go.” As with the existing ROG Ally and Ally X, these Xbox iterations “share the same 7-inch 1080p screen, complete with a 120Hz refresh rate and VRR support.”

An immersive full-screen Xbox experience and a Game Bar home screen make mobile gameplay more convenient, Microsoft says, providing your library as well as the ability to launch or quit games, chat with friends, open apps or adjust settings within easy reach at all times. Combined with Asus’s Armoury Crate software utility to control supported ROG titles, Game Bar also provides access to advanced device and input controls.

IGN explores the ramifications these new devices could have on “gaming handhelds as a category throughout 2026.”

“The Xbox Ally uses a previously unannounced AMD Ryzen Z2 A chip, combined with 16GB of LPDDR5X-6400 RAM and 512GB of M.2 2280 SSD storage,” according to The Verge. “The Xbox Ally X upgrades the chip to AMD’s Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme processor, 24GB of LPDDR5X-8000 memory, and a 1TB M.2 2280 SSD.”

Asus and Microsoft are emphasizing how the “aggregated gaming library” experience is compatible “with games across multiple different Windows-based launchers,” writes Ars Technica. “Access to games you can’t get elsewhere” is a possible “dig at SteamOS-powered devices like the Steam Deck,” which have been accused of “trouble with certain titles that don’t play well with Steam and/or Linux.”

Related:
Move Over Nintendo Switch 2 – Microsoft Has Revealed the ROG Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X, TechRadar, 6/8/25
Hands-On with the Xbox Ally X, the New Gaming Handheld from Asus and Microsoft, IGN, 6/8/25
Nintendo Switch 2 Sets Sales Record in Boon for Games Sector, Bloomberg, 6/11/25