Science
Xbox Unveils First-Ever Handheld Console After Years Of Hype
After more than ten years of conjecture, Xbox has officially made its foray into the handheld console market with the ROG Xbox Ally. It is anticipated to compete with rivals such as the Nintendo Switch 2 and the Steam Deck.
Although most gamers across the world have been using home consoles for the previous few decades, it turned out to be a very strange coincidence that Xbox had never entered the market.
PlayStation has a history of gaming on the go with the PSP and PS Vita, but Nintendo has clearly been the dominant power, especially now that its past two consoles have closed the gap between home and portable solutions.
The ‘big three’ console manufacturers that are currently in the game industry have not been the only ones to move. Several major hardware manufacturers have launched appropriately called handheld PCs, such as the ASUS ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go, and the previously mentioned Steam Deck.
However, according to the BBC, Microsoft has partnered with ASUS to eventually release its first handheld console, and it is the latter that is part of Xbox’s next historic move.
The ROG Xbox Ally, which was unveiled at the most recent Xbox presentation as part of Summer Game Fest, is similar to its ROG predecessor but with a very Game Pass twist.
Since you can now access the hundreds of titles available on the Game Pass membership library while on the road, this is a significant factor in the recent marketing campaign by Microsoft, which has made the idea that “everything” is an Xbox.
It has amazing hardware that will restrict the sacrifices you’d expect from a portable device like this, and you can choose to download the games locally or stream them from the cloud if your internet is strong enough.
The Xbox Ally includes an AMD Ryzen Z2 A processor, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of SSD storage. For comparison, the upgraded Xbox Ally X has a ‘Extreme’ version of the same processor, 24GB of RAM, and twice as much storage.
AMD’s AI-powered FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) technology will also be available to you, allowing you to increase your frame rates through upscaling—something you may be accustomed to from the PS5 Pro.
The release of a “optimised” version of Windows, which will help make sure that everything functions as smoothly as possible, is arguably one underappreciated aspect that many fans are thrilled about.
“The optimized Windows announcement is arguably MUCH bigger than the handheld itself,” writes one rather optimistic commenter on YouTube. “Windows on handhelds has been a terrible experience since… always. Getting a version that kills bloat and actually considers the controls a user has available might just have saved Windows in this segment.”
However, the display specifications have dampened some of the excitement around the unveiling, so there is still some disappointment to be felt about some of the choices.
“If this was OLED, it would be a monster of a handheld device,” argues one user, and it’s hard not to see this as a slight downside when rivals like the Steam Deck already have the superior display.
Given that the current ROG Ally models range in price from $650 to $800, price may play a role in this. However, it’s still unclear exactly where the new Xbox version will be available when it launches later this year during the holidays.
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