00:00The ROG Xbox Ally and the ROG Xbox Ally X are set to launch on October 16th this year,
00:06just in time for the holidays. And I've gone hands-on with both of them to answer one very
00:11simple question. Could these be the next best gaming handhelds you could buy this year?
00:16So what does go into making a great gaming handheld? Well, in my mind, it comes down to
00:21three key things. Number one, it's got to feel nice to play on, because whether something is
00:27comfortable or not is super important for when you're gaming hours on end. Number two, kind of an
00:33obvious one, it's got to have good games and it's got to play them really well. That means making
00:37sure that the games are good enough for handheld play and that there's also enough horsepower inside
00:42to pull it off. And number three, it has to be really easy to use. So strip away all of the
00:49unnecessary guff and make sure that you've got a nice and easy to use UI that gets you straight into
00:55your games with minimal requirement. But before that, if you want more videos like this, I'm going
01:00to have to point down to the like button and the subscribe button somewhere on this video with the
01:05Ally consoles. So let's start at the beginning. You pick up an ROG Xbox Ally or Ally X. And I've got to be
01:12honest, this is the most comfortable PC gaming handheld that I've ever held. Definitely a little bit
01:19thicker than a lot of your other standard gaming handhelds. And that comes down to these much more
01:24pronounced grips, which makes it a lot easier to hold on to and a lot more comfortable to play on
01:30for a very long time. Alongside that, you've got your standard array of everything that you saw on
01:35other versions of the ROG Ally. So you've got a micro SD card slot, 3.5 millimeter headphone jack,
01:40power on off switch, volume controls, and two USB-C ports. On the Ally X, one of them's USB 4. And on
01:48the standard Ally, you've got two USB-C 3.2. So both will be able to support AR glasses, but one of
01:55them will have faster data transfer. But this loving between Microsoft and ASUS has really produced
02:00something that is so ergonomically sound to hold and to play. Because the ergonomics here are inspired
02:06by the Xbox wireless controller. And while you can find other Windows gaming handhelds that are slimmer,
02:11they are nowhere near as comfy to use as these. Because your hands fit around these grips really
02:17nicely and the buttons and the joysticks are really well placed so that you're not stretching,
02:23you're not having to do any sort of like gymnastics like you have to do on a Nintendo Switch 2.
02:27Really nice to use, trust me. Next is the games. And you've got a whole bunch of things at play all
02:35kind of coming together to make for a really strong proposition for the ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X.
02:40So with Xbox Play Anywhere and the handheld compatibility program, you've got thousands
02:45of games that are not only supported on this handheld, but also the power inside makes the
02:50most of it. So in the ROG Xbox Ally, you've got a Ryzen Z2 A chipset with 16 gigs of memory. And
02:55on the ROG Xbox Ally X, you've got a Ryzen Z2 AI Extreme chipset with 24 gigs of memory. We'll come
03:02back to this one in a second. Because performance-wise, you're actually getting some pretty decent
03:08frame rates out of here. I know that in terms of like the reduced core count and reduced power going
03:12to the chip, there has been some concerns around it. But in terms of what I've been able to play on
03:16it, some AAA, some AA titles, you're able to get pretty decent frame rates because PC games are
03:23usually pretty well optimized nowadays. So for example, you've got Forza Horizon 5, which I tried
03:29and you can get like 1080p and it's kind of like a mixture of low and medium settings with FSR
03:33turn to performance. You can get that about 45 to 50 frames a second, which is perfectly
03:38fine for gaming on the go. And if you go into something that's been a lot more optimized for
03:44a PC handheld, something like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and 4, you can easily find yourself
03:49at around about 60 frames a second. Obviously, something like this, if you were to really test
03:54it, you are going to see that frame rate reduce. But if you are wanting the peak of visual fidelity
03:59coming out of these things, that's when I turn your attention to this one, because the
04:04numbers that I managed to get are insane. So for example, I ran Doom the Dark Ages on
04:09here. And with 1080p at medium, with FSR turned on, I'm able to get 83 frames per second on
04:16average. Moving on over to Gears of War Reloaded, this was set to a mixture of ultra and high settings
04:25as well. That was a rock solid 60 frames per second. These numbers are unheard of in gaming
04:31handhelds. And the games do all look great on the 7 inch 1080p display. Obviously, you can get bigger
04:37screen sizes in other handhelds. But I feel like 7 inches is just the right size in terms of like
04:42it maintaining portability. But then also the screen is a little bit more condensed down. So those
04:47textures look that little bit extra crispy. And of course, you've got variable refresh rate as well.
04:52So you can really stretch it to that 120 hertz. Now I know what you're thinking. You're thinking,
04:57Jason, you've tried other handhelds that have basically the same chip inside. Why is this one
05:06faster by quite a noticeable amount? It comes down to the software. When you boot it up, you go straight
05:12into what's called the Xbox full screen experience. And this is the big tick in the box of making it a
05:18really easy console-esque interface to explore. You've got all of your games available. You've
05:22got access to the cross media bar. It's super easy to navigate. There's this great little
05:27multitasking thing where you press and hold the Xbox button and you can switch between apps really
05:30easily. You've got quick access to performance settings or the touch of a button. And it's all
05:35great. But that's only half the story. Because you see, one of the issues with Windows 11 gaming
05:41handhelds is Windows 11 itself. Like not only is Windows 11 a bit awkward to use on a seven inch
05:47touchscreen, it's also running a whole load of background processors in the back to get that
05:52running. Now the Xbox full screen experience does this differently because it doesn't actually load up
05:57any of that stuff in the background. I checked the task manager. There's no desktop background
06:02processors or anything like that. And what that means is with the Xbox UI running, there's so much more
06:08head room for that chipset and that RAM to run as smoothly as it can. So during my time with these,
06:15one thing is certain. These are the best Windows gaming handhelds I've used because they're so much
06:20more than that. They are portable Xboxes. The base model Li is going to be a great option for indie
06:25gamers. And the Li-X is going to be great for those who really want to stress it. So AAA gaming on the go.
06:31Of course, there's questions about battery life, what that may be. And of course, we can't test that at
06:36the moment. But keep it locked to tomsguard.com when we do have the full review. And I'll be honest,
06:41with an 80 watt hour battery in the Li-X, I'm not that worried based on what I saw with the original
06:47Li-X. They feel great to play on, the UI is really intuitive, and the games play better than I could
06:52have imagined. Now it's just a case of seeing how they stack up under our full testing, which you'll be
06:58able to see when they come out around about October time. Make sure you keep it locked onto to tomsguard
07:02for that. I've been Jason England, and I'll talk to you in the next video. Take care.
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