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
00:33an obvious 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
00:49the
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
01:05the Ally consoles. So let's start at the beginning. You pick up an ROG, Xbox Ally or Ally X. And
01:11I've
01:12got to be honest, this is the most comfortable PC gaming handheld that I've ever held. Definitely a
01:19little bit thicker than a lot of your other standard gaming handhelds. And that comes down to these
01:23much more pronounced grips, which makes it a lot easier to hold on to and a lot more comfortable
01:29to play on for a very long time. Alongside that, you've got your standard array of everything that
01:34you saw on other versions of the ROG Ally. So you've got a micro SD card slot, 3.5 millimeter
01:39headphone
01:40jack, power on off switch, volume controls, and two USB-C ports. On the Ally X, one of them is
01:46USB 4.
01:47And on the standard Ally, you've got two USB-C 3.2. So both will be able to support AR
01:53glasses, but one
01:55of them 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
02:34all
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
02:55memory.
02:55And on the ROG Xbox Ally X, you've got a Ryzen Z2 AI Extreme chipset with 24 gigs of memory.
03:02We'll come back to this one in a second. Because performance-wise, you're actually getting
03:07some pretty decent frame rates out of here. I know that in terms of like the reduced
03:10core count and the reduced power going to the chip, there has been some concerns around
03:14it. But in terms of what I've been able to play on it, some AAA, some AA titles, you're
03:19able to get pretty decent frame rates because PC games are usually pretty well optimized nowadays.
03:26So for example, you've got Forza Horizon 5, which I tried and you can get like 1080p and it's
03:30like a mixture of low and medium settings with FSR turns to performance. You can get that about 45
03:36to 50 frames a second, which is perfectly fine for gaming on the go. And if you go into something
03:42that's been a lot more optimized for a PC handheld, something like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and 4,
03:48you can easily find yourself at around about 60 frames a second. Obviously something like this,
03:53if you were to really test it, you are going to see that frame rate reduce. But if you are
03:58wanting
03:58the peak of visual fidelity coming out of these things, that's when I turn your attention to this
04:02one because the numbers that I managed to get are insane. So for example, I ran Doom the Dark Ages
04:09on here and with 1080p at medium with FSR turned on, I'm able to get 83 frames per second on
04:16average.
04:16Moving on over to Gears of War Reloaded, this was set to a mixture of ultra and high settings as
04:25well.
04:25That was a rock solid 60 frames per second. These numbers are unheard of in gaming handhelds.
04:32And the games do all look great on the 7 inch 1080p display. Obviously you can get bigger screen sizes
04:38in other handhelds, but I feel like 7 inches is just the right size in terms of like it maintaining
04:43portability. But then also the screen is a little bit more condensed down, so those textures look that
04:48little bit extra crispy. And of course you've got variable refresh rate as well, so you can really
04:53stretch it to that 120Hz. Now I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, Jason, you've tried
04:59other handhelds that have basically the same chip inside. Why is this one faster by quite a noticeable
05:08amount? It comes down to the software. When you boot it up, you go straight into what's called the
05:13Xbox full screen experience. And this is the big tick in the box of making it a really easy console
05:19-esque
05:19interface to explore. You've got all of your games available. You've got access to the cross media
05:23bar. It's super easy to navigate. There's this great little multitasking thing where you press and
05:28hold the Xbox button and you can switch between apps really easily. You've got quick access to
05:32performance settings all at the touch of a button, and it's all great. But that's only half the story.
05:38Because you see, one of the issues with Windows 11 gaming handhelds is Windows 11 itself. Like, not only is
05:44Windows 11 a bit awkward to use on a seven inch touchscreen, it's also running a whole load of
05:49background processors in the back to get that running. Now the Xbox full screen experience does
05:54this differently because it doesn't actually load up any of that stuff in the background.
05:59I checked the task manager. There's no desktop background processors or anything like that.
06:04And what that means is with the Xbox UI running, there's so much more headroom for that chipset and
06:10that RAM to run as smoothly as it can. So during my time with these, one thing is certain. These
06:16are
06:16the best Windows gaming handhelds I've used because there's so much more than that. They are portable
06:21Xboxes. The base model Li is going to be a great option for indie gamers. And the Li-X is
06:27going to be
06:27great for those who really want to stress it. So AAA gaming on the go. Of course, there's questions
06:32about battery life, what that may be. And of course, we can't test that at the moment. But keep it
06:37locked to TomSkyard.com when we do have the full review. And I'll be honest, with an 80 watt hour
06:42battery in the Li-X, I'm not that worried based on what I saw with the original Li-X. They
06:48feel great
06:48to play on, the UI is really intuitive, and the games play better than I could have imagined. Now,
06:54it's just a case of seeing how they stack up under our full testing, which you'll be able to see
06:58when
06:58they come out around about October time. Make sure you keep it locked onto TomSkyard for that.
07:03I've been Jason England, and I'll talk to you in the next video. Take care.
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