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It’s been a long summer for a multitude of reasons, but one of the biggest has been waiting around for official confirmation of when the Asus ROG Xbox Ally handheld console would be hitting shelves. And now, just as summer starts to draw to a close, we have our answer.
Revealed today at Gamescom 2025, both the ROG Xbox Ally and the ROG Xbox Ally X will be available in the UK starting from 16 October 2025 – a little under two months from now.
We don’t yet have an official announcement on price just yet, but given the original ROG Ally cost £699 at launch and the ROG Ally X was £799 we can likely expect both Xbox versions to be in a similar ballpark.
We do know, however, that the consoles themselves won’t be dramatically different to their non-Xbox counterparts from a hardware perspective. They’ll have access to Xbox games alongside titles from other stores in one aggregated library, allowing you to play more titles from the console via the cloud of streaming from your console back home.
But the general design and, in particular, the screens are similar. Both the Xbox handhelds come with the same 7in IPS LCD screen as the Ally and Ally X – 16:9 aspect ratio, 500 nits peak brightness and a FHD (1080p) resolution with Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) support up to 120Hz – and there’s once again a layer of Gorilla Glass Victus over the top for scratch protection.
Ports are mostly the same on both versions, too, with a 3.5mm headphone jack, microSD card slot and two USB-C ports – although the latter are the faster USB4 standard. As for wireless connectivity, both models support Wi-Fi 6E (2×2) and Bluetooth 5.4.
The differences lie in the small details. The new consoles have different grips, similar to the grips on a regular Xbox controller, and there’s a dedicated Xbox button to the left of the display. This opens the Game Bar, which provides easy access to chats, settings and switching between apps.
Inside, there are upgrades to the core hardware, too. The ROG Xbox Ally X features the new AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme APU, backed up by 24GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. The 80Wh battery is the same as on the Ally X, though. The ROG Xbox Ally, meanwhile, uses the AMD Ryzen Z2 A processor, backed up by 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage with a 60Wh battery providing power.
The only other details to cover off are the colours. The standard model ROG Ally only comes in plain black, while the Xbox Ally X gives you the choice between white, red and blue.
My colleague Andy White is on the ground at Gamescom as I’m typing this, so keep your eyes peeled for his full hands-on preview of the ROG Xbox Ally series in the very near future. And, of course, check back in with us around 16 October to see our final verdict on these new Xbox handhelds.
