[00:02] handhelds, the RG Xbox Ally and the RG Xbox Ally X. They're both powerful handhelds. But the moment you use the word Xbox in the product name and the packaging with the Xbox green coloring, it comes with two expectations. The
[00:17] delivered should be something that's effortless and just casual friendly. It should be like an Xbox console. But the other thing it comes with is the expectation or the perception that the price point would be in that massly
[00:33] accessible price point where full consoles are like $400 or $500 tops. And at first glance, it seems that maybe this might fit it because the base model Xbox ally starts at $600. But there's a lot going on here. All right, let's
[00:46] break it down. When you first boot these devices up, they look and smell like Windows. It is not very Xbox-like. It's got this white Windows 11 background and all the typical Windows 11 prompts and for an Xbox product, I really feel like
[00:59] these prompts shouldn't be there, but Windows is going to Windows. Uh, but after about 15 20 minutes of setup, you are up and running and it's not bad. It does in fact feel very Xboxy once it's all set up and it boots into a full
[01:11] screen Xbox UI. So, these run a custom version of Windows 11 that doesn't load the Windows background, the desktop, the taskbar. It supposedly saves around 2 least on these units here, it saves about 1 to one and a half gigs. It's not
[01:25] massive amounts, but every little bit helps when you have like a 16 GB memory system. Uh, but this UI looks and feels kind of similar to the Xbox console seconds of browsing around, you can jump into a game. You also have access to the
[01:40] Xbox Game Pass selections. Both of these devices, so the Xbox LA X and the regular Xbox all come with Xbox Game Pass Premium for 3 months. It's their bucks a month. I would have loved to have seen their higher tier offering
[01:55] that's 30 bucks a month, but that gives you day one access and just more titles to play with. I really wish they bundled that with these two devices, products. But yeah, you can access this in the UI along with their cloud gaming
[02:07] and their store offerings. But the big thing here is the game library. And in that you have installed, including games that are from Steam. So Steam came you want to install or play any Steam games, you just launch it in the
[02:21] up a game, it will appear in your library, and you'll be able to tell which games are Game Pass games, which are Steam or GOG or Epic Games, and own little icon in the corner that tells you which library it's from. And they
[02:34] run directly from the Xbox UI, which they actually call the Xbox full screen attention to this app switching capability. So, if you long press the Xbox button, uh, long press it like that, it's basically like alt tabbing on
[02:48] things that you have open. And if you'll notice on the bottom left area here, well, the bottom middle, it says Xbox full screen experience. And so, basically, when you boot up into this system for the very first time, it will
[03:02] because it didn't load the Windows background, taskbar, desktop, etc. it's background, taskbar, desktop, etc. it's in this like exclusive custom kind of gaming environment. But if you want to go into the Windows desktop environment
[03:16] and you do want to load like your desktop, you hit that and now you are in the Windows desktop. But in doing so, I've now loaded all that stuff into memory. And if I want to remove it or like purge my memory of this Windows
[03:29] background stuff, you got to reboot the system. There is no immediate way right now to purge the Windows desktop from the memory. So, this app switcher when you're in the Xbox FSE is very nice. It's like a very responsive and fast way
[03:42] to switch between stuff. And I love that you can instantly close apps by just like pressing the X button. You can just uh see it says close. You just hit X and it's gone. There's no waiting. There's no like popup or prompt that says like
[03:55] like you want to close, it's done. So, you can do it with games and apps and it's immediate. It's faster than Alt F4. It's like bang, it's gone. So, the device works really well playing and switching between Steam games, but
[04:07] there would be glitches where it would lose the focus of the controller. And the solution would be relatively easy. You hold on to the app switcher and you just fiddle around, it would come back. But for people like you and I, if you're
[04:20] probably comfortable with this, right? It's not a huge stretch to figure it out. But for some people, people who weren't born in the blue screen of just grew up on consoles and you pick up an Xbox product thinking that it would
[04:34] an Xbox product thinking that it would be an Xbox experience, this is like very like you wouldn't know what to do. And I think for a lot of people, there's little quirks and little things that happen on this Windows-based device that
[04:47] would just take away from the user experience. Now, I think a lot of it can be fixed with software, and it's very early on in the launch right now, but This is another one that really like puzzles me there. When I first got this
[05:00] Windows updates and I was like, "Okay, I'm going to start benchmarking it." It full day later that something popped in my brain. I was like, "Wait a minute. There's typically another series of updates you got to do that's within
[05:14] Armor Crate. So buried within the software like the ASUS software is things. I had to redo all my benchmarks, but I realized this shouldn't be the case on an Xbox branded product. Like I think there's so many people out there
[05:29] that to have two separate areas where you have to go into and update separate typical Windows quirks like the lock screen when you boot up is just ugly and not fitting for an Xbox product. like it should be an Xbox lock screen, not your
[05:44] regular lay Windows lock screen. Like that feels off right off the rip. And also, there's multiple areas to adjust your screen brightness and volume controls. And also comes with Microsoft Teams and One Drive and OneNote and like
[05:57] Microsoft Recall, all that stuff pre-installed. I understand this is a Windows system, so there are people that would use it, but it should be optional, right? And I think the average person buying an Xbox handheld just wants it to
[06:09] play games, not all the other stuff. And the Armory Crate software is a little bit confusing. Like the Xbox button launches the Xbox full screen experience, but then the Armory Crate button launches a widget within that
[06:22] full screen experience that is like the typical Asus Armory Crate where you can control all your kind of tweaks and settings. This it just feels disconnected. I feel like again an Xbox product would have all of the stuff in
[06:35] one super clean UI that's cohesive but it's not. Now I will say that the Xbox team has done a very good job in terms of making a Xbox experience that is familiar and inviting to use. Uh but Windows is Windows and no matter what
[06:50] you do to this because it is running Windows in the background. Eventually the Windowsess of this product bubbles up here and there and for some people that burden of Windows is a lot but uh ultimately I think it comes down to the
[07:02] fact that this is branded an Xbox product and because of that the expectations are very high and just different from anything else out there for a little bit and talk about the controls because these are really well
[07:14] buttons on the login were mapped onto the D-pad and buttons, so it's very easy to get in with that pin code. The controller also works well with the UAC prompts whenever those pop up. And you can just navigate the entire UI and play
[07:27] touch screen. It's the controller integration is fantastic this time around. And I think because of that, that already is a massive step in the direction of what handhelds should have always been in the Windows experience.
[07:41] always been in the Windows experience. Uh, but again, once in a while there's that hiccup and it just takes you away from that perfect experience. And I call right? If you're an Xbox user and you bought this thing because of the Xbox
[07:53] label, you would expect to just be like, that's just how they always work, but sometimes it doesn't quite live up to the Xbox name. Now, the controller So, they've improved all of the elements of the controller. I switch over to the
[08:05] little bit better on the camera. But they have new sticks, new buttons, new D-pad, new triggers. Everything is just like slightly tweaked and it all feels They're a little bit taller than the
[08:18] on the top. The D-pad feels good. I've always liked the RG Alli D-pads, but the is without a doubt the ergonomics because that is like the visual change,
[08:30] right? When you see uh this is also just the black one, but when you see the comparison of the previous generation of RG Ally versus the new one, like when I first saw this thing, I was like, "This is so ugly." But it feels awesome in
[08:46] like it. In fact, I like this more than I like the Steam Deck ergonomics. I've always said that Steam Deck nailed the feel of this device, but I think the RG Xbox Allies are even better. Now, both models are heavier than the Steam Deck.
[08:59] the X version being the heaviest of the two. But even after a couple weeks of testing, I really like how these feel in extended use. For case options, this is then there's the Kill Switch from Dbrand.
[09:13] All right, let's talk performance. So, the white one, the regular Xbox Ally. This runs the Z2A chip. It's the weaker chip of the two devices, and this runs older Zen 2 architecture. The performance here is similar to the Steam
[09:27] little bit more room on the top end. The black one, the RG Xbox Alli X, the more powerful one, runs the Z2 Extreme chip, and this runs Zen 5 architecture. It's a
[09:40] the biggest strength is in the performance you get at lower wattages. This is where the chip really shines and where it does a lot better than the Z1 Extreme chip from the previous generation. So, the marketing from Xbox
[09:53] and Asus is that the white one is built for 720p gaming and then the black one with the stronger chip is built for 1080p gaming. And based on the frame reasonable way to pitch them, but there are a bunch of heavier AAA titles that
[10:06] just don't run very well, even at 720p on the Z2A chip. It's just not built for this type of system. Uh, the other thing, the heat and fan noise. Both of these are very quiet in games. The Xbox Alli X with its more powerful chip does
[10:20] little bit louder, but I would definitely call them quiet systems. Uh think they are working on it, but in its Sleep/Hibernate, which isn't all that reliable. The battery on both of them is
[10:33] good all things considered. The bigger one on the Xbox Ally X is 80 watt hours. The white one has 60 watt hours. I do think these will get a little bit better with software updates, particularly on the Z2 Extreme device. Now, looking at
[10:47] the internals, these both have full-size NVMEs, and they both actually have very models. It's just a different mounting bracket to accommodate the differentiz chips. Uh the display up front hasn't changed from the previous generation.
[10:59] It's not OLED. The bezels are relatively thick, but it's still objectively a very reasons why the price point is where it is and not even more expensive, is this thing. Uh, real quickly, the USBC ports on the Z2 Extreme version, like
[11:14] the black higherend version, does support external GPUs because it's USB4, with that external GPU, but you got to pay an even crazier price tag to be able to obtain it. Okay, let's talk about
[11:26] pricing. So, the price point of these of these two products is something that popped up immediately the moment this thing even was announced because again the Xbox branding the moment you have that name Xbox there's this perception
[11:42] that it should be priced at a certain affordable price point and there's an particularly Microsoft is going to subsidize this product so that it's not for a little bit lower and then just make the money back up in game sales or
[11:56] game past sales. That is not the case. This is not subsidized, at least to the best of my knowledge, by Microsoft. And this is something that is priced very strangely for an Xbox product. So, if you look at the price of what this thing
[12:10] is compared to just, I don't know, the consoles out there for the price to performance, this is not good. I think anyone who's looked at Xbox pricing and seen like, okay, you get this kind of frame rate with this Xbox products. You
[12:22] look at this, this is like $200 or $300 more expensive than it should be in the in the perfect Xbox subsidized world. But because it's not, this is now in the
[12:34] handheld pricing. Now, if you compare it with other Windows handhelds, this is pricing. It's definitely cheaper than the new Legion handhelds. And this product class does go on sale pretty aggressively, but it's still a $1,000
[12:49] surprised me is that the pre-orders for this one, the Xbox Ally X, just popped off. This thing sold out almost immediately, and this is now backordered until November, like the middle of November. This is This is a $1,000
[13:03] gaming handheld. And as nice as it is, as much as I appreciate it, I'm like, "This is so expensive. Who is buying this stuff?" But apparently there's a big enough market that this is it's a thing. People like it. Now, the way that
[13:16] product is like aimed at the enthusiast. I think that if you know what you're getting into, and I think people that are looking at a $1,000 gaming handheld, they're getting into. They know what they're signing up for. So, this I think
[13:29] are expecting. This one, however, the $600 unit, my suspicion is that this will be returned a lot. I think people will think it's an Xbox product and it'll get home, they'll try it out and it'll be not Xbox enough. It's a good
[13:46] with time as the software updates for it hit, but I think a lot of people just don't view it in the right light. And uh that is the curse of using that name in the product. It's like if it's an Xbox product, it's got to be an Xbox
[14:00] experience. Okay, there you have it. New ROG Xbox allies.