ASUS Xbox Rog Ally X – Mr. Mike Reviews

With the handheld gaming device market in a full speed ahead mode nowadays with many companies making gaming portables to sell. It's a no brainier why when there are thousands of games flooding in to places like Steam, Xbox for PC, the Epic store, android/iOS, and more! So these companies want to capitalize or at least get a foot in the door to get some dominance on what you go to to play those gaming titles on, offering the typical gamer more options than ever to play wherever and however they wish.

This is what ASUS has been doing for a few years now betting on the notion of bringing PC gaming to the portable realm of gamers who can't afford a high end gaming PC or just don't want a giant setup in their house to play games on. In most other cases not even wanting to be locked down to a single piece of console hardware that doesn't give them the freedom to play basically anything to everything that comes out on a now daily basis in the gaming scene. A lot of people just want something they can take and play anywhere with with no restrictions or few limitations, this is where the portable gaming PC stands out from the rest! A portable device with low to mid hardware that can play Windows based games or even more with the right know how. A gaming device that doesn't need to be tethered to a TV or Monitor that’s the appeal these gaming PCs have over the rest.

So why did ASUS decide to make a portable gaming PC? Well a good guess would be that Valve made the Steam Deck as basically on what I can see the 1st PC portable gaming

device running their custom Linux OS as Steam OS, to run a lot of the games from their Steam Store offerings. And maybe also but not confirming that they saw the portable future going forward as Nintendo had out the Nintendo Switch at the time a non traditional gaming console/handheld hybrid out on the market selling gangbusters around the world. That to might have also intrigued ASUS to dip their toes into the portable gaming realm themselves due to them being a big player in PC hardware especially in the gaming side of things with PCs, graphics cards, motherboards, monitors, and so on. ASUS has been a pillar in the PC landscape for a while now having a decent reputation for high quality hardware.

So enough of the history, now how does this true second gen ROG Ally hold up to the rest of the competition? And does the Xbox branding help or hurt this device's chances of succeeding in today's PC gaming portables market?

Let's first start with the Rog Xbox Ally's design! (NOTE: I will mention this later in my review but I hate calling it the Rog Xbox Ally that official name does not easily run off my tongue so I will continually be writing it as the Xbox Rog Ally through out this article.)

So the design is in my mind amazingly better than the original in every why with it's look and feel to be like an Xbox controller in your hands with a screen in the middle, compared to the Rog Ally's original design as a kind rectangular ovalish in design. still very playable but always after many hours of gaming on it left my hands and wrists

with some tenderness and pain after putting it down. This is NOT the case with The Xbox Rog Ally (Also note I own the Xbox Rog Ally X version same design but different hardware specs and color) with Xbox Rog Ally design to be more like an Xbox controller forming the shell with proper hand grips and curves that just feel right for any Xbox/PC gamer like me that uses the Xbox controller all the time but might not be for those who prefer that dreaded Playstation controller which I feel in my opinion has become more inferior today than the previous generation controllers Sony use to make but that's only my opinion now! But designing this Rog Ally to be more Xbox like in feel was a great decision on Asus's part for teaming up with Xbox to get made. Also making the back plate triggers smaller helped me greatly due to the original Ally having way larger ones that I would constantly mistakenly hit all the time making things go wonky in the Windows interface as I tried to game then have to pause to fix or close certain actions or delete the many unwanted screenshots that I had taken by mistake! Getting rid of that non used propriety ASUS external graphics port then adding a second USB-C port on the top of the device was a godsend in usability where I can now charge using the one port and connect other devices to the other which you will find out makes things alot better, like if you wanted to attach a USB keyboard and mouse for some RTS gaming or something! The I guess once troubled micro SD card slot is still on top but moved to the right side of the device for better cooling due to some stating in the original Rog Allys had over heating issues that caused the micro SD cards to eject prematurely or just causing them to fail. I never really used the micro SD port

maybe twice and never experienced any issues with mine so I couldn't say for sure if that was an issue or not, but enough word had gone around that made ASUS to change it's placement design. There is also still an audio/mic jack on the top right of the device for earbuds or gaming headsets to do some trash talking with. I also never used this option due to me just either using the Ally's internal speakers which to me sound very loud and impressive even if i keep them mostly at a lower sound level due to them being so very loud even at a dbl of 20. Plus if I'm gaming outside I like using my Bluetooth headphones to listen to my games.

The next big but obvious feature would be the inclusion use of the Hollow Effect sticks to help avoid that dreaded stick drift epidemic that became big-time in today's current gaming market with lots of people complaining that their gaming controllers sticks would cause drifting in their games making it harder for them to pull off their gaming tasks in the games they play. I've definitely had this problem with my Switch Joy-Cons having to send them for repair many times which is a big problem for Nintendo Switches today! But also I feel the use of these hollow effect analog sticks now compared to the sticks on the original Ally feel much better, while playing my games or needing that extra slight precision when gunning down an enemy these are greatly appreciated. The screen hasn't changed still using the amazing very bright 7 inch 120hz 1080p screen that gives me the colors and shadows to the graphics that I see on screen everyday. Also the dark black levels are pretty impressive with not much or any light bleed out during those really dark scenes in games.

Not I also don't have the best eye sight so if there was any bleed out of light I could have not noticed entirely. Even with that the screen being able to go up to 500 nits in brightness is great for that outdoor gaming we all like to do unlike the Nintendo Switch where I can't see shit!

Also on the Xbox Rog Ally has the same face buttons like on the Xbox controller with a menu and select buttons, an Armory Crate button, and a dedicated Xbox interface button which the original Rog Allys did not have. The dedicated Xbox button does offer a lot in interface options from selecting games, adjusting simple settings like sound and screen brightness though there are dedicated physical sound controls on top of the Ally itself, the digital volume controls more accurately for the right amount of sound for your entertainment needs. Also you can simple access the capture buttons for taking video or screenshots of your gameplay with ease, among the many other features that I won't get into taping the Xbox button also has the Windows options to put your device to sleep, hibernate, restart, or just shutdown which for me makes this a very seamless and easy way to control actions without going into Windows proper from the Xbox Experience interface that you boot to in the startup of this device, a special feature designed by Microsoft for dedicated gaming handheld devices. When in the Xbox Experience interface proper you get a bit more horsepower from your gaming device in which Windows turns off a lot of different background processes that are not needed in gaming mode giving you the most power to your games being played! This mode however can be turned off

within the Xbox App or by exiting the Xbox Experience onto your Windows desktop in which those background processes are re-enabled again in Windows. And if you want to re-enter the Xbox Experience interface proper again you will have to restart your Ally again. Not the best experience for some but Windows on the Ally does shutdown and boot-up really really fast so there should not be much trouble in doing so to get the most out of your gaming! Note that the Xbox Experience is still in its early days so a lot of things could change in it to make it more streamlined in the future, Now it seems to be an interface like ones created for ATMs, Kiosks, and such but could become a proper main stream OS like Steam OS or Android is for devices. This could make getting into and updating games and everything else much easier than this basic slap-on interface! Also beyond what is the Xbox Experience is Armoury-Crate which for my case and probably yours a still must need for this device! Not Only is Armoury-Crate still needed for a lot of the controller functions with the paddles and sticks, for the ability to re-map them for other game options. It’s still needed for lighting options, and important updates like for special hardware/BIOS updates which GREATLY help with new games and older games running better on the handheld system overall. Another REALLY BIG function and feature that the Xbox Eperiance does not have YET that ONLY Armoury-Crate can do unless if there is a 3rd party app out there that can do this is the ability to change the AMD chip’s clock speed when playing more power demanding games needing a faster clock speed to run them! Now your asking what? or Why? Well in Windows proper you can’t exactly Overclock or Underclock your CPU/GPU without a 3rd party app or by going into your BIOS to do so. With in the main Armoury-Crate side interface you can do this instantly with ease to change the speed of you CPU/GPU clocks for more speed power for your games, like when I was wanting to play the latest Forza Motorsport and the game states its NOT compatible with my Xbox ROG Ally BUT still runs even though it can run a bit rough in the Xbox Rog Ally’s normal mode so I press the Armoury-Crate button and on the top of it’s convenient side pop out interface, on the top I can choose from the operating mode of silent mode 13W, Performance/Windows modes of 17W, and Turbo mode of 35W. So for the case of Forza Motorsport I chose 35W for the power and the fact that the Xbox Rog Ally has 24Gb of ram that can be allocated between the graphics and the game/system performance, made the game run buttery smooth under medium settings with a lot of options turned on. Depending on the game and how you want it to run and look while playing these extra options help make your gaming experience better. BUT for those who are just used to a console interface for selecting graphics or performance options may be a bit overwhelmed on how many options to choose from due to playing a PC type of game.

There are so many things that I could talk about the Xbox Rog Ally X but this article would turn into a book by then, there is so many features and offerings you can have playing your games on this device.

Now what I personally think are the Goods and Bads of this device, and after will state on what I think overall can be changed or added in the future to make this the all out must have gaming device for anyone to buy.

1st here is what I think are the goods about this overall devices experience:

• The style and feel of the Xbox Rog Ally X is simply amazing with its look like a Xbox controller with a very nice BIG 7inch screen In the middle. The controls are positioned just right and easy to use when playing games just like playing an actual Xbox. Plus holding the device for long periods of time is a lot better for my hands and wrists due to other handhelds causing me a bit of pain trying to do long gaming sessions. And sure you would think having a larger screen would be better but larger means heavier and less battery life overall 7 inches feels still like the overall best size for most. And going from the 1st original Rog ally Extreme NOT getting pain in my hands and wrists is probably a good thing right? Other handhelds like the Lenovo Legion Go look like giant hurt machines and hearing from other reviewers seem not to constantly update their software like ASUS does, Note this is what I was just reading and listening to NOT my opinion!

• The better NOT best implementation of the Xbox Experience makes a nice small start to hopefully something much better for PC and non PC gamers to use in an Xbox like interface.

• Battery life for those other than me who just keep it plugged in all the time while playing is decent as when testing got around 1hr and 35min to 2hrs and 10min+ gaming time with around 15mins of stated battery life left according to Windows.

• Very Fast Wi-Fi radios for super fast download speeds utilizing Wi-Fi 6E(802.11ax) (Triple band) 2*2, also great for Remote Play.

• Talking about Remote Play I never mentioned it in my article BUT playing games using Xbox Cloud Play or the probably the lesser known Console Remote Play (XboxOne, Series X/S) to my Xbox Rog Ally X are very fast and mostly seamless in performance and quality for those games you can Only play or own on console or if available in the cloud! I mainly utilize the Console Remote Play feature due to owning a lot of games for my console that are NOT available for some reason on Xbox for PC or in the cloud play mode. Plus still owning a ton of physical disk based games I can play those through Console Remote Play with no hassle just like playing naively on an Xbox console! There are still sometimes some slight hiccups and graphic stutters once and a great while but that doesn’t bother me because they go away fast and don’t hinder my game playing at all. Mainly they look very crisp and vibrant on my screen with great audio quality which stays constant and does not hiccup! For Xbox Cloud Play it also played very well for me when the few times I had played using that feature for a few hours getting 1080p due to subscribing to Game Pass Ultimate, playing games like Assassin’s Creed Shadows worked quite well even though I mainly play the game via Console Remote Play.

• Windows 11 modified version is decent but Linux or Steam OS still can’t play most of the games I want to play yet and most game developers will still always choose Windows based development over a Linux due to how many PC based gamers are out in the world, even though Valve and Steam OS is trying to change that in some sense. Windows isn’t perfect but I’ve been using Windows since it’s 3.1 version early days! Yep I’m Old LOL

• The addition of the Xbox Button helps a lot and Keeping the Armoury-Crate button around also helps for me to switch between the two interfaces to get the most out of my handheld gaming experience.

• We NOW HAVE 2 USB-C PORTS! ASUS got rid of the non used external graphics card interface connector that used to be on the top of the other ROG Ally devices which most of us never used and added a second USB-C port so we can connect MORE much needed devices to our system!

• Talking about the 2 USB-C ports the one port has AV out capabilities so you can easily attach a USB-C to HDMI out cable to connect to mostly any TV and or monitor or even HDMI capture card to use and play on those devices! (This feature had greatly been improved since the original ROG Ally version which was more finicky to use for me)

• Finally the Last good thing I think about this Xbox ROG Ally X is the fact it has the best NON OLED 7inch screen still continues to impress with me being great to play outdoors with its 500 nit brightness where indoors I have to turn down very low not to be blinded with! Fast response timing in games and media with great dark black levels, and up to 120hz refresh rates with most of my games having NO screen tearing!

• BONUS GOOD The audio speakers are very nice and get very loud Not the base-i-est but still very nice sounding compared to other handheld devices like the Switch. Having Dolby Atmos helps a lot.

Now for what I could consider the overall Bads of this device and its software:

• The 1st bad but still not a deal breaker is the Rog Allys overall manufactured quality which some have stated could have been better. Which I can agree with them holding the device in my hands and being able to hear some plastic creaking around its handle areas gives me a bit of a slight concern for overall longevity of the device, which made over seas in a hurry in some factory could be better and hopefully ASUS addresses this and when more are coming out for sale can be in higher shell quality than us early adopter types. I will update everyone down the road if anything occurs! Sad still that even Xbox didn’t catch this from production due to their high standards in quality for controller products! But maybe this is also a ASUS problem more due to being their device.

• Very bad 1st startup update process and setup for those who might not be used to PCs and definitely using this kind of device. ASUS and Microsoft should include some documentation or a more simple startup walkthough to get the Xbox Rog Ally to setup and update especially for those who don’t have a Microsoft account.

• Updating everything meaning Windows, Armoury-Crate, and My ASUS is a bit tedious and annoying to do and there should be a singular place Hey like Windows Update maybe? To update everything why doesn’t this happen? Plus I bet most of you who read this probably didn’t even know you had to update all 3 places, and you also have to make sure to download the My ASUS app from the app store due to it NOT being installed automatically on the device! Even though a bunch of MUST NEEDED updates are located at! WHY ASUS WHY?! Oh and you need a MY ASUS account to register the device to get the proper updates! This I can say is very annoying for those who just want to game and not have to wait for multiple updates!

• Why doesn’t the Xbox Experience app have the ability to change the CPU/GPU core power/speed like the Armoury-Crate app does? Meaning you still need Armoury-Crate in order to change certain settings that Windows or the Xbox App should already do.

• Lastly what I think was the biggest mistake that ASUS did for the Xbox Rog Ally devices that they should have learned from previous models is that it is still kinda difficult to open up the device’s back to change out the M.2 drive for larger upgrade. You currently have to unscrew many tiny screws and slowly pry open the device which also opens around the triggers that can cause some screamish people to cringe a bit not wanting to break their device’s plastic shell. This if not good at this sort of thing can be a wait for a pro kind of task, plus not to mention the one very delicate power wire that covers the exact spot that your M.2 drive is located and you have to carefully push it aside to un-install and install the new drive. JUST DON”T DISCONNECT THAT WIRE! It is almost impossible to reconnect the wire to the junction, so if your NOT up to the task again just ask someone who is! This to me is a BIG MISTAKE on ASUS part and a BIG question mark for someone like me who knows they could have just designed the back with a single 1 or 2 screw back cover for easy access to the M.2 drive like mostly ALL GOOD LAPTOP DESIGNS FOR YEARS NOW HAVE! Yes I’m a bit mad about this for the average consumer who doesn’t have the know how or skill like me to do this to simply add more storage to their devices. Because 512 or 1TB is NOT enough space for us who install lot’s of games and of course Windows is a storage hog.

I personally did not have the worst time opening my device on my launch stream and installing my M.2 4TB dive to replace the default 1Tb one. But was a bit sketchy opening the device around the trigger and handle areas due to that plastic creaking issue. But after installing the drive and closing up the unit getting the device into its BIOS mode to reinstall all of its proper Windows/ASUS software consists of holding the power button down until it starts and constantly tapping the up/down audio buttons on the top, this will boot it into its BIOS mode. Then you will have to arrow up to the recovery mode and do a full over WiFi download of all its proper software and install. I had a little trouble finding the recovery mode until I arrowed up to it hiding at the top go figure NOT in plain site! Then when everything is installed and updated just go through the whole Windows startup sequence then make sure to update everything then DONE!

Most of the bad stuff I talked about are Windows side based problems and Microsoft/Xbox should fix this if they want to properly onboard gamers who might only be console people! Plus all of the updating process between 3 Apps is ridiculous and to most a deal breaker for PC based gaming, and not so much for us who use Windows on a normal basis.

In my conclusion and hopefully not skipping anything to important in this article/review, I hope that this helps for anyone who may want to jump into handheld gaming who don’t want to be restricted to Steam OS playable games on the Steam Machine side. I personally think more than most can learn while playing on a portable gaming device like the Xbox Rog Ally X and if PC knowledgeable could find this the best thing to play games on and not having to purchase a big PC setup to play most games. Otherwise if you are the type who doesn’t learn easily or are not into PCs then this is probably NOT for you! If you like PC gaming and don’t want an expensive setup or a console hooked up to a TV then this device can definitely be for you.

I started off as a console gamer BUT quickly have been more of a PC gamer over the recent years since due to for me at least easier to get more games at better prices, ability for some games to be modded for added gameplay experiences that can’t be done on a console, and the recent ability to now take those PC game on the go to play almost anywhere (where there is sufficient power of course for longer play times). There are endless possibilities to gaming on this Xbox Rog Ally device and is the device of choice for me to play on most of the time and not to boot up my power sucking PC desktop all the time or play on my TV where I usually like to watch TV on but also want to play a game at the same time!

This is simply a Great gaming device improving on a lot of the previous systems before it and ASUS exceeds past other hardware vendors on overall support for their products improving the experience and longevity over time.

Even if the price is now a bit steep at around $1000.00 currently of this article, I believe this gaming device is worth every penny even when waying in the bad that I’ve talked about. The Only major problem is the bad on-boarding that Widows has you do to in the first startup of the device itself which can take a little time for all the downloads and updating it has to do before you even download your first game to play. Some will not accept this but even consoles of today and soon tomorrow are getting more complicated and updating them takes a bit of time for setup before play anything so not a deal breaker to me!

I believe the Xbox Rog Ally X is a MUST BUY in my book and believe you will NOT be disappointed in your purchase! And again DON’T BUY the Xbox Rog Ally basic model! Which is cheaper but does not have the best hardware specs to play the games you may want to play years to come!

Even if you have anymore questions for me about the Xbox Rog Ally X or gaming in general questions please feel free to contact me via my email at: oldfreakygamer@gmail.com, or go to my Twitter/X or BlueSky accounts and send me a DM or post to ask I will respond back as fast as I can!

Thanks Again for reading my REVIEW on the Xbox Rog Ally X,

Mr. Mike