ASUS ROG Xbox Ally

[silent nimbus]

Gamepass games are

And besides I think it’s obvious that ms has given up on hardware

They only care about selling games

[charred kite]

Yeah and we know despite having steam and gog and epic support, the Xbox store will be advertised and pushed more than those on the UX

[silent nimbus]

Valve also isn’t big on third party launcher integration

Steam plugin on GoG launcher has been broken for years

I feel like if this Xbox windows version somehow fails we might eventually see Xbox/gamepass game native Linux launcher

[sage halo]

$800 for a z2e? That would def move units

[fleet girder]

Crazy that people have been conditioned so, if the next generation is the same price they get excited

[sharp ingot]

So exhausting to see newer generation hardware get treated as if it's a higher end sku and not the successor

Like it's been 2 years since the original Rog Ally came out

[silent nimbus]

As opposed to what, getting excited about it being more expensive?

[spiral yoke]

For that price I would actually consider buying and I'm not even that impressed by the HX370/Z2E

[granite island]

Same price is okay

Give me power not same power less price

[deft sierra]

Wouldn't surprise me if they do that, especially since they can leverage the Xbox store and Game Pass...

[silent nimbus]

I hope they push more games on the Xbox store. Even if they’re small, the gamepass ultimate member discounts are nice

[sharp ingot]

No lol, it's just that it really should be the standard

[lone prawn]

Exactly things like PS5 should be same price as PS1. Who cares about profit and inflation they need to eat the cost eben if they lose money its not about making business its about impressing fans

[granite island]

Yup the rog and rog Xbox ally were 25 years apart and have a 106x power difference

Ridiculous to expect them to cost the same

[sharp ingot]

Not really, it's been two years since the debut of the z1e, and the considering the successor isn't dramatically more powerful, the price hikes are a bit ridiculous

Although I think kalosmani was being sarcastic

[worthy patio]

Log Ally X

better than Super SP

just saying

[silent nimbus]

Just buy a claw

258V better than Z2E anyway

If you’re gonna buy a Z2E device buy the Z2E claw 8

That way you at least get good screen and speakers

Not to mention pretty colors

[spiral yoke]

I hear Intel is actually doing a decent job updating drivers and actually prefer the look of the Intel Claw over the AMD model ( just not into lime green or White color options )
So has the Claw getting better performance as time goes on ? It just sucks the raised the price $100

[granite island]

Ya me too

[silent nimbus]

Yup new drivers drop monthly at the least, performance has only been getting better and better

[charred kite]

Depends on the price. If the Z2E Claw is $999 and the Xbox Ally X is $799 it’s not worth it for the MSI for sure

[silent nimbus]

For you maybe

I’d buy Z2E claw for $1K in a heartbeat

Viewing and listening experience is worth that $200 alone

The screen speaker combo is a feast for the senses

[sharp ingot]

$800 rog ally and $20 pair of IEMs

[silent nimbus]

(Does he know?)

[hearty prairie]

What would be a good alternative if I don't get this? 95% of the games I play are from PC game pass (have maybe 5 games on steam), don't currently have a handheld so wouldn't be upgrading from anything

[sharp ingot]

Probably an original rog ally x if you can find a good deal on one

[spiral yoke]

Depends who much you want to spend TBH "

[hearty prairie]

I'm pretty ok with any price, let's just call it under $1000... I travel a ton for work so being able to play offline without having to bring a second laptop is ideal for me

[spiral yoke]

Was never a fan of the First Msi Claw but the 8Ai is a amazing handheld too

[hearty prairie]

ooh hall sticks and looks like it has nice texturing for the grip

I have relatively big hands so something like a switch hurts after only a little bit of playing

haven't held any of the newer devices (steam deck, ally, claw, legion, etc)

[silent nimbus]

Either MSI claw 8 ai or the MSI claw 8A

Big beautiful screen

Size comparison

[hearty prairie]

they're both sold out for now (canada) but I'll keep my eyes open... hows the comfort? and how is the gamepass integration?

[silent nimbus]

I find the 8 ai comfortable enough, and it runs windows so perfect gamepass integration

Power wise the claw 7 and 8 ai with the intel 258V is gonna be the closest to the Z2E you’ll get without paying a fortune

[hearty prairie]

I'd be able to download games and play offline right? not like remote play or whatever?

[silent nimbus]

Yup

If you’ve bought some games on Xbox might wanna check and see if they support play anywhere too, you’d own those on the PC Xbox app too

Downloadable and will run natively

[hearty prairie]

ok amazing, thank you!

[royal trout]

Can someone please explain to me why the new xbox ally isnt just a retextured rog ally( i dont mean any hate. just a genuine question)

[silent nimbus]

Probably to differentiate it from the Z1E ally devices

[sharp ingot]

No because that's what it basically is

The windows optimizations also won't be exclusive to it afaik

It will just be the first

[royal trout]

Oh ok, nice. thanks for the quick reply

[weary heath]

isn’t this just an ROG ally with Xbox integration

700 quid is mad

and they said the switch 2 was expensive

[silent nimbus]

Z2E over Z1E

Other than that yeah

[sage halo]

Both are 🤣

[drowsy grotto]

Still sitting here seething that we have no info about the Usb4 port

Doa if it's 40gb, best handheld hands down if it's 80gb, simple as

Although honestly, they should have chosen Lenovo over Asus

Tgx port

[sharp ingot]

Def not DOA

Egpus are still pretty niche

[drowsy grotto]

Doa for me

And for any sense of true upgradability/future proofing

Maybe if they take the Series X's gpu and sell it as an upgrade/dock option for it 🤔

Like as a first party external gpu

Basically a 6700

[silent nimbus]

What

[charred kite]

1: the device doesn’t even exist yet and won’t for months 2: it’s 40GB. HX370 does not support USB4 v2

[charred kite]

lol why

[sage halo]

Ran a egpu via oculink and the novelty wore off quick. Granted I was using it as a HTPC but eventually I took it down and just streamed my games via WiFi on to the TV.

[drowsy grotto]

Probably would have gotten a nicer looking device and a tgx port, build quality is nicer on the legion too

WiFi game streaming lmao

[silent nimbus]

Set up correctly the latency is near non existent

Like sub 5ms

[charred kite]

It’s less than a wireless Xbox controller for me

[silent nimbus]

Yeah better than BT when setup correctly

[silent nimbus]

https://youtu.be/EdY9yvMaxDw?si=07X8JYwB3tST6Vp_

[deep prairie]

nothing burger just like the announcement video itself

deepening the partnership with AMD who have been providing hardware for their consoles for ages now? color me surprised

[sharp ingot]

🤦‍♂️

How is unified hardware a nothing burger

[silent nimbus]

https://tenor.com/view/клоун-gif-13031758617125701370

[deep prairie]

what are you trying to say? they announced no specifics about new hardware in that video

[sharp ingot]

Well they're not going to announce exact specs this early yeah, but all of their hardware being compatible with each other is pretty big

[deep prairie]

what does that even mean it's just x86 PCs

[sharp ingot]

Most modern consoles are yeah

[silent nimbus]

It means they’re putting the Xbox team’s focus on giving windows a more console like experience

[deep prairie]

which we knew already yeah

that was kinda the point, this announcement basically just told us what we already knew

not judging people for liking or hating it, seems like a good thing to me

some people might wildly speculate now with that xbox 360 games showing up "bug" and woah x cloud servers use a specific way to play games that get streamed to you but that's literally just hype for now

partnership between console makers and AMD has been going on for years ofc and the Z2E seems like a slightly modified laptop part

which is why I just don't see the big value of this short xbox video, maybe if people have been living under a rock

[sharp ingot]

Not really, up until this point we could speculate, but this is confirmation

[deep prairie]

the handhelds and optimized windows experience were shown and mentioned at their direct, think even the 3rd party game launcher support

which were previously known because they messed up and showed steam on that screenshot

[charred kite]

I agree 100%

[deep prairie]

unless I am missing something this "huge news" actually had no news at all

I mean it's fair to summorize etc., maybe I just have clickbait fatigue

[charred kite]

It was a video to quell the rumors and clear the future of Xbox because of the press about the Ally Xbox and the handheld being cancelled and fears they would drop out of hardware entirely

Edit - video from Xbox team, not phawx

The fact that he made a 10+ minute video about to is kinda mind blowing lol

[sharp ingot]

For the handheld yes, but this would imply that that windows experience would also be brought to their next consoles

[deep prairie]

starting ad + 5 more ads
"huge news" - actually all the stuff we knew for weeks, yeah

[deep prairie]

I guess that wasn't technically confirmed but within enthusiast circles everybody thought this would happen

watched the xbox clip again, it's vague enough that you can't really say this confirms windows on the new console but sure it might be the case - which is what we knew already

sure they are working with the windows team, because the handheld will run windows xD

[deep prairie]

btw just to be clear, I have no issue with a video on something or youtube ads
it's just annoying when it seems like it's clickbait, just name it "summorizing what's happening at xbox" - boom now it's not misleading

[silent nimbus]

Community engagement is dead I see

[sharp ingot]

So it's vague and doesn't really confirm anything, but even if it did you already knew it? That doesn't really make much sense I'm ngl. You either already knew it or you didn't

[deep prairie]

we already knew that there is a probability that a windows version like the one made for the xbox ally could be used for the new console

saying "we work with the windows team to optimize xyz" doesn't specifically say if a future console will use the same OS iteration as the handheld, it could just mean they work with the windows team for the xbox ally which was also mentioned at the direct

[silent nimbus]

Community engagement and speculation is fun

[deep prairie]

true

[silent nimbus]

Spice of life

[deep prairie]

just the clickbait is not because it farms the community based on something that's wrong

[silent nimbus]

Doesn't seem like click bait to me

[sharp ingot]

I suppose it doesn't completely confirm it yeah, but given their whole push for xbox play anywhere "not tied to a single device" I think it's a reasonable conclusion

[deep prairie]

I mean to some people it might be huge news, but the xbox direct is 10 days ago by now

[silent nimbus]

I find it a good aggregation of info for people who aren't as glued to the news as we are

[silent nimbus]

Still not seeing the click bait but you do you

If that's click bait 90% of YouTube is click bait

He goes over his theories on deeper meaning behind what they say

[deep prairie]

yeah totally, but that's been the sentiment which is why I said people have been predicting this already

[deep prairie]

idk nothing was "hidden" and there are no news xD

I guess 10 days isn't super old either, but yeah the info on the direct has 2M views

[deep prairie]

the definition probably has some subjective twist to it but to me going "huge news" would be more fitting if we got an announcement about handhelds being able to use FSR 4 or a new chip

not just "let us speculate for 14 minutes about this short vague clip"

[silent nimbus]

You do you buddy

I ain’t gonna be making a mountain out of a molehill

[deep prairie]

fair enough

I basically min max my youtube algorithm to not have any clickbait content at all, and given his channel is also not one I get recommended anymore I could have known

just taken off guard how unreasonable one has to be to oversell old news

[granite island]

Xbox wasn't already amd?

[silent nimbus]

They were

[granite island]

What's news?

[silent nimbus]

They’re even more amd now

[granite island]

What wasn't

[deep prairie]

if you are caught up with the xbox directs no news

[silent nimbus]

Amd partnership is just the face of it

The big thing is they’re claiming they’re gonna unify the experience between Xbox windows and their cloud gaming

[deep prairie]

ngl the xbox clip I watched again seems more like a message to the shareholders who are probably not happy seeing how switch 2 and ps5 consoles sell lol

[deep prairie]

yeah the long transitioning phase of their strategy def hurt them at first when their "exclusives" which were already on PC got announced for ps5
but they seem to hope proper backwards compatibility and taking your library forward + streaming can win back trust of their users

they are one of the biggest game publishers now so it makes sense to release on as many platforms as possible, and obv owning windows gives them the chance to push stuff on PC as well

[charred kite]

It’s still a big “if” though

There are so many things with licensing that will kill most of the library

[silent nimbus]

How so

[deep prairie]

for PC microsoft probably thought it would be easier to sell games on the microsoft store

it's hard to compete with steam but if they can offer extra value by handing people their past xbox library they might find a way to add something unique which makes their storefront relevant

GOG shows that goodwill does more than just corporate greed that amazon or the epic games launcher tried

if microsoft basically gives us emulation for xbox 360 on PC and adds the titles we already owned on that xbox live / microsoft account that would be big

but we will have to wait and see

[charred kite]

Cars and music are huge licensing issues

[silent nimbus]

Microsoft store is cheeks

[charred kite]

The license typically only applies for the platform it was developed for. The backwards compatibility is baked into many licenses.

But Microsoft can’t backwards compatible to PC, they have to emulate and the licenses don’t usually cover emulating

[silent nimbus]

They have an Xbox PC app complete w store

[charred kite]

Then there is everyone with Xbox360 physical copies, how do they handle moving the licenses over or do they just do digital only

[deep prairie]

yeah I have disk games from the 360 days only

but if they did have xbox and xbox 360 emulation I am sure they would sell old titles for a lower price on that store for people to obtain

might be out of luck if you have disks which would kinda suck but if it makes more titles accessible it still adds something to their store steam doesn't have

[charred kite]

A lot of times they can’t. That’s why stuff disappears from the store

Plus it’s now a new license for emulation

[deep prairie]

yeah they need a strategy for this, they do own a lot of studios by now but I hear you on licensing issues

[silent nimbus]

I’m sure they’ll find a way for it to work

Hell I still have the skins I bought for MC Xbox 360 edition way back when

[deep prairie]

it would be interesting to see if they attempt this, it would be a more consumer friendly way of doing things which could give their console box an upside over the next playstation if it works out

but ultimately I think they are in the long game betting on the cloud to have all of their titles they can get on there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kprpRvsOua0

here even more videos for the shareholders

"we are not just making custom chips for microsoft, we are making custom chips optimized for gaming for microsoft"

[silent nimbus]

I could honestly live with xcloud if they worked on latency

[deep prairie]

I hear people praise GFN

[silent nimbus]

It’s alright

[deep prairie]

in terms of latency and VRR support

[silent nimbus]

It can be jank and lacks ecosystem support

[deep prairie]

idk if streaming would be for me, I doubt it for the near future

[charred kite]

They said the Z1 was optimized for handhelds too… and that wasn’t exactly true

[deep prairie]

they made some slight changes to existing laptop chips, but yeah marketing wants people to think those chips are super special

[minor vale]

Did we ever get any further info on pricing? I'm looking to pick up a new x86 handheld and this one kinda has my eye

[charred kite]

It’s not rumored to be available for order for 2 months so it’ll be a bit

[minor vale]

ahh, damn, fair
Hopefully it's competitive pricing lol

[silent nimbus]

Nothing official

Rumors range from $800 to $1000

[minor vale]

jesus

[silent nimbus]

Xbox ally rumored to be as low as $500

With Z2A chip

But more in line with steam deck performance

Allegedly

[lone prawn]

With the Z2A version they should have made it smaller and give it a 720p screen

[deep prairie]

that would most likely have increased the price as you would be designing a second handheld from the ground up and parts commonality wouldn't be given

[fleet girder]

After 3 years, the competition has now provided an option roughly on par performance wise with the steam deck for roughly the same amount of money. I don't know about you guys but I'm excited.

[toxic sorrel]

This is gonna live or die off the new windows Xbox experience I think. Non-pc gamers might buy it for the Xbox brand and if games don't just work that night be a problem

[lime crater]

Yes it's very unclear.You can't call it just an Xbox if it doesn't actually have the facility to play native Xbox games.

[silent nimbus]

https://www.theverge.com/news/690967/microsoft-xbox-app-windows-steam-games-aggregated-library-support-beta

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2025/06/23/xbox-insiders-aggregated-gaming-library-is-coming-to-the-xbox-pc-app/

[sage halo]

am i alone in thinking those ergonomics/grips look awesome? Not getting the hate

[silent nimbus]

Nah, function over form all day baby

Love the way it looks

[sage halo]

hell yeah, brother

sadly, i decided to pick the MSI Claw 8 AI+ over this, but it was my runner-up. I do love a lot about it, but already have a 8840u device and wanted something a bit different. I have no doubt this will be awesome though, especially the optimized OS for it

[silent nimbus]

I got the claw 8 too but I’ll probably still pick up the XAX to see how I like it

[sage halo]

if I could I def would as well

[charred kite]

I just wish it had the 8” screen. Instant dealbreaker for me

[sage halo]

that is what pushed me over to the claw

[tidal agate]

They look comfy but I think it’s a bit ugly

Same as the ps portal

[dawn kite]

So software-wise I don’t fully understand what’s happening. Does this mean in the future you can just download the Xbox app on any windows handheld and benefit from the performance enhancements they’re promoting? Ie. Let Xbox app be like the front end that keeps other windows tasks from taking away resources?

[velvet skiff]

that's the idea

[silent nimbus]

We know nothing until we see actual features but… yeah that’s what it seems like they’re saying

[velvet skiff]

also not clear if its regular windows and xbox app, or a special flavor of windows

[charred kite]

No definitely not this

It’s a modification to windows as it ships. It’ll likely be image only or someone will have to reverse engineer it

[dawn kite]

Ah ok essentially a windows fork. That’s annoying, I was hoping it would be available on other handhelds

[silent nimbus]

To early to tell

[charred kite]

Not really. They have clearly said it involves modification to Windows and an application cannot do that

[silent nimbus]

They also clearly said the Xbox experience won’t be locked to a single platform

[charred kite]

Platform ie windows and console lol

[velvet skiff]

It involves modifications that may be brought to regular windows. you're too confident.

[charred kite]

LOL

Never

The processes that are going to be nonexistent are stuff like OneDrive and a bunch of the tracking background processes

[velvet skiff]

they are not non-existent, they are just disabled when the xbox app is the frontend. you can still go to full desktop whenever you want

[charred kite]

My hope is that someone can reverse engineer it pretty simply, my expectation is that it is going to be locked down and locked out and will only be available to specific partners

[charred kite]

They won’t be running. Microsoft makes money off these processes running.

They also didn’t mention if the “desktop” is going to be full fledged windows or if it is just going to be the explorer UI running

[silent nimbus]

Don’t think about it too hard lol

They’re already rolling out updates to the PC app like aggregated libraries

[velvet skiff]

such confident bullshitting. I'll bet money that desktop mode is full desktop mode - not some stripped down version that introduces compatibility issues.

[charred kite]

This is why I stand firmly in the camp of it being a partner image only.

Microsoft/Windows doesn’t have any reason to benefit gamers or the handheld market as a whole. This is the Xbox teams work.

There is a big difference between making the Xbox app a front end UX for installed games (many programs already do this) and modifying the operating system as a whole.

I want to be proven wrong here and hope I am… but don’t think Microsoft is out to do anything to benefit you as a user that doesn’t benefit them first.

[silent nimbus]

[tidal agate]

https://tenor.com/view/breaking-in-windows-linux-meme-breaking-into-a-windows-user-gif-27138745

[silent nimbus]

More like windows breaking into my Linux partition to fucking delete everything

[tidal agate]

skill issue for having a windows partition tbh

[silent nimbus]

Last time I tried to dual boot that happened

I keep them on separate systems now

[deft sierra]

Yeah, I've been keeping them o separate drives so one doesn't fight against the other

[cold marten]

I keep reading the Xbox Ally X specification and wonder what happened to 12-15 months rapid growth of 15 - 50 % improvements & in 24 months like 60% +++ gpu improvements.

Z1E is technically a 7840 announced CES 2023

Z2E will arrive fully nearly CES 2026 with hardly new improvements of mere 10-15 % improvements

[dawn kite]

Maybe more efficient?

[tidal agate]

It should be significantly better at lower tdps

Only 10-15% better at 28w but the 370 it’s based on at 15w performs like the 7840u at 28

[charred kite]

For handhelds there are just too many constraints

But that substantial growth in this market slowed way down about 6 years ago, some upgrades were seen on the CPU side from AMD with Zen3 and newer, but the GPUs have basically hit a ceiling and AI/ML is what everyone has been focusing on

[cold marten]

Hot take, wished i had by now a PS Vita size x86 with 3 hours battery. Steam deck like CPU GPU but performance in just 4-8 Watts. For all the old backlog and emulation.

2nd a powerful handheld like Legion Go S screen & layout with power more than PS5 Pro with 4 hours battery

[granite island]

Exactly

That would be peak

Super SP to the side gimme a weak x86 for indies

[tidal agate]

Maybe after the arm transition you could just run a full desktop OS on a snapdragon elite or something

[deft sierra]

I do wonder if the existence of the Z2 A COULD theoretically allow for smaller machines that's basically equivalent to the Steam Deck

[heavy compass]

GPD win 4 is getting close to that

[charred kite]

That was my thought.

It’s much tankier though

[granite island]

No I:d rather no jank

I hate jank

Give me Linux instead

[deep prairie]

same node as 7840U, TSMC 4nm

[sage halo]

correct me if i am wrong but people expecting z2e to have the power of a hx370 are missing the pricing on handhelds using the latter.... plus that chip is not much better than an 8840u

[charred kite]

Generally speaking, Z1E devices were cheaper then the 7840U counterparts and the general assumption is that Microsoft will be partially subsidizing the handheld

[cold marten]

So basically we will have to wait 6 years (2028 timeline) for a proper PC Handheld for 1080 60 FPS gaming or even more. By that time GTA 6 will be a new benchmark and things might look very different in PC games GPU requirements.

Maybe we might start saying " I am getting too old for this shit"

[silent nimbus]

1080p 60 gaming is already here

Just have to temper your expectations

[charred kite]

And use frame gen

[silent nimbus]

Depends on the game

Honestly

Well optimized games run 1080p 60 fine on handhelds

The problem is most new games aren’t optimized

[sage halo]

720p/60fps on a handheld with a 5-7" screen is good enough for my needs

[silent nimbus]

A 5” 720p 60 handheld PC would go incredibly hard

[charred kite]

The 5.5” RP5 or 5” O2M screens would be ideal

I think they are too small for PC gaming but they would suit your needs

[deep prairie]

to me it seems like there won't be APUs with RDNA 4, so it's like we are missing a gen of AMD chips with integrated graphics

UDNA is rumored to be used for both major consoles, APUs with that should be a thing and obviously support FSR 4 or better

so yeah might be boring for a while on the high end for performance but once we make it there the upscaling will be so much better than it is right now

[granite island]

Second person I've seen echo this

We need this

Vita sized indie peak

Just do it in the abxylute channel

[charred kite]

No x86 device is going to be Vita sized, it just really can’t happen

You can get close, some Ayaneo devices and the Win4 are pretty small but they are still much larger then a Vita

The Odin 2 Mini is closest but even that’s much more substantial

[granite island]

And ARM

[silent nimbus]

AyaNeo air comes close

It is very much possible

Just not practical

Battery life would be shit

[sage halo]

it's my main way of playing switch games, as a faux-switch mini despite the actual one being 5.5"

[charred kite]

I’ve got switch loaded up on my O2M but haven’t actually played anything lol.

Just play it on Sw2 now

[sage halo]

trying to play the GOTQ (Dragon Warrior 3 2DHD) and it's pretty good, admittedly prob not the best screen size for reading text on

[warm belfry]

https://insider-gaming.com/rog-xbox-ally-prices-might-leak-by-asus/

[charred kite]

Yeah, about what is expected

I’ll be surprised if the only model that matters is less then 999

[spiral yoke]

Weren’t Euro prices and US prices the same when the original launched , the article suggests they wont be

[charred kite]

US has the magic T word though

And got prices increases of $100 on the Ally X, not sure if the Euro saw the same increase

[silent nimbus]

Only way to know is to wait and see

[sage halo]

My tin foil hat says they wanna let people believe this is the price and then surprise, a price increase followed by another. I want to be wrong.

[cold marten]

Microsoft would surprise with $699 on Xbox Ally X matching Series X, I am 49% sure.

If Microsoft do not offer deal, its a waste of collaboration with 3.75 Trillion dollor company

[charred kite]

Not a chance on the X

Like not even remotely close lol

The current Ally X with the Z1E is $899/999 in the US after a $100 price hike

$599/699 for normal Xbox Ally and $899/999 for Xbox Ally X are my guesses

Hopeful/likely prices

[cold marten]

I am just making predication based which makes sense, thats why i said 49%, because 51% reality can kick my A$$

[silent nimbus]

G cloud was a MS collab and is $300 for a severely underpowered Android tablet

[cold marten]

i have no idea why that shit exist, Xbox Ally with 4 year old CPU GPU tech slower than OG Ally 2023 model which was going for less tha $450 on many sales.

[charred kite]

For the right price, I really don’t hate it.

It’ll give solid performance for indie titles at really low TDPs, side scrollers on Gamepass should run well, and it’ll get pretty good battery life streaming things like COD.

It just can’t really cost anymore then the SteamDeck OLED though

[cold marten]

In my country on lucky day i got OG ROG Ally at $400 dollors, ROG Ally X thing is selling for nearly $1200.

Looking at price of Xbox Ally, it might be $700 in my country. than why prefer over OG Ally

[charred kite]

Yeah the ROG Ally going so cheap because it had such a horrible reputation really hurts further sales of pretty much anything

[charred kite]

The sticks and buttons were all improved on the X, plus a reliable SD, better fans, and TB4 USBC.

Assuming the new Xbox Ally includes all of those things plus massively improved ergonomics then the extra cost can be justified

[cold marten]

Does it warrants triple the price

for 15 - 20 % improvement

[charred kite]

Was yours new for $400?

[cold marten]

yes completly brand new

and X is currently going for $1200

[charred kite]

Z1 or Z1E? $400 for a Z1E is pretty crazy. I don’t think I’ve ever even seen it go for that in the US

[cold marten]

Bro Z1E, some lucky day. its mostly on regular $450 TAX included

[charred kite]

So I would say $400 is the exception not the rule

Generally here in the US at least, it is $650 new and frequently on sale for $549 and was $499 over Black Friday

[turbid trench]

Seems about right, for the higher end sku

[dawn kite]

The x was $499??

Wait nvm im an idiot

[hearty prairie]

If the leak is true, $1400 here 😭

[warm belfry]

https://x.com/dexerto/status/1945196837155086470?s=46&t=W6WfgknjfK4-AMAr6C71lA

Dexerto (@Dexerto)

Xbox insiders can now stream console games on PC

This feature allows Game Pass Ultimate members to stream eligible games from their own libraries without installing them

X · Jul 15, 2025, 7:00 PM

Xbox handheld! 😅
@gritty cargo somewhat newsworthy 🤷🏻‍♂️

[silent nimbus]

Wait

Like extended Xcloud features?

Cuz you can already remote play from console to PC

Pic from a few days ago

Or is it just that “stream the games you own” feature that has been a thing for a while

[warm belfry]

Yeah i think stream your own games rather than remote play

[silent nimbus]

Ah

I’m assuming it’d be those play anywhere games then

[warm belfry]

Not from what I have seen.

https://x.com/dexerto/status/1945196846592192885?s=46&t=W6WfgknjfK4-AMAr6C71lA

Dexerto (@Dexerto)

Xbox says more games will be added over time, including Xbox Play Anywhere titles and additional console-only releases https://t.co/sXWbGSRM40

X · Jul 15, 2025, 7:00 PM

So sounds like you can play console only games on pc via this method

But digital only i guess

So sucks if you have lots of disc games

[silent nimbus]

Ah yeah it is “steam your own games” coming to PC

That’s been a feature on console and Android for a minute

Cool it’s coming to PC tho

[warm belfry]

Yeah. One step closer to xbox handheld 😅

Just need to not be streaming

[silent nimbus]

I’ve been messing around with the gamepass ultimate and play anywhere ecosystem and it works really well

Really liking it

[deep prairie]

I was really hoping we get an official MS emulator for xbox classic and xbox 360 out of this for PC, would be big

but that's probably wishful thinking

[silent nimbus]

Yeah that’d be awesome

[silent nimbus]

Hard to implement on varying pc hardware probably

[warm belfry]

Isn’t there a rumour that microsoft approached the xenia guys?

[deep prairie]

idk, MS def has the resources

could just establish min specs even if not ideal

[silent nimbus]

That’s true

[deep prairie]

turned out to be fake for clout

[warm belfry]

Ahhh

Well streaming is a start i guess 🤷🏻‍♂️

Hopefully local install soon

[deep prairie]

if "playing all your games" is just streaming they really didn't move the needle much

[silent nimbus]

There’s probably licensing issues involved

[deep prairie]

just making a frontend for windows and closing some processes is a step but nothing too exciting

[silent nimbus]

But I’ve been playing palworld across console, pc, and cloud and I’m surprised at how well it works

[deep prairie]

I mean they can def make the emulators but what if they only sell the the catalogue that already is up for sale because it's backwards compatible - add to that games they can legally offer now with the emulator making it run

you might have a bunch of games missing

[warm belfry]

Is there many xbox only games tbh? Most were on gamepass pc anyhow 🤷🏻‍♂️

[silent nimbus]

The Xbox cloud saves have been much more reliable than Steam cloud saves

[deep prairie]

but if people own them on disks

[silent nimbus]

Yeah there’s quite a few

[deep prairie]

I have been thinking about buying a used xbox one for cheap to put my old 360 disks in

[silent nimbus]

Xbox PC library is actually pretty small

[deep prairie]

I think it can register them to your account

[silent nimbus]

Not a whole lot of non gamepass games support play anywhere

They’ve been using streaming as a sort of stop gap

[deep prairie]

I am not a gamepass person anyways, I would mainly be excited for emulating some xbox classic and 360 games that never got a PC port

[silent nimbus]

Quantum redshift on modern systems????

https://tenor.com/view/copium-cat-gif-27161395

[deep prairie]

ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth

[silent nimbus]

Yeah they showing up in the app now

[charred kite]

It’s actually crazy this isn’t the way it was always done considering Xcloud runs Xbox Series X consoles in server blade configurations

[sage halo]

Kinda scared to see some people thinking this is a Xbox handheld like the switch 2, gonna be a high number of open box sales me thinks.

[silent nimbus]

Good, more for me

[charred kite]

https://tenor.com/view/emperor-star-wars-good-goooooood-evil-gif-12447951

[fleet girder]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/939089074646573076/1395073706438688788/we-need-smaller-games-that-give-us-prestige-and-awards-matt-v0-zgd7r7nhvycf1.png?ex=68791f22&is=6877cda2&hm=18fbb30205e92f93ae117cf3ed225acc41b96d8aab04fa9d084d54bec69d4d58&

How long until Microsoft shuts down Asus?

[silent nimbus]

They don’t own asus

[fleet girder]

I forgot you have to specify on the internet when something is a joke

[sage halo]

https://tenor.com/view/thats-the-joke-ranier-wolfcastle-mc-bain-the-simpsons-stand-up-comedy-gif-4372917

[drowsy grotto]

Depression

Leaks seemingly confirm the Usb 4/TB4 is only 40gb and not the Usb 4 2.0 80gbs

[charred kite]

Don’t even need leaks. The platform doesn’t support USB4 2.0

[charred kite]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Handhelds/comments/1m8ujhf/at_low_tdps_the_z2_extreme_is_a_generational_leap/

I wasn’t interested in the Z2E before, but I am now.

This is substantial for those of us who like to keep TDP sub 20w

[silent nimbus]

Sub 20w is good

I just need someone to buy my claw dammit

[charred kite]

Claw is weird. Not worth the price but also the only thing out that is “next” gen… just a weird middle ground

[spiral yoke]

Same , only low watt does this really shine and while being better than the Z1E it sort of stalls out once yo start using higher wattage

[spiral yoke]

Isn't the Claw 8 good at low watts too ? From what I've seen just as goos as the Z2E at lower watts for the most part

[silent nimbus]

It is, I just wanna try the XAX out

[drowsy grotto]

It could have been there own solution or something, it's just a shame, eGpu doa for the handheld sucks major bawls

[charred kite]

There is no “own solution” in this kind of situation. You need it supported by the APU in order for it to work.

It’s not like adding an extra USB3 port, USB4 requires extensive PCIE lane support

[drowsy grotto]

It could have supported Tb5 but Ms cheaped out ig

[charred kite]

MS?

[drowsy grotto]

The owners of Xbox

[charred kite]

The APU does not support TB5 lol

None of this is Microsoft or ASUS fault lol

Blame AMD, it’s valid there

[drowsy grotto]

The Claw 8 with the same chip is gonna have tb5 but alright

Or was that a rumour 🤔

[charred kite]

It doesn’t - https://www.msi.com/Handheld/Claw-A8-BZ2EMX

Down towards the bottom where it shows the device and ports/etc

Not even the Intel version of the Claw A8 supports TB5 or USB4v2

[silent nimbus]

Microsoft just tacked their name and OS on this device. I highly doubt it would ever go further than that

TB5 is incredibly niche

[charred kite]

I don’t even think any consumer motherboard supports USB4 v2 yet either

[silent nimbus]

Yeah it’s super niche as a whole

I wouldn’t get my hopes up if I were you

[charred kite]

Looks like the Blade 18 is one of the only devices out with TB5 right now and it runs on a dedicated chip.

I don’t think any Chipset actually has TB5/USB4 2.0 built in yet tbh

[charred kite]

Yeah, AMD likely won’t ship something with it for another 2 years. Intel could, but we don’t even know if they will have a handheld SOC anymore

[silent nimbus]

The fact that asus canned XGM is proof enough that the egpu market clearly isn’t lucrative enough

[drowsy grotto]

Hrm

[spiral yoke]

Streaming from PC has surpassed and more practical than a Egpu setup

[charred kite]

10000%

[silent nimbus]

I mean there is a niche for epgus but it’s very small and also pretty redundant price wise

[deep prairie]

The eGPU thing is for people who obsess over having only 1 system.
In my opinion it doesn't cost that much more to own a desktop PC and a handheld because the GPU is by far the most expensive component anyways. An AM5 build with a 7500F has a CPU that wipes the floor with any handheld currently out and can be had for $150. At the end desktop + handheld will obviously cost more but it means you have 2 systems optimized for what they are supposed to do and with the streaming you mentioned there is a great synergy as well.

[deft sierra]

True

[sharp ingot]

Streaming is great 99% of the time but the 1% of time where it has big stutters kills it for me

[cold marten]

If only Z2 had 24 CU instead 16 CU. It would have been perfect for 1080 ( Low - Medium - High) based on games or preference of frame rate from 60 - 120 FPS

[silent nimbus]

Finally got my XAX fund put away

[deep prairie]

If you keep making these APUs larger the pricing doesn't scale well.
I assume you mean the Z2E which already seems to hover around 1000 bucks for handhelds if the rumors are anything to go by...

[drowsy grotto]

Anyone know if the handheld might support Copilot(for Auto Sr) seems like a device that could benefit a lot from it

I haven't seen people test it with the Claw 8 Ai yet

[charred kite]

Auto SR?

[drowsy grotto]

Microsoft Auto Super Resolution

It's somewhere around the quality of Fsr 2.0/2.1 and doubles output resolution with a very small drop in framerate from 540-900p

[silent nimbus]

Probably not right off the bat

Otherwise it would be advertised

[charred kite]

Does it even support x86 yet? IIRC that was a Snapdragon X Elite exclusive feature

[silent nimbus]

I don’t think auto SR is even available yet

[charred kite]

Technically it’s out lol

https://videocardz.com/newz/microsoft-automatic-super-resolution-launched-for-12-games-currently-only-for-snapdragon-x-platform

[drowsy grotto]

No it's not Snapdragon exclusive, certain Intel Cpus support it

[charred kite]

But yeah, limited to Snapdragon

I haven’t seen anything about Intel support. They have their own XESS so supporting this would be odd

[drowsy grotto]

You might be thinking of Sgsr

[charred kite]

Either way, if you search Google for it everything is from 2024, so I wager this is DOA

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/automatic-super-resolution-5d6d95fa-cc02-4673-b62c-2c50f06385aa

Yeah, no Intel here. Requires Snapdragon (more likely just ARM but they are the only player)

[silent nimbus]

Can always use lossless scaling

[drowsy grotto]

I think they have to be Lunar Lake 200 series processors to support it, ie, have an Npu with the Tops necessary

[charred kite]

I dunno man, I am just going off official Microsoft docs and it says Snapdragon required

🤷

But either way like Sniffer said, there is other tech out there and Microsoft isn’t a company I’d trust to do anything worthwhile in the space unless it becomes a core component of DirectX

[silent nimbus]

Nope, claw 8 does not have it

[drowsy grotto]

Seems like theres no reason cpus with npus with enough Tops and official Copilot+ support couldn't use it

Especially with a dedicated Gpu, unfortunate it's not being done because it looked promising

[silent nimbus]

MSI claw 8ai+ is a copilot+ PC

It’s just not a public feature brother

If you really need that stuff I recommend checking out lossless scaling

https://store.steampowered.com/app/993090/Lossless_Scaling/

Steam

Lossless Scaling

Lossless Scaling allows you to scale windowed games to full screen using the state-of-the-art scaling algorithms, as well as use ML based proprietary scaling and frame generation.
Frame generation options:

• LSFG

Scaling options:…

Price

$6.99

Recommendations

26913

▶ Play video

All hail the duck

A must have for handheld PCs

[drowsy grotto]

Eh, LS1 is okay but it's not perfect

It's better for maybe smaller scaling multipliers, but looks a bit off at 2x

[silent nimbus]

It has other scaling tech like SDSR

[drowsy grotto]

That's worse than Ls1 or Fsr

I've tested it a lot with a few different games

[silent nimbus]

I wouldn’t say so

I only really use LS on lower powered machines and pc handhelds

[drowsy grotto]

I wish there was more direct comprehensive comparisons online

Somehow LTT are one of the most genuine despite being over a year late lol

I do hope they make LS2 someday though

LSFG4 and LS2 would be game changing, pretty much literally

They should raise the apps price to 9.99 though if they make LSFG4 and LS2, they deserve it imo

They'd probably get a big influx of new users due to videos that would come from that release

[silent nimbus]

They should not raise the price lol

[drowsy grotto]

They should

9.99 is still cheap, and it means those who already used the software and supported it early get the upgrade for free, while new adopters still get something so good for so cheap, they deserve it.

[silent nimbus]

https://youtu.be/sQos0E5eAcE?si=xvuitnhm9cHd-xj2

[charred kite]

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2025/08/20/rog-xbox-ally-handheld-release-date-october-features/

The Xbox full screen experience, a dedicated experience purpose-built for gaming, powered by Windows 11, and inspired by the console user experience. With new modifications that minimize background activity and defer non-essential tasks, more system resources are dedicated specifically to gameplay.

This is really vague lol

[lone prawn]

Still no information if Xbox OS has a decent sleep and resume so I assume this wont ever be a feature. Such a shame because the UI on Windows doesnt really bother me. Only thing j wanted was proper sleep and resume

[charred kite]

Sounds like they are backpedaling the experience a bit

[lone prawn]

I was waiting to see what the features were before I go dual boot Bazzite option on my Ally X

But seems they haven't done anything game changing with Xbox OS. Will still with until actual release but I have no confidence jn Microsoft

[charred kite]

It’s not even going to be an OS. It’ll be an experience (UX) with some windows features off

[silent nimbus]

It was never advertised as a new OS, just a new “mode”

A lot of people just blabbering and misrepresenting a lot of stuff

Easy to do when they’re so vague tho

[lime crater]

So for clarity if i buy an Xbox game i can download it on the device and play it or is it just a glorified Xbox app and does nothing more than I can do now

[silent nimbus]

It’s complicated lol

If a game supports “Xbox play anywhere” then yes it’s a one time purchase and playable on both Xbox console and Xbox pc app

If it supports “stream your own games” then you will be able to stream it to your handheld

If not then no

[lime crater]

I think the answer is no but they don't want to say it as its not really an Xbox on the go anymore than the myriad of devices available including phones

[silent nimbus]

Well the answer isn’t definitive no it’s yes with a big fat asterisk

For example

I bought dragons dogma 2 on Xbox

But that particular license I bought is not playable on PC at all

I bought cyberpunk on Xbox

That particular license is playable on PC but only via streaming

But I bought expedition 33 on Xbox

That comes with a PC version license as well

So I can download and play a native PC version on PC

Gotta look at the “play on” section in capabilities

Lots of lying by omission and fine print on their end tho

[lime crater]

Mlb 25 the show.Playable or not

[silent nimbus]

Console only

No pc or cloud

[lime crater]

Exactly if this was an Xbox I would be able to play it.

[charred kite]

But it’s not

But it also is

[silent nimbus]

But it isn’t

But also is

[charred kite]

I honestly don’t blame Microsoft for it tbh, Xbox transitioned from a console to a brand a long time ago, people are just slow on the uptake

[silent nimbus]

Yeah it’s hard to redo licensing terms

[charred kite]

It’s also hard to adapt to a changing market

[silent nimbus]

It sucks for the games that don’t support dual licenses but that’s more than Sony or Nintendo will ever do

[charred kite]

I don’t mind offering streaming as an option for console exclusives though. They just need to bump up their infra

[silent nimbus]

Yeah but like I said that most likely won’t happen for preexisting games cuz they’d have to renegotiate licensing terms

Now it’d be really awesome if streaming your own games was free like it was with stadia

https://youtu.be/IoOh_7cI3Sg?si=eAJQYsDj9cFC_UdT

[silent nimbus]

After thinking about it I might go with the Z2A Xbox ally

[charred kite]

If only it had an 8” screen

[warm belfry]

I’m still not that hyped over the xbox mode thing. Personally think i will wait till LeGo 2

[heavy compass]

I just wanna know what other modifications and optimizations have been made to windows

Back when these first were announced and they said they had kernel level access to make changes. I would love someone to rewrap the os and put it out to mess with on pc if it actually turns out significant. Though i dont expect it to be that crazy but apparently thats been the hold up for the release. Is just them modifying windows not preparing the hardware. At least thats the information they discussed... a long time ago now.

[warm belfry]

It just kinda sounds lazy and slapped together. Most videos i have seen just say that it is the regular desktop app stuck in full screen mode with a few background processes turned off. 🤦‍♂️ also no sleep mode is stupid 🙄

[covert furnace]

Not surprised at all 🤣🤣

[lone prawn]

Yeah this seems garbage i had a feeling sleep wouldn't be fixed. Ive never really been bothered woth windows UI, its the sleep mode what I cared about

[warm belfry]

https://tenor.com/view/let-them-cook-let-them-fight-godzilla-godzilla-2014-meme-gif-10523835079864650811

Needs more time in the oven me thinks

[sharp ingot]

Sounds like Microsoft alright

[warm belfry]

Yeah 🙄 a lot of the actual useful features don’t come out till 2026

Sleep still not one of them 🤦‍♂️🤣

Problem with sleep is they would need to make that universal throughout the whole OS. Not just xbox mode

[heavy compass]

Wouldnt be shocked also really hoping for a big day 1 update though

Any development on making windows less bloated should be a good thing, theoretically

[warm belfry]

Yeah. Sounds like they have put one foot in, but are not fully committing to huge changes to how windows works. Shame they don’t just do a Windows 11 Gaming edition or something like that

[heavy compass]

I have to believe some development is going into something like that its been asked for for years and by too many ppl for them to not see some profit in it.

[warm belfry]

To be honest. You can get apps that kill background processes or turn Windows into “lite” version. Then all you do is put the xbox app in startup folder. Done! Xbox handheld 😅🤣

[ancient stag]

I don't think I could be seen in public with the xbox ally

ugliest m'fer I've ever seen

[sharp ingot]

It's kind of grown on me ngl

[spiral yoke]

The love handles are a interesting addition , either way I rarely take out my PC handhelds in public places

I guess as long as it's comfortable

[sharp ingot]

I'd be interested if there's a 80 whr battery mod for the z2a version, battery life would be crazy

[sly cipher]

I don’t think I’d ever take a PC handheld out of the home anyways unless I’m going to be staying at a friend’s or a hotel for a good while

[spiral yoke]

https://youtu.be/VK1bZSpmRPw?si=T1AtdnNwrNrlDV78

https://tenor.com/view/yes-rock-rock-and-roll-head-bang-rock-star-gif-15812025

[silent nimbus]

Ugly but charming

[spiral yoke]

Should of made the screen bigger , it's not like they don't have the space .
7" screen is they use is still very very good but kind of a missed opportunity

[silent nimbus]

I have mixed emotions about 8” screens

[charred kite]

100% agreed. It’s the smallest of the mainstream handhelds since it isn’t 16:10 or larger then 7”

18% larger on the Deck OLED display and 38% larger on the Go S

[spiral yoke]

They could easily made a custom size screen like the OLED SD screen , make it in between but still 1080p .
Half inch might not seem like a lot on paper but pretty noticeable side by side

[silent nimbus]

Oh it definitely is

I’m just coming from the perspective of owning a claw 8 and original ally

Bigger screen was indeed nicer but also made it significantly less portable

In my humble opinion of course

[warm belfry]

Personally can’t get excited for this. Whereas the Legion Go 2 makes me giddy 😅

Xbox mode is trash, so its basically just the allys with grips (which I get a decent case for OG ally) and chip upgrade.

[silent nimbus]

16:10 does a lot more than just making a 16:9 screen bigger diagonally

Would’ve preferred if they made it 16:10 while still keeping the horizontal size the same

But that prolly dips into custom panel territory

[charred kite]

They won’t go 16:10 because of gamepass

[silent nimbus]

Which hikes price up a lot

Pardon

Gamepass supports 16:10

I had zero issues on my claw 8

[charred kite]

It does borders

[silent nimbus]

It does not

[charred kite]

The Go S is 8mm wider and 7mm taller compared to the Xbox Ally so not much at all especially considering nearly 40% more display

[charred kite]

Uhmm, maybe it’s an android thing. When I do it with my Y700 I get borders

[charred kite]

Wait are you talking streaming or native gamepass games?

Streaming is 16:9

[spiral yoke]

It wouldn’t necessarily make it bigger though, do you see the size of the bezels on the Xbox Ally X ?
Reduce those and your set

[silent nimbus]

Native gamepass

[silent nimbus]

Yeah cuz those run on Xbox consoles

[charred kite]

Ahh yeah that’s what I was talking about

[silent nimbus]

Yes that’s what I mean, Ally X has plenty of bezel space to just make the screen bigger vertically

[spiral yoke]

16:10 or 16:9 either would be fine as long as it was bigger , I could go either way TBH

[silent nimbus]

I’m getting a 2 year backpay bonus next paycheck so that might go towards getting me XAX

16:10 is nice and I prefer it but pretty much every game supports 16:9 so I’m okay with that honestly

[silent nimbus]

Hrm still mulling over which Xbox ally I’m gonna get

Z2A one seems like it’d be the perfect indie+streaming machine

And is significantly cheaper than the X

Plus I like the color better

[fleet girder]

The budget play is buying a used Ally X from somebody offloading it

Z2A is a complete skip

[silent nimbus]

Z2A is a completely different use case than Z2E

Plus if the rumors are true it’s a nearly $400 price gap

[sharp ingot]

I mean, you can still play games at low watts on the z2e too

[silent nimbus]

After taxes it would pretty much be $400 price gap

Ah yeah

$450 price gap

Pretty significant

That’s a whole ass switch 2 man

[sharp ingot]

Which rumors are those, feel like I've seen several different price leaks by now

[charred kite]

It’s a SteamDeck with a 1080p screen. Especially on sale or with open box it’ll be great

[silent nimbus]

https://bsky.app/profile/billbil-kun.bsky.social/post/3lwt47zevds24

billbil-kun (@billbil-kun.bsky.social)

🚨 PRICING ALERT 🚨

Here are the final prices of Xbox Handheld consoles in USD:

🔸 ROG Xbox Ally: 549.99 USD
🔹 ROG Xbox Ally X: 899.99 USD

Bluesky · Aug 20, 2025, 9:24 AM

[silent nimbus]

Yeah gonna sit on it for a while but I’m thinking I’m gonna go with the base Xbox ally

[sharp ingot]

Oh yeah that one, yeah z2a really should be $450

Z2E version is actually reasonably priced though

[silent nimbus]

Similar specs btw

Similar chip

Same storage

Ally actually has better screen

[sharp ingot]

I know you're not a fan of oled but most people would disagree with that

[silent nimbus]

Switch OLED display is a bad OLED lmao

But that’s neither here nor there

Well say the screens trade blows

[sharp ingot]

Yeah wouldn't really disagree

[silent nimbus]

Erm deck oled

Whatever it’s called

I have switch on the brain

Regardless

Xbox ally and 512gb steam deck are pretty much on part spec wise

So the price doesn’t seem unreasonable to me

[sharp ingot]

I guess relative to the steam deck its reasonable, it's not great compared to some of the other pc handhelds on the market though

It could be great for battery life though I guess

[silent nimbus]

Used prices don’t count when we’re talking MSRP lol

[charred kite]

I wouldn’t say better, it’s just different.

The OLED looks better in many games, but the Ally is higher resolution and VRR. The OLED has really good AAR due to GameScope so testing can be mitigated very well and it has HDR.

[silent nimbus]

Oled has pwm flicker

[charred kite]

Yeah but that only impacts a small subset of folks

[silent nimbus]

Also native portrait display

[charred kite]

Having both, I think I had less issues with the Ally display. The 800p resolution gets old

[silent nimbus]

The only thing the deck oled has on the ally screen is “it’s OLED”

[charred kite]

Not impactful with GameScope but is if you flash windows

And HDR

[silent nimbus]

I suppose

[sharp ingot]

I'd consider the legion go s better value

[silent nimbus]

HDR is a scam but oh well

[charred kite]

I remember playing Kena Bridge of Spirits and there is a scene where you walk through a gloomy forest and lightning is going on and the HDR was eye searing. It was a really memorable experience

[silent nimbus]

Z2 Go efficiency is dogshit

[charred kite]

If you are talking 400/600nit yeah. But 1000nit is not a scam at all

[silent nimbus]

1000nit hdr has never elevated my gaming experience

[charred kite]

Probably haven’t played the right stuff

[silent nimbus]

Lol

[charred kite]

Tomb Raider and that Kena game have some scenes that really pop due to it.

Indiana Jones too

[silent nimbus]

No point in using a feature that’s only good in “the right stuff”

[charred kite]

You could say the same about VRR though

[silent nimbus]

Totally

[charred kite]

Just mitigate its existence by capping the FPS or using vsync.

[silent nimbus]

And introduce latency yeah

[tough plume]

1000nit HDR in cyberpunk with renoDX was legitimately jaw dropping

but the implementation per game does matter

[fleet girder]

VRR 120hz > OLED 90hz

Ideally you want both but if you have to choose, vrr is more important

Especially considering the Ally screen looks really good once you go into AMD settings and turn the saturation from 100 to 130 or 140

Be sure to go in and tweak the sound settings as well because out of the box the Ally X speakers were not impressive at all, but after some tweaking they are now substantially better for me both in clarity and in overall loudness.

It's actually crazy to me that it doesn't come with these settings changed standard

[silent nimbus]

https://youtu.be/pqYDqdSIZbM?si=rcE-K-jOP6yTaCeO

[charred kite]

Because it’s a pretty accurate panel out of the factory or just turning on the web design profile. Boosting the saturation makes it look worse for people who want an accurate display, not a poppy one.

[silent nimbus]

Yeah I’m not a fan of overly saturated colors

[drowsy grotto]

How many m.2 slots does this have again

[silent nimbus]

How many?

It just has one

Like all other handheld PCs

[silent inlet]

The Ayaneo Next 2 will supposedly have 4. Although whether that means you can fit 4 SSD's in is another matter.

[charred kite]

It has 2

[silent nimbus]

https://tenor.com/view/why-huh-but-why-gif-13199396

[silent inlet]

I thought I remembered 2, then I saw a lot of websites reported 4.

And now I am just confused and going to bed 🛌

[silent nimbus]

For M.2 accessory chips or something?

How much storage do you realistically need on a pc handheld

[charred kite]

Two M2s in a handheld I think is good

[silent nimbus]

If the slot is 2280 doesn’t really make much sense to have more than one

[charred kite]

I’d rather have a single 2280 over dual 2230 though

[silent nimbus]

You can cram up to 8tbs if it supports dual sided ssds

But like realistically, for gaming, why would you ever need more than 4tbs

[charred kite]

Yeah. An advantage to two slots is you can add Occulink without issue which is neat

[silent nimbus]

Even 2TBs is pushing it imo

[silent nimbus]

Yeah that’s true

[charred kite]

Back a year or two ago when 4TB was absurdly expensive it made a bit more sense.

Now though I’d love to have a 1TB 2230 for OS and 4TB 2280 for games. Then if I swap devices I just take the drive over.

I’ve always hated having the OS and games on the same disk

[silent nimbus]

Hmmm

Dual booting

There’s a good use case for two slots I guess

[charred kite]

Yeah that too

[silent nimbus]

I don’t imagine two slots comes cheap tho

[charred kite]

It’s more of a space issue. The APU has the lanes for it

[ancient stag]

I read somewhere that oculink is a dead standard? It’s also not user friendly. I’m sure the favor will eventually be some new usb/tb standard.

I’m aware of the current bandwidth differences. Just doesn’t seem to be to popular outside a handful of devices

[charred kite]

I’m sure it is, but people around here get all hot and bothered if you don’t mention Occulink sooooo 😂

It is a superior standard though, implementation is so limited and niche it doesn’t really matter in the end since it’ll die off

[silent nimbus]

It’s also proprietary isn’t it

[ancient stag]

I mean it’s just PCIe extension sorta. So no hot plugging. And it’s limited to 4x4 I think. I don’t think it’s proprietary

It was originally used for storage

I guess there’s a newer standard the same people are working on, CopprLink

I think TB5 theoretically offers more bandwidth

[silent nimbus]

https://tenor.com/view/mr-bean-mrbean-bean-mr-bean-holiday-mr-bean-holiday-movie-gif-3228235746377647455

Is it October yet

[spiral prairie]

this entire thing is gonna be a fail

[mild sinew]

The z2e Chip is a complete fail

[mint lintel]

can confirm. i have a 8tb nvme in my rog ally x

[sage halo]

How we feeling about the price considering the Lego 2 was announced?

[sharp ingot]

https://tenor.com/view/sealyx-thanos-avengers-endgame-gif-710112898283581777

[silent inlet]

Bring me an Xbox Ally X with VRR+OLED, 32gb ram and detachable controllers, and I'll let you know

Until then, they different beasts.

[sage halo]

That is very true, I suppose it's the price tag that is tied to the chipset that has me asking that.

[charred kite]

It’s a valid question

IMO 1.8” + OLED isn’t worth the rumored $350-450 price difference

[sage halo]

Yeah, I'd agree with you. Honestly the Xbox ally checks off all the things for a killer handheld. A wishlist item would of been an 8" screen but thats minor.

[sharp ingot]

Also detachable controllers are kind of a meme if I'm being honest

Basically taking the handheld out of your handheld

And you can always just pack a bt controller

[charred kite]

That’s why I bought the Go S Z1E. That 8” screen is perfect for me

[sage halo]

Solid handheld right there, they nailed the ergonomics with that.

[charred kite]

I did find a usefulness for me on an airplane a few weeks back. The Switch 2 on its kickstand on the fold out table with the joycons in each hand was really nice

Other than that I agree 100%. I got no use for detaching controllers and all the issues they cause

[silent inlet]

I wouldn't ever go back to non-detachable controllers.

Use it as a tablet, e reader, media device, easier to pack in a small bag, extra way to play on a train.....

It's game changing.

[sage halo]

But how good is the fps mode? Looks to have a learning curve compared to using a traditional mouse.

[silent inlet]

Now fps mode....that is a meme

Would rather just bring a small mouse than use that.

[charred kite]

I hate that they made the rest of the device worse to support that stupid mode

Then they were like, Go 2. Should we include it?

https://tenor.com/view/ill-fucking-do-it-again-ill-do-it-again-again-goofy-gif-21090281

[silent inlet]

I am on a specific legion go discord. I don't think anyone seriously uses fps mode

[sage halo]

It just looks wrong, should of been dropped

[silent inlet]

I wouldn't complain if they did.

[sage halo]

I would praise them

[charred kite]

At least you’d have symmetrical buttons

[fleet girder]

The entire generation is disappointing, epitome of a skip it generation

Best play seems to be wait for the z3e, wait for fsr4, wait for Asus/MSI/others to try OLED+vrr so maybe the price isn't so ridiculous

[deep prairie]

as long as they use versions of the high end ultrabook APU line I doubt prices will be much better

AMD can sell them to laptop manufacturers for a lot so why make the same chips super cheap for gaming handhelds

if anything it would be welcome to see a much larger leap in performance if the price stays high, this gen was very disappointing, pretty sure the prices did rise more than the performance uplift at this point

[silent inlet]

By a lot more than the performance uplift.

[spiral prairie]

But yall do we really think windows will be optimized for this handheld

[silent inlet]

Yes.

[spiral prairie]

Really? how much is it gonna cost most likely

[silent inlet]

Free. It'll be on most windows handhelds eventually, even the ones already out.

[spiral prairie]

And for the console?

[silent inlet]

What console?

[spiral prairie]

asus xbox rog ally

[silent inlet]

That'll have it first.

[spiral prairie]

Also how mcuh do we expect the hardware to be

[silent inlet]

Dunno. All we have are rumours right now.

[silent nimbus]

https://tenor.com/view/krzak-tumbleweed-biegacze-chamaechory-pustka-gif-23100634

[native hawk]

Considering they just upped the price of the series X to 800 bucks- there’s no way this is under 1k

[mint lintel]

https://tenor.com/view/dr-evil-one-billion-dollars-haha-money-gif-16679435

[hearty prairie]

not putting hall effect sticks is dumb, especially if it's going to compete with the legion go

[silent nimbus]

And give them an excuse to make it $1300? Yeah no thanks I’ll stick with regular sticks

[warm belfry]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/297612365279?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=MdEKoPzTTki&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=q7zCocW1Q9W&stype=1&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Already on ebay in UK

20% off too 😅

[blissful temple]

😏

[warm belfry]

£424 is not half bad for this

[blissful temple]

Yep it's good deal

[silent inlet]

Steam deck is £279-569, legion go S (z2go) is £329, legion go is £500, Ally is £550, so £424 still feels sort of in range for what it is.

Just hardware wise, it's not a great deal. But y'know, official Xbox blah blah counts for something.

£1k cheaper than the Win 5

[blissful temple]

You know what it's so funny

I just bought the steam deck 🫣

[charred kite]

Pricing and stuff is supposedly coming tonight at 8PM ET

[sage halo]

OLED steam deck, riiiiiight? 😛

[frank nymph]

hell yeah 😄

[warm belfry]

Currys UK

[charred kite]

Bestbuy US

$400 price difference for the X is wild

[sharp ingot]

About what I expected, still think the base version is a bit overpriced tbh

Should be like $500

I'll just wait till I can pick one up open box for $300

[silent inlet]

£800 for a z2e is good though.

Finally a z2e releasing in what I think of as the more "normal" price range.

[warm belfry]

Yeah. Its not bad. Im still team LeGo 2 but am pleased the prices are decent. I honestly hope it does well. If one comes up open box a few months down the line. I may pick one up if i can get for about £600ish

I think the Z2A model kinda excites me more though

[silent inlet]

I'm team detachable controllers, so it'll pass me by

But it seems like a good deal.

[warm belfry]

Yeah same reasoning. Also i love tate mode

https://tenor.com/view/tate-mode-game-sack-game-sack-tate-mode-ta-te-ta-te-mode-gif-2016542001071214111

[blissful temple]

It's about time I was about to buy it for my friend but he told me oh that asus rog ally x you told me you was right 😭😭😭🤣

[silent nimbus]

If true that base Xbox ally is actually a pretty big deal

[charred kite]

Yeah agreed

$20 more then a deck with a 1080p screen. Open box around 500 or so. Bad deal compared to OG Ally though that you can get

[silent nimbus]

1080p 120hz VRR screen
2280 SSD
Bigger battery

Yeah that’s throwing blows at the steam deck

Those prices end up being true I just might grab base Xbox ally

[weary igloo]

$1000 is about what I expected. now to wait for reviews

[sage halo]

Agreed. Seems right on the nose.

[soft island]

Price seems reasonable, not sure there's much I'm personally excited for tho. It's the kinda vanilla id expect from a console so unless they add some launch perks like free game pass for a year or something I don't feel the need to jump in line

Like all things MS walks in late on it'll be a while til it hits the usability or intuitiveness of steamOS

[silent nimbus]

I think steamOS being “intuitive” or “usable” is highly subjective

It’s intuitive for steam games and usable with games that work well on Linux

Both aspect go down the shitter the moment you want to play anything that’s not a Steam game

Or anything with anti cheat

[sharp ingot]

Uh not really, heroic launcher exists and makes it easy to play gog and epic games

[charred kite]

It’s like any other console, it works great when you play within its walled garden. Once you try to go beyond that it is gets bad quick

[silent nimbus]

Easy yes, intuitive no

[silent nimbus]

Yup

Also not sure about EGS but heroic doesn’t support gog cloud saves

Unless that’s changed recently

[soft island]

Exactly. Color me shocked when the Xbox ally isn't like this experience wise

[silent nimbus]

It’s a windows handheld

[charred kite]

I’ll be just like any windows PC though. That’s the benefit of it

[soft island]

Yeah. And that experience is ass

No offense. And I say this as someone with multiple. Lol

[charred kite]

Honestly, having Legion Space + Xbox Experience on my Go S > SteamOS

[silent nimbus]

Like with steamOS that’s highly subjective

[soft island]

Laughable comment. Normies love steamOS by comparison

Please. Let's not pretend

[charred kite]

I don’t have to worry if what I want to play works, if it works on PC, it’ll play. The UX is a lot better now + controls and management through Gamebar is pretty solid. Really don’t have many complains

[soft island]

Like steamdeck isn't just recommended as an x86 handheld for first timers because of the price

[charred kite]

I’ve had an OLED deck since launch, an ROG Ally before that, and now a Go S dual booting.

I’m aware of the strengths and weaknesses of both

[silent nimbus]

I have a few normie friends that have tried and sold the steam deck cuz they don’t like the way it works

[soft island]

Yeah. And steamdeck def has weaknesses. But usability isn't one of them. The interface and it's interaction is solid. Modifying settings intuitive. And the curtain of playable titles is baked in

[charred kite]

I never said usability was better on Windows

[soft island]

Right. And my point was if it's being sold as an Xbox people will expect that

[charred kite]

It’s that the usability benefit doesn’t outweigh the absolute mess it is to play anything outside of Steam

Have you used Xbox Experience yet?

[soft island]

Like get ready for shock as the first time user is kicked to desktop with no keyboard. Lol

They'll get there

[charred kite]

You clearly haven’t in a hit then.

25H2 is better to use in desktop mode then the deck is in desktop mode

[soft island]

But my whole initial claim is that I doubt theyll have a solid experience to start

[silent nimbus]

Been there done that with steamOS desktop mode lol

[charred kite]

Keyboard has hotkeys like an Xbox console now. It’s actually pretty great

[soft island]

Yeah but you never have to go there. We have no clue what the Xbox "big picture" mode will be like

[silent nimbus]

Ex gf called me in the middle of work cuz she managed to get to desktop mode and had no idea what to do or how to get back

[charred kite]

We do, it’s Xbox experience lol

That’s big picture

[soft island]

Right. And it's out on handhelds now?

[silent nimbus]

In beta

[charred kite]

I’ve got it and anyone can set it up as well and the Xbox Ally (terrible name btw) handheld will launch with it

[soft island]

Right. So no. We haven't experienced it. Not in a finalized form yet anyway. I mean you two seemed convinced, which is fine. I'm just looking at MS experience with every other product they've launched. But maybe this time they'll prove me wrong

[silent nimbus]

Prices are official

[soft island]

Guess Zune might be the standout in that regard

[silent nimbus]

Best Buy was correct

[soft island]

I mean it'd be kinda sad if Ms gave bb wrong prices

[silent nimbus]

Got my XAX ordered

Time to sell some shit

[soft island]

I'll wait for some reviews

Have owned every PlayStation and Xbox. Might as well get the PlayStation and Xbox handhelds

[hearty prairie]

$800/$1300 in Canada

[sage halo]

24gb of ram for the $999 config doesn't seem right.

[soft island]

They could have at least sprang for 32

[heavy compass]

Im curious how much the tariff is the price and spec is the price

[maiden rune]

899 euro msrp for XAX, before taxes that comes to ~860 usd, so ~140 dollars added because of tariffs.

[silent inlet]

That's after euro taxes have been added in though.

For example, the Xbox Ally X is £800 in the UK, but if it didn't have to pay VAT (tax) it would be £640.

[maiden rune]

Yep, we're saying the same thing. 899 euro is after taxes. That's why I'm calculating before taxes price. It's 860usd in Europe (before taxes), so around 140 added when imported to US

[silent inlet]

Why would you include Euro taxes in the price to import the console into the USA?

[maiden rune]

I am not doing that. I'll just rephrase it:

860usd is the price in Europe before taxes. That's 140usd less than in US. That's it.

[wide pebble]

Cannot fucking understate how big of a deal this being €899 in Europe is

[soft island]

Less Europe getting a discount and more US being run by idiots

[wide pebble]

It's partially that, but Europe does usually get shafted on price anyway

The ROG Ally X still sells for €950 here

[wide pebble]

Well it's more that our VAT rates fuck us up

But Xbox Ally X selling at €900 including VAT is insane

[soft island]

Yeah def good

Bout to travel to Europe to pick one up 😆

[glad hemlock]

Sorry if it's been asked w dozen times. But aren't these the same power as regular ally and ally x?

You just get a new os?

[frank nymph]

the xbox ally 0.5 is i think a bit stronger than deck, the rog ally x is a bit better than the z1 extreme tho not by huge amount? i might be wrong

[soft island]

Supposedly it's the AI z2e. Which has additional npu. Might have ai enhanced upscaling and whatnot. I'm not convinced it'll be that big of a gamechanger

MS is at the forefront of some cool ai projects, but considering most of the products actually delivered just do a shittier job then humans, I'm not convinced it's an upgrade 😆

[wide pebble]

Z2E is barely an upgrade over Z1E at full throttle, but it gets much more mileage out of using 17w TDP

Like AFAIK Z2E at 17w gets the same performance as Z1E at 25w

[spiral yoke]

Im not sure it’s worth the upgrade on the performance alone , yes it’s decent but not decent enough to blow 1k for a few more FPS , now it might be due to drivers but as of now at lower watts its good but still to early to tell , not a day 1 buy thats for sure

Might just pass this gen

[wide pebble]

I'm still using the LCD Steam Deck, so it's a pretty big upgrade for me

Especially since I'm getting annoyed with the performance for a lot of games

[spiral yoke]

Sure if your coming from the Deck but the Ally X not so much

[wide pebble]

I agree

But I never got the original Ally X because its current price is still higher than the Xbox Ally X in Ireland

€950 compared to €900

[spiral yoke]

Still probably going to wait and how it all plays out but it definitely doesn’t give me I got to buy this day 1 vibes, will most likely skip or wait 6 months and see how it is then

[frank nymph]

i just got my 74wh battery modded ally in today so im not bothering when any big upgrades for a while i think

Yeah the Ally X is still going for too much here in UK as well

[wide pebble]

I don't buy things day 1 most of the time, especially when it's this expensive, so I'll be waiting at least a week to see how I feel about it then

But my original plan was to wait until Christmas

[sharp ingot]

I'm kind of interested in the base model as a super comfortable way to play less demanding games. Probably just going to wait for the used market to start selling them for less than $500 though

[frank nymph]

same. I just got my z1 extreme ally 1 for £250 with the battery mod in, just going to mess about with it for now

[wide pebble]

Fuck, that was a good deal

[signal ridge]

FYI, if you DO want to buy day 1 in the US for a little less money, ASUS does discounts ($50 off) for teachers and some other groups (first responders and also military, I think are the other groups).

[charred kite]

Yeah for anyone with Z1E unless you need more longevity it isn’t super worth it.

But for $100 more then the MSRP of the Ally X right now, it’s certainly worth the upgrade if you were already shopping for an X

It’s a big difference vs the Legion Go situation. That went from $699 (typically 499/549) to $1349. The Ally only went up $100

[signal ridge]

Doesn't make much sense to get the original Ally X at this point unless used or (probably likely this holiday season) they're put on a good sale.

[wide pebble]

God, $699 for Lenovo Legion Go

That sounds nice

€850 here

I'm gonna try shut up about it because I've talked about it enough, but I'm just really happy at the Xbox Ally X being €899

[ancient stag]

The Ally X did go up 100 already though. Original launch was $800.

So really it’s up $200

Also X was an incremental upgrade. Would be more fair to compare original Ally to original legion go price

[signal ridge]

Of course, most of these comparisons aren't that meaningful now because the whole price structure for this kind of thing has been upended with the tariffs/price increases due to tariffs.

Annoys me to no end because I enjoy playing with PC devices far more than with Android stuff, but it is what it is ...

[frank nymph]

double the battery, double base storage and 24gb ram isn't what I'd call that incremental 😄 but yes

[wide pebble]

I mean it is still incremental

Since the APU is the same

[soft island]

I def wouldn't upgrade to z1e to z2e. I am considering comparing hx370 to z2e tho. If performance is close but one is more efficient, I'll just go with that

[wide pebble]

You're generally getting the same level of power, the overall experience is just more pleasant

I can't quite remember the difference

[soft island]

Is kinda wild to see EU getting a better deal than US 😆

[wide pebble]

I think Z2E is better at lower TDPs, but HX 370 is better at higher TDPs

But I could be misremembering

[soft island]

Yeah. I'll read up

Probably depends on what you're running as well, and how it divides between GPU/CPU for processing to some degree

You'd hope the gaming z series would just be the obvious choice but I do remember some tradeoffs

[wide pebble]

I mean isn't HX 370 also designed for gaming?

[soft island]

Yeah. Z series is just a trimmed down cpu version but I didn't think it was just for cost but also efficiency. But I could have just made that up in my head

Guess it just has a better memory controller and supports up to 8000

Has scored higher in some pass mark benches as well. But otherwise hx370 seems to perform better

[charred kite]

Yeah but we gotta compare apples to apples thanks to Cheeto in charge

I don’t really have any doubts that the Xbox Ally X would have been $899 or even $799 had things not gone so downhill

[soft island]

It's a shame. Would have been a great price

Now it's hovering in whale territory

[charred kite]

Yeah it’s right on the cusp of too expensive

If it had the 8” screen it would have been an easier pill to swallow and I’d probably have just spent it

[ancient stag]

Even still, the price jump should be og ally > xbox ally x compared to og legion go > legion go 2, since there was no legion go 1.5 with upgraded battery or ram.

so $700-1000 and $700-1350

IMO

I mean, You could compare legion Go S instead. Which is now $900 (z1e steam) vs 1350 for the 2.

I guess in that light the ally price jump is meaningfully less

whatever, doesn't really matter in the end

the user knows what their priorities are so

get what makes you happy and you can afford

[charred kite]

Yeah but I’m talking strictly the same device upgrade. Ally Z1E doesn’t really have a successor this cycle, the Ally X does. The Z1 Ally has a successor in the Xbox Ally and that one technically didn’t have a price increase

[soft island]

I mean we know it's been cheetoed. There's no denying it. And it makes me sad. But it is what it is

[glad hemlock]

I'd prices were like 200 dollars cheaper than it would be good value? I wonder

[charred kite]

$300 would be a good value, $200 would be what it should be minus 🧀 influence $100 is what I feel is fair in this market

[spiral yoke]

Lenovois insane for almost doubling price , I like everything about the Go 2 but the price is a bit hard to swallow even knowing it has a amazing OLED screen .
I really think Lenovo will end up shooting them selves in the foot on prices

[blissful temple]

I think xbox rog ally should be at least 400 in my humble opinion

Or 450

[soft island]

yeah, i saw the tag, and was like nah, i'm good. I mean the OLED is awesome, but you can find 2nd hand hx370 devices for under 1K that are more powerful

[spiral yoke]

I really think besides the hardcore handheld gamer crowd no one is going to buy the Go 2 .
Even when the original launched it was not impulse buy territory and this is almost double the price.
I hope it tanks so they can have massive discounts for the holidays

[soft island]

foreal

on discount the lego 1 is an awesome device

[valid bane]

The pricing of all PC gaming handhelds is unfortunate right now. This was going to be a segment with so much growth and potential over the next few years. We were going to see companies fight in the market with competitive pricing. But now the current climate has really killed that excitment for me.

[soft island]

not sure if it was manus or AMD themselves only pushing high end chips, but it seems to be like manus see that as the only option, to chase the premium

there was plenty of space inbetween

Even when they reach for intel it's only the 258V

[spiral yoke]

Before you could swallow maybe selling a old device to upgrade for a new one with minimal loss but with prices now it’s just not worth the small performance upgrade.

[valid bane]

I think it's also release frequency. If this is going to be a cycle of a new device every year, it's going to be as stale as the phone market is.

[spiral yoke]

Im probably holding out for next gen when performance might actually be worth the upgrade

[valid bane]

I, unfortunately, didn't hold out and put my preorder in just now. My Ally X will go to my kid who is already using my old Ally. Yes, I know I'm dumb.

[covert furnace]

I hope one day it will be like the mini PC segment and we have a bit more of a range in options. Still waiting for more on the lower end 😭

[blissful temple]

Exactly it's like phone market at least with pc you can change os and use it as emulation

[blissful temple]

Lower end is more important

[spiral yoke]

Well at least you can sell your OG Ally to fund the X2 , so

[valid bane]

True. I'll be doing that.

Do we have confirmation that this new Xbox low high efficiency mode will be exclusive to the two new handhelds? It's such a missed opportunity if that's the case.

[soft island]

Nothing wrong with this. Like all new devices I put in a preorder and will now decide whether to cancel for 2 weeks 😆

[soft island]

Yeah. Sheesh. Look at miniPCs and there's endless configs. Even bring your own hard drive

[valid bane]

You just reminded me I have to cancel my Odin 3 order.

[soft island]

Yeah. I think I just like PC gaming on x86 more. I've dabbled in gamehub and winlator, and many times the configuration just kills my desire

[soft island]

I hope it isn't. It shouldnt be. Locking software behind a wall would be mean (and probably reverse engineered anyway)

[charred kite]

Seeing the Deck at 549, the Ally really shouldn’t be priced any lower. They both really boil down to what you prefer, if XCloud and other streaming is important the Ally is the way to go.

If dual trackpads are important the Deck is the way.

[soft island]

I mean I still have an ayaneo 3 on the way, so no one should listen to me

Seems reasonably priced now 😆

[charred kite]

You can already run it on windows handhelds (even the deck with windows lol) if you run some Windows beta stuff. It’s pretty good but nothing groundbreaking

At least in terms of performance enhancements

[toxic sorrel]

This pricing is pretty reasonable, good

[signal ridge]

was actually going to try out that windows handheld mode this weekend but now probably doing hurricane prep instead.

[silent nimbus]

damn stay safe bro

[signal ridge]

Nobody quite knows where that system to the south of Humberto is going, but an awful lot of the current spaghetti models have it coming ashore near here. Hopefully no stronger than a low end Cat 1.

[charred kite]

ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X is already a trash name, this abbreviation somehow makes it worse

[signal ridge]

I'm just going to keep calling it the XAX.

[charred kite]

ARXAX

[hearty prairie]

buying my first handheld console - these are my choices. I use pc game pass almost exclusively for gaming. I'm not a huge fan of the detachable controllers. What would you guys recommend?

[silent nimbus]

Is $1300 cad out of your budget?

If not I’d say down to Xbox ally X or MSI claw 8

Those two are gonna be the most powerful

[hearty prairie]

it is not, I've been waiting to purchase something and am willing to pay once and be happy

[signal ridge]

Z1 Extreme Legion Go S is a very solid choice if you don't mind that it's big. Probably the best bang for your buck in the list you show. You'd need to put Windows on it for gamepass, but Windows can be acquired. I'd avoid the A1M Claw, the white Legion Go S (with Z2 Go), and the white Xbox Ally .

Xbox Ally X or Claw 8 AI from that list if price is truly no object and the Legion Go 2 (with its insane VRR OLED screen) isn't available. Ally for best compatibility or Claw for 8" screen.

[wide pebble]

I just feel like you really need a bigger battery to make good use of Z1E, and Legion Go S doesn't have that

[hearty prairie]

I'm looking forward to playing Forza Horizon 6!

[silent nimbus]

Lowkey same

Man people on YouTube are really losing their shit over the Xbox ally prices

[signal ridge]

Cost about what I expected, really. Given the current environment in the US.

[soft island]

Lego 2 if you wanna go rich. Low Xbox if you want budget

[soft island]

Yeah. Unfortunately it'll kill desire here

I mean they def not attracting normal console owners

They really needed like 4-5 and 8-9 at most