ASUS ROG Xbox Ally

[gritty cargo]

Not the 8

[hearty prairie]

damn...

[gritty cargo]

Its a beast though and a grip helps!

[hearty prairie]

I would've liked to have the bigger screen

tried out an og switch but was way too uncomfortable to hold

[gritty cargo]

Claw 8 will probably be uncomfortable for you then as well, it has a little ergo bump but not the best

XB ally most comfy

Lenovo 2nd

[hearty prairie]

ok thanks! guess I'll go with the XB

[gritty cargo]

Controls feel fantastic on the xb ally

Speakers best on claw, but very good on xba

[hearty prairie]

buy once, cry once, keep it for the next 5 years minimum

[gritty cargo]

Yeah in time I think it will be a more obvious buy

[signal ridge]

So is there any truth to the rumor that you can't buy Claws because each Claw speaker is handmade by artisans who live deep within the Tibetan mountains?

[warm belfry]

Agreed! Only consider go 2 if you want oled badly. But not much gains from Z1E

[wide pebble]

Well there's also better ergo and for some reason the original Legion Go has a comparatively tiny battery

Unless there's a battery mod for it

Which I'd believe

Since the ROG Ally has a battery mod

[warm belfry]

Open box Ally with battery mod is way to go if looking to keep prices down

[warm belfry]

Of course 😅 i forget about the bigger battery

[gritty cargo]

This is 100% accurate. V4 rubbers don't grow on trees!

[wide pebble]

I told myself that I'd wait at least a week after launch before picking up an XAX, but for some reason, I don't feel super interested in it anymore

I'm not sure why

Because I really want the upgrade over my Steam Deck LCD

And in Ireland, the €900 pricetag is really good compared to the rest of the competition

MSI Claw 8 AI+ is still €1,100

ROG Ally X is still €950 lmao

For some reason the A8 never hit Irish shelves

But yeah, for some reason my hype has suddenly died

[covert furnace]

Not sure what's going with the A8, it's been a weird roll out for that one.

North America hasn't received it yet either

[ancient stag]

Comparison is the thief of joy? We still haven't entered crazy gains compared to the deck on any handheld, really. I'm guilty of owning way too many pc handhelds on the quest for non-existent perfection lol.

[fierce moat]

Wukong

[ancient stag]

The more I see the more underwhelmed I am by Z2E...

[silent nimbus]

Same

Which is why I bought the win 5

[ancient stag]

https://tenor.com/view/big-spender-george-carlin-money-bags-rich-man-generous-george-gif-1476068738302193633

[fierce moat]

it huge upgrade on 17W

but not on full tdp

[silent nimbus]

Very big spender 😅

The only way to get a meaningful performance bump tho

IMO

Even if it is mostly just a “throw more juice at it” solution

[ancient stag]

Not gonna wait and see the onex apex?

[silent nimbus]

I’ll keep an eye out for it

Feels like it’s gonna be rather expensive tho

Even compared to win 5

[hearty prairie]

can the XAX use PC game pass? or would I have to switch to Xbox game pass?

[ancient stag]

Yes, it is a PC, don't need xbox version.

[sage halo]

is it weird that i never thought this handheld looks ugly? The grips look like a neccesity and they did the best they could do. My only grip is the bezel where a 8" screen could of gone, but perhaps the XBox Ally X 360 Edition will change that

[sage halo]

msi claw 8 ai+ with that sand color face plate on the other hand... bruh. I say that as someone who owns it so i get that right 😂

[charred kite]

Yeah the small screen is my only real issue with the design

[signal ridge]

I guess some people are going to say anything's ugly, but I have no qualms with the overall design so far. (i would obviously like a bigger screen in the same size package because who wouldn't, but that's not an issue with the way the device "looks".)

[covert furnace]

I will definitely take comfort over looks

[regal pond]

I think the Steam Deck is living proof enough that the vast majority of people prefer comfort over looks

[signal ridge]

But the Steam Deck is a thing of beauty.

[sage halo]

hence why i never cared for the first LeGo, the ergonomics didn't do it for me plus all the mouse-related buttons on the right controller just felt obtrusive. Funny thing about the LeGo2 is that I can't afford it, so problem solved with getting that one as well 😂

[sage halo]

Helps it does not have annoying RGB lights as well, yes they can be turned off, but I never seen a handheld where I felt it would of benefited more having lights all around it

[warm belfry]

Or oled over looks 😜

[covert furnace]

https://tenor.com/view/shhh-shush-silence-nose-gif-17895433

[charred kite]

Oddly quiet for release day

[silent nimbus]

People are busy playing

[sage halo]

Or setting up, or updating. 🫠

[ancient stag]

Or not buying it

[charred kite]

I was expecting “wHeRe DoEs ThE dIsK gO”

[silent nimbus]

Anyways

Anyone put bazzite or steamOS on this thing yet

[wide pebble]

XAX isn't actually available in stores here yet, seemingly

It's really weird because the XAX had store pages on Curry's and Harvey Norman prior to release, but now those pages don't exist lol

[gritty cargo]

I think tomorrow is when people will get them, if they bought today from Best Buy?

[sage halo]

people claiming xbox ally x better than msi claw 8 ai+ when running native display... cept the claw is 1200p 👀

[gritty cargo]

Yeah they'll need to compare 1080p on both

That's what i'm working on

[sage halo]

I have no doubt it performs great, just funny though

[sage halo]

i will watch, comment, and smash that thumbs up button

[gritty cargo]

#blessed

The UI experience is definitely smoother to navigate on the X vs the Base model so far

But playing in bed, the lightweight feel of the Base is so much nicer to hold for longer

[sage halo]

def looking forward to the "official" means of getting that UI-front on my x86 handhelds... envious but glad it exists

[silent nimbus]

Really tempted to grab the base Xbox ally

I like the white plus colored face buttons

[gritty cargo]

Yeah for sure, I can't wait until they get it officially on the rest

[sage halo]

gonna wait for the Pro edition that comes with a 8" screen, OLED or IPS.... we need that screen size bump. Wishful thinking though

[gritty cargo]

Yeah I like those aspects more too

Playing gamepass cloud on the Base is a delightful experience so far, that is where it shines for me.

[sage halo]

for $30 a month it better be damn delightful 😛

[gritty cargo]

Well you can get Cloud in the Premium $15 sub

But YES, right?

You'll get less games though

[silent nimbus]

You get it with the $10 tier too

[signal ridge]

Best Buy says they can ship me an XAX and have it arrive by Saturday. ASUS hasn't shipped my preorder yet, of course.

[silent nimbus]

Tho that’s just a small selection plus games you own on Xbox

[gritty cargo]

They just added Cloud yeah

[sage halo]

it's only until Best Buy has your money will they mention it got delayed

[signal ridge]

Of course. But at any rate, I get a discount from ASUS that I don't get at Best Buy.

[sage halo]

happy for ya, sincerely mean that. Always fun adding a new handheld to the rotation

[silent nimbus]

How good is the z2 go Lego S? I see one for $500 on bb open box

[signal ridge]

Between Steam Deck APU and Z1 Extreme in terms of performance. Very comfortable to use. Been playing X4 on mine for hours and hours ...

(X4 chokes to like 4 FPS sometimes on my Deck even though it's verified. More consistent frame rates on Z2G Go S.)

[frank nymph]

the comfort and controls on the go S look lovely

[wide pebble]

Yeah I'd love to get the Go S if it had a bigger battery

[signal ridge]

Lenovo did good work on the Go S in terms of ergonomics.

[wide pebble]

But also most corpo handhelds in Ireland are way too expensive

[gritty cargo]

Go S is pretty comfy, not as good and solid as the Ally XB, but very good

[wide pebble]

Lenovo are selling the Z1E (SteamOS) version of the Go S for €830

XAX is €900

[gritty cargo]

Go S has more heft to it

[signal ridge]

Obviously, the Z1 Extreme Go S is better ... but if you're talking $500, the Z2G Go S is solid.

[gritty cargo]

100

I got mine for around $450-ish open box at BB

Great value for the price

[wide pebble]

This might sound fucked up but I kinda like that the XAX screen is on the smaller end, because that means lower power consumption

Even more battery life to be had

[gritty cargo]

Yeah Go S nice big screen, power hog

[soft island]

Just picked mine up. Initial 30 second thoughts. Feels good in hand. Think I'll still be picking up a case to round out the grips a little more. Fuck me the dpad is garbage. Weights good

Not a huge fan of the grip texture

My guess is dbrand case will fix that

[signal ridge]

My Z2G Go S (32GB/1TB) was $549 new and I do not regret the purchase one bit.

[sage halo]

surprised to see how prevelant that pattern is on the controller though, maybe it was the way it appeared on camera from a youtube video... but is it that reflective to light?

[peak path]

That’s decent but I think you can find it cheaper if you look out for a deal for a couple weeks

[soft island]

Gross. Left stick like crunches on L3

Maybe will break in

[gritty cargo]

My Base ally has the left stick crunch when you move it around hard, but my XBAX does not. I found that odd.

[frank nymph]

whats up with the dpad?

[wide pebble]

Crunches?!

[soft island]

Just feels like Chinese ewaste dpad. I'll caveat by saying Ive never had an ally before

[gritty cargo]

Dpad is slightly improved from Ally X, but its still the same dpad design. I prefer steam deck's dpad 😄

[wide pebble]

Don't the Ally D-pads use tactile switches?

[gritty cargo]

First gen Ally dpad was ... something 😆

[soft island]

I mean I just wish they'd pulled an MSI and gone with something more like the actual Xbox dpad

[soft island]

It'll probably break in. Just dust or maybe a little adhesive from Manu causing it to stick

[rapid veldt]

Roller Ball

[gritty cargo]

Anytime I get a handheld that has that stick crunch I toss these on to relieve my OCD. G Cloud drove me crazy with that.

https://www.amazon.com/ELETIUO-Protectors-Protective-Accessories-Transparent/dp/B0D1BP8MSV

[rapid veldt]

No D Pad, just Sticks & Roller Ball

[soft island]

But yeah. I'm gonna need a case that covers these grips. The bottom edge def has a catch and roughness to it

[soft island]

Yeah. I'll see how it is after a day of play. I'm hoping it's just temporary

[gritty cargo]

It usually doesn't go away

[soft island]

But yeah. Xbox controller it is not

Seeing the 7" in person I really wish it was 8 too

[gritty cargo]

But it can very per unit, I returned the G Cloud probably 3 times until I got one that had very minimal crunch, tossed on rubbers and have stuck with it.

[rapid veldt]

Ally X D Pad was ok-ish. Was hoping ally X 2 (Electric Bugallo) would improve it, guess we can hope a Mod comes out to fix them all lol

[soft island]

I can see what people say about the back buttons. But as someone who accidentally hit less pronounced ones and had to remap to avoid ending their turn early, lol, I'm kinda ok with it having to be more intentional

[silent nimbus]

That sounds like really bad luck, I’ve owed 2 and both had buttery smooth sticks

[peak path]

I’m surprised no one is mentioning that the CPU in the base Xbox Ally is significantly weaker and two generations older than the base Ally 1 cpu (4c Zen2 vs 6c Zen4). If you are looking at the base Xbox Ally for streaming, indies and emulation, wouldn’t the base Ally 1 be technically better since it has a much newer and more powerful cpu? I get the Z2A will be better for AAA games versus the Z1 (base) though

[silent nimbus]

The stems don’t even touch the gates on mine

[soft island]

Sticks are smooth on mine. Meant when you press them down for L3/R3 it's not a satisfying feel

[rapid veldt]

Day 1, I removed the Analog sticks & replaced them with Guli Hall Sticks. Felt Great

[soft island]

Not that I use them that often

They almost have a double click feel to them

That will probably work out tho

[gritty cargo]

Oh that's odd, I haven't run into that before

[soft island]

It's audible. I can try to catch it later

[gritty cargo]

When I say crunch I mean when you roll the stick slowly around the edges of the hole and it grinds against the shell a little making a crunchy feel/noise

Joystick grind is a better term I guess

[soft island]

Like I said it's almost sticky sounding so it could just be that it's fresh off the line

[rapid veldt]

Guli Hall Sticks were a $20 upgrade, and were absolutely the easiest Upgrade I have ever done

Disassembly was easy and required minimal tools. $10 tool kit from Walmart, and $10 Spudgers from Amazon

ROG made accessing them super convenient as well. Thank goodness

[soft island]

But yeah. On lunch break so I can't really play til this evening

Def wanna give the screen a chance before I write off the 7"

[charred kite]

$399 or bust I think

Only thing I really do not like about the Xbox Ally X is that the top finish looks 3D Printed

[soft island]

Yeah. It just feels all around very Asus-y

Which makes sense I guess

[lone prawn]

Ally X is now around £500 consistently on eBay

I nought it 7 months ago where finding it at that price was like getting a bargain

With Xbox Ally X only being 10 percent stronger at high wattage this is a way better deal for nearly half price

And I actually prefer the form factor of the original

Thats the great thing about PC handhelds they drop so low in the used market

[warm belfry]

https://www.reddit.com/r/ROGAllyX/s/kq4k5ZWjVq

Uh oh!

[covert furnace]

Did anyone here pick up either of the handhelds? The one thing I want to know is if the experience out of the box is the same and consists of numerous updates across the board?

[soft island]

Lol. I did move my left stick to the left and it stuck there at first

[frank merlin]

mine comes tomorrow

[covert furnace]

https://tenor.com/view/austin-powers-mike-myers-yeah-baby-yeah-gif-1691826607058877752

[silent nimbus]

Waiting for open box Xbox ally

[covert furnace]

https://tenor.com/view/tkt-smart-gif-20642718

I have a feeling we’re gonna see quite a bit of that

[weary igloo]

i cancelled my XAX preorder. but if i see an open box for like, $800 or less, i might jump on it

[silent nimbus]

I hope so

[charred kite]

Oof, looks like some XBXLMAO are shipping with 24H2 installed instead of 25H2 for FSE to work

[covert furnace]

This is what I was worried about and why I shared my experience OotB because my unit looked pretty dang retail to me

[soft island]

Yeah. Just stuck updating right now

Still kinda sad it's not an oled

[covert furnace]

which model did you get? I'm trying to get feedback from those that purchased one on release

[soft island]

I got the X

Haven't gotten to play anything yet. Picked up on lunch break

So far it's pretty cool tho. The seam edges are a little sharp on grips. Which is unfortunate. But I'd probably get dbrand Killswitch case for it anyway

Basically just some fit and finish stuff that I wouldn't expect on an official Xbox device but don't really shock me on an Asus product

Some weird crunchiness when pressing in L3. Etc

And of course I will be doing an Xbox controller dpad mod asap

I imagine stuff like this will come along: https://makerworld.com/en/models/532861-rog-ally-xbox-elite-magnetic-dpad-mod

[signal ridge]

Hold on ... so some people are getting XAX / Xbox Ally units that don't even have the full screen experience installed?

[soft island]

We'll see in a sec. Mine is almost done updating. Like 2 hours in 😆

[covert furnace]

See that’s the same experience I had on both the base and X

[signal ridge]

Two hours of updates? Damn ... I feel bad now for criticizing my LCDeck for getting stuck in an "update" loop when I set it up after the big Steam sale.

[soft island]

Yeah. Windows always goes for records

Would be kinda sad if it finally finished and wasn't fse

[covert furnace]

Yea, it should be after that. There will probably be some restarting and maybe a few more updates once it gets into it.

I just wish that was the experience people were getting out of the box vs the typical bombardment of Windows, MyASUS, Armoury Crate, and Xbox app updates

[soft island]

Windows update done. Now Xbox update

[covert furnace]

plus the whole intiial Windows 11 setup

[soft island]

Yeah. And several times it said it lost internet connection? Kinda odd

[signal ridge]

ALLYour games. Sometime. In the future. But first, please enjoy this progress bar that doesn't move.

[soft island]

Haha. It did sit there for 10 min

But we're past it. I think I'm in

[covert furnace]

https://tenor.com/view/macgruber-im-in-imin-gif-24174214

[covert furnace]

MST3K is great

[soft island]

Amazing show

Ok. Game pass subscription not showing up. Ruh roh

Might have to log back in

[signal ridge]

I was trying to find an "I'm interfaaaaaaced!" GIF from Overdrawn at the Memory Bank but that was as close as I could find.

[balmy zodiac]

I think I'll grab an open box Xbox Ally X when one pops up.

[sage halo]

Shouldn't take long based off of how a typical XBro thinks 😂

[signal ridge]

Looks like my XAX will be here on Wednesday. ASUS sent a shipping notification this morning. Of course they're shipping ground from California when I'm on the East Coast ...

Should at least have time to pick up a fresh microSD for retro stuff.

[soft island]

Welp 12 hrs later and updates almost complete. Lol

I did sleep for 6 of those hours

Windows update, Xbox update, armory core update, my Asus update, installing library managers

Bazzite looking real friendly right now 😆

[frank nymph]

so many updates 😄

[signal ridge]

That device has so many updates it should feel like it's brand new! Oh, wait ...

[soft island]

Never had this on any other x86 but pop off. Lol

MS def needs to come up with a package manager 3rd parties are required to use

One spot for updates would be smart if this is their future

When it's a longer process than any fresh windows install on Ayaneo or OneX, even with custom driver installs, it's not exactly a seamless experience. If this is their future hopefully they improve it

Even Lego was way faster/easier out the box

[drowsy grotto]

Is there much reason to upgrade/performance gains on the Xbax compared to an Rog Ally X?

The Ally X also has the option for an Oculink eGpu via the Xg port too I'm pretty sure

https://www.reddit.com/r/ROGAlly/comments/1e8vf0g/xg_mobile_station_an_open_source_egpu_dock/

[silent nimbus]

Ally X doesn’t have XGM port

[wide pebble]

Not if you already own a Z1E device

Z2E's main leg up over the Z1E is that 17W with Z2E has similar performance to 25W with the Z1E

[drowsy grotto]

Oh right that's the regular Ally

[wide pebble]

But the Z2E at full throttle is an unimpressive performance boost

[drowsy grotto]

You can get the Ally with the Z1E and the battery mod iirc still

[silent nimbus]

If you want any meaningful performance boost you want strix halo

[drowsy grotto]

True

[wide pebble]

What is Strix Halo?

[soft island]

395+ max chip. Only in gpd win 5 right now

2x the performance of z2e

Or wait for panther lake. Gonna be a similar bump. Otherwise it's all fractional

[drowsy grotto]

Is the Hx 370 much of a performance increase over the Z1E in a handheld?

If a sub $1000 Hx 370 handheld with Oculink came out I'd definitely consider it

Cheapest one I know of now is the OneX G1 I think and that's $1250

[soft island]

Almost identical to z2e

[soft island]

Can always go 2nd hand. I have a Onex f1 pro I was gonna list soon 😆

[signal ridge]

GPD Win 5 is the one with jank external battery, though.

[silent nimbus]

All the current upcoming 395s have external batteries

[soft island]

Yeah. Apex will have external too. But I'd more interesting to me

[silent nimbus]

Onexplayer apex has external

[soft island]

Except Next II but that's not til next year

[silent nimbus]

That’s also gonna be expensive even for 395 devices

[drowsy grotto]

If they dropped the Gpd Win 4 370 model to $999 it'd be considerable

[soft island]

They're all expensive not gonna lie

[silent nimbus]

Oh yeah they definitely are

[drowsy grotto]

The 32gb+1tb model is sub $900 but constantly sold out

[silent nimbus]

But you gotta tack on the AyaNeo tax

[drowsy grotto]

Nvm not sold out

"doesn't exist" lol

[signal ridge]

For now, I think I'll be happy with Z2E's supposed better efficiency. The games I actually play run pretty well on a Z1E at 25 watts, so ...

[soft island]

Who knows. The latest Ayaneo stuff is more reasonable. Last real sticker shock from them is the aya 3. I don't think we'll be seeing modules again. Tho it was one of my favorite

[silent nimbus]

I’m really conflicted on if I want to cancel my win 5 for the apex

[soft island]

Personally 8" screen is just a no-brainer for me. After owning like 12 x86 devices

[signal ridge]

I just ... can't with Ayaneo. Guess I like my "expensive" stuff to come from companies that don't feel like fly-by-nites.

[wide pebble]

What's the Apex?

[silent nimbus]

Onexfly apex

395 handheld PC

[soft island]

https://discord.com/channels/741895796315914271/1421105546081337355

[wide pebble]

Are external batteries the way of the future or something?

[silent nimbus]

Honestly tempted by the liquid cooling claims

Since the 395 can run hot

[signal ridge]

I actually want a 6" x86 PC handheld. An "inexpensive" one based on something like an N100/N150 for low-end games and emulation.

[silent nimbus]

Cuz gotta find out how to refund an IGG order every since they changed the whole website

[soft island]

Amen. I'm just assuming we won't see one for a bit

People have to get bored of the 395 first. So like 2 years 😆

[signal ridge]

They're the way of "this thing runs so hot it burns up internal batteries".

[wide pebble]

Fucking hell

[soft island]

The 395 requires significantly more cooling. So internal batteries make a chonky handhold. Basically a mini PC with screen and controls taped on

[sage halo]

GPD Win 4 is the smallest i'd ever go for a PC handheld and that's pushing it... ideal for indies and games that don't require a lot of reading

[soft island]

Yeah. Unfortunately a lot of stuff I have has subtitles i like to read 😆

Think 8" is the sweet spot. If anything Lego might be slightly too big

[sage halo]

yeeeeeeeeeeeah, that's gonna be an issue. 7" is the minimum i need for reading on a screen 😂

[signal ridge]

And then there's stuff like X4 with a crapton of small text on the screen. Would not play that on a <7".

[frank nymph]

x4 foundations? if so hell yeah 😄 fun game

[sage halo]

mega man x4?

[signal ridge]

That game is addictive as hell.

[frank nymph]

it took me a long time to get into it but i love it now

[signal ridge]

It helps that I used to play Trade Wars 2002 back in the BBS days.

... and X4 foundations is basically Trade Wars in real time with "you can actually fly the ships" - but you can play single player as opposed to having to wait for everyone else on the BBS to take their turns.

[soft island]

Imo if you're going 7 or less you're looking for something portable like win mini

[wide pebble]

My problem with the Win Mini are the sticks it uses as well as the fact that your hands are directly on where the heat generates

[covert furnace]

One day 😢

AYN will never revisit the Loki so they're out for sure

[charred kite]

Makes me wonder how long these things have been sitting in the boxes waiting to ship out

[soft island]

It must have been a bit

[soft island]

Yeah. I use the transparent case so it helps in that regard at least. Can still put in a pocket. Which is basically what I eanted

Onto adrenalin updates. Lol

At least they're fast

[covert furnace]

Yea, the two "review" units looked VERY retail to me. I don't like to hold my breath when a company tells me that it will be a different experience for the consumer, it typically isn't. 😅

[rustic sluice]

Looks like you can buy the xbox ally from the microsoft store.

[signal ridge]

I think you could buy both models direct from Microsoft.

[rustic sluice]

I think also that earlier, companies overestimated AMD mendocino performance and Intel lowend APU have poor graphic hardware compared to lunar lake. There is still some expectation on gaming performance that the majority of people expect.

Most people like Rob and me like to squeeze the most performance out of low end devices (Watch out for Stubbs destroying your win600 box)

I still have my win600 and loki zero

[frank nymph]

i have a loki pro 😄

[sage halo]

I always have a soft spot for the win600, looks wholesome despite falling short

[covert furnace]

many of us do 😅

[ancient stag]

I've been told the newer iterations are better but I briefly owned a 7840u win mini and my thumbs were always hot. Did not like. And that's at only 15w TDP.

[sage halo]

win mini 8840u is my ideal way to emulate generation 6+ along with PC recompiled games... just perfect 👌

[frank nymph]

yeah win600 is something im oddly fond of despite being a hot mess 😄

[covert furnace]

Nothing like seeing Stubb's reaction again when he owns a Win600 for the 18th time

"OHHHHHH THAT D-PAD" - Stubbs

[lone prawn]

Had no idea a MSI A8 is £850 and Legion Go 2 is £990

Xbox Ally X is £800

I thought Ally price difference would be more

MSI Claw A8 would be a consideration but no news if the 8AI D Pad flaw has been fixed

[soft island]

Still hoping someone sells a blue win600 on the secondary so I can try it out

[wide pebble]

Is the A8 readily available in the UK?

[lone prawn]

Seems like it

[wide pebble]

That's really weird

Because it doesn't seem to be in most of the west

[ancient stag]

[covert furnace]

It barely exists lol

MSI is excellent at shipping handhelds

[gritty cargo]

But dude, have you USED this dpad???

XBAX performance or Win600 dpad? I think the choice is obvious

[frank nymph]

the win600 battery life 😅

[gritty cargo]

Every minute of bliss is precious

[covert furnace]

https://tenor.com/view/office-space-thats-what-she-said-michael-scott-wasted-gif-14638521

[soft island]

Eventually one maker will make Xbox Elite controller moves and have dpad tops be switchable on all their devices

The true dpad endgame

[gritty cargo]

Some thoughts on each model!

Video for X: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbMHFBfteew

Written for Base: https://retrohandhelds.gg/why-the-xbox-ally-matters/

[soft island]

Nice

[charred kite]

I would have liked to have seen the Xbox Ally launch with an ARM processor vs the Deck SOC. Bring the price down to like $299 or something with crazy battery life and 1080p/120hz

[silent nimbus]

[soft island]

Oh god. Not that

That sounds like windows arm all over again

No way you'd get good gaming performance over what already exists on android or with pure x86

[signal ridge]

And given what Qualcomm seems to want to charge for something comparable, doubtful they could make something that would play Steam/Gamepass games for $299.

[wide pebble]

Decided I'll wait on ordering at least until Russ releases a review on it

[soft island]

Yeah. No harm in waiting for reviews

It's def cool. I like it. Def should have came out a year ago tho

[gritty cargo]

The Base model firmware update today has helped it run smoother

UI and also games like Dark Ages

[rustic sluice]

Play Dark Ages again at 100% sound volume. Peak Dolby Atmos!

[signal ridge]

Open box Xbox Allys are already available: Open Box - Excellent
$569.99

No open box XAX, though.

[rustic sluice]

https://tenor.com/view/so-it-begins-raining-rainy-day-théoden-lord-of-the-rings-gif-16521230

How low can they go...

[drowsy grotto]

Man, if one of these things just had two m.2230 slots that'd be nice

[signal ridge]

$30 off isn't THAT low yet, so they have a while. I can see buyers being disappointed with "worse than Steam Deck" performance for $600, though - so no surprises that they already have returns.

[drowsy grotto]

There still being no decently priced Oculink supporting handheld is a pain

[rustic sluice]

ehh. oculink is not a main feature to have. I get that some people are all for it. But for most people it is about handheld game performance, screen and battery life.

[signal ridge]

I was going to see whether you could get the Xbox Ally cheaper from ASUS with education discount than Best Buy's open box price, but apparently the education discount doesn't work for the Xbox Ally (although I was able to get it on the Xbox Ally X I ordered).

[signal ridge]

For these devices, it'd almost always be better just to have another USB/Thunderbolt port. The number of people who are going to run these with egpus is practically a rounding error on the device's sales anyway.

(Oculink would have been better than the nearly useless proprietary port on the original Ally, but an additional USB would have been even better than that.)

[wide pebble]

https://youtu.be/XmuksjOruLw?si=lNXZO5Oeofuf1BDS

[deep prairie]

what a boring gen hardware wise tbh

at these prices I think they would have to do more to get people excited

[frank nymph]

doesn't feel like any real upgrade, yeah

[warm belfry]

I said it before feels like a 1.75 upgrade rather than 2.0.

If they upgrade screen to 8 inch. I think it would excite people more

[deep prairie]

1.25 maybe

LeGo S with Z1E at least has that 8" 16:10 screen, seems unique enough to consider to some

[frank nymph]

sticking with my £250 ally with battery upgrade for now 😄

[deep prairie]

for me all these are just too large tbh

[warm belfry]

My OG day one ally still going strong and still has working sd card 😅

[frank nymph]

i havent tested my slot. Don't want to risk frying it 😄

[deep prairie]

last standing xD

[frank nymph]

512gb storage is enough for me though

[warm belfry]

Only a matter of time

🤣

[deep prairie]

if you never tested it you might just have schrödingers microSD slot

[frank nymph]

true, but i dont have any spare sd cards im willing to risk on it 😄

[soft island]

Been playing it since last week. And it is fun. But really wish they'd gone with a bigger screen

I do appreciate the ergos tho

[warm belfry]

Were all getting older 😅

[soft island]

Still looking at Lego 2 and hoping it's comfy

[warm belfry]

Bigger screens please

[soft island]

Haha. Exactly

[warm belfry]

It is

Its noice

[soft island]

That and there's just no illusion that you won't be playing this while sitting down and slipping it into a bag anyway

Yeah. I'll try to grab one at launch. Def not loaning Lenovo my money for 4 months

[wide pebble]

Russ's verdict made me more inclined to start looking at the HX 370 handhelds again

Just to see if I can get something at a good deal

Though as a general rule, XAX is a fair bit cheaper than the rest of the competition

[soft island]

Honestly the next real 2.0 upgrade will come with rdna 5/395+ from a larger company (maybe rebranded as z3e or something)

[soft island]

Dude. Now is the time. Wait til Lego 2 releases and market will be flooded with them

They're already starting to trickle out now

[wide pebble]

Really?

[frank nymph]

the win 5 looks nuts but that price is high 😄

[deep prairie]

the halo line for AI will always stay expensive, it's a "cheap" way to bypass GPU VRAM gatekeeping for larger AI models not aimed at gamers

[wide pebble]

I've only seen XAX, MSI A8, and Legion Go 2

[soft island]

I meant hx370 devices

On the secondary

[deep prairie]

I just commented on 395+, I agree that next gen with RDNA 5 and native FP8 upscaling should be good for handhelds

[warm belfry]

I wouldnt have got go 2 if i hadnt have got work discount on it. Otherwise go 2 is not far off Win 5 base price

[wide pebble]

I was hoping to get one from a second hand store that gives you a warranty but I haven't seen any on CeX unfortunately

[soft island]

Sure will stay expensive. But doesn't mean AMD won't chop some bits off and make a handheld sku

[deep prairie]

the successor to the HX370 / Z2E could be quite interesting but prices sadly might also go up again because of the TSMC node jump that is rumored

[deep prairie]

they didn't with the strix halo line

the chip is so large already that's just costly

if you are okay with handhelds that cost 1500+ sure but I think that's not enough volume to really make AMD give af

the Z line is already mostly rebranded chips

outside of the decks APU initially we have not really seen anything custom

sure you can say they took away cores from the 6800U or HX370 but those are easy tweaks, probably getting rid of defective chips even

[soft island]

Right. I meant down the road. You don't think they'll rebrand halo strix at some point? Of course they will

[deep prairie]

yeah ofc they will, agreed

[soft island]

Yeah not like anytime soon. Just meant in the future

[wide pebble]

So uh

[deep prairie]

maybe if they are leftover and not being sold they could end somewhere

[signal ridge]

I wonder what XAX sales vs Legion Go 2 sales were - that would show whether the $1000 vs $1500 price point was important.

[wide pebble]

Outside of GPD, have there been any handheld PCs with good D-pads

[deep prairie]

win600 🧠

[signal ridge]

WIN600? 🙃

[wide pebble]

Walked into that one

[soft island]

Cost of production always goes down over time. Then they take lower bins and call them z3 extra extreme or some shit

But yeah. Til rdna 5 probably no real revolutionary bumps

[deep prairie]

yeah you are not the one bringing it up but people who think the halo line is gonna replace entry level gaming GPUs has not got the memo why it exists, and future stuff like medusa halo is probably not any cheaper so it will be the ultra premium tier for handhelds at best

[soft island]

Lego probably the most impressive bump hardware wise we'll see in the near future outside of boutique 395s

[signal ridge]

(Not that I really give a shit about dpads on PC devices. As long as they can reliably select shit from menus they're good enough.)

[soft island]

Yeah. That's silly

And not how this works. Heh

[deep prairie]

true, but if I look at the Z2 Go on 6nm that has not dropped much, until 4nm is cheap it's gonna take ages because the demand is insane rn

[soft island]

But yeah. Hx370 on the secondary is great value now

Seen some dip into the 600 range.

[deep prairie]

really?

[soft island]

But your not gonna get a warranty

[wide pebble]

What was the thing they wanted to do with Z2E AI

It's not ready yet

[deep prairie]

what sort of deals were those?

[deep prairie]

auto SR but don't get excited for it

[soft island]

There's this idea that AI will make everything better. But it's probably an oversell

[signal ridge]

Copilot.

[deep prairie]

it's just some janky boardroom idea to justify the NPU because microsoft is all about AI buzzwords

[soft island]

Auto SR would be the only reason

But it's pretty hit or miss

[deep prairie]

autoSR is gonna be the worse choice in any game that has motion vectors and native upscalers, calling it now

[soft island]

There is some auto depth AI software which is pretty decent if you have VR or 3D screens

[wide pebble]

Is Auto SR just DLSS but better or something

[deep prairie]

FSR but worse more like

the good upscalers do everything on the GPU

[soft island]

Yeah. I mean maybe in the future it'll be ok at bandaiding old hardware

[deep prairie]

it just seems like they want to force ways to justify the NPU, I have not seen it do anything for a normal user so far

[soft island]

Yeah. It's mostly built around the promise of cool things yet to materialize

[deep prairie]

the 7840U already had the XDNA unit, I guess we now call them NPU because windows named them that

no use outside of AI workloads

gamers have no reason to care

but the XAX being microsoft it probably helps to push as much AI as possible

Lenovo went with the Z2E without the XDNA unit anyways

if it had insane potential you wouldn't think they use the "regular" Z2E

[soft island]

And it could bear fruit. Just unfortunate there's nothing there at launch. Kinda a flub on their part

[wide pebble]

I wonder what does Z2E AI actually add to the APU considering that Legion Go 2 is so fucking expensive

[deep prairie]

yeah, with how few devices currenlty have an NPU no dev is gonna target it with software

[soft island]

Eh. Lego2 has a lot of other crap that makes it pricier

Chipset diff in price probably minimal

[deep prairie]

yep

[soft island]

They're def funding their tooling for the OLED panel in it

Which makes sense

[deep prairie]

LeGo 2 has the screen and is mechanically more complex ofc

[soft island]

Multiple skus for controller attachments, etc.

[deep prairie]

yeah small OLED with VRR was more or less unseen prior

[warm belfry]

The oled is worth it IMO. Its something else when you see it. Pics dont do it justice

[soft island]

Nah. I totally believe that

[deep prairie]

but yeah for my NPU TED talk I just want to tell people to not get their hopes up

[warm belfry]

Even my wife went wow that screen is amazing

When she saw it. She normally doesnt care about my gadgets

[soft island]

Think it's one of the few out there I'd consider a side trade for an already purchased hx370

[deep prairie]

handhelds are so much more than just their chipset

so I could see why people love the LeGo 2

meanwhile the XAX is very iterative over the Ally X

[soft island]

My current go-to when not trying more stuff on the xax, is my gpd win mini hx370

The biggest plus of the xax is the grips. Tho even a Lego 1 with the 3d printed grips is super comfy

[deep prairie]

the 17W performance also seems to be nice compared to Z1E, it's not like the device is bad just not a massive upgrade from the Ally X

[signal ridge]

To be fair, the Ally X was actually really good. They fixed the most important issues people had with the original Ally.

[warm belfry]

The only downside with the lego 2 so far is the weight. It is heavy. But if you know that going in. You get used to it

[deep prairie]

yeah if the Ally X never existed this would feel like a much larger positive step from the OG Ally

but that's how a market with all these options works

[soft island]

Yeah. I mean don't get me wrong. Xax is awesome software. Then you get the added incentive for Asus and Microsoft to support it for probably much longer than other manus.

[deep prairie]

I see that more like a gaming tablet with controls

[soft island]

Like if I was just starting PC handhelds it or the steam deck I would consider no brainers

[signal ridge]

That's basically what the LeGo / LeGo 2 are, so that's fair. The Go S is Lenovo's actual handheld.

[deep prairie]

hm

[soft island]

Would have loved actual MS hardware instead of Asus. But it probably would have been another 6 months til we saw that

And if likely still would have been z2e and would have felt even more underwhelming

[signal ridge]

I haven't held the XAX in hand for comparison, but the Go S is quite well-designed from an ergonomics standpoint for a device of its size. No issues with holding it burning through a whole battery of X4 Foundations and plugging in for more. Hoping the LeGo 2 and XAX are at least as comfortable.

[warm belfry]

Go 2 is way more ego than gen 1. But i would say its made for people with bigger hands. If you have small hands then may require some stretching

[deep prairie]

you need to be sure to sell upwards of 10M units to even think about the cost of a fully custom SoC from AMD, it just costs a ton
deck got lucky because the APU was already there

[soft island]

For sure. That and they were talking with AMD for a while. There was no rush to market at that point

[deep prairie]

hm

the issue is if you make some super advanced and fast APU it will have bigger die size too

[signal ridge]

The Go 2 with controllers on looks a lot like the Go S, so I'm hoping it's at least close.

[warm belfry]

Yeah i instantly noticed difference when i got it. I only have gen 1 and 2. I dont have go s

[soft island]

I mean they could have just put the z2e in an Xbox branded handheld too

They were just stuck in indecision hell

They clearly went down a hardware path they weren't sure of and probably hit multiple redesigns

[deep prairie]

so say you want 8C Zen 5 + 20 CUs RDNA 3.5 and target 5-20W instead of the typical 15-30W the HX370 is build for (laptops after all), yeah that would probably be insane but if you have to sell your handhelds for 1500+ at this stage you are gonna make a loss, that is 395 pricing already because AMD self funded the development of that chip because they figured it will sell

that's ultimately the upside corpo handhelds like a switch 2 or potential playstation handhelds will have, if they think they sell far beyond 20M units they will commit to a fully custom chip made to meet their specific needs, that really breaks out of the limits of reusing a chip designed for laptops

[regal pond]

for me what this needed to do is OLED

you put OLED on an Xbox Ally X I'd be mildly interested

as is, difficult to justify compared to other options

[deep prairie]

I mean I agree at this price it should be OLED, but I would rather see a handful of improvements all at once given the price

[soft island]

Yeah. They could have done a couple things

Seems like besides the ergos the biggest "feature" is an update all other windows handhelds will receive

[signal ridge]

I wonder how the XAX would have been received with non-VRR OLED...

[sharp ingot]

That's what I would've preferred tbh, just use the same screen as the zotac zone

Vrr isn't a big deal to me

[soft island]

Fps lock and vrr is kinda pointless

[regal pond]

I'll take OLED over VRR every day of the week

[signal ridge]

That they didn't do that suggests that it'd have ended up as expensive as a Legion Go 2 anyway.

[sage halo]

Never hear someone complain about lack of vrr on the OLED steam deck

[soft island]

Probably not if they had gone with an existing display

If they had to do a custom it still likely would have been cheaper. Just cause it's less complex hardware in general

[charred kite]

That’s mainly because the OLED SteamDeck uses its framebuffer to remove the vast majority tearing

The moment you put the Deck on Windows the tearing gets pretty annoying

[regal pond]

that's vsync, not vrr

vrr is more about how smooth it feels when the frame rate ebbs and flows

[charred kite]

If you use vsync you don’t need VRR as it synchronizes the frames with the display refresh rate.
The SteamDeck uses the framebuffer along with the adjustable refresh rate of the OLED panel to smooth out issues

[ancient stag]

I mean the deck is just doing vsync on a systemwide level within the game scope compositor right?

I feel like people often blow vsync latency out of proportion

[regal pond]

yes, but also no

gamescope on the deck handles vsync better

but VRR is meant to smooth out frame pacing, not tearing, different issues

you can have a frame rate that is vsynced but still fluctuates, and the fluctuations make it feel "less smooth" even if there is no tearing

VRR is meant to help with that

[soft island]

Technically they both deal with tearing

Without vrr if the fps is higher then the refresh rate it'll hold or skip frames. And you'll notice skips (tears) in gameplay

It's not the same as when two separate frames are shown but it can have the same visual effect

[charred kite]

Yeah. And VRR doesn’t make games play more smoothly, it just makes 46fps feel like 46fps should, which isn’t dissimilar to how vsync works.

[soft island]

Yeah in the end they both help. You can lock fps to lower than refresh rate and not need vrr at all. At this point everything should have vsync or something like it

[signal ridge]

It has arrived!

Grips feel pretty good at first hold. Now for hours of setup.

[charred kite]

https://tenor.com/view/cringe-eeee-gif-24636179

[regal pond]

Gee, I wonder how Russ truly feels about the Xbox Ally 🤔

[signal ridge]

Who wanted an actual Xbox in the first place? 🙃

I think the people who impulse-bought the Xbox Ally (the white one for $599) probably wanted an Xbox - which is why you can get one open box at Best Buy for $534.99 right now. Most of the ones who shelled out for the Xbox Ally X were looking for an improved Ally X, which is why you can't get the Xbox Ally X open box right now.

[covert furnace]

For whatever reason, many are also confused by the Xbox Ally vs Xbox Ally X

[signal ridge]

Just wait until the Xbox Ally X 360 comes out. Then there will be mass confusion.

[ancient stag]

Base model available for local pickup…

[signal ridge]

I can get a base model in an hour should I want one.

Probably means I could just walk in and buy it.

[rustic sluice]

Looking back, I did not realize how many versions of their consoles they made. Even the xbox 360 had so many versions

Their current line is even worse

[soft island]

As someone with a bunch of Xbox digital purchases, it would have kinda been nice 😆

[sharp ingot]

Xbox really needs to increase their play anywhere library if they're trying to do this whole new ecosystem

[signal ridge]

I skipped Xbox entirely after the 360 was done. But I'd certainly welcome being able to play "xbox" games anywhere. Which is sorta what gamepass is supposed to be...

Okay - so the criticisms of updates being in too many damned places on the XAX are valid.

[soft island]

I mean I think all his points make sense

And I think would have been solved by a first party handheld console

Like having Xbox buttons and dpad would have been awesome. Having a more unified launcher than basically 2 competing launchers. Having an expanded play anywhere at launch. Giving a more significant game pass offering

All are pretty valid for their first attempt to enter the space

And it's shocking because usually MS is pretty good about sweetening the deal when it comes to hardware

[balmy zodiac]

Surprised Xbox sent one to Maximilian dood for review. They are really trying to get a larger group of people to buy this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj4exswcNSk

[wide pebble]

I read an article saying that ASUS manufactured a pretty small amount of them

[signal ridge]

Can't be smaller than Lenovo's production run of Legion Go 2's. I think they must've made like six of them.

Funny thing is that both Lenovo and ASUS seem to have misread the demand for the higher-end versions. Lenovo only has the "low-end" Go 2 available on their site because the Z2 Extreme version sold out immediately, and there's a wait for the Xbox Ally X when I can just walk into Best Buy and walk out with the Xbox Ally either new or open box.

[wide pebble]

Hasn't it not come out yet?

I thought the release date was 31/10

[signal ridge]

It's out in UK, etc. Just not in NA - though Lenovo actually promised people that ordered from their site in US/Canada that it'd be delivered a week ago.

(Then they changed the delivery date to January 2026, then to November 2025, now it's December 2025...)

[wide pebble]

TIL, since it's not out in Ireland either

At least seemingly

[covert furnace]

no company has misread demand worse than MSI

[wide pebble]

Tf is even going on with them

I really want the A8

I think I'd be willing to pay €100 more for it than the XAX

But I can't get it domestically

[sharp ingot]

I didn't even realize the a8 has been out for a few months now because I can't find it anywhere

[covert furnace]

Same and then the fact that they still haven't normalized stock for the 8 AI+ is insane to me considering how it's still an awesome handheld nearly a year later

[wide pebble]

Didn't the UK also get the A8?

I could pick up an 8 AI+

But I'm wary of its APU

Though supposedly performance is much better now than it used to be

But also it's still €1100 when the XAX is €900

[signal ridge]

I'm not sure that any second-generation Claws were even made. 🙃

[charred kite]

I don’t think they misread it as much as they didn’t want to overproduce like ASUS tends to do

[silent nimbus]

Local BB has readily available stock, might go grab one Sunday

[signal ridge]

This battery lasts a while. Admittedly, I've just been playing Vampire Survivors all afternoon, but still ...

[balmy zodiac]

Grabbed an open box excellent XAX. 30 days to see if it is that much better than the Z1E Ally X.

[wide pebble]

It's really not that much better lol

It's a fairly incremental upgrade if you already own the original Ally X

I'm interested in Z2E handhelds because I still have the Steam Deck LCD

[regal pond]

honestly going LCD -> OLED is going to feel like a bigger upgrade than going from the deck to an Z2E handheld

specially going from the super bad LCD of the og Deck to OLED

[silent nimbus]

Am I alone in not really getting all the OLED hype? 😅

[wide pebble]

OLED screens are definitely better, I just don't find them to be quite as much of a priority as other people

[silent nimbus]

I guess OLED just isn’t a high priority feature for me, unlike VRR

[charred kite]

I agree.

I went from the OLED Deck to the Go S and really don’t feel like I am missing much visually. A few games had some eye popping moments but that was about it

[silent nimbus]

Local BB has both Lego S and Xbox ally S in stock and still on the fence on which I want

Mostly buying for local indies and remote play from my PC

The steamOS Z2Go Lego S is the one they have in stock

That 16:10 screen is really damn nice

[charred kite]

How much though

[silent nimbus]

$600

[charred kite]

No way

I paid $650 for open box excellent Z1E

[silent nimbus]

Oh my bad $650

[charred kite]

Oh yeah no way. Wait for Black Friday at that point

$450 is probably the max I’d spend on a Z2G model

I really like my SteamOS Go S, I do wish 1: Moonlight touchscreen was fixed because the touchpad is useless and 2: No Man’s Sky SteamOS wasn’t broken beyond usability

[silent nimbus]

Rip

NMS is one of my favorites

I’ll see what they got

Might go there after work today idk we’ll see what time I get off

[charred kite]

It’s something with the controller settings.

I literally cannot change my controller setup and it’s defaulting to Nintendo Pro controller. It seems to be a NMS or SteamOS issue

I also seem to have a golden fan sample. Even at performance 30w+ it’s just a whoosh

[silent nimbus]

When are we gonna get special edition galaxy xbox ally X

I need a matching handheld fo my special edition galaxy Xbox series X

Starry black with velocity green accents

[charred kite]

Probably spring

I’d expect to see a 2TB special edition

[silent nimbus]

Xbox ally S actually looks pretty nice

Very Xbox-ey

Xbox ally X is just black

Should’ve had velocity green accents

[balmy zodiac]

I'm really more interested in the hand-feel and ergonomics of the grips during prolonged use. The 15% increase in performance could be useful for a few games but ultimately power wise none of the current handhelds are going to beat a normal gaming laptop at this price range.

That's why the Best Buy 30-day return policy for members is useful.

[signal ridge]

So far, I think that if you have any of the corporate "last gen" handhelds aside from the Ally X (So, the Claw A1M, any model of the Deck, the OG Legion Go, the OG Ally Z1, the OG Ally Z1E, etc.), the Xbox Ally X will feel like an upgrade. You get some performance boost in any case (if your start point is the Deck or Z1 Ally it's pretty large). You get the bigger battery. You get significantly better ergonomics (except perhaps the Deck). If you already have an Ally X, though, might not be worth it to bother unless you really want the ergo grips.

[silent nimbus]

Late night grab

[silent nimbus]

[wide pebble]

This is the XA, right?

XA is white only and XAX is black only

[silent nimbus]

Base Xbox ally yeah

Personally think the Xbox ally is the better buy if you already have a decent PC and/or an Xbox

[frank nymph]

it looks pretty comfy ^^

[silent nimbus]

It is very very comfy

[signal ridge]

I've been happy with the feel of the Xbox Ally X so far. The base Xbox Ally looks to just be that but lighter.

[silent nimbus]

Man with all the new apu stuff it’s easy to forget that the deck chip/z2a is still a very capable chip

Still hard to beat at low wattages

[silent nimbus]

Hmmm not exactly sure how the new Xcloud works but there seems to be some discrepancies between running BG3 on my series X and the cloud version

Cloud version seems to be locked to 30fps

I know they ran on series X blades in the past but idk what they’re doing now

[silent nimbus]

[covert furnace]

The perfect follow-up to my Xbox Ally review... a review of the X: https://youtu.be/WVGXk_b1ox8

[charred kite]

How are you liking it so far?

I finally got the controls thing fixed with NMS on SteamOS on my Go S and it plays so good on that machine.

[silent nimbus]

[silent nimbus]

Loving it! Don’t have to charge so often cuz of the great low watt performance

My favorite couch gaming buddy now

[charred kite]

What’s that model got? 60wh?

[silent nimbus]

Yup

10wh more than deck oled

[frank nymph]

the low wattage performance does make it tempting

[covert furnace]

6w Ball X Pit - it's all I need from a device

or 8w if you must have 120 fps

[charred kite]

Are you going to leave it on windows or move to Steam?

[silent nimbus]

Overall very very satisfied with my purchase. Not the strongest handheld but as an indie and remote play/xcloud device it’s all I could ever want and more.

It has just the perfect combination of size/compactness/weight that makes it feel right at home streaming games or playing remotely, while also not feeling like I’m wasting the potential of the device.

Feels great saving $400 when the $1000 option still has its own compromises playing the heavy stuff like MH Wilds.

Streaming I just crank the settings up to 1080p max and go to town

Xbox ally is the perfect PC/xbox console companion

And also an amazing indie machine if those are all you care about

Thank you for coming to my ted talk

Kinda word vomit but I hope it makes sense

[silent nimbus]

Also one more thing to add

I really like how seamlessly the xcloud cloud gaming integrates with the UI

Feels very natural

[charred kite]

I just wish it had the 8” screen and was purple like the Go S

[silent nimbus]

8” is nice I totally agree, but I also appreciate how the 7” screen keeps it somewhat smaller and lighter

I’m the biggest Logitech G cloud fan and the Xbox ally kinda feels like just the G cloud but a little bit better

[charred kite]

And a lot more expensive

[silent nimbus]

Value is subjective

[sage halo]

Black Logitech G Cloud is peak cloud gaming handheld, just wish they would of upped the wifi while they were at it.

[charred kite]

Better inputs, better SOC (for the WiFi), and a 120hz screen (even if it’s LCD) would be my list

[balmy zodiac]

Xbox Ally X just showed up and man the grips feel great in the hand for a first impression.
Going to load up bazzite and download a few games to try out but first impression is pretty good.

[signal ridge]

It is definitely better than the OG Ally design for long play sessions.

[covert furnace]

This is incredible, best meme I’ve seen

[silent nimbus]

Man this gaming copilot thing is… kinda creepy and cool at the same time

[rustic sluice]

https://tenor.com/view/shall-we-play-a-game-typing-type-can-we-play-a-game-do-you-want-to-play-gif-17643701

Copilot: @silent nimbus, Let's play "Global Thermonuclear War"

[signal ridge]

A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.

[silent nimbus]

Kept my Xbox ally at 6W and today is the 3rd day in a row I haven’t had to charge it. At 28% battery right now. Been playing about 2 -3 hour sessions each day

[wide pebble]

Are you enjoying the D-pad?

[frank nymph]

What you been playing?

[silent nimbus]

It’s serviceable, nothing outstanding but it does its job well. Very sega like dish dpad

[silent nimbus]

Ball X Pit, stardew valley, BG3 via Xcloud

[covert furnace]

I can't stop playing Ball X Pit

[silent nimbus]

https://tenor.com/view/ball-x-pit-ballpit-ball-pit-ball-pit-gif-4271716174131316641

[covert furnace]

this is all I see when I close my eyes 😂

[silent nimbus]

The music fills my ears even when I try to sleep

[rustic sluice]

I am going to buy it when it goes on sale.

[signal ridge]

Vampire Survivors was recently on sale so I've been playing that instead.

[silent nimbus]

I need to catch up with the last 11 or 12 expansions they’ve dropped for that game

[balmy zodiac]

Man the weight distribution plus the grip on the XAX are the real upgrades over the Ally X. The extra power and efficiency are also good, but the grips are so good. Better than any "comfort grip" that was made for the Ally X.

[glad hemlock]

What price? The game is already so cheap

[signal ridge]

It was like $3 or something. But there's a bundle with Ball X Pit so now I guess I'm falling into THAT rabbit hole now.

[balmy zodiac]

I think this is really the device for me. It feels so nice to hold and bazzite work great on it.
I may finally sale my steam deck OLED.

[silent nimbus]

Nice! You got the Xbox ally X or base Xbox ally?

[balmy zodiac]

Xbox Ally X

Open Box from best buy for $50 off.

[fossil zealot]

oh didn't realize Ball X Pit was also on Game Pass, i've got to check it out before my sub ends

[quasi rivet]

anyone have nioh 2 or elden ring that can test how well it runs on this

[silent nimbus]

Is there a way to get FSE on desktop?

[signal ridge]

Doesnt the same "hack" people were using to get it on things that aren't ROG Allys also work on any PC? (Vivetool and add registry entries)

[covert furnace]

base Xbox Ally or the X? I can probably test it out tomorrow for you, wrapping up some other stuff right now

[covert furnace]

In what way? It's almost instant to get back to the desktop

[silent nimbus]

I wanna have this nice controller focus UI and apps switcher for my HTPC

[covert furnace]

ohhh you mean for other PCs, I was confused at first 😅

I've been putting FSE on pretty much every windows handheld I have haha

like @signal ridge said, you need to use vivetool and reg edit entry

[silent nimbus]

I’ll try that out

I’m on insider branch already

[covert furnace]

Ok, perfect I was gonna say you need to be part of Windows insider

[silent nimbus]

Love this thing so much

[covert furnace]

if it doesn't show Xbox FSE in the Xbox App or in Windows settings then try Vivetool and the registry entry to force it to show up

[signal ridge]

It's actually not required to be on Insider branch anymore. As long as you've updated to 25H2 it definitely works (with the vivetool and depending on device regedit stuff).

[quasi rivet]

either i j ust at least want to be able to play games like that full speed if possible

Deck can do like 40fps in both games was wondering if this can do a locked 60

[silent nimbus]

I tried this last night and FSE did not show up as an option on my desktop. Might have done something wrong along the way but I swear I did everything right

[signal ridge]

Guessing I should be getting some pretty good battery life out of this thing (Xbox Ally X) for emulating PS2...