The Switch 2 has already shifted a record 3 million units, but that momentum might be short-lived. Today, Vole unveiled its own Xbox-branded portable, created with ASUS’ ROG division. According to Engadget it is “marginally heavier than the Steam Deck” and looks more ergonomic than those on the Nintendo Switch 2 or even the Steam Deck.
There are two flavours: the ROG Xbox Ally and the more powerful Ally X. Microsoft hasn’t coughed up pricing yet and both are slated to arrive this holiday season. These machines are not limited to Xbox games only. They’re Windows-powered, with access to Battle.net and a slew of PC storefronts. Obviously, there’s Game Pass integration here and support for the Xbox Play Anywhere initiative, which enables you to play games with synced progress across a swathe of devices after buying them once.
Each unit has a proper Xbox button to summon a Game Bar overlay, which “seemingly makes it easy to switch between apps and games, tweak settings, start chatting with friends and more.” Modders can mod games on either system” without having to jump through hoops.
The Xbox Ally runs on an AMD Ryzen Z2 A processor with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage. The Ally X brings the firepower with an AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme chip, 24GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage. Both feature microSD card slots, so you won’t need to mortgage your flat to add more storage. Video output is sorted too, thanks to two USB-C ports with DisplayPort 2.1 and Power Delivery 3.0.
Microsoft gaming devices and ecosystem vice president Roanne Sones said: “The reality is that we've made tremendous progress on this over the last couple of years, and this is really the device that galvanized those teams and got everybody marching and working towards a moment that we're just really excited to put into the hands of players.”
Xbox partner lead Kevin Potvin added: “This isn't surface-level changes, we've made significant improvements. Some of our early testing with the components we've turned off in Windows, we get about 2GB of memory going back to the games while running in the full-screen experience.”
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