Xbox and Asus launch £799 handheld console

Five years after the release of its Series X and S physical consoles, and more than two decades since the first Xbox hit shelves, the brand finally has a system you can carry with you.

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Microsoft has developed the handheld alongside Asus, the Japanese console maker which put its previous generation handheld ROG (Republic of Games) Ally on sale in 2023.

The new Ally comes with the official Xbox blessing for the first time and both the standard model and the more powerful Ally X come with Windows 11 built in.

They have a large screen, changing colours around the d pad, and a large Xbox button to access Game Pass, to stream games available via a subscription.

Here are some key details.

When is the release date?

The ROG and ROG X were both released on October 16 in the UK.

How much is it?

The standard device is £499 but the more powerful ROG Xbox Ally X is £799.

Which games are available?

As it has access to the Xbox Game Pass as a portable PC, the Ally has an extensive range of titles - which console users might have previously downloaded.

It will have access to older franchise games, such as Halo and Call of Duty, as well as new release titles such as Dragon Quest XI.

What have the reviews said?

The reviews have broadly been mixed, with the Radio Times giving it three stars - Alex Raisbeck writing, “I don’t really know who this is for”.

He said that the system struggles to play the newest games and doesn’t have the hardware capabilities to process the graphics seamlessly.

Xbox Era magazine also agreed that while there is enough power, there are still issues.

“All of this is genuinely a vast improvement on what we had before, but after spending a week or so testing the ROG Xbox Ally X, I can’t help but feel that it is still woefully inconsistent,” Jon Clarke wrote.

IGN was far more positive in its nine out of ten review. “All it really needs now is a couple of software updates to really refine the Full Screen Experience and it will be a device for the history books."

Tom Orry for Eurogamer wrote: “Only you can say if £800 is a reasonable price for a handheld that is capable of playing new, technically demanding games, but it's essentially what you need to pay to get this level of performance.

“Ultimately, I like what the ROG Xbox Ally X offers. It's not a true Xbox handheld console, but for a lot of people it's probably a better, more versatile device.”