Throughout May and June, one of the loudest news stories in the gaming industry was undoubtedly Nintendo’s Switch 2. As Nintendo fans look forward to eight years of orthodox sequels, Switch 2 has been in the limelight for a while. But the track looks less innocent than it did eight years ago. The release of Steam Deck in 2022 has brought unimaginable topics to the “gaming handheld” market that has been dormant for many years, bringing people back to this field sandwiched between mobile phones and PCs – from game rights holders like Valve, Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, down to computer manufacturers like Asus and Lenovo, all want to join the fray. Microsoft is warming up, is the Switch 2 killer coming? In such a chaotic situation, a pair of unexpected combinations were born. Just last June 9th Xbox Games Showcase 2025, Microsoft and ASUS announced a cooperative product – ROG Xbox Ally (X) game handheld, which is the first game product in the form of “handheld” under the Xbox trademark. There are two joint new products released this time, ROG Xbox Ally with a white body and ROG Xbox Ally X with a black body: Microsoft is warming up, is the Switch 2 killer coming? As the knock-out product of this time, ROG Xbox Ally X uses AMD’s Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme processor, which is an 8-core 16-thread ZEN 5 architecture processor, with RDNA 3.5 graphics card, the overall performance almost came to the handheld track of the relatively inferior ROG Xbox Ally, the processor used is Ryzen Z2 A, a 4-core 8-thread ZEN 2 processor, the graphics card architecture is RDNA 2, the theoretical performance should be similar to the performance of the Valve customized 6nm AMD APU in Steam Deck. Just as the success of Steam Deck is not entirely due to the APU in the machine, the most attractive thing in this ROG Xbox Ally is not only the performance. On the contrary, their system is the most unique place – this time Microsoft has specially customized a Windows system for two handheld computers, and the boot will directly enter the Xbox game library with a new interface: What’s more special is that this customized version of Windows not only enters the game library by default, but also makes very detailed targeted optimization of other components of the Windows system, such as wallpaper, menu bar, system search and other non-game-related processes will not start, ensuring that every effort of the processor is used in its own work. Brianna Potvin, head of software engineering at Xbox, said: Removing non-game-related processes in the system can save at least 2GB of memory space, and subsequent update optimizations can even compress more. This is the first time the Xbox team has been able to go deep into the bottom layer of the system to specifically optimize various functional components. According to Jason Beaumont, vice president of Xbox Experience, at the time of launch, this time Xbox engineers were “directly involved in the transformation of the Windows codebase”, almost from the bottom to rebuild the Xbox Ally-exclusive Windws experience. Microsoft is warming up, is the Switch 2 killer coming? Figure | Xbox In terms of more specific configuration parameters, the mid-range ROG Xbox Ally is equipped with a 60Wh battery, with a storage specification of 16 + 512GB, and focuses on 720P balanced games; the higher-end ROG Xbox Ally X is equipped with an 80Wh battery and 24 + 1TB of storage. At present, almost all mainstream 3A masterpieces on the market can run with 1080P. Microsoft is warming up, is the Switch 2 killer coming? Figure | Linus Tech Tips is also worth paying attention to the interface configuration of the two handheld machines. The white Xbox Ally is equipped with two USB 3.2 Gen2 C ports, which can be directly connected to the display or charged at up to 65 watts of power. On the Xbox Ally X, one of the ports has been upgraded to a USB 4/Thunderbolt 4 hybrid interface, theoretically leaving room for an external higher-performance discrete graphics card. Screen-wise, the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X are equipped with the same 7-inch 1080P 120Hz screen. Although the Xbox Ally is promoting 720P games, the performance after using the FSR super score should still meet the palm of most scenarios. Of course, the Xbox Ally is a Windows-based game handheld. Although the Xbox team has made targeted optimizations to the system, the flexible basic disk of Windows itself is still not lost. It can still exit the Xbox home screen, start with a traditional Windows desktop, and operate with a joystick. At this point, one of the greatest advantages of the Xbox Ally is revealed – huge compatibility. Not only your Xbox game library, Xbox Game Pass, Steam, Epic, basically all third-party game libraries that can be installed directly on Windows can be launched directly from the main interface of Xbox Ally, without the need to side-load like Steam Deck Linux and then toss the compatibility layer. Coupled with rich physical buttons, and the new version of the non-full-screen invasive Xbox Game Bar that can be navigated with shoulder keys, screenshots, games, and account changes can be done in one go. And because the Xbox team has participated in the construction of the Windows code from the bottom up, even entering the password when booting and logging in can be completely operated using the physical buttons on the handle: ROG Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X are expected to go on sale by the end of this year. Although the pricing has not been announced, according to the current price of ROG’s own Ally X at $799, the price of Xbox Ally X may fall around $800 to $850, and the price of the National Bank may come to the price range of 6,000 or even 7,000. Microsoft’s move is not only to promote the Xbox product line, but also to compete for the next game handheld market has the voice over. According to Microsoft, this handheld “is not meant to replace anything”, but will coexist with the PC and Xbox series to become Microsoft’s three gaming carriages. But within the handheld market, the Xbox Ally X is not just about hitting SteamOS and Switch, but wants to become a truly “new species that fuses PC openness with console smoothness.” ROG Xbox Ally plans to be available by the end of 2025. If you feel that the Switch 2 is no longer enough to meet your needs, it is indeed time to consider Xbox.
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