The ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X prices aren’t too bad in the UK, but tariffs bite in the US

$600 for the cheaper one, $1000 for the faster one

After overmuch hemming and hawing, Asus and Microsoft are yet acceptable to speech pricing connected their handheld PC team-ups, the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X. It’s thing excessively egregious successful the King’s sterling, with the Xbox ROG Ally confirmed astatine £499.99 and the Xbox ROG Ally X astatine £799.99 – portion hardly chump change, these are beauteous modular prices for entry-level and premium portables respectively.

Those successful the US, however, volition beryllium paying $599.99 for the ROG Xbox Ally and $999.99 for the ROG Xbox Ally X, the second representing a large summation connected Asus’ existent ROG Ally X model.

That, astatine least, won’t rather marque it the astir costly Windows handheld around, arsenic the MSI Claw 8 AI+ has besides deed (give oregon instrumentality a penny) the one-grand people successful caller months. But still, this looks an atrocious batch similar the effects of US tariff policies, with the added outgo of importing Taiwan- and China-made hardware being passed down to aspiring owners. It’s a process Microsoft’s console concern volition beryllium acquainted with, its existent procreation of lounge-dwelling Xboxes having hiked their prices doubly successful the past year, with large greenish fingers pointing astatine macroeconomic conditions connected some occasions.

By contrast, the ROG Xbox Ally X’s UK terms simply matches that Asus’ 2024 predecessor, portion upgrading its innards with a newer, faster AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme APU. The ROG Xbox Ally, mind, inactive seems similar thing of a wildcard. It’s lone £21 much than the equivalent 512GB Steam Deck OLED, and £50 little than the already budget-minded Lenovo Legion Go S SteamOS. Yet enigma surrounds its ain APU, the Ryzen Z2 A, a spot whose 4 cores and ageing RDNA 2 graphics processor gives it specs mostly successful enactment with the archetypal Steam Deck. If show is simply a lucifer arsenic well, past it’ll conflict with the GPU-threshers that are modern 3D games.

That said, Microsoft and Asus aren’t conscionable banking connected framerates. The ROG Xbox Ally duo volition beryllium the archetypal Windows 11-powered handhelds to see the operating system’s new, bespoke, Xbox-branding gaming mode, wherever galore of Win11’s extraneous guff remains switched disconnected astatine motorboat to sphere velocity and batter life. It’ll person a much handheld-friendly UI than modular Windows arsenic well, perchance wiping retired a large vantage that SteamOS has ever held implicit its desktop-tuned rival.

I’ll beryllium seeing whether this mode volition beryllium worthy the money, particularly for stateside punters, with a reappraisal anterior to the handhelds’ October 16th motorboat date. That’s assuming they’re not partaking successful ongoing boycott calls against Microsoft for their alleged dealings with the Israeli military, including providing entree to Azure unreality retention and AI tools for the intent of moving a wide surveillance programme against Palestinians. Microsoft have, reportedly, since revoked this access.