Asus Goes OLED With the New ROG Xbox Ally X20

Asus has conscionable announced the ROG Xbox Ally X20. This caller handheld gaming PC is fundamentally the aforesaid arsenic the archetypal Xbox Ally X, lone with a 7.4-inch 120Hz OLED display, which should beryllium a large betterment implicit the LCD-equipped Xbox Ally. But there's a catch: it'll lone beryllium disposable bundled with a brace of ROG XReal R1 Edition 20 Gaming AR Glasses.

The 7.4-inch OLED is simply a decent bump from the 7-inch LCD of the Xbox Ally X. Asus says it outputs astatine 1,400 nits and carries a VESA DisplayHDR 1000 rating, which should mean precise bully HDR support. It besides works with Dolby Vision and features 0.2ms effect time. And it's got an anti-reflective coating that Asus claims volition trim glare by 65%.

The ROG Xbox Ally X gets a facelift.

So what other is caller for this update to the reigning champ of handheld gaming PCs? Well, it's translucent, for starters, and it has a "Transofrming D-Pad" that "can easy beryllium converted" from the modular 4-way matter to 8-way control. It besides features caller "Gulikit TMR joysticks," according to The Verge, which should mean they won't make instrumentality drift anytime soon, if ever. The institution says it has improved look buttons, too. They'll beryllium "flush against the chassis creaseless and uninterrupted thumb sliding." If you work that and balked astatine first, the mode I did, don't worry; the buttons aren't embedded down into the body.

Internally, not overmuch appears to person changed from the Xbox Ally X – this is simply a cosmetic upgrade. The strategy inactive features an AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme Processor, 24GB of RAM, and 1TB of NVMe storage. You tin astir apt blasted the ongoing RAM and retention situation for that one. Also similar the Xbox Ally X, it'll enactment Auto Super Resolution, which uses AI to upscale lower-resolution games to output astatine higher framerates and resolutions.

About that catch, though. Asus hasn't announced a price, which isn't encouraging if the institution genuinely isn't releasing the console connected its own. A brace of XReal R1 AR glasses unsocial volition acceptable you backmost astir $850, and presumably these "Edition 20" ones are the aforesaid glasses. And the Xbox Ally X is simply a $1,000 machine, too. Bundled unneurotic successful a clip erstwhile Valve has cranked the terms of the Steam Deck by $300, this caller Ally could outgo a precise beauteous penny.

That said, the XREAL R1 seems similar an awesome device. As Asus writes, it presents gamers with "a 171-inch virtual surface astatine 4 meters, 240Hz show that covers 95% of the focused tract of view, with a near-instantaneous 0.01ms effect clip acknowledgment to micro-OLED." It has 3DoF head-tracking truthful that the surface follows your caput around, though you tin besides take to person it stay successful 1 spot arsenic you look around. The R1 plugs into the caller handheld via USB-C.

Asus has not revealed a merchandise day for the bundle.

Wes is simply a freelance writer (Freelance Wes, they telephone him) who has covered technology, gaming, and amusement steadily since 2020 astatine Gizmodo, Tom's Hardware, Hardcore Gamer, and astir recently, The Verge. Inside of him determination are 2 wolves: 1 that thinks it wouldn't beryllium truthful atrocious to commencement collecting crippled consoles again, and the different who besides thinks this, but much strongly.