The ROG Xbox Ally and the ROG Xbox Ally X were just revealed at the Xbox Games Show during Summer Game Fest 2025! Read on to learn more about what was revealed.
Xbox Ally Revealed as Collab With Asus ROG During SGF 2025
Set To Release Later This Year!
During the Xbox Games Showcase 2025, Microsoft dropped two brand-new-Xbox-branded-handhelds, created in collaboration with Asus. Dubbed the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X, these portable devices appear to blend the best of Xbox and Windows into a more console-like experience. And yes—somewhere in the middle of the presentation, one of them was shown running Hollow Knight: Silksong. That's right. It's real. It exists. It was playable.
The two devices, born from Microsoft and Asus' joint initiative codenamed Project Kennan, were designed with one thing in mind: to create a more unified interface tailored for handheld gaming. Both handhelds launch directly into a full-screen Xbox interface that puts your game library front and center, including titles from Game Pass, Steam, Epic Games Store, Battle.net, and more.
The white Xbox Ally seems to be the more modest of the two, as it is built for 720p gaming with AMD's new Ryzen Z2 A chip, 16GB of LPDDR5X Ram, and a 512GB SSD.
Meanwhile, the black Xbox Ally X goes big, aiming for 900p to 1080p resolutions. It packs AMD's Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme chip (complete with a 50 TOPs-capable NPU), 24GB of faster RAM, and a 1TB SSD. All of these on a 7-inch 1080p 120Hz display.
Microsoft's Shawn Yen emphasized that their key mantra for this generation appears to be "efficiency is our superpower. The Ally X houses an 80Wh battery—one of the largest ever in a handheld—while even the base Ally gets a 60Wh pack, which is a 50% jump from the original ROG Ally. Combined with a stripped-back version of Windows 11 that minimizes background bloat, the goal, it seems, is longer battery life and a smoother gameplay.
One of the biggest highlights of the demo, though, is Silksong, to the collective gasps of online viewers. With better hardware, a console-like interface, and Silksong of all things, handheld PC gaming is surely going to be a rough market to compete in. Your move, Steam Deck.
