One month after the ROG Xbox Ally X launch, I sat down with Asus Director Gabriel Meng to talk about the partnership with Microsoft, the Ally's complexity, and more...
sees Asus expand the ROG Ally brand of gaming handhelds and introduces Microsoft into the space, packing additional Xbox features into the Ally. One month after the launch of the new Ally and Ally X, I sat down with Gabriel Meng, Director of Product, Gaming at Asus , to talk about Xbox Ally X, the partnership with Microsoft, the product's complexity, and how to improve the experience for everyone.
2025 saw Asus’ Republic of Gamers brand build on the success of the ROG Ally in 2023 and the mid-cycle upgrade to the ROG Ally X in 2024. 2025’s model is a long-awaited partnership with Microsoft’s Xbox team. Yet the software has seen significant improvement throughout the year, and Meng sums it all up with one word. "I say that because the things we really wanted to fix for 2025, I would sum up as the word experience."Windows-based gaming, especially in the handheld market, can be seen as a complex space more suited to the 'PC Tuners’ community rather than the relative ease of consoles such as, well, the Xbox. Creating an environment that balances the needs and demands of users from casual to pro gamers means making a more intuitive feel to the handset, and making the process from switching on to playing a game flow smoothly. Meng noted that these changes are software-based, so while they are there in the ROG Xbox Ally X, they are also available to the ROG Ally user base."I think the clearest indicator of that is they'll continue to see software updates. We are putting every effort we can into the continued support for all our devices."The ROG Xbox Ally X is the next level of collaboration, and stems from both Asus and Microsoft’s desire to improve the software experience on the handheld. The split works out quite nicely, with Asus taking the nominal lead in hardware and Microsoft in software.Microsoft can bring the Xbox software capabilities into a “play all your games in Windows” environment, but with an improved interface. At the same time, Asus can take years of work on the Ally platform . Microsoft also has a pretty good idea of the physical interface gamers are looking for, while Asus’s previous experience with software on earlier Ally models informs the environment. The ultimate goal is a focused game-first product.No product can be launched in 2025 without highlighting the use of advanced programming and customisation techniques, which are labelled as AI and given a prominent position in any marketing. The ROG XBox Ally X is no exception, using AI to advance the evolution of the ROG Ally. PC games are written to accommodate a wide range of screen sizes and refresh rates, and the Ally X is expected to handle them. One key tool is Auto Super Resolution, which is powered by AI. “Auto SR gives the ability to have scaleability be universal, in case a game doesn't have a great resolution system,” Meng tells me. “It ensures that games look sharp and run smoothly in various scenarios." It also has another benefit. “In case you want to dock to a bigger monitor and the game you are playing can’t render on that, you can use the AI’s abilities."AI is also used to help gamers be more social through the AI Highlight Reels. Everyone has great moments when playing games, but they’re not always easy to find or remember after a session. "For some people, sometimes they say, ‘Did you see that, right? Did you see me do this awesome thing?” Meng notes. “The AI can help you relive and enjoy those moments." No need to manually find, capture, and snip clips; the AI lets someone showcase their gaming quickly to the community.There are two debating points regarding the ROG Xbox Ally X that need to be discussed: the device's cost and its complexity of use.. There is a barrier, imposed by the interface, that will be off-putting to those who want a pick-up-and-play experience. To take one example, it’s possible to have more than six launchers all fighting to run at the same time, including the Windows desktop, the Windows Start Menu, the Xbox Launcher, the ASUS Armoury launcher, storefronts for Epic Games and Steam, and the list gets fractured, but can continue from there."I don't think you can smooth it out too easily. That's where your digital libraries and ownerships are. Unless all of the gaming launchers come together… I don't believe we can solve the basis of device and library ownership across different launchers. What I do believe we can work on is how to streamline the divisions of the UI, how it looks and gets represented in each of our libraries and how it feels in the aggregation to launch games.". Here in the UK, it is £799 for the ROG Xbox Ally X with 24 GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage, and £499 for the ROG Xbox Ally that comes with a slower chipset, 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage. "I would counter that question as coming from the mass audience of console gamers, who are used to significantly lower price points, given that's where they feel consoles are.""I do think we tried very hard to be cost-conscious in our development process”, Meg replies. “We put a lot of thought into the optimisation of its costs. When you compare it to other like devices in the category, I wouldn't say we're too expensive, but the nature of this technology as it is right now."I asked Meng what feature the team would have liked to include, and Meng was quick to reply, “The entire community, consistently, asks us to go and add an OLED display to our devices. We hear them loud and clear." This brings about the tension in the design of a device like the Ally and Ally X. The team holds up three tenets - Weight, power consumption and cost - which need to be considered for everything added to the handheld. Adopting an OLED screen comes with a significant penalty across all three areas. It’s a target that is constantly changing. “We know that every little detail matters. This device is extremely sensitive to power consumption, to weight and balance and is sensitive to brightness when you use it outside,” Meng explains. But he does confirm it is on the cards."I do believe that that is something we definitely want to look into, which is how we can balance all of those things and get the result that we want and be excited about that."Perhaps the biggest challenge for Asus and Microsoft is building up the consumer demand for a high-end portable gaming device. The ROG Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X represent both cutting-edge hardware and cutting-edge ecosystems. There are challenges ahead - not least the complexity in day-to-day use. But when the hardware, software, and gaming titles all line up, it’s clear why Asus and Microsoft are collaborating to build a gaming-first mobile Windows experience.
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