2025 was actually a banner year for handheld gaming consoles. Sure, the Switch 2 grabbed most of the headlines (and the sales numbers), but the Asus ROG Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X might be better representations of where the future of gaming, portable or not, is headed.
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The two consoles — which are mostly identical (aside from color), with the “X” being the upgraded version — are a joint collaboration between Microsoft and Asus. In fact, they’re like last year’s ROG Ally X, but made to feel like an Xbox controller and play Xbox games.
A portable Xbox console? Sort of. They’re the first Xbox-brand handheld consoles and thus allow users to play most (though not all) Xbox games through Xbox Play Anywhere, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and Xbox Remote Play. And that’s a big deal as it separates these consoles from their biggest rival, the Steam Deck.
Yet, they’re still technically PC handhelds that run Windows. Sure, this means there are times when it can feel like you’re navigating files on a desktop. But it also gives you access to other third-party stores, like Stream (which comes preinstalled), and access to way more games than your current Xbox.
