Microsoft And Asus’ New Xbox Ally Handhelds Launch On October 16th

The Xbox Ally X. | Photo: Tom Warren / The Verge

Microsoft and Asus are putting a day connected their new Xbox Ally handhelds: October 16th. Both nan Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X will beryllium disposable connected nan aforesaid time successful a assortment of markets worldwide, but Microsoft and Asus aren’t opening preorders yet aliases revealing pricing. Microsoft besides announced its handheld compatibility programme to place games optimized for nan caller Xbox Ally devices.

Leaks person suggested that nan Xbox Ally will debut astatine €599 (around $699) and nan top-of-the-line Xbox Ally X exemplary astatine €899 ($1,049). I understand Microsoft and Asus had planned to denote Xbox Ally pricing and merchandise day accusation today, but past it decided to only uncover a merchandise date. Microsoft is now promising pricing and preorder accusation “in nan coming weeks.”

The value accusation hold could beryllium related to nan leaks aliases ongoing uncertainty pinch US tariffs. Dealabs reported yesterday that nan Xbox Ally could beryllium priced astatine $549.99 and nan Xbox Ally X astatine $899.99 successful nan US. It will beryllium absorbing to spot if Microsoft and Asus tin subsidize this further for this important Xbox hardware release.

Both Xbox Ally handhelds will beryllium disposable connected October 16th successful nan following: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, China (only nan Xbox Ally X), Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, nan Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, and Vietnam.

That covers a batch of cardinal markets for Asus and Xbox astatine launch, and location are besides plans to present these handhelds successful Brazil, India, Indonesia, and Thailand. The achromatic ROG Xbox Ally is designed for 720p gaming, and nan much powerful achromatic ROG Xbox Ally X targets 1080p gaming. Like nan existing ROG Ally and Ally X, nan caller ones stock nan aforesaid 7-inch 1080p screen, complete pinch a 120Hz refresh complaint and VRR support.

The Xbox Ally uses AMD’s Ryzen Z2 A chip, mixed pinch 16GB of LPDDR5X-6400 RAM and 512GB of M.2 2280 SSD storage. The Xbox Ally X upgrades nan spot to AMD’s Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme processor, 24GB of LPDDR5X-8000 memory, and a 1TB M.2 2280 SSD.

Alongside merchandise day confirmation, Microsoft besides announced its handheld compatibility programme today. “We person worked pinch crippled studios to test, optimize, and verify thousands of games for handheld compatibility, allowing you to jump into nan crippled without having to tweak settings, aliases requiring only insignificant adjustments,” says Roanne Sones, CVP of gaming devices and ecosystem astatine Xbox.

There will beryllium 2 forms of handheld compatibility: Handheld Optimized and Mostly Compatible. While Handheld Optimized games will person default controller inputs, meticulous icons, and nan correct surface solution successful full-screen mode, Mostly Compatible titles “may require insignificant in-game mounting changes for an optimal acquisition connected handheld.”

Microsoft will besides people games pinch a Windows Performance Fit indicator, truthful you’ll get nan use of knowing if a crippled is compatible and really good it will play. Both Xbox Ally devices will vessel pinch nan Xbox afloat surface acquisition that Microsoft has been processing to amended Windows connected handheld devices. This will footwear arsenic default, pinch nan Windows desktop hidden distant but still accessible done an action successful nan Xbox Game Bar UI.

Microsoft is besides moving connected improving nan crippled shader acquisition connected Windows, pinch a caller “advanced shader delivery” feature. This will preload crippled shaders during download connected nan Xbox Ally devices, truthful definite games tin motorboat a batch faster and tally smoother without nan emblematic stutters that shader compilation introduces connected Windows. This is cardinal connected a handheld arsenic it will thief pinch artillery life and performance, but it’s not clear which games will support this conscionable yet.

Automatic Super Resolution (Auto SR), which is an NPU to upscale games, is besides arriving successful early 2026 connected nan Xbox Ally X. Microsoft is readying to usage nan NPU connected this instrumentality to present a item reels characteristic that uses AI models to automatically seizure gameplay moments and make them easy shareable pinch friends aliases connected societal networks.

Additional improvements to nan docking acquisition for nan Xbox Ally devices are besides coming soon. Microsoft is moving “to alteration a seamless, high-performance setup that supports big-screen gaming, Auto SR, intuitive controller pairing, optimized show output, and more,” according to Soanes.

Photos by Tom Warren / The Verge