While the Asus ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X – handheld gaming systems born out of a partnership between Microsoft and Asus – have been revealed, the companies still haven’t confirmed the exact launch dates or pricing. According to Spanish publication 3D Juegos, pricing for both of the handhelds have been accidentally revealed. According to the report, the ROG Xbox Ally will be priced at €599, while the more powerful ROG Xbox Ally X will be priced at €899.
The prices for both of the handheld systems, while certainly more expensive than devices like the Steam Deck, would certainly fall in line with the pricing that Asus has been going with for its ROG Ally line-up of devices. These prices being leaked also indicate that an official launch date announcement might be closer than we expected. According to the report by 3D Juegos, the pricing reveal is believed to have been a mistake by Asus. However, as is often the case with leaks, it could also simply be a retailer going with errant pricing based on previous ROG Ally devices.
Previous rumours have indicated that the ROG Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X will be launching some time in late October, with pre-orders opening up in August. Both handhelds were officially unveiled in early June.
The ROG Xbox Ally X will be available in black, and is powered by an AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip with 24 GB of LPDDR5X-8000 RAM, and will feature 1 TB of storage. The ROG Xbox Ally, on the other hand, will be available in white, and is powered by an AMD Ryzen Z2A chip with 16 GB of LPDDR5X-6400 RAM. Storage on the lower-powered device will be handled by a 512 GB drive. Both systems feature a 7-inch 1080p LCD display with a refresh rate of 120 Hz.
Senior manager of marketing content for gaming at Asus, Whitson Gordon, revealed in an interview that the decision to go with LCD displays on both devices over OLED displays came about due to pricing considerations. In an interview, Gordon mentioned how OLED displays capable of variable refresh rate (VRR) would be too expensive, and drive the prices of both ROG Xbox Ally devices higher.
“We did some R&D and prototyping with OLED, but it’s still not where we want it to be when you factor VRR into the mix and we aren’t willing to give up VRR,” said Gordon. “I’ll draw that line in the sand right now. I am of the opinion that if a display doesn’t have variable refresh rate, it’s not a gaming display in the year 2025 as far as I’m concerned, right? That’s a must-have feature, and OLED with VRR right now draws significantly more power than the LCD that we’re currently using on the Ally and it costs more.”
As you wait for the biggest new addition to the ever-growing market of handheld gaming PCs, check out a video that Asus and Microsoft released about the development of the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X.
