Asus ROG Ally X review: king of the handhelds
Asus ROG Ally X review: king of the handhelds
This PC gaming handheld sequel has more battery and memory – and it’s cooler in all ways possible
Pros:
✅ 🏃♂️Slightly higher FPS performance in multiple games
✅ 🪭 Improved cooling makes the Ally X run noticeably cooler
✅ 🔋 Larger battery delivers 3-7 hours of battery life
✅ 🕹️ Tighter thumbsticks & a more accurate D-Pad
✅ ⚖️ Weight and thickness has hardly changed
✅ 🧠 2x more storage and 24GB of faster memory
Cons
❌ 💰 $100 more than the original Asus ROG Ally
❌ 📺 Display has bigger bezels and is more washed out than other handhelds
❌ ⚙️ No direct tweaks to the Z1 Extreme chip to make the Ally X faster
🏆 Review score: 4.5 out of 5
🏅Editor’s Choice
Shortcut Review
The Asus ROG Ally X is officially the best gaming handheld. All of Asus' major internal improvements and minor exterior tweaks have fixed all the shortcomings of the original Asus ROG Ally. It’s more comfortable than before, lasts way longer than before and it even performs noticeably better than all other handhelds.
No other gaming handheld can let you play games for up to seven hours thanks to Asus stuffing in an 80Whr battery. Meanwhile, the cooling upgrades and the jump up to 24GBs help the Ally X push a few more frames per second in games over the competition without causing the whole system to burn up. Asus has also made plenty of ergonomic improvements including thicker grips, tighter thumbsticks, and a more accurate D-pad that makes the Ally X the handheld I always reach for.
Those improvements make this handheld $100 more expensive, bringing the overall price up to $799 but this much-improved device is worth it as the best gaming handheld. However, there will be plenty of strong competition soon like the MSI Claw 8 AI+, Zotac Zone, and eventually a Sony PSP 2 handheld – all promising similar improvements.
Full Review
🖤 It comes in black now. One easy way the Asus ROG Ally X distinguishes itself from the original is it comes in black. It was curious that the original ROG Ally didn’t come in multiple colors, because we really like the darker shade on this new handheld. The new black paint job also helps mask the screen bezel, which, unfortunately, isn’t any smaller with this upgrade.
🍞 Baby got back. Another thing you’ll instantly notice about the Asus ROG Ally X is it has fuller grips now so it’s easier to hold for long periods. I thought the original Ally was already well sculpted for ergonomics – especially when placed at an angle on a tabletop – but now every edge has been rounded for a more comfortable feel.
🔋 2x battery life. Short battery life was one of our chief complaints about the original Ally. You would only get at most two hours of play with games like Helldivers 2 and Forza Horizon 5. To fix this problem Asus doubled the size of the Ally X’s battery from a 40Whr to an 80Whr cell. This has doubled the battery life of the Asus ROG Ally X. I got through a full four-hour Amtrak ride playing Mortal Kombat 1 and Deeprock Galatic Survivor from NYC to Boston without having to plug in once.
Similarly, playing a 30-45 minute round of Helldivers 2 on the original Ally would use up half its battery life, but now that same match only chews up 20-30% of the Ally X’s battery life. You’ll see even longer battery life playing less graphically intensive games like Persona 3: Reloaded, which I could play for almost seven hours straight. The greatly extended battery life relieves the major pressure of finding a place to plug in the handheld all the time; it’s made the Ally X a handheld you can confidently play with on the go.
💤 Stand by me. Another huge Ally X improvement is you can pause a game put it into sleep mode overnight and it’ll still switch on the next morning. The previous Ally would always run its battery down and more than likely exhaust it completely even if it was just left idling on the desktop while asleep overnight. You can even keep your games paused while the Ally X is in sleep mode and it won’t drain down the battery. Sometimes games would crash after turning the system back on or worse the handheld’s controls would stop responding. Instant resume on the Ally X just isn’t as consistent as on the Nintendo Switch OLED or PS5 Slim, but that’s more of a fault of Windows 11.
⚙️ Internal upgrades. Unsurprisingly – though somewhat disappointingly – the Asus ROG Ally X runs the same AMD Z1E chip as the regular Ally. Understandably, there isn’t a new Z2 Extreme chip powering the new Ally X because AMD hasn’t announced it yet. Still, the Asus ROG Ally X is better equipped now with 24GB of memory running at a faster 7,500MHz speed and a 1TB SSD from the get-go. The extra 8GB memory helps the Ally X run faster and can be converted into extra video memory for demanding AAA gaming experiences. The new 1TB storage is also very welcome, letting you store more games. And in case 1TB of storage still isn’t enough, it’s a little easier to upgrade the SSD now that the Asus ROG Ally X can accommodate full-sized M.2 SSDs.
💨 Better cooling. Asus upgraded the Ally X’s cooling with a third exhaust vent. Internally, the fans are 23% smaller with blades that are also 50% thinner. These cooling improvements allow the Asus ROG Ally X to push 24% more air volume out and reduce operating temperatures by 6° Celsius. In my testing, the Ally X ran remarkably cooler than the original Ally and much quieter too. This all should also help the Ally X from burning out microSD cards so regularly, thus far I haven’t had any problems with mine.
👑 Performance king. Thanks to the extra 8GB of faster memory and enhanced cooling, the Ally X drives the highest synthetic benchmark scores and frames per second in games like Forza Horizon 5 and Cyberpunk 2077 of any Z1E-powered handheld we’ve tested. Only the Steam Deck OLED seems to keep up with the Ally X’s higher performance numbers, but this is largely due to its 720p screen when we run all our tests at 1080p and high settings.
🧈 Smooth like butter. Outside of benchmarks, the Ally X does a great job of running pretty much any game well at low settings above 30-45fps. The Ally X is also surprisingly powerful enough to run some games like Forza Horizon 5 and Lies of P at high settings at an almost steady 60fps. Also adding FSR gets most games running around the golden 60fps for smooth gaming.
The Asus ROG Ally X is easily the most powerful gaming handheld.
Whenever the Ally X falters and the frame rate drops there’s no stutter thanks to variable refresh rate smoothing out the experience. The fact that the Ally X is one of the three handhelds in the world that supports VRR (the other two being the original Asus ROG Ally and GDP Win Mini, makes it a must-buy.
📺 Same screen. While I just sang the praises of the Ally X’s VRR screen I wished Asus would have gone with a larger OLED panel like the Steam Deck OLED. It uses the exact same 7-inch 1080p 120Hz IPS display as the original Ally. it’s a good display, but its massive bezels are an eyesore and look even better on the Ally X’s larger footprint. The color and contrast of the Ally X screen were already behind that of the Lenovo Legion Go. Soon there will be handhelds with even better screens like the AMOLED display on the Zotac Zone.
🎛️ Better UI. I’m grateful that the Asus ROG Armory Crate 1.5 has become such a great interface that I rarely see the Windows 11 interface underneath. The application lumps your game library from apps like Steam, Xbox, Epic, EA App, and Ubisoft Connect, making them easy to find and launch. Likewise, Command Center gives you ready access to Ally X’s button customizations, power modes, screen brightness, volume, and even all the power button options. Both menus can be summoned anytime (including in-game) using the shortcut buttons at the screen’s edges. Navigating these menus is far easier than tapping a tiny spot on the Windows 11 taskbar thanks to its generously larger touchscreen buttons or being able to use the joysticks/d-pads and face buttons.
🕹️ Tighter sticks. The loose joysticks on the original Ally detracted from its gaming experience, so I’m glad Asus has put a little more resistance behind the new sticks on the Ally X. They feel tighter and closer to the feel I get from an Xbox Series or DualSense controller. I got so used to making small movements with the Ally’s loose sticks that it took a while to get used to the Ally X’s tighter motion. Once you get over that hump, you can be way more accurate with Asus upgraded handheld.
➕ A bigger D-pad. The D-pad similarly feels better now that it has an eight-way gate underneath it. That makes pulling off quarter-circle combos in Street Fighter 6 a little easier. It makes the Ally X a better machine for retro games and action roguelites like Hades and Dead Cells.
⚡ Two ports are better than one. Asus has also upgraded the Ally X with a second USB-C port and it’s even a Thunderbolt 4 port too. While the original Ally’s USB-C only supported USB 3.2 Gen 2, this new extra Thunderbolt 4 opens up to handheld to connect with more external graphics cards and docks. Plus with two USB-C ports, you can charge the device while also adding a gaming headset or mouse to the mix. The only thing I don’t love about having two USB-C ports on the Ally is they’re placed right next to each other so you practically need a USB-C wire extension if you plan on plugging any large wireless dongles in.
🤏 Thicker but imperceptibly so. Between the larger battery and bigger grips, the Ally X has put on a little bulk that makes it 0.97 to 1.45 inches thick. However, that’s not too bad compared to the Ally’s original 0.83 - 1.28-inch thickness. The Ally X has also only put on an extra 0.15 pounds, so it’s really hard to tell it's any heavier than its predecessor.
Should you buy the Asus ROG Ally X?
Yes, if…
✅ 💪You want the best-performing gaming handheld around
✅ 🔋 You want to play games on the go for up to seven hours
✅ 🎮 You want great inputs on your gaming handheld
✅ 🤔 You were on the fence about the ROG Ally before
No, if…
❌ You want a handheld with the best screen (get the Steam Deck OLED)
❌ You expect your handheld to resume games consistently (get the Nintendo Switch OLED)
❌ You abhor Windows 11 (download Steam OS onto your Ally X eventually)
❌ You already have an ROG Ally and (wait for a Z2 Extreme chip follow-up)
Kevin Lee is The Shortcut’s Creative Director. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam.