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Title: Microsoft Announces Upcoming Windows-Powered Handheld Xbox Device: the
'ROG Xbox Ally'

Link: https://games.slashdot.org/story/25/06/08/224...

Nintendo's new Switch 2 console sold a record 3 million units after its
launch Thursday. But then today Microsoft announced their own upcoming
handheld gaming device that's Xbox-branded (and Windows-powered). Working
with ASUS' ROG division, they build a device that weighs more than the
Nintendo Switch 2, and "is marginally heavier than the Steam Deck," reports
Engadget. But "at least those grips look more ergonomic than those on the
Nintendo Switch 2 (which is already cramping my hands) or even the Steam
Deck." There are two variants of the handheld: the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox
Ally X. Microsoft didn't reveal pricing, but the handhelds are coming this
holiday... Critically, Microsoft and ROG aren't locking the devices to only
playing Xbox games (though you can do that natively, via the cloud or by
accessing an Xbox console remotely). You'll be able to play games from
Battle.net and "other leading PC storefronts" too. Obviously, there's Game
Pass integration here, as well as support for the Xbox Play Anywhere
initiative, which enables you to play games with synced progress across a
swathe of devices after buying them once... There's a dedicated physical Xbox
button that can bring up a Game Bar overlay, which seemingly makes it easy to
switch between apps and games, tweak settings, start chatting with friends
and more... You'll be able to mod games on either system as well. The Xbox
Ally is powered by the AMD Ryzen Z2 A Processor, and has 16GB of RAM and
512GB of SSD storage. The Xbox Ally X is the more powerful model. It has a
AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme processor, 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. They each
have a microSD card reader, so you won't need to worry about shelling out for
proprietary storage options to have extra space for your games... Both
systems boast "HD haptics..." Both systems should be capable of outputting
video to a TV or monitor, as they have two USB-C ports with support for
DisplayPort 2.1 and Power Delivery 3.0. "Microsoft has needed to respond to
SteamOS ever since the Steam Deck launched three years ago," argues The
Verge, "and it has steadily been tweaking its Xbox app and the Xbox Game Bar
on Windows to make both more handheld-friendly..." But there was always a
bigger overhaul of Windows required, and we're starting to see parts of that
today. "The reality is that we've made tremendous progress on this over the
last couple of years, and this is really the device that galvanized those
teams and got everybody marching and working towards a moment that we're just
really excited to put into the hands of players," says Roanne Sones,
corporate vice president of gaming Devices and ecosystem at Xbox, in a
briefing with The Verge... I'll need to try this new interface fully to
really get a feel for the Windows changes here, but Microsoft is promising
that this isn't just lipstick on top of Windows. "This isn't surface-level
changes, we've made significant improvements," says Potvin. "Some of our
early testing with the components we've turned off in Windows, we get about
2GB of memory going back to the games while running in the full-screen
experience."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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