ASUS ROG Ally X Review: The Windows Handheld That Fixed the Ally's Biggest Flaws

Overview

The ASUS ROG Ally X is a mid-cycle refresh of the ROG Ally that addresses nearly every complaint owners had with the 2023 original. It keeps the same AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor but doubles the battery to 80Wh, bumps memory from 16GB to 24GB of faster LPDDR5X-7500, doubles storage to a 1TB M.2 2280 SSD, reworks the ergonomics and controls, and replaces the proprietary eGPU port with a pair of USB-C connectors. It launched in July 2024 at $799.99 and quickly became the default recommendation for anyone who wanted a Windows handheld rather than a Steam Deck. PCMag gave it 4.0 out of 5 with an Editors' Choice award, calling it the best Steam Deck alternative, and the community largely agreed: this was the handheld ASUS should have shipped the first time.

There is an important catch for anyone shopping in 2026: the Ally X is out of production. New-in-box stock has dried up on Amazon, and the line has since evolved into the ROG Xbox Ally X (2025, $999.99) with the Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip and an Xbox-style interface, plus a budget ROG Ally (2025, $599.99) with the Z2 A processor. That makes this review a look at a product that defined the category but now lives mostly on the renewed and used market. For buyers weighing a discounted Ally X against the newer models, the question is simple: does a two-year-old flagship still make sense? The short answer is yes at the right price, with caveats about Windows and battery life that have not changed since launch.

Build Quality and Design

The Ally X traded the original's white shell for a black chassis, and the dimensional changes are modest: it measures roughly 280 x 111 x 37mm and weighs 678 grams. That is 70g heavier than the original Ally (608g) and about 38g heavier than the Steam Deck OLED (640g) — the price you pay for the 80Wh cell inside. The extra weight is distributed lower in the device, and reviewers consistently describe the grips as the best in the category. The handles are deeper and chunkier than the original, filling the palms in a way that resembles an Xbox controller bisected by a screen. In short sessions the weight is a non-issue; past 90 minutes, community feedback and hands-on reviews both note that arms start to fatigue, especially when playing in bed with the device held overhead.

ASUS repositioned the face buttons and analog sticks for the X revision. The left stick sits slightly lower, the right stick is less of a reach, and both have higher tension with springs rated for 5 million cycles. Owners describe the sticks as precise with minimal deadzone. The D-pad was fully redesigned — it was one of the original Ally's weakest points, with poor diagonal input — and the new one delivers clear directional clicks that make fighting games and retro titles genuinely playable. The face buttons feel more substantial than the original's, the analog triggers are smooth, and the two rear paddle buttons are positioned naturally behind the grips for mapping actions without lifting your thumbs.

The top edge was reorganized along with the switch to black. The proprietary XG Mobile eGPU connector is gone, replaced by two USB-C ports: one USB4 (40Gbps, DisplayPort and Power Delivery capable) and one USB 3.2 Gen 2. That second port is a bigger deal than it sounds — the original Ally had a single USB-C buried in a groove next to the eGPU connector. The X also moves the UHS-II microSD slot to the opposite end of the top edge, away from the exhaust vent. This directly addresses the original Ally's infamous SD card failure issue, where heat from the fan melted cards and killed readers; ASUS has stated there were no widespread reports of the issue on the X, and Reddit threads largely confirm the fix held. A center vent handles cooling, a 3.5mm headphone jack survives on the right edge, and the chassis itself shows only minor flex under aggressive pressure — normal for a plastic handheld and not a concern in practice.

Key Features

• 7-inch 1080p 120Hz IPS display with AMD FreeSync Premium (variable refresh rate), 7ms response, 500-nit-class peak brightness, and 10-point multi-touch. VRR is the standout here: frame rates between roughly 48 and 120Hz stay tear-free, which matters on a device whose frame rate swings wildly between games.
• 24GB LPDDR5X-7500 memory in a dual 12GB configuration, with the option to allocate up to 16GB to the GPU via BIOS. This is the single most future-proofing spec on the device; 16GB-class handhelds are already showing stutter in memory-hungry titles.
• 1TB M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 SSD — the same full-size format used in laptops, user-replaceable with a standard screwdriver. No proprietary storage, no soldered drive.
• 80Wh battery — double the original Ally's 40Wh cell, the largest in any handheld at launch, charged by the included 65W USB-C adapter that takes the device from empty to roughly 50% in about 30 minutes.
• Full Windows 11 Home with ASUS's Armoury Crate SE overlay: Silent (9W), Performance (15W), and Turbo (25W) TDP profiles, per-game settings, a performance monitor, and VRAM allocation controls. It runs every storefront — Steam, Xbox/Game Pass, Epic, GOG, Battle.net — plus the entire PC catalog and emulators.
• Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 wireless, plus two USB-C ports (USB4 + USB 3.2 Gen 2) for docks, displays, and eGPUs over standard USB4 enclosures.
• 6-axis IMU (gyro + accelerometer) for motion control in supported games, plus two assignable rear macro buttons.

Performance

The Ally X's raw performance ceiling is identical to the original Ally's because the Z1 Extreme (8 Zen 4 cores / 16 threads, 12 RDNA 3 compute units, up to 5.1GHz boost) is unchanged. What changed is how much of that chip you can actually use before the device gives up. Published benchmark data from Technerdo's long-term testing, run at 1080p in Turbo mode (25W TDP), shows the shape of the performance:

• Cyberpunk 2077 (FSR Quality, Medium): 48-55 fps
• Elden Ring (Medium): 45-55 fps
• Baldur's Gate 3 (Medium): 35-45 fps, dipping below 35 in busy multi-caster fights
• Forza Horizon 5 (High): 55-65 fps
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Medium): 52-64 fps
• Starfield (Low-Medium): 30-40 fps
• Hades II (Max settings): locked 60 fps

PCMag's testing adds useful color: Cyberpunk 2077 on the Steam Deck visual preset held around 45 fps, F1 2021 at Ultra High improved from 19 fps on the original Ally to 27 fps on the X, and Rainbow Six Siege at Ultra jumped from 73 fps to 189 fps. Dropping to 720p with FSR upscaling buys another 15-25% in demanding titles, and ETA PRIME demonstrated docked 1440p play at roughly 30W draw for less intensive games.

The 24GB of RAM is where the X separates itself in real-world use. Reddit and review coverage consistently highlight the same pattern: Starfield, Cities: Skylines 2, and heavily modded Baldur's Gate 3 stutter and texture-pop on 16GB handhelds while the Ally X keeps assets streaming smoothly. Allocating 16GB to VRAM turns it into a passable 1080p machine for older titles, and the 1TB SSD means you are not juggling three installed games at a time like 512GB owners were.

Battery life is the headline feature and the numbers hold up in independent testing. PCMag measured 17 hours 7 minutes of local video playback — more than double the original Ally's 8 hours 37 minutes — and 2 hours 40 minutes of Cyberpunk 2077 in Performance mode. Technerdo's figures at 50% brightness: 3-3.5 hours for light games at 15W (Hades II, Stardew Valley), 2-2.5 hours for mid-tier titles (Forza Horizon 5, Persona), 1.5-2 hours for demanding titles in Turbo mode (Cyberpunk, Elden Ring), and 5-6 hours of video streaming. Connected standby drains roughly 2-3% per hour, which is better than the original but still means a device left in sleep for two days will need a charge. The practical takeaway across all sources: in Turbo, the 80Wh battery buys you about as long as a movie; in Performance, it comfortably covers a long session.

The Windows 11 Elephant

Every review and every long-term owner thread circles back to the same problem: Windows 11 on a 7-inch touchscreen. The desktop, file dialogs, update prompts, and settings screens were not designed for thumb-driven touch input, and dismissing notifications or adjusting settings requires fiddly precision taps. This is the source of the device's most common real-world complaints. Reddit threads on r/ROGAlly document BSODs, automatic repair loops, and cloud recovery failures that forced owners to clean-install Windows — one user described a unit that bricked twice in under two months, and another traced recurring boot loops to setting 16GB VRAM in Armoury Crate, fixed by reverting to 12GB in BIOS. The community's standard advice is telling: many owners recommend doing a clean Windows install out of the box to bypass ASUS's factory image quirks, and a clean install is frequently described as making the device work much better. Armoury Crate itself is praised as the best-in-class Windows handheld overlay but is not immune to the same update-and-quirk cycle. These are not dealbreakers for everyone — plenty of owners never hit a serious issue — but they are the reality of owning a Windows handheld, and the Ally X does not escape it.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Roughly double the battery life of the original Ally; 2h40m of Cyberpunk or 17 hours of video per charge in published testing
• 24GB RAM with up to 16GB VRAM allocation — genuinely future-proof for 2026+ titles and modded games
• 1TB full-size M.2 2280 SSD that is trivially user-swappable
• Meaningfully better ergonomics, D-pad, stick tension, and rear paddles than the original
• Two USB-C ports including USB4 — standard eGPU enclosures work, no proprietary dock required
• FreeSync Premium VRR on a 120Hz panel; microSD slot relocated away from the exhaust, fixing the original's card-killing issue

Cons:

• Windows 11 remains awkward on a 7-inch touchscreen; Reddit threads document BSODs, boot loops, and recovery failures that a clean install often resolves
• $799.99 at launch — approaching budget gaming laptop territory, and $100 more than the original Ally
• Same Z1 Extreme chip as the original: no generational performance jump, just more stamina and memory
• 678g gets heavy past 90 minutes, particularly held above your face in bed
• Turbo mode still drains the 80Wh battery in 1.5-2 hours on AAA titles and spins the fans up audibly
• IPS panel can't match the Steam Deck OLED's contrast and black levels in dark scenes
• Discontinued new in 2026 — you are buying from the renewed/used market, and the successor costs $200 more

Who Should Buy This

The Ally X is for people who want a PC, not a console. If your library lives on Game Pass, Steam, Epic, GOG, and Battle.net simultaneously; if you want to mod Fallout London or Starfield; if you want a device that docks to a monitor and does double duty as a small Windows PC; if you want to run emulators from NES through PS3 — the Ally X is the most complete Windows handheld ever made up to this point. The 24GB of RAM makes it the right pick over cheaper 16GB handhelds if you play memory-hungry or heavily modded titles. It is also the natural fit for anyone who already owns an original Ally and is upgrading for battery life, storage, and the second USB-C port — the most commonly cited upgrade reasons in owner threads.

Skip it if you want a console-like pick-up-and-play experience (that is the Steam Deck's job), if you never leave the Xbox/Game Pass ecosystem and want the newest hardware (the 2025 ROG Xbox Ally X is the direct successor), or if your sessions are short and your budget is tight (the $599.99 ROG Ally 2025 covers most of the same library).

Alternatives to Consider

• ROG Xbox Ally X (2025) — $999.99. The official successor, sold at Best Buy and the Microsoft Store. It swaps in the Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme (8 Zen 5 cores, RDNA 3.5 with 16 CUs), keeps 24GB LPDDR5X-8000 and the 80Wh battery, adds impulse triggers, HD haptics, a fingerprint reader, and an Xbox full-screen interface over Windows 11. Long-term reviews praise the ergonomics and versatility but note the Xbox UI is still laggy and janky at times and the device is heavier at 715g. It is the fastest Windows handheld on the market, but at $200 over the Ally X's launch price, it only makes sense if you want the newest chip.
• Steam Deck OLED — $549-649. Cheaper, lighter (640g), with a gorgeous 90Hz OLED panel and SteamOS's console-grade simplicity. It is the better pure-gaming handheld and the better battery-life value in practice. The tradeoffs: significantly less raw performance, no Windows without dual-boot hassle, and no Game Pass without workarounds. If the Ally X's Windows flexibility is not a requirement, the Deck is the smarter buy.
• ROG Ally (2025) — $599.99. The budget entry of the new lineup: Ryzen Z2 A (4 cores), 16GB LPDDR5X, 512GB SSD, 60Wh battery, same 7-inch 120Hz screen and Xbox UI. It covers indie and older AAA gaming comfortably and is the value pick if the Z1 Extreme's extra grunt and the X's 24GB aren't essential.

Verdict

The ROG Ally X is the definitive Windows handheld of its generation — a careful, almost surgical revision that fixed the original Ally's battery, storage, ergonomics, and SD card problems while keeping the price at a premium $799.99. In 2026 the calculation has changed: it is no longer sold new, the ROG Xbox Ally X has taken the flagship crown at $999.99, and the Steam Deck OLED remains the better value for console-style players. But as a renewed or used purchase below roughly $600, the Ally X is still the best Windows handheld you can buy for the money, with 24GB of RAM that will outlast 16GB rivals and battery life that remains class-leading. The persistent caveats are unchanged: Windows 11 on a 7-inch touchscreen is a patience test, and Turbo-mode sessions will have you hunting for a charger. Buy it for the PC flexibility, the memory headroom, and the stamina — just go in knowing it is a PC first and a console second.

Score: 8.0/10 — Excellent for Windows-first handheld gamers; a harder sell in 2026 when the Steam Deck OLED is cheaper and the Z2 Extreme successor exists.