ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X (RC73XA) Review – This Is An Xbox (And A PC)

Unboxing

The ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X are presented with a black-colored box matching Xbox’s color identity, though the unboxing process didn’t differ too much from the original ROG handhelds. The protective card reveals two QR codes that you can scan for guides, which immediately reveals the handheld itself. Keep in mind that the other side of the box also stores a stand within the attached compartment, which I didn’t catch the first time I unboxed this package.

The items you get include:
– 65W USB-C charger
– AC cable (Type G, UK/MY/SG)
– Stand
– Quick start guide
– ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X (RC73XA) main unit

Walkaround

Right out of the gate, you can see a significant design change with the handles now look more akin to a real Xbox controller, along with the addition of a dedicated Xbox button. Beyond these two changes however, most of the things remain the same coming from the ROG Ally X released last year: same button designs, same layouts, same 7-inch display (plus anti-reflective coating this time), and the same I/O layout.

Speaking of which, here’s what it comes with: on the left, there’s a USB4 port compatible with Thunderbolt 4 devices, and a second USB-C port that runs on USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) speeds – both of which supports charging and DisplayPort. While on the right, a microSD UHS-II card slot and the 3.5mm audio jack completes the I/O. You’ll also find two indicator LEDs (battery and power), a volume rocker, and a power button with integrated fingerprint sensor for Windows Hello sign-in.

Here are some of the close-ups of the device, and it’s worth pointing out an interesting design choice ASUS has made for this handheld. Notice the display has been tilted outward several degrees out relative to the hand grip, which does change its ergonomic characteristics. As far as I’m concerned while using it for testing, I didn’t find it to be bothering me at all, and simulating a flat angle by tilting my wrists several degrees back actually strained my wrists ever so slightly, so it seemed like that’s why it’s designed as such.

The ROG Xbox Ally X runs on a special version of Windows 11 that features customizations designed for handhelds to better handle games with their relatively limited performance compared to a regular PC. On boot, you’ll see a special boot screen that shows both the ROG and Xbox logo, which boots you right into the Xbox UI instead of traditional Windows 11 desktop like before.

Specifications

ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X (RC73X-ANH008W)

Full specifications available on product page.

CPU	AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme 5.0GHz / 8 cores (3C+5c), 16 threads
RAM	24GB dual-channel LPDDR5X-8000 (onboard)
GPU	Integrated: AMD Radeon 890M
NPU	AMD XDNA NPU (50 TOPS)
Storage	Samsung BM9C1 Series 1TB SSD MZVMX1T0HCLD-00BTW PCIe 4.0 x4, M.2 2280
Display	TIANMA TL070FVXS01-0 7″ IPS-level, glossy touchscreen 1920×1080 (FHD 16:9) 120Hz refresh rate 100% sRGB / 75.35% Adobe RGB 8-bit color (16.7M colors) 500 nits max brightness AMD FreeSync Premium certification Gorilla Glass Victus Gorilla Glass DXC
Controls & Inputs	Left: Hall Effect joystick, D-pad, Xbox button, Armoury Crate button, View button Right: Library button, Menu button, Hall Effect joystick, ABXY buttons Top: L/R triggers, L/R bumpers, Volume rocker, Power button Rear: M1/M2 assignable macro buttons 6-axis Inertia Measurement Unit (IMU) Built-in haptic motors
Touchpad	None
Audio	2x front-firing stereo speakers Dolby Atmos Support Built-in microphones
Webcam	None
Biometrics	Fingerprint (Windows Hello)
I/O	1x USB4 40Gbps (Thunderbolt 4, DisplayPort 1.4, 65W PD) 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) Type-C (DisplayPort 1.4, 65W PD) 1x UHS-II microSD card reader 1x 3.5mm audio jack
Wireless Connectivity	MediaTek MT7922 (AMD RZ616) Wi-Fi 6E 160MHz tri-band, 2×2 MIMO Bluetooth 5.2
Battery	80Wh 4-cell Li-ion
Power Supply	65W DC power supply (USB-C connector)
Operating System	Windows 11 Home 24H2 w/ Xbox Full Screen mode
Dimensions	290 x 121 x 27.5~50.9 mm
Weight	715g

Software

The Xbox Full Screen Experience

The headlining feature of the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally series is less about the ROG side of things, but rather, the Microsoft side of things. Specifically, these are the first models to feature what Microsoft calls “Full Screen Experience” (FSE), of which Windows 11 is run under a slimmed-down state to keep resource overhead to a minimum, usually in the form of slightly less RAM usage (of around 1-2GB). On paper, this should be able to extract some extra performance, which we’ll explore in the gaming benchmarks section later on.

In this mode, Windows 11 sort of operates like a smartphone interface where only one app stays on screen at a time, and you have to switch between apps through a task switcher UI by holding down the Xbox button. You can still access some non-gaming apps in this mode (including those not natively designed to handle handheld interface), although mileages may vary. As a fallback, ASUS does include the option to switch the right joystick as a mouse controller to deal with those scenarios.

In our tests, you pretty much have to activate mouse mode through Armoury Crate SE to navigate through Epic Games Store app, while GOG Galaxy fared slightly better, though it’s a hit-or-miss as it may end up not highlighting buttons at times. Steam works best for Xbox controls, as long as you have Big Picture Mode activated. Granted, all can be operated using touchscreens, but this isn’t a perfect solution given that a non-optimized desktop interface will make hitting the right buttons difficult, made no easier by smaller-than-usual displays. (However, if you have a keyboard and mouse connected, you can still operate the interface using those peripherals.)

Some games also have issues dealing with FSE interface. For example, at least during the first run of Black Myth: Wukong in our unit, the Windows Firewall prompt jumped out first which ended up obscuring the game in the background, and you wouldn’t know it unless you hold down the Xbox button to check for running apps. Windows sometimes can saw programs and apps started in background (which is why you may see orange flashes on Taskbar at times to alert you), but current interface is yet to fully counteract this phenomenon.

To exit from the Full Screen Experience, you can navigate to the task switcher UI by holding down the Xbox button or swipe upward from the bottom edge, then select ‘Windows Desktop’. You’ll be prompted, select Continue to proceed. This will activate all the standard Windows 11 functions, and from this point on, you’ll lose the performance benefits of FSE even when you switch back – which you can do within the Xbox app – unless you reboot the system.

Keep in mind that ASUS ROG Xbox Allys (or Allies?) will not be the only devices featuring the new Xbox FSE; they’re only the first to do so as part of Microsoft’s efforts to expand into the handheld segment. Existing handhelds will soon get these features retroactively in the future, so any Windows 11-powered handhelds from this point on should be able to access these features right out of the box.

Armoury Crate SE

The ROG Xbox Ally X also gets a newly-revamped Armoury Crate SE interface, with the updated Command Center accessible via a dedicated button on the left side of the screen (holding it also brings out Copilot AI, because it’s 2025). You can customize the layouts and even laid out some full-width widgets for power profiles and such, although by default it’s already quite useful to get things going. You can jump into the Armoury Crate SE software directly by selecting the button on top, which brings you to the all-new UI that significantly cleans up into a look more akin to a typical device settings UI.

Pretty much all of the necessary settings can be found within this software alone, although do keep in mind for things like Wi-Fi, speaker settings, and things that are Windows-adjacent, there is a separate quick settings tab in the same place you access the ACSE Command Center where you can disable microphones, connect Wi-Fi, and even access native Windows 11 Settings.

In ACSE, you can configure things like mouse mode and controller mode, and map custom buttons as needed. The handheld does feature an extra pair of assignable keys behind (M1 and M2) which you can map into specific functions. (Pro tip: hold both M1 and M2, then press the ‘A’ button, to take a screenshot. This puts your images in the Xbox gallery.) There’s also functions like calibrating joysticks, bumpers, and gyro sensors, plus vibration tuning as well; and if you prefer to keep this device plugged most of the time, there’s the option to limit 80% charge level if you need it.

Performance

Storage

This particular unit of ROG Xbox Ally X uses a Samsung BM9C1 series SSD on the conventional M.2 2280 form factor, which delivers a mid-range PCIe 4.0 performance with sequential read of around 5,000MB/s and sequential write of 4,000MB/s. These are plenty of performance already, but if you ever need an even more performant SSD (or just a plain bigger one), you can always swap to your own with a vast amount of M.2 2280 options that exist on the market today.

CPU

Inside the Xbox Ally X you’ll find the new AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme processor, which has a more bespoke CPU layout with three large Zen 5 cores and five downsized Zen 5c cores, totaling 8 cores and 16 threads. That makes it among the fastest CPU when compared to lightweight laptops like the ASUS Zenbook S 16 featuring the 12-core (4C+8c) Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor operating at 28W cTDP, although in bursty workloads the laptop did win out by some margin against the handheld. Still, this proves that the Z2 Extreme has the CPU chops to run the games you throw at it.

Here we should also mention how ROG Xbox Ally X’s power profiles work: there are three power profiles selectable at any time – Silent, Performance, and Turbo. However, while Silent and Performance are fixed at 13W and 17W respectively, the cTDP value for Turbo mode depends on its power state. If the handheld is plugged in, the Turbo mode operates at 35W cTDP; on battery, the Turbo mode will settle at 25W cTDP instead. (That said, you can override it by switching to Manual mode via ACSE, though be aware battery drains quickly if you do this.)

GPU

On the GPU side, the Ryzen Z2 Extreme uses the same Radeon 890M integrated graphics as the regular laptops do, so it’s the matter of power limit when it comes to which model is more performant. If you put it at its highest power state (35W cTDP), the Radeon almost caught up to the more powerful Arc 140V graphics from Intel, although this can vary given the workload as you can see the different results we get from Superposition, Time Spy, and Steel Nomad benchmarks focusing on rasterization graphics.

In the case of ray tracing, Port Royal saw similar trend as we have just seen with rasterization benchmarks, though Speed Way shows a big lead for Intel-based models. That being said, you probably won’t be activating ray tracing in games any time soon, as integrated graphics of today simply don’t have enough compute power to sufficiently deal with ray-traced graphics in real time.

System

Moving on to system benchmarks, here we see the handheld at 35W leads the chart, while the rest sit in the middle. This is largely due to CPU performance being a big factor in this benchmark, which scales somewhat linearly based on the power given. Also noteworthy here is the Storage score on 25W Turbo under battery power, which saw a sizeable drop likely due to lower power state that increased access latency, contributing to the lower score.

Here’s the ROG Xbox Ally X tested in PCMark 10 with four of its power modes, which serves somewhat as an indicator of regular office work performance. Silent mode is where we see significant drops in Productivity and Digital Content Creation scores, while Turbo 35W mode managed to keep up with most laptops shown in this chart. While you probably aren’t going to take this into consideration buying this handheld, it’s still technically a PC after all as long as you provide the appropriate input devices for it.

Battery

In similar principle, this is how the battery life looks like if you do office work on it, which – allow me to mention it again – is not going to be a part of your purchasing decision. Still, this acts as a reference comparing against conventional laptops to gauge its power efficiency, and the actual runtime while gaming ultimately depends on a combination of which game you play, what power mode it operates, along with things like brightness that can affect the overall runtime.

During our tests, we find that the ROG Xbox Ally X can last at least 2 hours even under heavy runs, and if you’re conservative on performance, you can enable things like Radeon Chill and AMD RSR to further reduce the compute power needed to run the games. Since the Ryzen Z2 Extreme is quite powerful on its own, this means it gives you some room to play at reduced power while maintaining the same level of performance as before.

Gaming

Aside from the four power modes, we also need to consider another variant when running gaming benchmarks on the Xbox Ally X – the performance implications of Xbox Full Screen Experience. So, how much performance can you extract out of saving a bit of system memory from games? Based on our results, not by much, although measurable at times. The biggest difference between FSE and standard Windows Desktop mode lies on Cyberpunk 2077 running at 900p resolution, where FSE gained 4 FPS, or a 7% uplift in framerate. In most other examples, the difference is small enough that it’s functionally indiscernible to a user’s eye.

Also, note that while Windows 11 technically supports every modern game release, the performance on gaming handhelds like the ROG Xbox Ally X will depend on its resource demands. For lighter AAA titles like Forza Horizon 5, the handheld has no issues dealing with 1080p Medium natively and still deliver a smooth experience, while on the other end of the spectrum, Black Myth: Wukong and Monster Hunter Wilds are barely playable with all the graphical settings lowered to minimum whilst enabling frame generation (which will hurt input latency).

The Good

The thing which the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X impressed me the most is easily the ergonomics. I had the chance of doing a side-by-side comparison using my friend’s ROG Ally X as comparison, and the difference is night and day: instead of having this claw-grip way of holding the device, the new handle design allows your palm to wrap around, evenly distributing the force which reduces strain on your wrist. It’s pretty much like holding an actual Xbox controller, so if you’re already familiar with one of those, you’ll get used to this in no time.

Performance-wise, the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme processor offers plenty of performance by gaming handheld standards, and it’s got no issue handling some well-optimized AAA titles at decent framerates without resorting to minimum settings. More importantly, even under the most strained Turbo 35W mode, both internal fans made very little noise while keeping the thermals well within limits. At the same time, you can extract good amounts of runtime off of its 80Wh battery, with at least 2 hours to boot under the most demanding conditions. Undemanding games like Hollow Knight: Silksong will allow the handheld to easily last way more than that, of course.

Another big plus is the launch-exclusive Xbox Full Screen Experience interface, which, aside from performance benefits, also makes navigating through Windows 11 quite a lot simpler using just the Xbox controls. While it’s not as deeply integrated as, say, Steam Deck and SteamOS, you can navigate through most interfaces just fine using the controller, although there’s the mouse mode readily available if the situation ever requires it.

The Bad

Strictly speaking, the current iteration of ROG Xbox Ally X has no outright flaws, but there are definitely missed opportunities. One of them is the lack of OLED display – think about it, Steam Deck has an OLED version, and even Nintendo Switch has an OLED version, so it’s only natural that a handheld as expensive as this one should come with one of these displays, right? While the current IPS panel is what I describe as serviceable, an OLED upgrade would definitely be great given the price it’s asking for.

Another rather glaring omission is the inclusion of a case. While ASUS says you can buy the case for the Xbox Ally series handhelds separately, designating what I consider a fairly essential accessory as a paid add-on (especially considering the price tag it carries) just doesn’t do any good for the gamers that will be carrying these devices to places whilst inside their bags, where many things can end up dinging and scratching the device in more ways than one.

Verdict

We’ve at least mentioned ‘price’ in the above section twice, and there’s a reason for it – ASUS is asking for a whopping RM4,299 for one of these ROG Xbox Ally X handhelds, which is very pricey when you compare to the likes of Steam Deck and such. It’s starting to step into proper laptop territory, so those without particularly deep pockets will have to think twice about committing this much money for a gaming handheld, which is essentially just a downsized PC with an Xbox controller fused next to it.

If you do have the ability to make this monetary commitment though, the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X currently offers an experience that very few models in the market can match today. Excellent ergonomics, special software, great performance, and overall just a plain well-built machine, making this one of the forerunners under Microsoft’s new vision of a quintessential “Xbox” that you can throw in your bag instead of sitting under your home TV.

Special thanks to ASUS Malaysia for providing the ROG Xbox Ally X (RC73XA) handheld for this review.