Asus ROG Ally X in review: King of handhelds

• ✅ 🏃‍♂️Slightly higher FPS performance in several games

• ✅ 🪭 Improved cooling ensures that the Ally X runs noticeably cooler

• ✅ 🔋 Larger battery offers 3-7 hours of battery life

• ✅ 🕹️ Tighter thumbsticks and a more precise D-pad

• ✅ ⚖️ Weight and thickness have hardly changed

• ​​✅ 🧠 2x more storage space and 24 GB faster RAM

• ❌ 💰 $100 more than the original Asus ROG Ally

• ❌ ​​📺 The display has larger bezels and is more blurred than other handhelds

• ❌ ⚙️ No direct optimizations to the Z1 Extreme chip to make the Ally X faster

The Asus ROG Ally X is officially the best gaming handheld. All of Asus’ major internal improvements and small external tweaks have fixed all of the original’s shortcomings. Asus ROG Strix GL502VW. It’s more comfortable than before, lasts much longer than before, and even performs significantly better than any other handheld.

No other gaming handheld can let you play for up to seven hours because Asus has included an 80Whr battery. At the same time, the improved cooling features and jump to 24GB help the Ally X get a few more frames per second in games than the competition without burning out the whole system. Asus has also made many ergonomic improvements, including thicker grips, tighter thumbsticks, and a more precise D-pad, making the Ally X the handheld I always reach for.

These improvements make this handheld $100 more expensive, bringing the total price to $799, but this much improved device is worth it as the best gaming handheld. However, there will soon be a lot of strong competition, such as the MSI Claw 8 AI+, Zotac Zoneand finally a Sony PS2 Handheld – all promise similar improvements.

🖤 ​​It is now available in black. The Asus ROG Ally X differs from the original in one simple way: it comes in black. It was odd that the original ROG Ally didn’t come in more colors, because we really like the darker shade of this new handheld. The new black finish also helps to hide the screen bezel, which unfortunately hasn’t gotten any smaller with this upgrade.

🍞 The baby has come back. Another thing you’ll immediately notice about the Asus ROG Ally X is that it now has fuller grips, making it easier to hold for longer periods of time. I thought the original Ally was already ergonomically well-shaped—especially when placed at an angle on a tabletop—but now every edge is rounded for a more comfortable feel.

🔋 2x battery life. The short battery life was one of our main complaints about the original Ally. With games like Helldivers 2 and ForzaHorizon5To fix this problem, Asus doubled the size of the Ally X’s battery from 40 Whr to 80 Whr. This doubled the battery life of the Asus ROG Ally X. I made it through a full four-hour Amtrak ride with Mortal Kombat 1 And Galatic Survivor from Deeprock from NYC to Boston without having to plug in once.

The situation is similar with a 30-45 minute round Helldivers 2 used half the battery life on the original Ally, but now the same game only uses 20-30% of the battery life on the Ally X. You will even get longer battery life on less graphically demanding games like Persona 3: Reloadedwhich I was able to play for almost seven hours at a time. The significantly longer battery life takes away the pressure of constantly having to search for a power outlet for the handheld; the Ally X is now a handheld that you can play on the go.

💤 Stand by me. Another big improvement with Ally X is that you can pause a game, put it in sleep mode overnight, and it will still turn on the next morning. The previous Ally would always drain the battery, and most likely even completely, even if it was left idle on the desktop overnight. You can even pause your games while Ally X is in sleep mode, and it won’t drain the battery. Sometimes games would crash after turning the system back on, or worse, the handheld’s controls would become unresponsive. Instant resume on Ally X just isn’t as reliable as it was on Nintendo Switch OLED or PS5 Slim, but that’s more of a Windows 11 bug.

⚙️ Internal upgrades. Unsurprisingly – if a little disappointing – the Asus ROG Ally X runs the same AMD Z1E chip as the regular Ally. Understandably, the new Ally X isn’t powered by a new Z2 Extreme chip, as AMD hasn’t announced that yet. Still, the Asus ROG Ally X is now better equipped, with 24GB of RAM running at a faster 7,500MHz speed and a 1TB SSD out of the box. The extra 8GB of RAM helps the Ally X run faster, and can be converted into additional video memory for demanding AAA gaming experiences. The new 1TB storage is also very welcome, as it lets you store more games. And if 1TB of storage still isn’t enough, it’s now a little easier to upgrade the SSD, as the Asus ROG Ally X can accommodate full-size M.2 SSDs.

💨 Better cooling. Asus has improved the Ally X’s cooling with a third exhaust vent. The fans inside are 23% smaller and their blades are 50% thinner. These cooling improvements allow the Asus ROG Ally X to exhaust 24% more air volume and reduce operating temperatures by 6°C. In my testing, the Ally X ran noticeably cooler than the original Ally and was much quieter too. All of this should also help prevent the Ally X from burning through microSD cards as often; so far, I’ve had no issues with mine.

👑 Performance king. Thanks to the additional 8GB of faster memory and improved cooling, the Ally X achieves 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 be able to match the Ally X’s higher performance numbers, but that’s mostly due to its 720p screen when we run all of our tests at 1080p and high settings.

🧈 Smooth as butter. Outside of benchmarks, the Ally X does a great job running virtually any game at low settings above 30-45 fps. The Ally X is also surprisingly powerful enough to run some games like ForzaHorizon5 And Lies by P. at high settings at a nearly constant 60 fps. Also, adding FSR ensures that most games run at the golden 60 fps, allowing for smooth gaming.

When the Ally X does falter and the frame rate drops, there’s no stuttering thanks to the variable refresh rate, which smooths out the experience. The fact that the Ally X is one of only three handhelds in the world that support VRR (the other two being the original Asus ROG Ally and the GDP Win Mini) makes it a must-have.

📺 Same screen. While I just praised the Ally X’s VRR display, I wish Asus had opted for 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 Ally X’s display’s color and contrast were already behind that of the Lenovo Legion 4Soon there will be handhelds with even better screens, like the AMOLED display on the Zotac Zone.

🎛️ Better user interface. I’m thankful that the Asus ROG Armory Crate 1.5 has such a great UI that I rarely see the Windows 11 interface underneath. The application aggregates your gaming library from apps like Steam, Xbox, Epic, EA App, and Ubisoft Connect, making them easy to find and launch. Likewise, Command Center gives you quick access to Ally X’s key customizations, power modes, screen brightness, volume, and even all of the power button options. Both menus can be accessed at any time (even in-game) using the keyboard shortcuts on the edges of the screen. Navigating these menus is much easier than tapping a tiny spot on the Windows 11 taskbar, thanks to the generously larger touchscreen buttons or the ability to use the joysticks/directional pads and face buttons.

🕹️ Tighter poles. The loose joysticks on the original Ally detracted from the gaming experience, so I’m glad that Asus added a bit more resistance to the Ally X’s new sticks. They feel more solid, and are closer to the feel I’m used to from an Xbox Series or DualSense controller. I was 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 movements. Once you get over that hurdle, you can be much more precise with Asus’ upgraded handheld.

➕ A larger D-pad. The D-pad also feels better now that it has an eight-way gate underneath it. This makes executing 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. While the original Ally’s USB-C only supported USB 3.2 Gen 2, this new additional Thunderbolt 4 allows you to connect to more external graphics cards and docks. Plus, with two USB-C ports, you can charge the device and add a gaming headset or mouse at the same time. The only thing I don’t like about the Ally’s two USB-C ports is that they’re placed right next to each other, so you practically need a USB-C cable extension if you want to connect large wireless dongles.

🤏 Thicker, but unnoticeable. With the larger battery and larger handles, the Ally X has gained some mass, now measuring 1-1.4 inches thick. However, this isn’t too bad compared to the Ally’s original thickness of 0.8-1.2 inches. The Ally X has also only gained 1.7 pounds, so you can hardly say it’s heavier than its predecessor.

• ✅ 💪You want the most powerful gaming handheld ever

• ✅ 🔋 You want to play for up to seven hours on the go

• ✅ 🎮 You want great input options on your gaming handheld

• ✅ 🤔 You weren’t sure before whether to buy the ROG Ally

Kevin Lee is Creative Director of The Shortcut. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam.