ASUS·handheld
ROG Ally X
Based on 75 credible posts from YouTube, Bluesky & Hacker News. 29 filtered out as bot-like or off-topic.
High confidenceA large sample of owners; this score is stable. How we score
Scored September 27, 2026
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Owner reviews
Overall owner mood
Most owners are happy with it: 67% of 75 reviews are positive and 15% negative. Praise centers on battery & charging and performance. The most common complaint is display (9 owners). Owners with 6+ months of use are more positive (86%), which suggests it holds up well.
What owners like
Battery & charging praised by 5 owners
“I modded my ally, ended up just buying the ally x battery, 3d printed the battery tray and a couple of other things, got a adaptor to plug and and play the ally x battery and now I don’t need to upgrade.”
Performance praised by 3 owners
“it already runs pretty beastily but I'm never going to complain about better performance...”
Comfort & size praised by 2 owners
“The legion is just a way more comfortable grip for me and synthetic benchmarks between them the legion wins every time (timespy, userbenchmark).”
What owners complain about
Display raised by 9 owners
“Only issue is the tiny screen I tried the legion go and man it’s sooooo hard to go back to ally screen after the size of legion go one and even portal one.”
Price & value raised by 7 owners
“Ive had the ally x for just over 3 months and i remember when i first got it i wasnt sure if i was wasting my money or if i would actually use it enough.”
Battery & charging raised by 2 owners
“Even if it cost battery life a bit and was a bit more expensive I wouldn't have minded.”
Comfort & size raised by 2 owners
“As much as i liked it, it felt too heavy for me.”
What owners talk about
- Display7 praise · 9 complain
- Price & value6 praise · 7 complain
- Battery & charging5 praise · 2 complain
- Comfort & size2 praise · 2 complain
- Performance3 praise · 0 complain
- Software & AI1 praise · 1 complain
- Build & durability0 praise · 2 complain
Built from the reviews themselves — every quote links to the owner who wrote it.
Full text of every credible post we scored. Bot-like and off-topic comments are hidden.
I got my hands on the ROG Ally X last year and really liked the hardware. Tough market for all mini-PC handhelds.
[...] Got my Steamdeck OLED last year and because of hardware competency, I swapped it to a Rog Ally X but months past of using it, I came to the point that I think about upgrading or because I miss the consistency and perfection of Steam OS. I’ve decided to install Steam OS (not Bazzite) to my ROG Ally X and BEST DECISION EVER! [...]
Absolutely gorgeous, I was buy 3 years before and still playing all the games and im in love .. ❤❤❤
I honestly can't think of a single day that I have NOT played my AllyX since Dec, 2024 when I received it as a Christmas gift. This thing has gone all over the country with me, travelling for work and personal trips. Looking forward to where the handheld PC market will go from here! [...]
Pretty much an exactly replica of my experience over the past year. Great video. Long live the Ally X!!!
I can give a 6month review and honestly I've used it every single day since such a beast and fun! I don't even use my main PC 😂😂 handhelds took over the game
[...] Ive had the ally x for just over 3 months and i remember when i first got it i wasnt sure if i was wasting my money or if i would actually use it enough. [...]
My Ally died after 1.5 years, and I got a full refund, 780€. [...] I bought a new one. [...] Buying an Ally X for double the price made no sense to me, especially when I already have a fast external battery and a bigger replacement HDD.
[...] My experience with the SteamDeck started me, later I upgraded to a ROG Ally X for beefier performance but found Windows insufferable on a handheld, and installed SteamOS. I was blown away by the performance gains. A few months later I installed Kubuntu for the first time since 2013 or so, Steam shortly after, and while the desktop linux route is definitely more taxing (manually installing things like Mod Organizer 2 instead of Vortex, for instance, and all of that needing to run differently as opposed to Windows where it's all just .exe's) I've been absolutely blown away by the performance gains again. [...] And the alt-tab experience is untouchable, Fallout: New Vegas hates it and crashes, but everything more modern utterly doesn't care. [...] I have a couple more things to figure, I need XBox authentication to work for Halo Infinite and Sea of Theives, among others, and I need to figure out some solutions for some ancient software I have to run, which will probably end up being a Windows 11 VM. But as for my daily driver OS, I am so excited to get off Windows once and for all.
I might have to look into this for my ROG Ally X... it already runs pretty beastily but I'm never going to complain about better performance... [...]
I can't figure out what Microsoft's strategy is with the Rog ally X or whatever it's called. [...] Are they planning on competing with steam and that's how they'll make money? [...]
I bought an Asus Rog Ally X on a recent trip to NYC (i'm not from the US, and the steam deck isn't sold on regular retailers). I can't believe how awful the user interface is, they are bascially installing windows 11 in a computer shaped as a portable console, with really small icons and imprecise touch controls, onedrive and microsoft 365 offers, crazy. [...]
If you already have the ROG Ally X then you don’t need to upgrade to the Xbox Ally X I would wait until a huge leap in hardware and software, the Ally X is still capable of playing current AAA games I will be able to for the next few years, I would recommend dual booting your Ally X to have both steam OS and windows so you can play with the anti cheat system like COD or Battlefield.
[...] I got a ROG ally x when they came out so dipping into PCs
[...] Plus the biggest factor was the rising price so I sold it for more than what I paid for. [...] The battery is great, size is still portable, screen is good enough, and controls are good, and performance is still acceptable for handheld use. Plus the secondhand price in my country is just too good to pass. [...] Especially nowadays when I look at the prices of those recently released handhelds. [...]
It's definitely a big boy which takes getting used to since my daily driver has been the original ROG Ally X. But it does feel good in the hands and I can pretty much ignore any weight/erogonomics issues when I see the giant OLED screen. And the G3E is so powerful that for once-
Just bought one for $550. My first handheld pc and love it. Got into steam gaming and love it. Just added the ps2, ps3 and ps4 emulator.
[...] When I bought an ASUS ROG Ally X, I never imagined what I would end up doing with it.
I have an original Z1E Ally with a battery, SSD and Hall effect stick upgrade and can't see any need to upgrade it anytime soon. My Steam Deck gathered dust for so long the display didn't work last time I tried it.
I just bought a Xbox ROG Ally X on the base I’m stationed at for $600 brand new sealed. Got really lucky because someone else didn’t want it and I guess needed the money fast. Loving it so far
[...] I ended up going for the ROG Ally X, and I love it. It completely replaced my Steam Deck OLED. I prefer using Windows since I feel comfortable with the OS (once it's debloated) and it can play everything, which isn't the case with SteamOS. [...]
[...] Saw you were complaining about lack of sleep mode and battery drain. [...] Yes you do need to log back in and isn’t instant wake but 20-25 seconds to get back in with a couple percentage drain after a a couple days is well worth it.
I just got a rog Xbox ally x used for 2 months in perfect condition for $600. The deals are out there you just got to look for them.
I use an original ROG ally x with a gigabyte 5060ti AI box egpu and it’s my dream gaming setup
Upside? I got the Pokemon Gen1Recomp running on my PC, Rog Ally X, and Ayaneo Pocket Vert. So still productive.
I have the OG ally, definitely think the double battery on the X would be nice but not worth the upgrade for me
This is the one I have.. feels bad that it’s already obsolete
I purchased a used ally x and was able to dual boot official steamos with windows
Plans for today? I’d like to finally get that Deep Sea Zack drawing from a little while back done, along with getting my ROM library set up again on my ROG Ally X I got a new micro SD card I’ll want in my RG477V, 256GB, and I’ll want the 512GB one in the RG477V back in the Ally X to carry my ROMS 👍
I'm just glad I bought my ROG Ally X before the dumb AI development push caused prices to skyrocket
while my brother had a switch 1 and switch 2 me im glad for my portable gaming experiance i got a Rog Ally X i prefer to play retro games over newer titles anyway since most new games just feel hollow and soulless and are just chasing trends and are rather cash hungry as well 110$ AUD new here
Eh, I was more into the old Nintendo games, that's why I got a 3DS and sold my Switch to save up for a ROG Ally X which I can use to emulate old titles.
Just bought a 3rd party game on Xbox for the first time in a LONG time. I was surprised to see that Crimson Desert supports Xbox Play Anywhere which means I bought the game once and I can play on my PC, Xbox SX, and ROG Ally X with cloud saves. I believe this feature is the winning formula for Xbox.
Let’s start with Metaphor: ReFantazio I started this back when I got my ROG Ally X at the recommendation of a friend not just because of the similarities to Persona, but the fantastic story. I need to get back to it, but I will need to start over with how little I remember.
I'm honestly surprised it function at all. It was broken as heck for the longest on the previous asus rog ally x which I own.
the ROG ally x looks exciting!, I ended up just doing the battery upgrade on my original ally extreme. it was a good deal on the used market around $500 cad. its really fun and easy to take on the go
I have a Legion Go and I'm hyped with the xbox ally x because I own a Xbox Series X too. My only doubt is about the change in screen size.
I’ve had my Ally X for about 2 months and it’s been awesome. Plays everything I throw at it , lately I’ve been enjoying some PS2 games, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, and the last couple weeks RDR2. Honestly, it’s brought back that excitement of gaming for me again.
Hated mine returned it....waited a bit and got the legion go z1 steam os and much better experience.
Great vid. Been running SteamOS on my Ally X for a few days now and it's given a whole new life to the handheld for me. Downside is I haven't been able to use my gamepass games but I've been playing those on the PC for now. It's making me really excited to see what that Xbox handheld OS looks like when we get it next year!
Sold my Ally X to get the new z2 variant, hopefully preorders open Wednesday. One of the coolest gadgets iv owned.
I haven't had any issues with mine either. It's the most amazing handheld I've ever owned
One odd thing to me is why they didnt just go border to border screen instead of having it shrunk down in black bars. Also not going oled was a huge miss in my opinion
I got mine 4 days ago and i have been playing insurgency sandstorm, my gameplay got so much better on there lol.
Had the oled stream deck its not bad but nowhere near on the same level of the ally x. This is exactly what was missing for me on the steam deck. It’s not even close it’s basically the difference between a switch and a ps5
Just want to recommend @littlesofts.bsky.social if you like the idea of carrying around a plushie, but want something functional. It’s big enough to carry my iPad Mini and Rog Ally X along with other miscellaneous things. I get complements on my Peanut Racoon bag all the time, they are super cute!
I love mine! Upgraded it to 8TB and threw SteamOS on it—dual-booting with Bazzite using frame generation is a total game-changer. It’s crazy fast, even quicker than Windows 11!
I sold my 1 tb and got the newer 2 tb at best buy. It has a fingertip ringer. I love this thing. It may not play triple a games of today the best but it still plays so much that you'll be surprised it's handheld. A lot of my favorite games from gen 9 and 10 work amazingly. And games that look great and don't take too much power run well. Like trials of mana.
[...] I love the ally x and great battery but once you hold the legion and see that screen it's hard to to go back. The legion is just a way more comfortable grip for me and synthetic benchmarks between them the legion wins every time (timespy, userbenchmark). Im probably going to return the legion ONLY because there's def a new one coming soon and more than likely will have an oled screen and bigger battery. Until then I ordered a grip for the x to help with comfort and I love not having to worry about battery. Also in certain games having the extra ram helps, I've experienced crashes on higher end games just trying medium settings on the go, where the ally x doesn't. [...] Legion was down to 579 when I got it and allyx was 699. Both well worth those prices. I recommend a nice battery pack to go with the legion if anyone goes for that, or run at 15 watts unless plugged in.
It's expensive but worth it. [...]
ROG Ally X long-term: how it holds up
Long-term owners feel about the same as new ones, so the ROG Ally X holds up.
- First months100% recommend · 3 owners
- 1 year or more100% recommend · 6 owners
When problems show up
- Price & valuetypically around 11 months · 2 reports
The claims, and the evidence
What the brand claims
- 80Wh battery — double the original ROG AllyOwners agreeBattery & charging: 5 of 7 positive
- 24GB LPDDR5X-7500 memoryOwners agreePerformance: 3 of 3 positive
- 1TB SSDOwners agreePerformance: 3 of 3 positive
- AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processorOwners agreePerformance: 3 of 3 positive
- 7-inch 120Hz displayMixedDisplay: 7 of 16 positive
- Two USB-C ports, including USB4Few owner reports
- Improved ergonomicsMixedComfort & size: 2 of 4 positive
What owners report
“I got my hands on the ROG Ally X last year and really liked the hardware. Tough market for all mini-PC handhelds.”
after 1 yearView on Bluesky“[...] Got my Steamdeck OLED last year and because of hardware competency, I swapped it to a Rog Ally X but months past of using it, I came to the point that I think about upgrading or because I miss the consistency and perfection of Steam OS. I’ve decided to install Steam OS (not Bazzite) to my ROG Ally X and BEST DECISION EVER! [...]”
after 1 yearView on YouTube“My Ally died after 1.5 years, and I got a full refund, 780€. [...] I bought a new one. [...] Buying an Ally X for double the price made no sense to me, especially when I already have a fast external battery and a bigger replacement HDD.”
after 18 monthsView on YouTube“I bought an Asus Rog Ally X on a recent trip to NYC (i'm not from the US, and the steam deck isn't sold on regular retailers). I can't believe how awful the user interface is, they are bascially installing windows 11 in a computer shaped as a portable console, with really small icons and imprecise touch controls, onedrive and microsoft 365 offers, crazy. [...]”
Common ROG Ally X problems
Issues at least two owners independently report.
- Display9 mentionsView on YouTube
“One odd thing to me is why they didnt just go border to border screen instead of having it shrunk down in black bars. Also not going oled was a huge miss in my opinion”
- Price & value7 mentionsView on YouTube
“They really should have put an OLED screen on this. After using my desktop monitor and switch then going back to the Ally it definitely is a bit disappointing. Even if it cost battery life a bit and was a bit more expensive I wouldn't have minded.”
- Build & durability2 mentionsView on Bluesky
“I'm honestly surprised it function at all. It was broken as heck for the longest on the previous asus rog ally x which I own.”
- Comfort & size2 mentionsView on YouTube
“[...] It absolutely comes in last when conparing comfort levels to its conpetitors. [...]”
- Battery & charging2 mentionsView on YouTube
“They really should have put an OLED screen on this. After using my desktop monitor and switch then going back to the Ally it definitely is a bit disappointing. Even if it cost battery life a bit and was a bit more expensive I wouldn't have minded.”