The Steam Deck used to be the go-to x86 gaming handheld, but after the recent ridiculous price hike, it’s hard to recommend. There are alternatives like the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X, which launched last year at $1,000 (24GB/1TB). This used to be a lot of money, except the 16GB/1TB OLED Deck is $950 now.
In our review of the Xbox Ally X, we pointed out some major cons for such an expensive handheld, e.g. having an LCD instead of an OLED panel and the iffy analog sticks. We have some good news and some bad news – the new Asus ROG Xbox Ally X20 bundle solves both issues. Wait, a bundle? Well, that’s the bad news.
Asus ROG Xbox Ally X20 bundled with the ROG Xreal R1 Edition 20 glasses
The X20 – so named to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Republic of Gamers brand – comes bundled with the ROG Xreal R1 Edition 20 glasses. These glasses create a virtual 171” display (57° FoV) with 240Hz refresh rate using micro-OLED displays (1,920 x 1,080px) with 0.01ms response time. There is an electrochromic lens that offers three levels of dimming to block ambient light. These can be connected to an Ally using a single USB-C cable or to other devices using the ROG Control Dock, which has two HDMI 2.0 ports and a DisplayPort 1.4.
These glasses are really cool, but they cost $850 on their own (almost as much as the Xbox Ally X itself), so they will inevitably drive up the price of the bundle. Speaking of which, Asus has not put a price on the ROG Xbox Ally X20 bundle just yet.
The ROG Xreal R1 glasses
Anyway, the upgraded Ally X20 now features a 7.4” OLED display with 1,920 x 1,080px resolution (16:9), which is a great upgrade over the smaller 7” LCD (1080p+) display of the original Ally X. The variable refresh rate (VRR) has been improved and now goes all the way down to 30Hz or up to 120Hz.
The new display is brighter to boot, reaching up to 1,400 nits (up from 500 nits). It boasts both VESA DisplayHDR TrueBlack 1000 and Dolby Vision support. Like before, the screen is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus with GG DXC anti-glare coating.
The Asus ROG Xbox Ally X20 has a larger 7.4” OLED display (120Hz VRR, 1080p)
That said, the APU is the same as on the X, an AMD Z2 Extreme with 8 cores (16 threads) running at up to 5.0GHz, 24MB of cache, 16 graphics cores and a configurable TDP of 15-35W. The APU is connected to 24GB of LPDDR5X RAM and a 1TB NVMe SSD (PCIe 4.0, M.2 2280). In other words, there is no performance upgrade here.
Another important upgrade is the new joysticks with TMR sensors – this is new technology that is replacing Hall effect sensors and is resistant to stick drift. The ABXY buttons were reworked too so they now go flush with the case when you press them down. Additionally, the D-Pad can be rotated to pick between 4-way and 8-way mode.
The Asus ROG Xbox Ally X20 now has joysticks with TMR sensors
The device has one USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 with DisplayPort, one USB-C 4.0 (Thunderbolt 4 and DisplayPort 2.1 with FreeSync support) and one 3.5mm headphone jack (Hi-Res Audio). Wireless connectivity includes tri-band Wi-Fi 6E (ax) and Bluetooth 5.4. There is a microSD Express slot for fast extra storage too (you can always replace the M.2 SSD too). Also, there are stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos on board.
The new Asus ROG Xbox Ally X20 is chunkier – it measures 300 x 121 x 27.5-51.3mm and weighs 756g, compared to 290 x 121 x 27.5-50.9mm and 715g for the original X. This is with the same 80Whr Li-Ion battery as before (with 68W fast charging over USB-C).
Even so, the X20 brings some great upgrades – but only offering it as part of a bundle is an odd choice. Not only does it make buying an X20 more expensive, but also what’s the point of the awesome new screen if you’re not supposed to look at it (but use the glasses instead)?
You can have a closer look at the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X20 bundle over on the official ROG site.
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