ROG Ally X, Zero Regrets

The ASUS ROG Ally X is the rare mid-cycle upgrade that doesn’t feel like a cynical trim refresh. It’s a serious correction to the original Ally’s weak points: bigger battery, more RAM, improved ergonomics, quieter confidence. In the hand, it feels less like a flashy experiment and more like a machine that understands why people actually buy handheld PCs in the first place. You want your library, your launchers, your saves, your weird little Steam shame pile, and you want them somewhere between the sofa and a long-haul flight. This gets you there with swagger.

Living with it

Daily use is where the Ally X earns its keep. Battery life is the headline, and for once the headline isn’t lying: the jump is dramatic enough that you stop obsessing over the charger and start treating it like a proper portable. Windows is still Windows — meaning occasionally fussy, occasionally absurd, always one update away from a mood swing — but ASUS’s Armoury Crate layer does a decent job smoothing the ride. Performance is muscular rather than miraculous; modern games run well with sensible settings, older titles absolutely sing, and the 120Hz VRR display keeps motion looking expensive. It’s not featherweight, but the reshaped grips make long sessions far less punishing than they have any right to be.

The Ally X doesn’t make handheld PC gaming simpler; it makes it worth the hassle.

Who’s it for? Not everyone. If you want a frictionless, cartridge-simple machine, buy a console and keep your blood pressure low. But if your idea of a good time involves tweaking settings, bouncing from Game Pass to Steam to indie deep cuts, and playing Balatro in bed before accidentally launching Cyberpunk 2077, this thing feels tailor-made for your bad habits. The verdict: expensive, a touch nerdy, occasionally temperamental — and currently one of the best gaming gadgets money can buy. The original Ally now looks like a first draft. This is the version that nails the assignment.