Asus has revealed a new ROG Xbox Ally handheld titled the X20, which sports a larger OLED screen and improved thumbsticks.
With so many questions around the next generation of Xbox, it’s easy to forget Microsoft launched a handheld device less than a year ago.
The ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X were created in partnership with Asus as a rival to Valve’s Steam Deck. As a PC gaming handheld with an Xbox overlay, it was never going to have the broad appeal of something like the Switch or the PSP, but it marked a first step for Microsoft in the portable gaming arena.
Despite the high price, Asus said the Xbox ROG Ally X had ‘exceeded expectations’ in November last year. Exact sales figures, however, have not been released.
While it’s unclear how successful the handhelds have been in the long-term, it’s done well enough to justify an improved iteration. The ROG Xbox Ally X20 is the third model of the handheld, which boasts a larger 7.4″ OLED screen instead of the 7″ IPS screen of the other two models.
According to Asus, the ‘Nebula HDR Display offers a full HD resolution with a 120Hz refresh rate and FreeSync Premium Pro support’, while the OLED display offers a ‘peak brightness of 1400 nits’.
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Beyond improvements to the screen, this model comes with overhauled thumbsticks which utilise TMR sensor technology to ‘resist stick drift and minimise power consumption’. The D-pad can also be transformed from a 4-way input to an 8-way input D-pad, so you can better adapt to the game you’re playing.
The guts of Xbox Ally X20 are the same as the ROG Xbox Ally X, with both systems sharing the same AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme Processor, 24GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 1TB of PCIe 4.0 NVMe storage. In other words, games will run the same on both systems.
Aside from improved ergonomics then, there’s an ROG Xbox Ally X20 bundle which comes with ROG XREAL R1 Edition 20 Gaming AR glasses. It’s unclear, however, if you can buy the handheld without these glasses, or if the bundle is the only option.
Asus has not confirmed the price of the Xbox Ally X20, but considering the Xbox Ally X is currently priced at £849.99 in the UK, this has got to be somewhere north of £900. A release date is yet to be announced.
This announcement comes ahead of the Xbox Games Showcase on Sunday June 7, which will definitely feature Gears Of War: E-Day, but not Project Helix.
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