Asus has officially unveiled a new member of its handheld ROG XBOX Ally family. Dubbed the ROG XBOX Ally X20, the handheld features notable improvements over the XBOX Ally X in the form of an OLED display and TMR joysticks. The XBOX Ally X20 will be available as part of a bundle that includes the ROG XREAL R1 Edition 20 AR glasses as part of Asus celebrating the 20th anniversary of its Republic of Gamers brand.
The XBOX Ally X20, much like the XBOX Ally X, runs on an AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme chip, and also comes equipped with XBOX mode to make navigating through Windows 11 with joysticks more palatable. Other specs are also largely similar between the two devices, with 24 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 1 TB of PCIe 4.0 NVMe storage.
The handheld also features translucent black plastic for its chassis, giving users a peek under the hood, and giving the device a more unique look than other handheld gaming PCs in the market.
The OLED display serves as the main selling point of the XBOX Ally X20, and will also be slightly larger than the one found in the XBOX Ally X, coming in at 7.4 inches compared to the latter’s 7-inch screen. It runs at a refresh rate of 120 Hz, has full support for FreeSync Premium Pro, and is capable of up to 1,400 nits of peak brightness, allowing for high levels of performance when it comes to experiencing HDR content.
Since OLED panels tend to be more sensitive to heat dissipation than LCD panels, the XBOX Ally X20 also features a redesigned cooling channel that is able to ensure that airflow is more directly led to the APU, keeping surface temperatures on the display itself as low as possible. While the new cooling layout might have a few benefits for general performance as well, it is unlikely that the XBOX Ally X20 will offer a significant boost in frame rates or visual fidelity over the ROG Xbox Ally X.
Interestingly, the addition of the OLED display brings the XBOX Ally X20 in direct competition with the OLED Steam Deck. The TMR joysticks also make for an easy comparison with the recently-launched Steam Controller.
As for the other part of the bundle, the ROG XREAL R1 Edition 20 AR gaming glasses features a virtual display that comes in at 171-inches at a distance of 4 meters. The display is capable of a refresh rate of 240 Hz, and is capable of covering 95 percent of the user’s focused field of view, along with a short response time of 0.01 ms. It is also capable of tracking the user’s head thanks to native 3DoF tracking, making sure that the user doesn’t lose track of the screen if they have to look away. On the flip side, there is also an Anchor Mode to make sure the screen stays where you want it.
The ROG XREAL R1 Edition 20 can plug in directly to the XBOX Ally family of devices through a USB Type-C cable, with some software handling the rest of the setup.
Asus hasn’t yet revealed any details regarding the bundle’s release date or price.
