After having lastly unveiled the official Xbox handheld gaming system by means of a collaboration with Asus, Microsoft Gaming boss Phil Spencer has spoken concerning the efforts that went into adapting Home windows 11 for the platform. In a current episode of the official Xbox podcast, Spencer referred to the work between Microsoft’s gaming and Home windows divisions as “the tightest collaboration” he had seen.
“That is the tightest collaboration I’ve seen between the gaming group and the Home windows crew in my three many years on the firm,” mentioned Spencer when he was requested about how the model of Home windows powering the ROG Xbox Ally and the Xbox Ally X. “It’s actually superb to see the groups specializing in alternatives to make the expertise higher, and dealing actually as one improvement crew to comprehend that.”
“Now, once you say ‘the liberty of Home windows’, Home windows is an open platform, and we wish to assist that on this gadget. That means, should you’ve bought a storefront that you just love, we wish to be sure that’s totally supported right here. When you’ve bought a social place that you just go, like a Discord or one thing you employ for voice communication, textual content communication, we’ll be sure that’s supported. There’s not a closed platform.”
Spencer additionally spoke about providing a console-like expertise with the upcoming handheld programs, and the way the gaming division’s expertise with that helped deliver the identical person friendliness to the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X. Nonetheless, he additionally acknowledged that there’s nonetheless work to be achieved on the platform for under-the-hood issues like battery life.
“I’d say below the hood, we additionally know there’s work for us to do on battery life, on interruptions, on efficiency, and I really like simply seeing the week-to-week grind the groups are doing,” mentioned Spencer. “The progress has been superb between the 2 groups.”
The ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X, each handheld gaming programs designed by Microsoft in collaboration with Asus, have been unveiled throughout Xbox Video games Showcase 2025 over the weekend. The ROG Xbox Ally runs on an AMD Ryzen Z2A and 16 GB of LPDDR5X-6400 RAM, and consists of 512 GB of storage. The ROG Xbox Ally X, however, runs on an AMD Ryzen Z2 Excessive and 24 GB of LPDDR5X-8000 RAM, and comes with 1 TB of storage. Each handhelds function a 7-inch 1080p 120 Hz show with assist for variable refresh charges.
Shortly after unveiling the handhelds, Microsoft launched one other video showcasing a few of its options and having a number of the improvement groups behind each the {hardware} and the software program speak concerning the collaboration between Microsoft and Asus.
“That is your absolute behemoth,” mentioned Xbox’s Roanne Sones concerning the ROG Xbox Ally X. “All of the bells and whistles. You’ve maxed out your storage and efficiency of the product and the chip.”
The video additionally gave us a have a look at what is actually an early prototype of the ROG Xbox Ally, with its cheaps and show unfold out in a pizza field, permitting the builders to make adjustments to rapidly get suggestions on how the system runs.
The Asus ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X will likely be coming to shops later this yr.
