Microsoft and Asus open Xbox Ally preorders — the X costs $999

Today, Microsoft and Asus are officially opening preorders for the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X at $599 and $999 respectively in the US. They’re $799 CAD and $1299 CAD in Canada, €599 and €899 in Europe, £499 and £799 in the UK, and $799 AUD and $1599 AUD in Australia. They both ship October 16th.

There’s a few different ways to look at those prices. If you’re used to console pricing, Microsoft’s first Xbox handhelds are not cheap! Even the vanilla white Xbox Ally costs $150 more than a Switch 2, which was itself criticized for price, and it costs $100 more than a far more powerful Xbox Series X did at launch in the US, Microsoft’s new Xbox price hike notwithstanding. In Europe and the UK, the weaker of the two Allys costs the same as an Xbox Series X.

But you can’t play that Xbox in a passenger seat. And if you’re a PC gamer, or want to be, things look a bit rosier. These “Xbox” handhelds will be the first with a new build of Windows that hides the desktop and Explorer shell, frees up gobs of memory for your games, and (hopefully) lets you navigate solely by controller.

Handhelds have unfortunately been getting pricier and pricier anyhow, to the point flagship ones now cost as much as gaming laptops. At $999, the Xbox Ally X might compare well to the $999 MSI Claw 8 AI Plus or the $1,349 Lenovo Legion Go 2 that offers the same AMD Z2 Extreme chip you’ll find here — particularly because my colleagues and I agree the new Allys have one of the most comfortable designs we’ve held. (In summary: Prongs rock.)

Just know you’re getting a wildcard if you opt for the $599 Ally, as it contains a never-before-seen Ryzen Z2 A processor that’s much more like the chip in the Steam Deck. Instead of 8 Zen 5 CPU cores and 16 RDNA 3.5 GPU cores designed to run between 15 and 35 watt TDP, you’re getting 4 Zen 2 CPU cores and 8 RDNA 2 GPU cores designed to run between 6 and 20 watts for lower performance gaming.

We’re planning to have reviews of the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X in the coming weeks.

Microsoft says they’ll be available in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, and Vietnam — and will additionally come to Brazil China, India, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Philippines and Switzerland.