The much-hyped ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X have been given a release date of October 16th, 2025 in many regions including Australia.

Alongside the release date Asus and Xbox have shared a few details about how everything is going to work and how the development has been. The below Xbox Podcast episode brings everyone up to speed on the Xbox Ally so far, and drops some nuggets around key development areas including a focus on the offline experience.

The ROG Xbox Ally is in take home phase at Microsoft so the team have been spending countless hours testing it and seem happy with where it is at but also promise to continue working on the experience after launch, an example of this is that peripherals will work at launch but it is known to the team that it is a clunky experience that they will continue to tackle post-launch. My assumption here is that some peripherals may require the desktop to be running, at least for driver installation in its current state.

Compatibility

Xbox have announced a Handheld Compatibility Program, required as this is internally a Windows device that can basically attempt to run any PC game. The compatibility comes with two areas of focus for functionality and performance.

For functionality, games will be tagged with either “Handheld Optimised” or “Mostly Compatible”. Optimised games are ready to go, support default controller input, a text input method such as an on-screen keyboard, accurate icons, clear text and appropriate resolutions in full-screen mode. Mostly compatible indicates that the game may require minor in-game settings changes for an optimal experience.

For performance, there will be a “Windows Performance Fit” indicator on games in the Game Library, “Should play great” is 60 frames per second and above, and “Should play well” is 30 frames per seconds and above. No indication of graphics settings or resolution was shared but Xbox has been transparent that the ROG Xbox Ally targets 720p and the ROG Xbox Ally X targets 1080p, so presumably the Performance Fit takes that into account.

There will also be a section in the Game Pass Library highlighting handheld optimised games.

Newly shared features

The AMD chipset will feature an NPU for Neural Processing to add the following features:

• Automatic Super Resolution (Auto SR): A system-level feature that uses the power of the NPU to upscale games running at lower resolutions—delivering high-resolution visuals and smooth framerates across a wide range of games, with no additional changes required from game developers.    
• Highlight reels: AI captures your standout gameplay moments—like epic boss battles or victories—and generates short replay clips for you to share with friends or on social channels. More AI-powered features will roll out over time as both Xbox and developers continue exploring what’s possible with the Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme.   

Some other new features being worked on:

• Advanced shader delivery, a new feature that preloads game shaders during download, so select games launch up to 10x faster, run smoother, and use less battery on first play. More games will support this feature over time. 
• A wide range of compatible accessories, including the newly announced ROG Raikiri II Xbox Wireless Controller—created by our partners at ASUS through the Designed for Xbox program—featuring a 1000Hz polling rate on PC mode, anti-drift TMR joysticks, and dual-mode triggers. The ROG Raikiri II Xbox Wireless Controller will ship out worldwide this holiday. More details will be shared soon. 
• And even more in the coming months, including enhancements to the docking experience for the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X as we work to enable a seamless, high-performance setup that supports big-screen gaming, Auto SR, intuitive controller pairing, optimized display output, and more! 

Based on this official image, some of that docking support might be external GPUs which is not surprising given the ROG Xbox Ally X has a USB 4/Thunderbolt 4 port:

The description on the ROG Raikiri II seems to confirm that the ROG Xbox Ally will support the direct 2.4Ghz Xbox Controller protocol:

Availability

On October 16, the Xbox Ally handhelds will be available in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, China (Xbox Ally X only), Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam. Availability will follow for other markets where ROG Ally series products are sold today, including Brazil, India, Indonesia and Thailand. In China, the Xbox Ally will launch early next year.

Price

No official word on price yet, it seems like Asus and Xbox have a price in mind but are keeping an eye on global trade. Having said that, there is an unofficial word:

These leaked prices (which must be heavily subject to change on the USD price) would put us around $850 AUD and $1,400 AUD.

We at 1-Up Games are excited for these devices, and excited by what they could do for PC Gaming more broadly, but we do need to see the official Australian Price before making any commitments.