Here's What The First 'Hands On' Previews Say About The ROG Xbox Ally X20

"So much more than a transparent black and gold makeover"

by Fraser Gilbert
1 hour ago

Here's What The First 'Hands On' Previews Say About The ROG Xbox Ally X20

As you may have seen already, ASUS has announced a new handheld today — the ROG Xbox Ally X20 — and we've spotted a couple of "hands on" previews across the web so far, with probably many more to follow.

With the news being so fresh though, we wanted to highlight these first couple of previews specifically, giving you a chance to see what the critics are saying about this Xbox Ally X refresh on day one of the reveal.

The first of these comes from Tom's Guide, which has quite an extensive write-up about the new system. The TL:DR is that they're impressed by the new aesthetic, more comfortable grips, the slightly altered position of the bumpers and triggers, the "incredibly smooth" TMR joysticks, new transforming d-pad, and of course, the bigger OLED screen which they call "a huge improvement".

Here's what they say in the conclusion:

"After spending an afternoon with the ROG Xbox Ally X20 and the ROG Xreal R1 X20 [glasses], Asus went above and beyond here for sure. Just changing the color of the handheld’s shell and some of its buttons definitely would have been enough. However, Asus’ engineers went back to the drawing board and made seemingly small but very noticeable changes to the Xbox Ally X.

Now I wouldn’t recommend rushing out to get this bundle if you already have an Xbox Ally X unless you’re a really big ROG fan. Personally though, these improvements and tweaks have me really excited for what Asus will eventually do with its followup to the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X."

Elsewhere, ETA Prime has a preview of the ROG Xbox Ally X20 on their YouTube channel, which again has a lot of positive things to say about the system. It even goes as far as saying that it "addresses basically every complaint the community had about the original".

Here's their take on the new OLED screen specifically:

"We've got a brand-new screen here and it is absolutely beautiful. This went from a 7 inch IPS panel to a 7.4 inch OLED, and I know it doesn't sound like a huge jump on paper, but in person it really does make a huge difference."

Again, it's still very early days here and we don't have a release date or price for the ROG Xbox Ally X20 yet, but it's seemingly almost ready to go, so we're expecting it to release at some point later in 2026.

For now, we'll leave you with ETA Prime's full video down below if you're interested in seeing it in action!

How are you feeling about the ROG Xbox Ally X20 so far? Will you get one? Tell us down below.

1
fatpunkslim
56 mins ago

The Xbox ROG Ally X has really become the best value for money today, especially since the massive price hike of the Steam Deck, which went up by $300 all at once. And also thanks to Windows performance improvements, Xbox mode, Auto SR, etc., I feel like Windows is taking the lead in portable console technology compared to the Steam Deck.

The screen size, the OLED, and the TMR sticks are very interesting updates. And with the included glasses, it’s like playing on a 171‑inch screen at 4 meters — curious to see what that looks like in real life.

2
themightyant
46 mins ago

Sounds like sensible upgrades, the smaller screen and IPS panel came up as cons in several reviews and they seem to have addressed some of the other failings.

I wonder how much it will cost? Rog Allly X is already $1000, Xreal R1's are $750, perhaps $2k total? Cool tech, but very pricey.

3
Banjo-
43 mins ago

The video review got me excited about this handheld. Not just the brighter, bigger OLED screen, because I'm a fan of OLED displays, but the TMR sticks that have no drift like hall effect sticks, but use much less power, and the switchable D-pad looks awesome! Those are impressive features, but there's more, like the improved cooling.

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