kmtrain83

@WildConcept6
I’m sure ASUS knows what they’re doing since this is not their first handheld, and they also make gaming laptops. As far as them selling out, I think that has more to do with the limited supply in a niche marrket. Valve will not announce Steam Deck sales but after three years at a low price point they estimate maybe 4 million. Switch 2 sold that much in a couple of days. Microsoft also makes laptops, and it makes me wonder why they didn’t have the confidence a make their own handheld.under the Surface brand. Xbox Surface X.

@WildConcept6
It is not easy to thread the needle with low power, long battery life, good screen, low weight, comfort, performance, and price.
Nintendo gets away with it because their audience favors a certain style of games that are not as resource intensive.
This ASUS device is swimming with the sharks in the PC Master Race gamer pool, where the competition is more fierce. PC makers do not want to lose money on hardware, because how else can they make up for it?

These add on costs just push this product even more into the niche enthusiast category.

I read the comments on the sister sites. They disabled comments on Nintendo Life. On Push Square they are decidedly more negative for some reason. It may just be the audience is slightly different.

I think I’m still 5 to 10 years away from wanting this kind of device. I already have a gaming backlog on PC and all 3 consoles. I don’t need a device backlog. However, if cloud and handheld PC takes off further, and if the traditional console concept slowly dies, then something like this could be one of my main drivers.

@Gabrie
I view this device more as the 2.0 version of the ASUS handheld with a little bit of Xbox sprinkled in

@cburg
People complain about phone prices too.
And smart phones have stopped being a niche product about 5 to 10 years ago. Almost anything you do in life they assume you have one accessible.
Whereas this handheld gaming device is very definition of a niche.product.
For me, the prices are reasonable given what is out there in the marketplace. It’s just not something I need right now because I have so many other technologies that I would rank higher.

@Phil-Spencer-Gate
This is an interesting prediction. One thing I wonder is if we will see a two tiered system of the "PC-hybrid" future. I believe PC-first gamers would be open to "console" experience but at an inflated hardware cost $600-1200. Whereas the more casual audience would settle for a built-in Xbox app on their smart TVs with no additional hardware costs, and just a streaming subscription -> I'm not sure how many years (if ever) the cloud-based format will avoid latency issues. For the ultra-hard core gamer, any degree of latency is a dealbreaker.
I do wonder if gaming will leave behing those parts of the world that can't afford $1000 for a device, or who don't have high speed internet. That to me seems like a regression, and not an expansion of the market.

I’ll follow this product, but I doubt I will get it

Nintendo Switch 2 outsold the entire Xbox series X/S lifetime sales in Japan in one day.

I might try Marvel: Midnight Suns if there is time

@Banjo- @Banjo-
Yes It comes down to preference
I have experience with all 3 consoles, and enjoy them all in their own way .
My point was that we know how many each sold under the traditional prices and now if you raise prices it is more likely the marketplace will skew less in favor of the Xbox, which was already trailing behind.
It’s basic supply and demand economics

I got fairly lucky with Series S on sale at Target several years ago for $250 and 5% discount. I would not have entered the ecosystem at today's prices. I also stacked ~ 3 years of Game Pass for roughly the same price as would get less than 1 year now. At these prices you would do better with Switch 2 (just $50 more than Series S, but is portable, or PS 5 Pro if you want to be on the high end of console specs.

It looks like a step in the right direction.

I said before that I will wait for pricing and reviews, and a month out I’m still waiting…

@AverageJoseph
I gave it a go, and for some reason, the first shopkeeper I met got mad at me, so I decided to punch him and then he killed me with a spell.

@Ricky-Spanish
At this point they might be thinking Skyrim is due for a remaster to keep pace with The Last Of Us Part II.
I skipped Oblivion: Remastered, but I would not mind playing Morrowind on a modern console

I got it on sale at Target a few years ago at $250. I also loaded up 3 years of Game Pass when that was a thing. If it wasn't for these low price points, I would not have bothered. As it stands, it is still 4th place in our household in terms of hours played after PC > Switch > PS5 > Series S. I still like having it around though. I have no problem with the performance or graphics hooked up to an 85" TV. I thought Indiana Jones and Marvel Midnight Suns looked great.

@SalaciousCrumb
I got a Series S on sale for a Xmas gift. It’s almost exclusively for Game Pass. I appreciate having a budget model, as it allows me to expand from Nintendo and Sony without spending a lot. From what I understand S outsold X by a wide margin.

I look at the retail price of a Switch 2 plus this game Gold Edition is $510 versus full price of an Xbox Series S with the game is $490, (although currently on sale.) It seems like Switch is the better choice if you are a Star Wars fan and this is your first game.

Now my car can run Skyrim

I don’t bounce around between games so for me a slow external 2 TB on my Series S is enough. There is of course a significant waiting period to transfer games but if I’m going to be playing them for 50 to 100 hours then what’s a few minutes? Right now I have Indiana Jones playable with Starfield and Claire Obscur on the back up.

@BAMozzy
This is an intriguing device to be sure. I feel it is aimed at a thin slice of the market that are willing to compromise on performance to get a couch friendlier version compared to a gaming laptop with a Bluetooth controller. The price is well above what I payed for my kid's laptop, although the spec are better (Lenovo Legion 5 Gen 6 17.3-in Gaming Laptop AMD Ryzen 5 5600H 3.30 GHz 6-Core NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 6GB 16GB RAM 1TB SSD) was on sale $857.49 in 2022. If I was to spring for this Lenovo or the ROG then it would likely also have to be docked at times as a laptop / desktop system. I don't know if I would buy this as well as a regular laptop which would double the costs into the 2-3 K range. By that point, the fact that I'm saving a few bucks as month by not paying for online/social features does not resonate. I also would compare to Xbox Series S that I got on sale at Target for $240 a couple years ago.

@Ricky-Spanish
I remain interested in this product, but I want to wait for pricing and reviews. My concern is as this march toward hybrid console – PC continues what we may end up with is high-end PC hardware up front cost combined with expensive software cost inherited from the console market. The worst of both worlds. I doubt most people will use a handheld Xbox as their primary gaming device, so it is an additional cost on top of things they most likely will still want or need including a traditional console and a PC for work and school.

I'm at an age that I literally worry about my coronaries during a jump-scare

Can't win them all

The main sticking point for me as I also am in the market for a laptop PC next year and for the $900, I think the laptop would have more functionality.
I tried streaming Dungeons of Hinterburg to my 2019 MacBook Pro bootcamp load to Windows 10, Xbox app and it ran horribly. I didn’t bother trying anything else.
On the other hand, we got an Amazon Fire Stick HD Max on our upstairs TV and I played a game of FIFA at a pretty good estimated 30 FPS.
I’ll wait till this ROG device is out in the real world and see how it does

@WildConcept6
I'm liking what I see so far. I wonder how much of the credit (and revenue sharing) goes to ASUS vs Xbox.
Will we see a Lenovo PS Portal S?
This market is getting interesting.

I will keep an eye out of this. I might get it as a secondary device in 2026. I wonder how much of the credit goes to ASUS vs Xbox. I haven't previously considered getting a PC handheld, and my only point of reference for the UI is the other consoles.

@BAMozzy
Ok TBH, I did not do a "deep dive" as it seems you have done. I mostly reacted to the article from PureXbox "the cheaper one is meant for 720p gaming at lower graphical settings, while the more expensive one targets a 1080p resolution." With all this AI upscaling it seems that we can't just compare apples to apples like you could with Gamecube vs Xbox vs PS2. I am interested in this product, but I will wait for reviews and official pricing. I am not trying to dampen anyone's interest either.

@WildConcept6
Hi yes I have an OLED Switch. My son has a Switch 2 with a 1080p screen. In order to get the 1080p on the ROG Xbox Ally X it will cost $899.99 USD, which is twice the Switch price. I appreciate there are other factors involved, not just screen resolution. That being said, since when have gamers who "care," not cared about screen resolution? It's one of the foundational criteria of computer graphics for half a century.

@BAMozzy
I was mostly referring to the 720p since Switch 2 screen is 1080p. I appreciate your insight into the other aspects involved.

When I play Switch in handheld mode, it is mostly when I'm feeling tired. I often play in bed at night, where I don't have the time and energy to tweak settings versus plug and play for 30-60 minutes before beddy bye. I hope this "mostly compatible" stuff does not require extra work on the user end to get the game running.

I need to get back to the Lost Crown. As with many of these kind of titles, I got stuck somewhere and dropped off.

I already played it on Switch, but I am glad this is getting wide release. I'd actually look forward to a sequel, since the ending I got (limited spoiler?), seemed to leave room for a new adventure?

They could probably set the base price down, and try to nickel and dime with accessories.
$30 plastic stand, anyone?

Tempted... and yet....

I don't know. I'm also looking the get a new notebook computer next spring, and I think that $899 would be more useful if spent on that. As I said before, I'll wait and see how these review and perform on the games that I like. The 720p version could be okay if on sale, but it is already $100 more than Swtich 2 will lesser graphics?

@Coletrain
Did they announce a price? This might be my first Steam Deck type device.

I started Marvel Midnight Suns

Life is fleeting, especially if you are a digital game.

I thought it was heavily insinuated that this handheld would run Steam games? Is this just to improve the interface?

I wonder if by then there will be any hype left for this game among PlayStation players. I would actually consider getting a Starfield DualSense controller

Still getting it on Switch and not Xbox

@WildConcept6
In the end, we don't know what the Microsoft Corporation will decide to do with this piece of hardware, but I imagine it will come down to spreadsheets, as opposed to the sentiment of gamers.
On a positive note, I got an Amazon Fire Stick 4K Max for my son's TV, along with the ethernet dongle. It works fairly well, so for $50 [total price] we have a device upstairs that upgrades that TV in a major way. Given that both the Series S and PS5 are in the basement, I could see this as an incentive to get a multiplatform title on Xbox instead of Playstation, because it would be playable in more rooms. Too bad he is mostly playing Roblox, Minecraft, Valorant with his friends on PC (a lot this summer.)

@WildConcept6
Why I cannot answer for the original poster from my standpoint I lived through the end of Atari and Sega, and although they remain alive to some degree as game publishers, it’s just not the same as being a hardware manufacturer. There are people who want Xbox to keep producing Xboxes.

I wonder how far away we are from having an AI script that does the ports to other consoles for you

I got John Wick: Hex for $1.99 on Xbox right before it was delisted. Xbox was the only platform that dropped down from the $19.99 list price, otherwise I likely would have got it for Switch. Now it is safely dowloaded and on the backlog...

@GameOverScreen
My son just installed an Amazon Fire Stick 4K Max on his old Sony plasma 1080p TV. It was $35 on sale and we also got a $15 ethernet adapter to get 1 Gig hardwire. I played a match of EA Sports FC 26 on the built-in Xbox app using a third-party controller. Overall, I’d say it was not too bad. He’s happy with being able to play Xbox in his bedroom TV and not having to track down two floors to the basement TV. For me the price was pretty good compared to having two consoles.
I guess I’m a little more open to the “ all streaming”, no dedicated hardware” future then was two days ago, although I guess it just depends on how it all evolves.

@Kaloudz
After the Sony-Concord fiasco, even being ready to ship is not enough to avoid the guillotine.