The Xbox Ally X is an intriguing alternative to the Steam Deck and Switch 2.

Caught in between the releases of the Steam Deck and the Nintendo Switch 2, Microsoft's first gaming handheld will likely only appeal to the most hardcore of PC gamers.

The ROG XBox Ally could be much more than just another niche portable gaming PC; its can be the viable Steam Deck competitor gamers actually latch onto.

All that said, there’s a lot about the Xbox Ally that’s very impressive. Unlike the Steam Deck, it uses Windows, and the Linux users reading this aren’t going to want to hear what I’m about to say, but that’s going to be a preferable operating system for most people because it’s so much more familiar.

Inside the Xbox Ally X is an AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme processor, a custom version of its Z2 Extreme chip with eight Zen 5 CPU cores, 16 RDNA 3.5 GPU cores, and 50 AI TOPS from the onboard NPU to help with a range of AI tasks. It'll have Copilot built in, too, so expect some chatbot integration.