Why Xbox Ally X Delivers the Best Handheld Experience?

As more players migrated their gaming libraries from traditional desktops to handhelds and more devices have come to market, so too have the possibilities for handheld gaming changed. Performance, battery life, ergonomics, and game compatibility are more important than ever, and today's choices are far fewer than they were before.

Well, it has been quite a while since we had virtually no games at all on the Xbox Ally X, and it has become the default method of gaming these days. That's coming from a guy who primarily plays AAA games. After all these months, it's still my favorite PC handheld. The $1,000 price tag isn't cheap, but it is when you consider the overall cost.

The Xbox Ally X20 Questions

If you're looking for an Xbox Ally X20, you can expect that to arrive later this year, and that means there's plenty of excitement. If you're not interested in OLED, however, you can have essentially the same device right now. The option is typically between this and paying an additional $1,000 for the Legion Go, when it comes to the type of gaming that's offered by other handhelds. It's a nice device, but not $1,000 nicer,

The X20 is being bumped up in price even more, particularly since it appears there is only one way to purchase the X20: in conjunction with the Asus XR glasses. What the reasoning behind that is hard to figure out. The whole marketing push is based on the OLED display that many have been hoping for from the X20.

The Handheld Market is Shifting

Steam Deck OLED was the first handheld PC we ever owned, and it always had some sort of connection to us. But I don't feel like buying the Ally X at this price, since I've spent so much time with the Steam Deck and it's now becoming more expensive. Amazing how good a handheld can be now for about $1,000. The only exception is the regular Xbox Ally, which offers performance comparable to the Steam Deck.

What you are doing is making the available options way smaller than they were before. Things have been good with the Xbox Ally X. We just played Pragmata, and it was an interesting game. Now, somehow there's a need for a souls-like game, and we've been trying out Black Myth: Wukong for the first time, and it's been a humbling experience.

The difficulty in becoming trapped by the Yellow Wind Sage boss was the challenge. Anyone who has played the game will be familiar with what that means. We eventually beat him after numerous attempts, but it was tough. We’ve also been trying out Forza Horizon 6, in which we’re driving through the streets of Japan and enjoying the view. It's so good that it feels like a game that was designed to be played on a device like this.

We have also had fun trying to make changes to cars in the game and coming up with ideas for the future. The same applies to Subnautica 2. It's a lighter game, despite being so new, and we haven't spent any real time with it yet; it should run nicely on the device. The experience has been consistent in almost every game marked as an AAA game, an indie game, or anything in between. Just takes off.

The only thing that still gets us mad is the amount of updates it's going through. It is not the updates themselves that are the issue. The challenge is that they all have to be updated at three separate locations.

We have become accustomed to it with time. Learning to accept something, however, does not equate with liking it. It just gets used to and becomes second nature. Windows needs a better solution. If it's implemented one day, a center where all updates can be done simultaneously from one place would make handheld gaming a lot better.

The battery life will vary based on these settings.

Battery life has been satisfactory on all flights throughout the year. This is one of the reasons it does not last longer and is related to how it is used. All settings are set to maximum power even when not required. It's all about getting the most out of hardware.

Optimizing TDP levels for every game can give you a great battery boost beyond the standard 2 hours we're accustomed to. Battery life will vary according to game, of course. Despite that, the battery performance is pretty good and among the better ones compared to the other handhelds we've used in the past.

After trying out the Xbox Ally X for 8 months and logging many hours of gameplay, we can recommend it to anyone looking for a complete gaming experience on the go. There is also the Switch 2, which we have gotten to know and love! 

With the addition of more games on the platform, it has become a strong contender. If, however, you want the best device that can emulate, make PC games, and also offer the best ergonomics available at this time, you should opt for the Ally X.