I just got my hands on the ROG Xbox Ally and can confirm the sheer comfort is worth that peculiar grip design

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting when queueing up to get my greasy mitts on the upcoming Asus-Microsoft handheld collab, the ROG Xbox Ally. But it certainly wasn’t the sheer amount of comfort I ended up feeling when I held it. Asus had it on show at Gamescom earlier, and so I took a gander and was pleasantly surprised.

My previous thoughts on the handheld, back when images were leaked back in May, were that “if the grips are very comfortable then I’d probably consider using such a strange-looking handheld anyway.” Well, past-me, present-me has some good news: The grips on this thing are comfy.

I’ve been relishing the ergonomics of my fave handheld, the Lenovo Legion Go S, for a while now, and although I won’t stake my claim to this having only tested the ROG Xbox Ally for about 15 minutes, I can hesitantly say that I think it might be better on the comfort front.

I expressed to the Asus rep next to me that it seems quite light, and they replied that it’s not, really, it’s just the ergonomics that make it feel that way. And I’ll be damned, because the handheld isn’t actually any lighter than the original. It’s all in those grips, which feel amazing. It makes sense, really; controllers have been doing it for decades, so why stick to the now-standard tablet-esque and Steam Deck-esque formula?

I was also pleasantly surprised by my experience using the new bespoke Windows OS that’s being used for the ROG Ally and ROG Ally X. You can switch between the lightweight gaming mode and fully-fledged Windows 11 with a simple long button press. And the simple—and presumably more efficient—mode seems pretty intuitive, too, with Asus Armoury Crate integration and lots of Deck-like easy access functions.

The only real question remaining is pricing, which we should hear about soon, plus how that fits in with the internal hardware. The ROG Xbox Ally sports a Ryzen Z2 A processor, which isn’t the most powerful chip on the market, but the ROG Xbox Ally X sports a Ryzen Z2 Extreme, which is more powerful than the Z1 Extreme in the ROG Ally and Ally X.

Oh, and if you’re wondering when you can get your hands on it, it’s planned to launch in a bunch of countries on October 16. Not long to wait, then.

Jacob got his hands on a gaming PC for the first time when he was about 12 years old. He swiftly realised the local PC repair store had ripped him off with his build and vowed never to let another soul build his rig again. With this vow, Jacob the hardware junkie was born. Since then, Jacob’s led a double-life as part-hardware geek, part-philosophy nerd, first working as a Hardware Writer for PCGamesN in 2020, then working towards a PhD in Philosophy for a few years while freelancing on the side for sites such as TechRadar, Pocket-lint, and yours truly, PC Gamer. Eventually, he gave up the ruthless mercenary life to join the world’s #1 PC Gaming site full-time. It’s definitely not an ego thing, he assures us.