Asus ROG Xbox Ally X20 Review

Last year, Asus and Xbox worked together to launch the Asus ROG Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X, and the latter is still one of the best handheld gaming PCs on the market right now. Not only is is great at playing games, but even amid the RAMpocalypse, the Xbox Ally X hasn’t gone up in price and will still cost the same $999 that it did back in October 2025.

While the Xbox Ally X is an incredible little device, its relatively small display has been outclassed by the likes of the Lenovo Legion Go 2 and MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ — even though they’re much more expensive. But Asus took the 20th anniversary of ROG to update the Xbox Ally X with an OLED display, and it takes the handheld to a completely new level.

With a better display and a new chassis comes a higher $1,299 price tag, but if you have the cash, that extra $300 is absolutely worth it.

Same Guts, Different Screen

The Xbox Ally X20 has a fancier looking chassis and a much nicer OLED display, but it’s functionally the same handheld as the Ally X beneath the surface with no real difference in the specs. It’s still rocking the AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme, along with 24GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. It shouldn’t be too surprising that performance is largely the same, netting 42 fps in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p High settings with FSR set to Quality compared to 43 fps from the Xbox Ally X with the same settings.

In 3DMark, the performance also lines up. The Xbox Ally X20 gets 598 points in the Steel Nomad test, compared to 602 points from the original Xbox Ally X, which is within the margin of error. In Time Spy, the X20 gets 4,030 points, compared to 4,016 points from last year’s model — also virtually the same performance.

Of course, because OLED displays are slightly more efficient than your standard LCD screen, the Xbox Ally X20’s battery fares a bit better than its predecessor. Starting from 100% battery, I played Cyberpunk 2077 until the X20 died, and it lasted 2 hours and 43 minutes with all stock settings. That makes it the longest lasting handheld I’ve tested, beating out the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+’s 2 hours and 14 minutes, and the Xbox Ally X’s 2 hours and 34 minutes. You’re only getting an extra 10 minutes of battery life, so it’s not exactly groundbreaking, but it is an improvement.

If you already have the Xbox Ally X, it’s not worth upgrading to the X20 based on specs alone. But the star of the show is the improved OLED display.

OLED Makes a World of Difference

While I still love the original Xbox Ally X, the display has always been a problem for me. In a lot of games, especially as time has gone on, I’ve found myself needing to squint at the screen in dark scenes to make out what’s happening. Likewise, in games like Monster Hunter Rise (which I’ve unfortunately found myself recently obssessed with), the original Ally X’s screen isn’t great at making the bright colors pop off the screen as well as an OLED display can.

For a long time, that led me to daily driving the Lenovo Legion Go 2, which has its own problems. I have pretty small hands, and there are times where I struggle to stretch my thumb to hit all of the buttons. Plus, with all the dials and buttons built into the Joy-Con-like controllers on the Legion Go 2, it’s easy to accidentally hit something and trick the game into thinking you’re playing with a keyboard and mouse, even for just a second. But because the screen is so good, I would just power through, and it’s become one of the default ways I play games in bed, whether it’s something that’s running locally on the Legion Go 2 or streaming through Moonlight.

After spending a few days with the Xbox Ally X20, I’ve shoved the Legion Go 2 back into storage. The X20’s screen is smaller, but it’s much easier to hold for long periods of time, which completely equalizes it for me. Plus, the crystal-clear display makes it easier to see whatever’s on the screen, so having less real estate there doesn’t make much of a difference.

More Than Just a Screen

While the new OLED display is the highlight, the Xbox Ally X20 also has a new, partially transparent chassis that’s evocative of ’90s gadget design. It does look great, even if I prefer the simple black aesthetic of the original. The menu buttons are all gold now, which is apparently the standard color of ‘anniversary’ or ‘celebration’ editions of tech products, and other buttons, like the volume rocker and all the standard controller inputs, are black.

What’s more interesting is the D-pad. Asus worked in a transforming D-pad that you can pull out and rotate to transform it from a classically defined pad with four directional buttons to a concave version akin to what you’d find on the Xbox Elite controllers. A lot of controller makers do offer this choice, but it’s usually handled by having a removable D-pad rather than one that can transform. If you do have a preference for one type of pad, you can set it that way, but really, I’ve just been fidgeting with it because of the satisfying clicking noise it makes whenever you pull it out and rotate it.

The sticks have also been updated from the standard sticks on the Xbox Ally X to new TMR sensors on the X20. Day to day, that difference hasn’t been noticeable for me, but it does mean that they should last much longer without stick drift. That’s super important in a device where, if the controller breaks, you can’t easily swap out the controller or its parts without taking the whole thing apart.

Unfortunately, It’s Still Running Windows

Just like any other handheld, what really holds the Xbox Ally X20 back from greatness is the software. Windows 11 is still a pain to use with a controller, and while the Xbox Full Screen Experience does mitigate many of the problems, there are still some definite issues.

In the few days I’ve spent with the Xbox Ally X20, I’ve run into one specific problem over and over again: If I try to swipe up on the display to go to another window, the controller will bug out. It acts as though the Xbox button is being held down, which means every button press is read as a shortcut, either opening the keyboard, pulling up the task manager, or some other silly behavior. It’s bad enough when I’m trying to scroll through my library, but when I’m trying to pull up a guide in a browser and swap back and forth, it makes the X20 unusable until I reboot the thing.

To be fair, the original Xbox Ally X had problems with the Full Screen Experience when it launched, too. But that was when it was brand new, and none of the problems were as toxic to the experience as making the controller essentially non-functional. I’ve been able to get around these problems with the X20’s UI by avoiding using the touchscreen as much as possible, but that’s not something I should have to do with a $1,300 device, especially when it’s essentially just a chassis and display upgrade.

This should be something that future updates should be able to fix, but in the meantime, I’d advise forgoing Windows and installing SteamOS or Bazzite, unless you really want to use it to play Game Pass games or Call of Duty.

The Price Is Right

Looking at what is essentially a PC version of the Nintendo Switch 2 and seeing a $1,299 price tag is going to turn some people off from the jump, but I’m still surprised that this handheld is as affordable as it is. The Xbox Ally X20 has nearly the same specs as the Lenovo Legion Go 2, except with 8GB less of RAM, but it costs $700 less at the time of writing.

It’s not hard to look at other PC gaming hardware this year and imagine that Asus could have raised the price more, considering the much-improved display and the addition of TMR joysticks. Just look at the Steam Machine, which came in at $1,049, or even the 4-year-old Steam Deck, which Valve bumped up to $789 back in May. Compared to the Xbox Ally X20’s Z2 Extreme, 24GB of RAM, and 1TB SSD, the Steam Deck’s aging RDNA 2 GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB SSD at nearly $800 doesn’t seem like that great of a deal at all.

Crucially, Asus also isn’t discontinuing the existing Xbox Ally X, which is still a $999 handheld despite the price increases that have hit pretty much every other tech product this year. I keep bracing myself for what feels like the inevitability that Asus is going to raise its prices, but that hasn’t happened yet. Now Asus is launching a new version of the Xbox Ally X, but with an OLED panel and TMR sticks for $1,299. That upgrade could be a bit cheaper, but it’s hard to think of a single handheld gaming PC with an OLED display that is a better value right now.