This isn’t quite what we expected to see last year, but the ROG Xbox Ally still marks a new chapter in the rapidly developing “handheld war.”

The Asus ROG Xbox Ally is Microsoft's big push into handheld gaming, but it isn't gunning for the Nintendo Switch 2. It's got Valve's Steam Deck in its sights.

The ROG Xbox Ally is a handheld PC rather than a console, powered by a powerful Ryzen Z2 chipset. It offers significantly higher raw performance compared to the Switch 2, with a higher GPU clock and more RAM. The storage options on the Ally go up to a 2TB SSD, compared to just 256GB internal on the Switch 2, which does support microSD expansion.