Microsoft and Asus’ Steam Deck rival, the ROG Xbox Ally, will be released in a few weeks. It will have a tough battle to dethrone Valve’s portable gaming machine and its price won’t help. 

Microsoft this week revealed that the upcoming Xbox Ally will cost $600, and the even more powerful Xbox Ally X will cost $1,000. They’re scheduled to come out on Oct. 16, and preorders are open now. But the expense is likely to cause hesitation among gamers. 

Will the Xbox Ally outdo the Steam Deck, or will it wind up being just another wannabe?

How much will the Xbox Ally cost?

The new portable console isn’t cheap. The Xbox Ally and Ally X will cost $600 and $1,000, respectively. 

There was speculation that the Xbox Ally X’s price would be closer to $800, close to the price in both the UK (£800) and the EU (€899). Rumors circulating prior to Thursday were that US pricing would stay in that $800 range, but the announced sticker price hike is likely due to tariffs. Microsoft has already increased the price of its Xbox Series consoles twice since President Donald Trump instituted new tariffs in April.

When does the Xbox Ally come out?

Microsoft confirmed the Xbox Ally’s release date of Oct. 16, which matches previous leaks. 

When can I preorder the Xbox Ally? 

Preorders started Thursday, but Microsoft took a different approach than usual. The more expensive Xbox Ally X will be available for preorder only at Best Buy, Asus and Microsoft. It’s unclear if the Xbox Ally X will be more widely available after launch. 

The lower-priced Xbox Ally will be available at more retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, Microsoft, Asus and Ant Online.

What’s the difference between the Xbox Ally and the Xbox Ally X?

There are two versions of the Xbox Ally. The key differences between the two are in their processors, storage and memory. 

The Xbox Ally will have the AMD Ryzen Z2 A Processor, while the Xbox Ally X will use the faster AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme Processor. Memory will be different, with the lower-priced Xbox Ally having 16GB of LPDDR5X-6400 and the higher-cost handheld coming with 24GB of LPDDR5X-8000 RAM. 

Both will come with solid-state storage, but the Xbox Ally will have 512GB, and the Xbox Ally X will have 1TB. The Xbox Ally X will also have a bigger battery, but with a faster processor and more memory, it’s not clear if that difference in capacity translates to a longer battery life.

What makes the Xbox Ally different from the Steam Deck?

The most notable difference between the Xbox Ally and the Steam Deck is the operating system. Like the ROG Ally, the Xbox Ally will also use Windows 11, while the Steam Deck uses Valve’s SteamOS.

Even though every PC game works with Windows, handheld gaming devices running Windows have had serious issues, as the OS implementation has been a bit buggy. Portable consoles like the ROG Ally, MSI Claw and Lenovo Legion Go simply don’t run well with full Windows because the OS is designed for laptops and desktops, not handheld devices. SteamOS, however, is designed to run almost every game on Steam without issues and regardless of device size.

The Xbox Ally changes that by giving it an Xbox interface. This would be similar to how the Xbox app on PCs works for running games. It would also be able to download Xbox games directly to it, remote play them off a console or stream them via Xbox Cloud.

Another big difference is the hardware. The Steam Deck came out in 2022, and it was the first mass-produced handheld gaming device for PC. At the time, Valve had to use custom AMD processors. Since then, AMD has produced more processors for handheld devices, which are now much more powerful in just a few years. The Xbox Ally would also have faster RAM. Both the improvement in processors and RAM should significantly increase the number of games the Xbox Ally can run versus the Steam Deck, which is already struggling to run newer games at 30fps.

Externally, the Xbox Ally will have the same size 7-inch display but a higher refresh rate of 120Hz, a brighter screen at 500 nits and increased resolution at 1080p. There will also be some slight differences in the physical size of the Xbox Ally, which will be a little bigger and heavier. Another difference from the Steam Deck is that the Xbox Ally controls will be more similar to the Xbox controller.

Microsoft and Asus have a large hill to climb if they plan to have the Xbox Ally dethrone the Steam Deck. It will be especially tough if Valve decides to announce the Steam Deck 2 soon.