Right here’s When You Can Purchase the OLED Xbox Ally Handheld You’ve All the time Needed

That lovely, translucent model of the ROG Xbox Ally X—lastly sporting a extra vibrant OLED display screen—gained’t value you almost as a lot as many have feared as a result of RAM costs. It will nonetheless carve a mighty chunk out of your pockets.

At Gamescom, Asus declared the subsequent model of the Xbox Ally X, named the Xbox Ally X20, will arrive on retailer cabinets Oct. 15. And right here’s what you actually wish to know: it should value you $1,300. That’s $300 greater than the previous-gen Asus ROG Xbox Ally X, although the brand new model does include a number of standout additions—most notably a bigger, 7.4-inch OLED show.

Asus initially deliberate to ship its X20 version—named for the corporate’s twentieth anniversary festivities—with a pair of ROG XReal R1 Edition 20 AR glasses. Thankfully, the corporate is now breaking them up so you should purchase them individually or bundled for $2,500. Those glasses aren’t low-cost by themselves at $850, although you may nonetheless lower your expenses should you merely purchase each an authentic Ally X and the glasses individually. The solely motive you’d go for each is when you have a Goldfinger stage of fetish for shiny metallic coloring.

Even with the cool translucent shell that makes me ache for my translucent purple Game Boy Advance, the true motive you purchase this system is the improved display screen. The older 7-inch LCD show on the unique ROG Xbox Ally X did the job. It simply didn’t look as unbelievable as Lenovo’s Legion Go 2 with its 8.8-inch OLED display screen. Now, that Legion Go 2 prices $2,000, so the $1,300 X20 looks as if a cut price if all you need is a high-powered and fairly handheld.

I’ve already wrapped my grubby palms across the ROG Xbox Ally X20 at Computex 2026, and whereas it’s not an enormous improve from the unique, it’s stacked with small enhancements that clearly make it a greater handheld. Even ignoring the OLED show, Asus added textured grips to the again of the controller, refined the Ally’s thermal administration, and adjusted the aspect of the system and face buttons so the “B” button doesn’t sound too proud in opposition to the sting anymore.

This form of innovation labored effectively for Valve when it transitioned from the unique Steam Deck to the Steam Deck OLED in 2023. The later mannequin was not solely prettier, however the improved internals additionally led to longer battery life and battery thermal administration. Then once more, that was within the period when new gadgets like that value $550 in comparison with the unique’s $520 for a similar quantity of storage. A Steam Deck OLED with a comparable 1TB of storage now prices $950.

We’ll see for ourselves how effectively the Asus ROG Xbox X20 stacks up later this 12 months. Asus’ newest darling for cellular gaming relies on the identical AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip because the earlier model. It will compete in opposition to different Intel-based handhelds launched this 12 months, just like the $1,800 MSI Claw 8 EX AI+. The Intel Arc G3 chip certainly gives higher efficiency than the AMD processor, however for $500 much less, I wouldn’t blame anyone for leaping for the prettier system.