With only about a month left until the highly anticipated release of the ROG Xbox Ally in mid-October, there is a tremendous deal of both excitement and trepidation surrounding the upcoming handheld launch. After a promising presentation at Gamescom 2025, Xbox’s first real foray into mobile gaming has been a hot topic in the community as of late, with many concerned about the as-of-yet unannounced pricing as well as the device’s compatibility with certain games.
Digital Foundry recently issued some expectations, or rather warnings, about the current state of the handheld, with those who were provided hands on access to the system reporting back with very mixed reviews. Richard Leadbetter seemed impressed, at least with the hardware and its fascinating form factor, but indicated significant issues with his experience interacting with the preview software that was showcased by sharing:
“It is a very rich and fully featured interface; it can do things that other interfaces can’t… But at the same time, let’s put it brutally, I found some pretty glaring bugs with the interface literally within minutes of picking it up.
The first bug I had was with DOOM: The Dark Ages […] which just kind of ‘hanged’. The second time I had issues the analog sticks stopped working within the interface which was obviously making navigation difficult; on-site, Microsoft staff had to step in to get the unit working again. The third issue I had was something quite different – I was playing Gears Reloaded, I went back to the ‘Xbox full-screen experience’, then loaded DOOM: The Dark Ages — it didn’t ask me whether I wanted to terminate Gears Reloaded — so it went ahead and loaded DOOM while Gears was still resonant in memory which hammered performance.
This is stuff that should be taken care of by the interface but wasn’t, and in that respect, it felt a bit unpolished and unfinished, it felt very reminiscent of the kind of experiences I’ve had with pretty much every PC handheld I’ve tested so far using Windows. Here, that front end was doing things it shouldn’t be doing – it certainly didn’t have the feel of a more bespoke, curated console experience that just kind of works. Bearing in mind that this machine’s coming soon, I think they’ve still got a lot of work to do on the interface on the front end there.”
With all of that laid bare, it’s understandable that for some of your more eager fans this news may come as a major disappointment. With that said, Leadbetter’s experience was unique to other members of Digital Foundry, like Alex Battaglia, who share that he “didn’t experience any crashes,” though admitted to playing the device for a much shorter amount of time overall. It does sound as though the ROG Xbox Ally will still be rather PC-esque, but with an improved form factor compared to similar mobile devices of the sort. Leadbetter further shared that gamers expecting a familiar Xbox experience on the device, will perhaps be a bit surprised at the differences in its functionality in stating:
“If you’re going to be booting up this machine and you’re expecting an Xbox, I think that you’re going to be a bit disappointed. It’s a launcher that’s quite richly featured […] I think right now that it isn’t an ‘Xbox’,”
Now, keep in mind that all of these hands-on impressions were obtained utilizing pre-launch preview code, so it’s likely that the device is still an active work in progress, and will remain so up until launch and likely the months to follow. Microsoft has been blazing trails with its ‘Handheld Compatibility Program‘ to try and iron out the bugs and work on perfecting the PC software to properly function in a smooth and stable operational capacity, and the previews certainly serve to highlight that this handheld is NOT what you might consider part of the traditional Xbox console lineup.
With the information coming out and the warnings issued from early testers, everyone seems to be keeping a watchful eye on the progress being made to roll out a quality product. I suppose we’ll know more on October 16th when the ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X release to the public, assuming they are able to ship as planned without delay for further refinement and improved development.
