ROG Xbox Ally X20 Interview: The Long-Awaited OLED Finally Arrives

Asus ROG Xbox Ally X20 (photo: Asus)

Asus Newsroom

Asus’ Republic of Gamers brand is celebrating its 20th anniversary. As part of the anniversary, it has launched the Rog Xbox Ally X20, an update to last year’s Xbox partnership, earlier than the expected release cycle.

While there may be anxiety over the relatively rapid arrival of the X20, I spoke with ROG’s Director of Product, Gaming, Gabriel Meng to talk about the new hardware, updated features, and the pressures facing manufacturers in the current climate.

ROG Xbox Ally X20 Addresses Key Concern With OLED Display

The Asus ROG Ally X20 includes a native landscape OLED panel to offer darker blacks, vivid colors and eliminate the software orientation issues common in repurposed smartphone displays.

"What I would call the opportunity of a lifetime showed up,” Meng explained excitedly. There was an opportunity to seize and bring it to the market extremely fast, extremely early."*

That feature is one the ROG Ally community has been asking for for many years: an OLED display. Asus has waited for the supply chain to offer a 16:9 display suitable for its gaming console rather than use existing 16:9 displays intended for the smartphone and tablet markets

Bringing an OLED display to the range is not as simple as switching out the IPS display on the ROG Xblox Ally X. Invisible to consumers is the engineering required to create new cooling channels under the display, or the redesigned motherboard to accommodate the larger display without increasing the footprint of the portable console.

User feedback has been taken on board around the physical controls. The face buttons have a new physical design, while the d-pad can be rotated to act as either an 8-way or a 4-way d-pad, depending on what inputs you need on a per-game basis.

Supply Chains And Price Inflation’s Impact on ROG Xbox Ally X20 Consoles

Escalating global costs for memory, storage, and specialized semiconductors are driving an industry-wide upward pricing trajectory for premium handheld gaming hardware.

The ROG Xbox Ally X20 will go on sale later this year, but pricing has not yet been announced. In the current economic climate, it will likely be more expensive than the first Xbox Ally X. Unlike home or portable gaming consoles, which can rely on additional income from storefronts selling games, Asus is effectively selling bare metal with no subsidy.

“If those components end up costing us more, then that’s unfortunately something that's going to be unable to be subsidized, “ Meng said. That will pass through the consumer.”

Balancing its margins amid rising component costs has already led to a price increase for the Xbox Ally X. ROG is not alone in passing on those costs to consumers. Valve has recently increased the price of the Steam Deck - a competing console to the ROG Ally family - by over forty percent in May. ROG’s price increase for the Xbox Ally X, from £799 to £849, is smaller in scope, but still significant.

ROG Xbox Ally X20 And Ally X: Performance Parity Versus Quality Refinement

The Asus ROG Ally X20 will maintain performance parity with the previous generation while focusing on consumer value through luxury ergonomics and the integration of cutting-edge accessories.

While there are internal changes, the Rog Xbox Ally X20 ships with the same core specifications as the Xbox Ally X: an AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme processor backed by 24GB of memory and an 80Wh battery. The headline IPS-to-OLED display switch should be regarded as the main upgrade, with the tactile changes to the controls a bonus. This should reassure the existing user base that the Xbox Ally X is not being left behind.

ROG is taking big steps in other directions. When it is released, the Ally X20 will be sold in a bundle with the ROG XReal R1, a pair of gaming glasses that offer "a 171-inch virtual monitor that covers 95% of the focused field of view” and 3DoF tracking to follow head movements. These will plug directly into the X20 through the USB-C port.

Crucially, the Xreal R1 will not just replicate the display but integrate with the Command Center launcher to create a richer mobile gaming experience. “We ported over those functionalities from the glasses as an API into the Ally... So now it feels more like an extension.”

Conclusion: ROG Xbox Ally X20 Puts The Brake On The Desktop Arms Race

There have been various iterations of the ROG Ally since its 2023 launch. The current portfolio has been trimmed back to the existing Ally Xbox and Ally Xbox X, and the upcoming ROG Xbox Ally X20. It’s a tight portfolio built around the classic good, better, best triplet beloved by consumer electronics.

Yet Meng is careful to note that the space is unique. The silicon arms race in desktop gaming PCs doesn’t necessarily carry over to mobile consoles like the ROG Xbox Ally X20. “It’s a handheld, it’s not the desktop.” Which sums up this space. It is a young space, there are only a handful of players, and ROG continues to push boundaries.