ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X20 OLED Review: Best Handheld Screen Yet, But Same Silicon Underneath

The ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X20 is priced at $1,299, and Hot Hardware reviewer Zak Killian has spent most of the last month with it. It is a special edition built to mark the 20th anniversary of ASUS's Republic of Gamers brand, and it is based on the ROG Xbox Ally X that he reviewed around this time last year. His verdict in short: the best screen he has seen on a handheld, attached to the same machine underneath.

The spec changes are few. The IPS LCD gives way to a 7.4-inch HDR OLED panel, and the microSD reader moves from UHS to SD Express. The SSD also changes: last year's modest BM9H1 is replaced by a TLC-based PM9C1a, which Killian says significantly improves I/O performance. Everything else carries over, including the AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme with its 3+5 core configuration, Radeon 890M graphics, and 24GB of LPDDR5X memory running at 8 GT/s.

The larger screen changed the body slightly. ASUS elongated the system a touch to fit it, and the hard case Killian owns for the Xbox Ally X no longer fits. He says the size does not make the device more or less comfortable, but he calls the change a bit of a miss and warns buyers not to purchase accessories for the wrong model.

The look is a smoke gray translucent shell with gold accents, which he compares to a high fashion accessory. People asked him about it while he carried it around for testing, and one asked whether the gold-tinted cooling vents were a nod to the local high school football team, whose colors are gold and black. He says he prefers the gray to the purple of the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+.

The controls were reworked. Both analog sticks now use Tunneling Magneto-Resistance (TMR) mechanisms in place of Hall-effect sensors, keeping the contactless advantages with reduced power use. The Xbox button is flatter and harder to hit by accident, and it is now illuminated. The D-pad can be lifted slightly and rotated to convert from a four-way pad to an eight-way pad with corner stands, which Killian says looks only slightly different but feels distinctly different under the thumb. He calls it a killer feature and wants more gamepads to adopt it. On the right side, the Armoury Crate button, which only opened the app already pinned to the taskbar, is replaced by a configurable Action Button that defaults to taking screenshots.

The rubberized grips are the more contested addition. They feel premium out of the box and Killian likes them for now, but he notes that such surfaces tend to degrade into sticky, greasy mush over time. ASUS itself acknowledges this and advises cleaning only with warm water, since chemicals, soap included, can break down the rubber. He adds that the OLED will not last forever either.

Smaller practical notes: the two USB Type-C ports are not identical, and the one on the left as you hold the device is the USB4 port. A QR code on the bottom label leads to a support page for the exact unit. Unlike the Legion Go S and MSI Claw 8 EX, the Xbox handhelds will not stand on their own because of the grips, though a paper stand comes in the box.

The summary list of pros includes the OLED, loud and clear sound with good staging, comfortable controls, TMR sticks, the configurable D-pad, and the longest battery life yet on a handheld gaming PC. The cons are no performance gain over last generation and unresolved CPU scheduling quirks. Killian says the X20 launches into a very different market than last year's model, so the question is whether the upgrades justify it. The review's screen discussion and more than 100 game benchmarks are still to come.