There are several perspectives on these prices. For those accustomed to console pricing, Microsoft’s first Xbox handhelds appear to be costly. The basic white Xbox Ally costs $150 more than a Switch 2, which itself faced criticism for its price, and it is $100 more expensive than the more powerful Xbox Series X was at its launch in the US, despite Microsoft’s recent Xbox price increases. In Europe and the UK, the less powerful version of the Ally is priced the same as an Xbox Series X.

However, the traditional Xbox doesn’t offer the portability of being playable in a passenger seat. For PC gamers or those aspiring to be, the scenario is more appealing. These handheld “Xbox” devices are the first to feature a new Windows build that hides the desktop and Explorer shell, thus freeing a significant amount of memory for gaming, and reportedly allowing control solely via a game controller.

Although handhelds have been experiencing a rise in prices, reaching levels comparable to gaming laptops, the $999 Xbox Ally X is potentially a good match against the $999 MSI Claw 8 AI Plus or the $1,349 Lenovo Legion Go 2, which also utilizes the AMD Z2 Extreme chip found in this device. Notably, many of my colleagues and I find the new Ally models to have exceptionally comfortable designs. (In brief: Prongs are well-received.)

It’s important to note that opting for the $599 Ally presents a bit of unpredictability, as it includes a brand new Ryzen Z2 A processor similar to the one in the Steam Deck. Instead of the 8 Zen 5 CPU cores and 16 RDNA 3.5 GPU cores designed to operate between 15 and 35 watt TDP, this variant has 4 Zen 2 CPU cores and 8 RDNA 2 GPU cores, meant to run between 6 and 20 watts, catering to lower performance gaming.

We’re planning to have reviews of the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X in the coming weeks.

Microsoft has announced that these will be available in countries such as Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, and Vietnam. Additionally, availability will expand to Brazil, China, India, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Philippines, and Switzerland.