Let’s talk about the best of the best, the ROG Ally X.
The Ally X feels like the final hurrah for this generation of AMD-powered Windows handhelds. Built around the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor that also can be found inside the ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go, and more or less the same chip as in most other Windows-based handheld, it excels in other ways.
First off, the battery life is great. That’s thanks to an 80 Whr battery that really makes a difference to the longevity of this device. That’s really important for taking this thing on a long plane journey—you can get some good hours of gaming in without worrying about finding an outlet.
The other big improvement is the 24 GB of RAM onboard. That’s more than the 16 GB we expect to see, though a little less than you’ll find on premium, more niche handheld brands such as some from Ayaneo or OneXPlayer. The processor in the Ally X uses the same memory pool for both the CPU and GPU components, and more memory means a fairer share between both. That’s good for performance, and in our testing we did notice a slight advantage for this design over others.
The screen is still a 1080p, 7-inch IPS—there’s no OLED model. Don’t expect to be making the most out of its 120 Hz refresh rate too often, either, though it does help keep the desktop sufficiently smooth.
And of course, I’m not just saying this to whet your whistle with no payout. The ROG Ally X is $100 off right now, which is pretty good going for a device that came out back in July and is still considered the hot, new thing.
Hey, Jacob Ridley here. I cover all things hardware here at PC Gamer, and I’m the guy that likes to talk about handhelds a lot. So, without further ado, let’s talk about some handhelds.
