Asus' Special Gold ROG Xbox Ally X20 Is Surprisingly Affordable – If You Avoid the Bundle

While everything seems to be going up in price lately due to an ongoing RAMageddon that doesn't seem to be letting up any time soon, Asus' handhelds have somehow avoided the price increases that are hitting everything in the category. The company's special anniversary version of the Xbox Ally X is a bit more expensive than the regular version, but it's not by much.

At gamescom, Asus revealed a bit more information about the upcoming gold-themed version of the Xbox Ally X to celebrate ROG's 20th anniversary, called, what else, the Xbox Ally X20. This is essentially the same system as the original Xbox Ally X, just with an OLED display, TMR joysticks, and a fancy new D-pad. Okay, well at least the innards remain the same, with the AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme and 24GB of memory.

Back when Asus announced the X20, I was worried this was going to be a sneaky way to refresh the handheld with a couple new features to raise the price to the same degree as something like the Lenovo Legion Go 2 or the Steam Deck — especially since, back then, it was announced as only part of a bundle with the Asus ROG Xreal R1 glasses I reviewed a few weeks ago.

Luckily, Asus will be releasing the Xbox Ally X20 as a standalone handheld for $1,299, or as a bundle with the glasses for $2,499. That is more expensive than the existing Xbox Ally X, which you can get for about $999 right now. But, that extra $300 might be worth it just for the sake of having an OLED display.

The new handheld looks like it'll take some cues from the Xbox Elite controllers as well. The Xbox Ally X20 will have a transforming D-pad. Basically, you can rotate it to choose between either a concave D-pad or one with four prounounced cardinal directions. Basically, like you're able to do on the Xbox Elite controllers by swapping out the magnetic D-pad.

Of course, the handheld is going to look much fancier than the original. I haven't seen it in person yet, but from Asus' photos, it looks like it has a translucent chassis, with gold accents that really do make it look unique.

The elephant in the room, though, is the bundle. It costs twice as much, and includes the glasses and a few accessories. Everything does look nice, but you're essentially paying an extra $1,200 for a pair of XR glasses that you can buy seperately for $849 – and those were already overpriced. It's going to carry some weight for ROG faithfuls, but the standalone handheld is where it's at. The Xbox Ally X is one of the best Windows handhelds out there, and tacking on an OLED display really might be worth the extra $300, especially with every other handheld with similar specs being closer to $2,000 right now.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra