This year we saw a slew of cool new PC hardware unveiled at Computex 2026, but for my money the most exciting announcements were the debut of new gaming PC handhelds from Asus and MSI. I'm talking, of course, about the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ and the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X20. …
The Asus Xbox ROG Ally X is arguably the most high-profile PC gaming handheld from a major supplier, rivaled only by the Lenovo Legion Go 2. So as it is wont to do, Asus has decided to give it a bit of a boost. …
… But as VideoCardz points out, similar handhelds like the Asus ROG Xbox Ally haven't seen the same price increase. The Xbox Ally X with the Z2 Extreme processor is the same $1,000 at Best Buy that it was at launch. …
… But as it's baked in at the OS level, Microsoft claims that it can automatically boost performance for games by leaning on "larger models and the NPU to create stunning visuals." Resolution tricks could, indeed, be a big boon to handheld hardware, and the Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip in the ROG Xbox Ally … …
… After being semi-exclusive to Snapdragon laptops, it came to the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X and... nothing else. Not even the non-X variant, since it needs an NPU to run. And also it only works in docked mode, not handheld mode. …
… A year later, Asus tapped AMD for more custom chips and the Ryzen Z family debuted, now seen in the ROG Ally, Legion Go, MSI Claw A8, and a few other less notable options. The Ryzen Z and Z2 series are basically just laptop chips with a bit of extra tuning. …
… The Asus ROG Xbox Ally X uses an AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme chip inside, an X86 processor. …
… News Xbox Ally X gets performance boost from Microsoft's DLSS alternative The more expensive version of the Asus handheld now has access to Auto SR, an upscaling system reliant upon an NPU. …
… There is, in fact, a new Nitro handheld coming. But it's basically a PC version of the PlayStation Portal. The Nitro Blaze Link is a gadget that looks almost identical to the original Asus ROG Ally, but it's exclusively for streaming games from a nearby PC. …
… Xbox mode is a streamlined interface, first developed for handhelds like the Asus ROG Xbox Ally see what I mean about clunky branding , but now expanded to all Windows devices. …