Scalpers are already…
If you have your eye on the upcoming Asus ROG Xbox Ally X handheld gaming PC, be careful where you buy it from. As reported by Tom’s Hardware, scalpers are already trying to rip people off with eBay listings charging over two times MSRP—while the ROG Xbox Ally X is still available for pre-order at its normal price.
Tom’s Hardware spotted numerous eBay listings for the Xbox Ally X priced as high as $2,500. For context, the MSRP is $999 for the Xbox Ally X or $599 for the base Xbox Ally. Both devices are set to launch on October 16.
If you want to snag a Xbox Ally, it’s best to avoid eBay entirely. At the time of writing, pre-orders are still open for the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X at Best Buy, Asus, and Microsoft (if you’re outside the US, you can check the official Xbox pre-order page to find pre-order options in your region). This is a pretty pricey handheld as it is, all things considered, so don’t let a scalper trick you into paying double.
If you consider the ROG Xbox Ally X part of the Xbox line-up (which Microsoft seems to), it’s the most expensive Xbox to date. For $1,000, you get an AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme chip, 24GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, and a 7-inch FHD IPS display. Benchmark testing for the Z2 Extreme chip so far shows a decent improvement in performance over the Z1 Extreme in the non-Xbox ROG Ally X released last year, but mainly at lower settings.
If you already have a 2024 ROG Ally X, the upcoming Xbox version might not be enough of an upgrade to justify paying $1,000. It’s a worthier choice if you’re coming from an older or budget handheld, or if you’re picking up your first handheld gaming PC.
However, at this price, the Xbox Ally X is trying to compete with budget gaming laptops, many of which have discrete GPUs that can offer stronger performance. The handheld form factor is an understandable selling point here, but even so, it’s worth considering all of your portable gaming options—like the Steam Deck, whose LCD version is down to $320—before buying.