Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2025 are long gone, so keep your eyes peeled for any winter and potential Boxing Day sales in the US. However, The Asus ROG Xbox Ally is available on Amazon for $489.99 (was $599.99), with an 18% discount of $110.
While it probably has a difficult time surpassing the Steam Deck in terms of value, this discount makes it almost as low-cost as the Steam Deck LCD 512GB, which is priced at $449. Yes, the AMD Ryzen Z2A processor in ROG Xbox Ally is in the same battlefield as Steam Deck’s custom APU, but you get a better 1080p 120Hz display and a larger 60Wh battery.
Today’s best Asus ROG Xbox Ally deal on Amazon US
While the latest Xbox Full Screen Experience (FSE) is automatically your first choice because it’s literally made for this device, I highly recommend installing Bazzite (a SteamOS clone) to get the most out of ROG Xbox Ally.
This is already a huge step behind its Ryzen Z2 Extreme counterpart, and Microsoft Windows 11, even with FSE, is known to impact gaming performance due to background processes.
With SteamOS, you’ll be able to enjoy a well-polished and polished user interface very similar to what you’d find on a gaming console, and ultimately better performance without the hassle of background processes.
This is certainly helpful if you like to play with an Xbox controller on your PC or Xbox Series X | S because Xbox Ally has the same ergonomics, which are almost the same as just lifting the controller (with the added weight of a 7-inch display, of course).
ROG Xbox Ally doesn’t stand out among the mighty competitors in the portable market, but with subsequent price drops it is becoming a more reasonable option for consumers.
Regardless, I think it’s a solid price at $489.99, almost $200 for the Steam Deck OLED and slightly more costly than the LCD model. Don’t miss it!
