HANDHELD NEWS – The handheld, which was announced during the Xbox Games Showcase and will be available in two versions, does not have an OLED display.

If you were expecting an OLED display on the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X—a collaboration between Microsoft and Asus—you’re going to be disappointed. But why was this decision made? Whitson Gordon, Asus’s senior manager of video gaming marketing content, explained it to us.

“We’ve committed to OLED technology for our desktop monitors. As you know, we love OLED at ROG. But with the Ally, the calculus is different. We discussed this in more detail during our Q&A last year, so I won’t delve too deeply into it today. However, we’re in a similar position. We looked at OLED again this year. We did some research and development and prototyping with OLED, but it’s still not where we want it to be when you factor in VRR, and we aren’t willing to give up VRR. I’ll draw the line in the sand right now. In my opinion, if a display doesn’t have a variable refresh rate, then it’s not a gaming display in 2025. It’s a must-have feature. OLED with VRR currently draws significantly more power than the LCD we’re using on the Ally, and it’s more expensive.”

Looking at sales of our devices and competitors’ devices in the handheld market, it’s clear what price range people are willing to pay for a device like this. Remember, it’s a secondary device for many people. It’s not their primary device. I see a lot of people in the feedback section saying that they want this exact thing. They say, “I don’t want to pay an arm and a leg for this.” Well, we don’t want that either. That’s why we’re trying to keep the cost down by not including features that most users don’t need. We’re trying to reach a reasonable price point. That’s all I’ll say about the price. You have to align your expectations with the market and what we’re doing here. Adding 32 GB, an OLED screen, a Z2 Extreme processor, and all those extra features would cost a lot more than the price you’re used to paying for the Ally. The vast majority of users aren’t willing to pay that kind of price,” Gordon said.

Both models have a 7-inch, 1080p, IPS screen with a 120 Hz refresh rate and AMD FreeSync Premium technology. The ROG Xbox Ally X offers more storage (1 TB vs. 512 GB), more RAM (24 GB vs. 16 GB), a more powerful processor (Ryzen Z2 Extreme vs. Ryzen Z2), and pulse triggers for control. Pricing for each model has not been disclosed yet, but Asus plans to launch both devices by the end of the year.

Source: WCCFTech