Shaft of the Spear—February 27, 2026✓ Verified purchase
I purchased the ROG Xbox Ally Z2a (2025) - This is an important distinction. The Z2a uses the same type of SSD as the Xbox Ally X - M2 2280, whereas the older, uses the M2 2230 type SSD (which tops out at 2TB). Why this matters is because, with the M2 2280 type SSD, you can upgrade your Ally to 4TB. Now, it is important to note that if you have a device that uses that square-looking M2 2230 SSD, you may still be able to use the M2 2280 type SSD to upgrade your storage to 4TB, but you’ll need to use a physical adapter, which costs $4.99 USD on Amazon. I strongly caution you, if you plan to do this… Even though the M2 2280 will work in a M2 2230 slot, a device that uses a M2 2230 – type SSD, may not have the physical space to do this! I drive all around this country for work, sometimes going months in almost a different hotel every night. Since, I drive an SUV filled with equipment where space and weight aren’t really an issue, I would bring my Xbox Series X and an 8 lbs Alienware laptop everywhere I went. Now, my work travel is about include a lot more international flying, so bringing a series x and a heavy gaming laptop are just not practical. I bought this thing to essentially replace my Xbox Series X and Laptop. I would have bought the ROG Xbox Ally X, but the only ROG Xbox Ally X I could find on Amazon that would ship to Korea was around $1400 bucks plus custom fees. But, I have ZERO buyer’s remorse about getting the model that I did. The main reason is, I rarely play this thing handheld -unless I’m in an airport or on a plane. The other 90% of the time, I play docked. This is an important distinction, because playing handheld, sure, the Xbox Ally X will blow this out of the water. The Xbox Ally X has some important things going for it, if your main purpose is to play this handheld. It has more RAM (which will make it feel snappier), a bigger hard drive, a bigger battery, a redesigned cooling system, and hall effect sticks. However, the difference between the Z2a and the Z2 Extreme chipset is negligible. If you play docked in turbo mode, and upgrade your SSD, a lot of the advantages the Xbox Ally X has over this model becomes minimal or, just flat out, goes away. I’ve upgraded the storage to a 4TB SSD (Samsung 990 Pro - but there are way cheaper options out there), I bought a Dock (Ivanky 14-1 w/ 100W charger - this gives me ports up the yin yang), a bluetooth foldable full sized keyboard/mouse, a Power A Fusion Wireless controller (hall effect everything + plus licensed Xbox wireless and rumble - the best rumble in the business), and I got an Arpoza 16.1 in portable monitor (1080/144Hz) - plus carrying cases for all this stuff. I also bought MS office 2024 - because the Ally is a full on Windows 11 PC. All this cost roughly a little bit more than the price of the $1400 USD + customs fees price tag of the Xbox Ally X, shipping to Korea (the South one, if anyone was wondering). What was once hauling around over 20-30 lbs worth of bulky extra stuff, is now less than 5 lbs, and is the size of a camcorder bag and a tablet. These are the games I play on here: Overwatch, Starfield, Mass Effect Legendary, Mass Effect Andromeda (and multiplayer), Kingdoms of Amalur, Fallout 4, Elder Scrolls Online, Drangonage ink, Fenyx Rising, Injustice 1 & 2, Marvel vs Capcom 3 and Infinite, Jade Empire, Starcraft II, Age of Empires II, and War Hammer 40K Dawn of War I & II. Docked, all of the games I play are older and play, no problem, at 1080p, 60 - 144 fps. The only 2 that kinda struggle and take a little bit of tweaking are Starfield and ME: Andromeda. Andromeda, I can get to med/high at 60 fps. Starfield, realistically, I’m looking at medium settings, 40 - 50 fps. In handheld mode, both these titles struggle, but are totally playable at 1080, 30 fps~ - you can even do 720p for better performance. All my other games play great handheld at 1080p, 60+ fps. You can ask Co-Pilot or any other AI to help you optimize your system for each game. Let’s talk about the not so good stuff... This is not an Xbox. Unless you have a solid internet connection, you cannot, in fact, take your whole Xbox library with you. If you’re doing CLOUD GAMING, sure, you can play A LOT of your game library. However, if we’re talking about download and take it with you and play whether you have an internet connection or not, well, that’s another story. You can only download the games from your library, if you own a digital copy and the game is a “Play Anywhere,” title. Out of the 186 games on my Xbox Series X (4TB external HDD), only 5 of those games meet that criteria (Starfield, Marvel vs Capcom Infinite, High on Life, Fallout 4, and Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition). I had to re-buy the PC version of the other games! I had to get the Mass Effect games from EA Play, I had to get Overwatch and Starcraft from Battlenet, I had to get ESO from Bethesda, and the rest came from Steam. Luckily, it was Christmas and the games I play are older, cheap, and were on sale for less than $10 bucks a piece- but your mileage may vary. What’s also important to note is, even if you download a game from your Xbox library, on the ROG Xbox Ally, you are playing the PC version of these titles (with some exception -Fallout 4 gave me a weird console port with menus that didn’t allow me to tweak much of my graphic setting – opting me to buy a full PC version on steam). This is an important distinction, because an Esports title like Overwatch, on the ROG Xbox Ally or any other gaming handheld, you are in a PC Lobby, using a controller with aim assist disabled, playing against PC players who have mouse and keyboard precision, and probably a monitor with a higher refresh rate than you. This is because battlenet recognizes the RoG Xbox Ally as a windows PC, not an Xbox Console. Also, PC versions of console games feel a little bit loose and generic to me. Console versions feel specifically tuned and optimized for your console, whereas the PC version is flexible to accommodate an entire spectrum of PC gaming rigs. Actually, to be fair, holding a steam deck or any other handheld feels pretty okay. The slimmer designs on some of the other handhelds, arguably, feels good in the hand... But even though the ally feels a bit bulkier than a normal Xbox controller, you just can’t beat the comfortable feel of gripping the contours of the xbox udders. Now, the udders are not perfect, they feel fatter than a normal xbox controller, which I do notice and am not completely in love with. Another thing, is the angle in which I need to hold the Ally to play and view the screen... is not the angle I would normally hold a controller, which I definitely feel throw me off. For me, there is some major dexterity loss when using any handheld, which matters when you’re playing something like Overwatch. The fatter, broader triggers and bumpers, I feel, were made to compensate for this, but it’s not perfect, by any means, and I find it slightly annoying when playing handheld, while sitting on a toilet. Let’s talk about sticks. These feel the most like controller sticks than the MSI Claw, the Legion GO 2, the OneXFly – The ROG Xbox Ally (X) have the best feeling thumbsticks. They have the tension you would get on a normal controller. The other handhelds do not, they feel loose and numb. However, the ROG Xbox Ally does not have Hall Effect Sticks like the ROG Xbox Ally X does… and yeah, one month in, I’ve got stick drift. Now, I’ve used Armory Crate and in-game calibration to mitigate a lot of that, to where it’s not debilitating, but… stick drift never goes away, it will only get worse. Not something you wanna even have to think about with a console that cost $500+ USD. However, as I mentioned, I rarely play this thing handheld; I’m almost always docked, with a controller, so this rarely affects me, but I’m rare. A lot of people buy these handhelds to play them handheld – this is a glaring black eye. You can either swap out the sticks yourselves, or contact ASUS. If you’re using this handheld as PC replacement… it is absolutely capable. I work on this for hours as a full on desktop replacement when I’m travel. I am able to do work stuff on here, write documents, stream Overwatch, watch movies -I edit youtube cooking videos using Moavi on here; it all works great with very little struggle. But, manage your expectations, this is full-blown windows running on a mobile-grade chipset – It’s not gonna feel blazing fast. Also, it’s portable and it’s not. Whipping it out to play games on the go in an airport, this thing is great. However, if you want to whip it out to write a novel in an airport… there is some logistical setup that’s just not practical, like say a laptop. If I’m using this as a PC, I’m settled in, in my hotel room, and it’s not moving for a while. Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. I roughly spent $1500-1600 USD for my entire setup. Yes, the console, the 4TB SSD, the dock, the portable monitor, the Elite 2 alternative controller, a foldable wireless keyboard/mouse, protective cases for all this stuff, even a JBL GO 4 speaker, and a carry bag to put it all in. If I’m not bringing my portable monitor, I can HDMI right into a hotel TV. Though it’s hard to give up the 144 hz refresh rate that the monitor brings. That’s a lot money – I didn’t even get the higher end version of this thing. I mean, I could have just bought a newer gaming laptop with better performance - no argument there. I actually kinda recommend that. It would be arguably be way cheaper. The form factor and weight-savings alone made this worth it for me. Being able to whip this out and play it handheld, was a feature I didn’t know I’d use as often as I find myself doing now. VERDICT: As I said before, I have zero buyer’s remorse about this purchase. But, I know my use cases for this may not be that common… or is it? I love this thing. I love how compact it is. I love how versatile it is. Do I wish I could have bought the higher-end ROG Xbox Ally X? Kinda– arguably better performance, hall effect sticks – it’s black. But, if I did, I probably would not have had the budget to get the 4TB future-proofing SSD that I did, so immediately. The ROG Xbox Ally Z2a is not a flawless device—it has quirks, compromises, and some limitations that buyers should be aware of. But for me, the trade-offs were worth it. It’s compact, flexible, and powerful enough to replace both my console and laptop on the road. If your use case looks anything like mine, you’ll probably find yourself loving it too. This isn’t an Xbox, and it isn’t a gaming laptop—it’s something in between. And for me, that “in between” is exactly what I needed. It’s not perfect, but it’s fun, it’s practical, and it’s made my gaming life on the road so much easier. Zero regrets here. Read more
