The ROG Xbox Ally has received a new software update via the Xbox app, introducing a number of quality-of-life improvements for the Microsoft and ASUS gaming handheld. ASUS’ ROG Xbox Ally devices are as close as it gets to a native handheld Xbox gaming console, which means they get plenty of support from Microsoft and function as a kind of spearhead for the development of a custom, gaming-focused Windows OS.
Since their release, ROG Xbox Ally handhelds got plenty of updates that would often introduce entirely new features for the devices. While the Xbox Ally X is substantially faster than the baseline Ally, the latter hasn’t been left to the wayside. Instead, the entire Xbox Ally platform has been getting improvements ranging from default game profiles to improved library loading times. Xbox Ally devices’ post-launch support has broadly been comparable to that of Valve’s Steam Deck, which works in ASUS’ favor as it vouches for the handhelds’ longevity.
The ROG Xbox Ally Could Have Been Cheaper
Following Gamescom, reports suggest that the upcoming ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X handhelds may have been priced below $599 and $999 at one point.
ROG Xbox Ally Gets Full Screen Experience Improvements and More
The latest update for the ROG Xbox Ally adds a number of welcome changes to the Xbox overlay. Most notable are the new Display and Projection UI tabs, allowing players to customize the display resolution, projection modes, and docked display output right from the Xbox Game Bar. Users can now also change where notification pop-ups are displayed, which is admittedly not a groundbreaking development but is nice to have. It’s not a hugely impressive list compared to Steam Deck’s March 2026 update, but Microsoft is yet to release official patch notes, and the UI update was first spotted by ROG Ally Life.
One thing to note about the Xbox overlay’s new batch of improvements is that this is effectively setting the stage for the upcoming release of Windows-based Automatic Super Resolution, which is supposed to release sometime in April 2026. This feature is going to be Microsoft’s in-house upscaling solution that is bound to improve game performance in virtually all modern Windows PCs, but it’s going to be especially important for hardware-constrained devices like the ROG Ally. Coincidentally, it’s also potentially going to give them a big leg-up on Valve’s gaming handheld, which is still stuck on the old FSR 1.0 upscaler, short of additional (and complicated) user intervention. As of right now, Auto Super Resolution is admittedly still a big unknown, and banking on it as a silver bullet for Xbox Ally game performance is inadvisable.
Even if the ROG Xbox Ally’s March 2026 update isn’t massively impressive on its own, it plays into Microsoft’s broader plans for Xbox and beyond. Of course, all the improvements featured as part of this upgrade are also available on any other device that may be using the Xbox app for gaming, including Windows PCs. While one could argue whether it’s true that ROG Xbox Ally was among 2025’s best inventions, there’s no denying that it’s helping make Xbox a superior experience on PC via app updates alone.
Drag weapons to fill the grid
Drag weapons to fill the grid
EasyMediumHard
ROG Xbox Ally devices aren’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but they do their job very well and serve as excellent indie and mid-tier gaming options on the go. Their biggest problem was never hardware but their reliance on Windows instead of a bespoke gaming-focused OS, which is the one area where the Steam Deck provides an incomparably superior experience. That too may change in the coming days, however, as Xbox hones in on OS-level optimizations and releases Auto Super Resolution.
