It’s been an open secret for a while now, whispered in Discord servers and on Reddit forums. A question that’s nagged at gamers from Cape Town to Johannesburg: when would the future of portable gaming finally arrive on their shores? Now, we have an answer, and it’s about to land with the force of a full-stack gaming rig.
ASUS and Microsoft, two giants of the digital realm, are putting their combined weight behind a new, pocket-sized bet on the South African market. What they’ve brought to the table isn’t just another handheld, or a gimmick with a console’s name slapped on it. It’s the ROG Ally Xbox Edition, and its brawnier brother, the ROG Ally X. And with them, they’ve smuggled in the full weight of Microsoft’s gaming ecosystem.
For years, the promise of taking your gaming library on the road has been a tease. You had cloud streaming, which worked, but only if your connection was bulletproof. You had mobile apps, which felt less like a console and more like a sad approximation of one. This, however, is the real thing. It’s an honest-to-god gaming PC, optimized for a console experience, and it’s backed by the world’s most powerful software company. It’s an event.
Here’s the new reality:
A Tale of Two Allies
The strategy is a familiar one in Silicon Valley. Offer a good-enough version for the masses, and a premium model for the die-hards.
There’s the ROG Ally Xbox Edition, a sleek, 512GB machine that serves as the entry point at R12,999. It comes with a solid Z2 A processor and 16GB of RAM. It’s the device you buy if you want in on the handheld revolution without selling a kidney.
Then there’s the ROG Ally X, a device built for people who truly believe more is more. It’s got 24GB of RAM, a massive 1TB SSD, and an upgraded Z2 Extreme chip. But the real game-changer is the battery: a hulking 80Wh power pack, double the size of the base model. This is the version that fixes the main complaint of its predecessor and makes the promise of portable gaming feel less like a temporary joy and more like a long-haul reality.
Both models come with three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, a silent, powerful acknowledgment from Microsoft that this isn’t some side project. They want you using this device to play Halo, Starfield, and whatever else they’ve got in the digital vault.
The New Handheld Order
The last time a handheld launch of this magnitude happened in this country, it never actually happened. The Steam Deck, the device that truly kickstarted the modern handheld PC craze, never officially made its way here. For years, the question wasn’t if the future of portable gaming was coming, but how it would arrive. With the Steam Deck, that future landed not with a bang, but with a quiet, unofficial trickle sold by a handful of retailers willing to navigate the labyrinthine logistics of parallel imports. It was available, yes, but it was never truly launched.The original ROG Ally stepped into that vacuum, but it came with the inevitable warts of a first-generation product.
This time, it feels different. The official backing from Microsoft, a company with the resources of a small nation, elevates this beyond a niche tech launch. It’s a full-on campaign to own the portable gaming space. It’s a statement: your Xbox isn’t just the black box under your TV anymore. It’s a lifestyle, and it now fits in your backpack.
For gamers, this is a moment of truth. Do you stick with your home console, or do you take the plunge and embrace a world where your library is always with you? For a price that hovers in the same ballpark as a mid-tier gaming laptop, you’re paying for a new kind of freedom.
The ROG Ally Xbox Edition and Ally X aren’t just devices. They’re an answer to a question that’s been lingering for years. A bet on a future where the line between console and PC, and home and away, is finally erased. And on October 16, that future becomes real. The only question now is, which side are you on?
Pre-orders start today at the following retailers: ASUS eStore, Makro, Computer Mania, Incredible Connection, Game, Evetech, Amazon and BT Games.
