I think Asus could be the perfect partner for an Xbox handheld – but I have questions

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Xbox is reportedly working with PC hardware giant Asus to make its first handheld console, which could be released at the end of 2025.

This news comes from Jez Corden at our sibling publication Windows Central, who reported that his sources have corroborated claims made by reporter Tom Warren at The Verge that the Xbox handle – apparently codenamed Project Kennan – will be made in partnership with Asus.

All this follows a report from a few days ago that noted Xbox is reportedly teaming up with a mystery manufacturer to launch a PC gaming handheld this year.

From a purely logical standpoint, Asus as a hardware partner makes a lot of sense given it already has the ROG Ally, which is a fairly robust Windows 11 handheld PC that can run games in the Xbox Game Pass PC catalog both natively and via cloud-powered streaming.

And as Corden reports, the Xbox handheld will resemble a ROG Ally in a lot of respects, only with design cues that make it more of a device one would associate with the Xbox brand; I’d expect to see an Xbox Wireless Controller button layout and triggers with a glowing Xbox home button.

“According to our trusted sources, Kennan will blend Asus' stylings with updated design conventions more typical of an ‘Xbox’ style device, with more prominent grips and a dedicated Xbox guide-style button,” said Corden.

A perfect Ally?

comparison between steam deck and ROG Ally

But logic aside, this information raises one of my eyebrows a little. First off, this may just be a new ROG Ally, perhaps even a full second-generation model that may simply have more tightly integrated Xbox elements rather than being an Xbox-first machine.

My colleague Matt Hanson, Managing Editor of Core Tech at TechRadar, told me he thinks a full Xbox-centric ROG Ally-type machine is a tad unlikely, though did note an Xbox-branded version of Windows 11 that's better for handhelds would certainly be welcome.

I’m inclined to agree with that view as it leads me to my second point: I’d expect a dedicated Xbox handheld to come running a version of the Xbox operating system rather than anything that's identifiably Windows 11 in a practical sense. This approach would likely tighter integrate the hardware with the software and cut out the overheads needed for running what’s a fully-fledged operating system on the current ROG Ally models.

Equally, I’d be surprised if Asus were to make an ROG Ally that didn’t have full Windows 11 support, and thus access to a whole range of PC gaming services and stores. So I could definitely see a next-gen ROG Ally of sorts take on Windows 11 that’s better tuned for handheld gaming than it currently is.

On the flipside I could also see Microsoft having its own Xbox handheld with an interface very much like the Xbox Series X; this could still be made by Asus on the hardware side but not have any software involvement from the company.

Such a machine would be tuned for running Xbox games rather than having a heavy PC element, which could then yield better performance than one might expect from a handheld PC due to the aforementioned tighter hardware and software integration.

"I could also see Microsoft having its own Xbox handheld with an interface very much like the Xbox Series X"

That’s something I’d particularly want as it would be the key for such an Xbox device to stand out from the other handheld PCs that all have access to the Xbox gaming platform in one way or another.

However, the reports tend to indicate that the Xbox handheld will be designed to run PC titles rather than native Xbox games.

So my speculation might not hold much weight here, especially with Microsoft seemingly trying to better integrate the Xbox ecosystem with the Microsoft one.

steam deck on the left and asus rog ally on the right of a split image

Given the ROG Ally is arguably the closest rival to the excellent Valve Steam Deck, I do think Asus would probably be the best hardware partner for an Xbox handheld. But my hope is whatever device gets cooked up, it stands a little apart from the current crop of handheld PC and instead sports some of the clean and slick design language seen in Microsoft’s Surface devices.

Time will tell how this all plays out but with Xbox boss Phil Spencer having confirmed Microsoft is working on a handheld games console, we could see something sooner than later.

In the here and now, if you want to play Xbox games on a handheld the ROG Ally is probably your best bet out of the box, but with a bit of patience and digging you can get the Steam Deck to run Xbox Cloud Gaming in a rather effective fashion; it was how I finished Starfield's main quest a while back, so give it a go.

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