Right here’s a scorching take: gaming handhelds are higher with prongs.
How do I do know? I hold a lot of handhelds (and gamepads) right here at The Verge, however Microsoft and Asus’s upcoming Xbox Ally X may take the cake for probably the most snug to carry. And that handheld has principally the very same design as the prevailing ROG Ally X I’ve reviewed not once but twice — besides for 2 huge prongs that allow you to grip the system.
Critically, take a look at my comparability images: the Xbox Ally X is an Ally X with upside-down antlers. It’s the one distinguishing design change, and that change alone immediately makes it really feel snug, acquainted, and safe.
From the entrance, it seems like Microsoft obtained Asus to ape the Nintendo GameCube (or higher but Wavebird) controller, however it’s greater than that. I’ve a GameCube controller proper right here, as I sort these phrases, and my palms delightfully soften into it too — however the Xbox Ally X doesn’t abandon the ideas of my pinkies just like the GameCube’s shorter kids-to-adults prongs do.
These are extra like Sony’s PS5 DualSense prongs, or, I suppose, the prongs on a contemporary Xbox pad. They let me get my entire fingers round them, with that all-important notch on the backside for my fingertips.
I can’t but say that the Xbox Allys are probably the most snug to play, partly as a result of I didn’t get to play a lot and partly as a result of Microsoft and Asus, like different rivals, are all nonetheless firmly rejecting Valve’s superior thumb ergonomics. The Steam Deck locations the thumbsticks, D-pad, and face buttons up high, all inside good attain of my thumb’s pure arc, so I barely must bend.
However although the Steam Deck, Lenovo Legion Go S, and MSI Claw 8 all have substantial grips, and the Ally X wasn’t dangerous, I can’t get my fingers totally round round any of them. I can with the prongs and notches on the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X. It’s price it, despite the fact that it makes the console appear like a field with handles. My colleague Ash, who doesn’t recognize the Steam Deck’s ergonomics, said in June that the Xbox Ally “felt like a literal dream.”
Ergonomics are removed from an important query to ask in regards to the Xbox Ally and Ally X, after all. The actual questions are whether or not Microsoft has really fastened handheld Home windows — my colleague Tom gave the new Xbox Full Screen Experience faint praise, calling what he noticed a “small first step” — and whether or not Microsoft and Asus will be capable of restrain themselves from pricing it like a strong gaming laptop computer. (The Lenovo Legion Go group had very sturdy emotions about its successor’s sky-high price tag last week.)
However once I visited Asus to take a look at the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X, the corporate wouldn’t discuss worth, and wouldn’t let me consider the brand new Home windows expertise. I spent my time evaluating the {hardware}, then zeroed in on one core reality that, I anticipate, will ripple throughout the hand-held business: prongs rock.
These handhelds will ship October sixteenth, which means that pre-orders will open quickly. However regardless of my reward for prongs, I hope you’ll look forward to the critiques. In the meantime, listed below are some further images that Tom obtained when he took the Xbox Ally X for a spin, however didn’t get to make use of!