The Xbox Ally Is Microsoft's Shot At Capturing the PC Handheld Market

Microsoft has announced the Xbox Ally X and Xbox Ally, two handheld gaming systems designed to run Windows games and Xbox games both natively and in the cloud, in a shot across the bow of major PC handheld makers like Valve and Lenovo. The hardware is certainly impressive, and early journalistic hands-on experiences have been positive, but some key details have yet to be revealed, and they face stiff competition in an already-established market.

Although still niche, one of the hottest growth industries for PC gaming in recent years has been in handhelds. Sparked by the launch of Valve's Steam Deck in 2022, we've seen Lenovo, MSI, Zotac, Ayaneo, and indeed, Asus, launch their own devices designed to make PC gaming more portable than gaming laptops ever could. The Steam Deck remains the most popular of these devices, making up the bulk of the 6 million units (or ...