Microsoft revealed its first Xbox Portable Console, designed with Asus Rog. What is it confronted with the Nintendo Switch 2?
During his Xbox Game Showcase 2025, Microsoft unveiled the first Windows Portable Console optimized by Xbox. This is the Xbox Ally available in two models: Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X.
This presentation only finds a few days after the commercial launch of the Nintendo Switch 2. The reflection then seems obvious: let’s compare the two proposals.
Design: hybrid or 100% portable
The Nintendo Switch 2 seizes the general design of its older ones and mainly keeps the same concept: a hybrid console that can both play the role of portable console or living room console. To do this, the two Joy-CON control elements are magnetically removable and the console contains an adjustable base.
The Nintendo Switch 2 // Source: Chloé Pertuis – Frandroid
The Nintendo Switch 2 // Source: Chloé Pertuis – Frandroid
The Nintendo Switch 2 // Source: Chloé Pertuis – Frandroid
On the Xbox side, the Rog Xbox Ally is a console that is mainly thought of a portable console. It will be possible to connect it to an external screen thanks to one of the USB-C ports, but the controllers do not separate themselves from the machine.
On the other hand, the Rog Ally Controller seems to offer a more ergonomic design, Davatange designed to be taken in hand as a big controller. Where the Switch 2, Compact, Flat Joy-Con offers that the shapes of the hand fit less.
AMD vs Nvidia: What will be the most powerful console?
The Nintendo Switch 2 advantages of great exclusivity: a chip designed to measure by Nvidia. It is more precisely the association of one CPU -arm 8 cours Cortex A78C and one GPU Nvidia Ampère Compatible ray tracing et dlss.
On the Microsoft side, it is again AMD, the technical partner of the Xbox consoles. However, watch out for the difference between the two models. The Rog Xbox Ally contains a Ryzen Z2A chip, not very differently than what is found in the aging steam deck, while the Rog Xbox Ally X integrates a much more powerful Ryzen Z2 chip.
The latter uses a processor AMD Ryzen Zen 5 to 8 hearts (16 threads) and a graphic chip AMD RDNA 3.5 to 16 hearts. We also have a special NPU with 50 AI tops. This graphic chip supports the FSR 3 of AMD, but not the new FSR4 associated with the RDNA 4 of the Radeon 9000.
| Nintendo Switch 2 | Xbox Ally x | |
|---|---|---|
| Chip | Nvidia Tegra Custom | AMD Ryzen Ai Z2 Extreme |
| CPU | 8 Arm Cortex A78C | 8 AMD was 5 |
| GPU | Ampere (1536 Cuda Core) | 16 AMD RDNA 3.5 |
| NPU | Tensor Core | NPU 50 to Tops |
| RAM | 12 Go LPDDR5X | 24 GO LPDDR5X-8000 |
| Storage | 256 Go UFS | 1 to SSD M.2 |
On the secondary components it is also the Rog Ally X that shows his muscles: 24 GB RAM LPDDR5X at 8000 MHz against 12 GB for switch 2 and a storage of 1 to PCIE 4.0 against 256 GB UFS 3.1 for Nintendo.
But in concrete terms, what will be the most powerful console? On paper, the Rog Xbox Ally X was around us to let the bites cycle twice. Even if Nvidia is generally more powerful than AMD to an equivalent generation, the RDNA 3.5 AMD architecture is more modern than the 2020 NVIDIA Ampere architecture used by the Switch 2.
Nintendo Switch 2 games will undoubtedly be better optimized than Xbox Ally X games. The latter runs under Windows and remains a PC despite the optimisations of Microsoft. Consoles dedicated if Nintendo offers, generally benefits from better optimization. A difference in optimization that should still be insufficient to compensate for the technological gap between the two consoles.
Screen: the choice of the reason
The two manufacturers have made very similar choices in the screen integrated in their consoles.
The Nintendo Switch 2 offers an 8-inch LCD Full HD screen at 120 Hz with the G-SYNC the Nvidia. The Rog Xbox Ally X offers a 7 -inch LCD Full HD screen at 120 Hz with the AMD Premium Freesync. No OLED neither on the one hand nor on the other.
Note that despite the larger screen of the switch 2, the Nintendo console is more compact than the ROG Xbox Ally x: 27.2 x 11.4 x 3 cm for the Nintendo console and 29.1 x 12.1 x 5 cm for the Rog Xbox Ally x.
The same for weight: 530 grams for switch 2 and 715 grams for the Rog Xbox Ally X.
Games: The Force of the Xbox Ecosystem
When we talk about a game console, the question of the game library is clearly central.
On this side, the Nintendo Switch 2 is promised to a very bright future, simply by counting the excellent titles that will come from the Nintendo Studios and the Nintendo Switch 1 Retrocompatible games: Animal transition” The legend of Zelda, Mario -card” Donkey” Kirby” Pokémon” Metroid Primeetc.
However, the Rog Xbox Ally also has very solid arguments. By going under a Windows base, it is compatible with the huge PC gender library.
Especially since Microsoft will concentrate on the different stores available in the interface: Steam, Gog, Battle.net, Microsoft Store and others. Above all, the Xbox fellow fellow is the ideal console for the GamePass, the Microsoft’s video games subscription that stays unparalleled on the market. It will be at the end of the year Hollow Knight Silksong He Call of Duty Black Ops 7 who can play in the service, in addition to all others like Balatro He Clear obscure expedition 33.
Autonomy?
The ROG Xbox Ally X has an 80 WH battery against only 20 Wh for the Nintendo Switch 2. In our first tests this seems the most important defect in the Nintendo console.
The technical basis of the Xbox Ally X with its more powerful chip seems much more greedy than the Rog Xbox Ally X, so it’s too early to decide on the autonomy of the console. However, we can afford to be optimistic, the Asus Rog Ally X offers autonomy with which you can rise in light use for up to 6 hours. This, without the optimisations that Microsoft promised on his console that arrives with the Xbox Ally X.
The price?
It is the great stranger on the Microsoft side. What price will the Xbox Ally X be sold?
The Rog Ally X was launched in 2024 at 899.99 euros. Will Microsoft end this price at the end of 2025? Would the brand be ready to subsidize the machine, as is more conventional on the consolem market? Would ASUS accept that Xbox brings a console on the market made by ROG cheaper than other ROG consoles that are sold by Asus?
The Nintendo Switch 2 can be found at less than 440 euros in France. The price difference will be very important. Without a doubt too important to make the Xbox Ally X a consumer console.
No shade for Nintendo, but an aesthete console
Here we compare two portable game consoles that come out in 2025, but they don’t really play in the same course. The Nintendo Switch 2 is doomed to sell to tens of millions of copies, with PC consoles being limited to a niche market.
It is very unlikely that the Xbox Ally Shadow de Nintendo Switch 2 when it was launched at the end of the year. This does not mean that the Xbox fellow fellow will not be an interesting console.
For those who are looking for the comfort of a portable console without too much compromise about power and autonomy, the Xbox fellow fellow cumbersome promises to be promising. It brings together the work of the PC manufacturer, which can best master the subject of the portable console, Asus, and the publisher of the operating system, able to offer tailor -made optimisations, Microsoft.
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