I saw that it's a trimmed down version of windows so I'm interested in giving it a chance. Who knows, maybe we will be able to install said trimmed down version on regular hardware which would be interesting.
this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2025
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"Freedom of Windows" "Power of Xbox" Good stuff. We should make some more. "From a brand you can trust" "Pro gamers choose ... " "Powered by Copilot and Game pass"
Well gamepass on a cheap handheld doesn't sound so bad tbh
It the Zune for gaming.
I mean, the Zune is fucking amazing.
The one thing I took away from it was that the Xbox-button acts as alt tab. I WANT THE SAME FROM MY STEAM DECK IN DESKTOP MODE!
But in Desktop mode the Steam button does absolutely nothing while a game is running.
Why do you use desktop mode for a game?
I like to have other apps like a browser easily accessible with proper window management. And most of my games are non-Steam games which allow me to easily swap between desktop and gamepad bindings easily to alt tab out.
And I've found that running KDE Plasma Wayland has no visible performance impact either. No idea why they use X11 in SteamOS.
Steam os is pretty old now, compared to the Wayland readiness timeline, and proton doesn't fully support Wayland yet
Ah, but the really funny thing is how Gaming Mode works.
They start the gamescope wayland compositor which launches an XWayland session to run the Steam client in. Which will start gamescope to run the game, which will use a second XWayland session to actually run the game in.
It'll probably take at least two more years until they can get rid of X.
Remote play for whatever reason works far better in desktop mode
I guess you could remap them in desktop mode? I haven't tried but it should be possible.
No, you cannot change the mapping of the Steam and ... buttons. They are only available to the Steam client. You cannot remap the Steam+other button combinations either.
Funnily enough when no game is running the Steam button focuses the Steam window. But that functionality is gone as soon as a game is running. Really frustrating.
Players on either device will be able to tap into Gaming Copilot ...
...yeah
This got me thinking that Valve is the best competitor to Xbox. Instead of getting to release some walled garden, single store handheld they have to open it up to other stores because otherwise people would just buy a SteamDeck.
But everyone who cares about handheld gaming already has a steam deck and this is going to be more expensive so I don't see the point anyway.
Moar power! More more more more!!!
boots up an indie roguelite
I guess they are trying to get people already paying for game pass to buy it, because you can play everything on it. But then people won't be able to cancel their subscription or they'll have a very expensive paperweight without games.
From what I saw, it's more or less just a new app that starts when windows boots up. Plus some improvements like "the controller now works in UAC prompts" - which tells me that they didn't really learn anything.
it's more or less just a new app
You know a reason why Linux with Steam runs just way better than win? Because they use game scope, therefore not needing to render and run all of the desktop.
So what does Microsoft do? They release a new app on top of the already bloated desktop.
Gamescope is a compositor. It has many useful gaming features, but it doesn’t have a major performance advantage over desktops like Gnome, KDE, or tilers.
The performance advantage comes from the fact that there isn't a full-fat desktop running concurrently with the game. You're booting directly into Steam.
Performance isn't noticably worse in desktop mode on the Steam Deck compared to gaming mode. Windows is just full of bloat and has a trash power scheduler.
Funny how this is exactly the opposite of what they're doing, but sure, keep on raging.
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ROFL More like chains of Microsoft!
That form factor has me interested. Wonder if I can get something like that for the deck
Just install Bazzite on it.
Then buy the rog ally.
They pretty clearly said they liked this form factor, which is quite different from a standard ROG Ally? I strongly doubt it's going to have a locked down bootloader, so any firmware differences should be worked out fairly quickly by the Bazzite team et. al.
Maybe, but this is basically a thicker back which can be added as 3rd party accessory, but if the price won't be more than 50 euros / dollars more than the normal one it maybe worth it.
No, it very much is not just a thicker back. This comes with the next generation Z2 and Z2 Extreme chips.
Then it is an upgrade 👍
Fwiw I specially was referring to the Xbox controller like handles built in. I find holding the deck for a long time to be a little uncomfortable.
I really want an upgraded deck, hardware wise, but I am happy to look for a case first.
Oh dear god it is apparently serious.
https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2025/06/08/xbox-handheld-rog-ally-x-games-showcase/
Any guesses for MSRP?
$1200 for the X variant?
$600?
Will MSFT bet the farm, take the upfront loss on the unit, and try to convince everyone this is both their next handheld and their next mainline living room console at the same time?
Nah. The ROG Ally X they already make with windows 11 and 1 TB is $800+tax. The ROG Ally that came before it was $700 and currently sells for like $400 or so.
The 2TB Rog Ally X is about $1k + tax. I honestly doubt they can get people to pay more than that for a handheld, regardless of the Z2 chip. They are having trouble selling the ones they currently make. Add to this that Lenovo just launched the steam os variant of their newest handheld and it's significantly cheaper.
I appreciate the info and analysis!
The reason I have no idea what the pricing will be... is that well, GPU prices are nonsense that stick nowhere near MSRP, we got tariffs, we got all game prices getting jacked up, we got massive layoffs at MSFT, they are hurting for money...
And unless this handheld significantly outperforms other existing handhelds... I just don't think many would buy it at basically any price...
But I also think MSFT is delusional about that, and I don't think they have the depth of coin in their pockets to try to do a loss leader approach, and I think they're more likely to just price it the same way cars and houses and rent are ludicrously overpriced, a price based more on 'we need to pay our debts' than on 'how do we have a sensible long term strategy in this market'.
To be fair, the Legion S uses the Z2 Go chip, which is basically same benchmarks as a Z1 Extreme. If this uses the Z2, that's gonna be faster.
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