Xbox Ally at $498: The Steam Deck’s Newest Rival Is a Windows
The handheld PC market just got a lot more interesting. Best Buy is selling “excellent condition” Asus ROG Xbox Ally units for $497.99 — $100 off the original retail. At that price, the Ally undercuts the Steam Deck’s 512GB LCD model (still $449 new) while offering a more modern processor and a software experience that strips Windows down to its gaming essentials. For handheld gamers who’ve been watching the Steam Deck vs. Windows handheld debate from the sidelines, the ROG Ally at under $500 makes the choice harder than ever. The real question isn’t whether the Ally is good — it’s whether this price point makes it the smarter buy right now.
The Price War Shifts: $498 vs. Steam Deck’s $449
For just $50 more than a new 512GB Steam Deck LCD, the open-box ROG Xbox Ally delivers a 120Hz display, 16GB of faster RAM, and the Ryzen Z2 A processor — a chip Asus positions as comparable to Steam Deck’s custom APU in raw gaming throughput. You’re not getting the Z2 Extreme flagship, but for the vast majority of indie, older, and well-optimized titles, the Ally will match or beat the Deck’s frame rates. The trade-off comes in battery life: the Ally’s smaller 40Wh cell struggles to hit two hours in demanding games, while the Steam Deck can stretch past three. But if you play mostly near an outlet, or prefer short sessions, the Ally’s superior screen and potential Game Pass integration (via the Xbox app shell) make that $50 a worthwhile premium in the broader handheld value war. The Ally X, with its Z2 Extreme and doubled battery, remains a separate beast at $838+ — this deal is firmly aimed at the budget end of the spectrum.
The Xbox App Shell: A Cure for Windows Handheld Headaches?
One of the biggest knocks against Windows handhelds has always been the software experience: drivers, background processes, and a desktop interface that wasn’t built for touch. The Xbox Ally addresses this by booting directly into the Xbox App, bypassing Windows Explorer entirely. That means fewer background tasks, more free resources for games, and a console-like UI that just works. It’s not SteamOS — you lose the community profiles, per-game TDP tuning, and seamless suspend-resume that Valve polished over years. But for Game Pass subscribers, it’s near-perfect. The shell still lets you drop into full Windows if needed for storefronts like GOG or Epic, though the friction of navigation remains. This deal makes that trade-off easier to swallow: for under $500, you get a curated Windows experience that finally feels like a gaming appliance, a far cry from the premium ROG Flow Z13 at over $2,000. If your library is Xbox-heavy, this is the handheld to buy. If you live in Steam’s ecosystem? The Deck still wins on software maturity, but the gap is closing fast.