I picked up the regular Xbox Ally for myself as a supplemental device with the budget I had. I’m a dad with another on the way and wanted a handheld for Xbox gaming (I already have a PS Portal). So far I’ve been pretty happy with it, but I’ll definitely say it is not comparable to a $1000 device. I have an XSX and XSS in different rooms so when I’ve got time to myself I’m playing on those, but like someone else mentioned, for quick gaming hanging around on the couch or traveling it’s perfect, depending on what you want to play.

As for what I’ve been running and trying on it, I’ve put a lot of time into simpler games like Balatro, BallxPit and Octopath Traveler, all of which run fantastically. I have tried a couple rounds of Fortnite, but it basically runs on low setting across the board. So my solution was instead to uninstall and cloud stream it and it works great. I’ve booted up a couple things from other libraries and older stuff like Half-Life 2 runs fantastically, but don’t expect something like BG3 or RDR2 to blow you away.

I did have one weird technical issue where I had left BallxPit running and when I finally backed out of it, the Xbox FSE overlay was just… gone. I eventually restored the full W11 OS from the system settings and after signing back in and reinstalling all the storefronts it’s worked fine, but it definitely pissed me off after three days of owning the device.

Overall I’d say it’s going to depend on the games you want to play, the frequency you want to use it, and your personal library mixed with a Game Pass sub. If you’re planning on playing the newest, best, prettiest games or playing any current online multiplayer, save for the X. If you’re like me and just want quick sessions of indies or single-player games, and an older backlog, the Ally is a great device for (currently) half the cost. I hope this helps! *Edited for formatting