Windows Central Insider
With the RAMpocalypse in full force, upping the cost of gaming and downright eliminating stock, the market is looking a little dry right now if you're looking to buy something new.
Yet, inexplicably, in the UK at least the entry level Xbox Ally is on a 20% deal right now, you can grab it from Amazon for only £396.50.
Why buy the Xbox Ally?
I can say personally that I own the Xbox Ally X, the more expensive and so-called beefy upgrade to this, but as someone who mainly plays less demanding titles, I actually regret dishing out the extra cash, as this model would have sufficed for me and not been as painful on my bank balance. Luckily, you can learn from my mistakes!
Lenovo is busy hiking the price of the Legion Go 2 into the stratosphere, reaching nearly $3k in the US. The Steam Deck is woefully out of stock due to "component shortages." It seems it's come down to ASUS to hold the line on prices (and they've increased them in certain territories).
Right now, the Xbox Ally at this price drop of a whopping 20% drop is the most viable, and honestly the most sensible option for portable gaming right now.
Outside of the more attractive price, it's really the most reliable Windows-based answer to the Steam Deck as it is most closely aligned in performance, and now price to the popular competitor.
Rocking an AMD Ryzen Z2 processor and 16GB of RAM, you also get a 7-inch 1080p display with 120Hz Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), this will crush your indie backlog.
Unlike the Steam Deck, this will also run Windows 11 out of the box and utilize the Xbox Full Screen Experience (FSE) so you'll be able to switch between your Steam library and those Xbox Game Pass titles with ease. It's arguably a more comfortable device, too, with the controller-like grips.
The Xbox Ally isn't quite the powerhouse it's big brother the Xbox Ally X is, but it also doesn't come with that monster price tag and more comfortably falls in line with the price point and limitations of the Steam Deck. You may not be running COD on this, but the indies and AA titles will work just beautifully.
The bottom line is this: while the rest of the market is getting progressively more expensive or hard to find, the Xbox Ally is sitting right there at a discount, so I'd jump now before the price hikes hit this model too!
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