Xbox Ally X 20 vs Xbox Ally X: A wickedly bright OLED screen and frosty temps make for a begrudgingly attractive upgrade for the Asus handheld

So, you've seen the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X20 in all its black and gold glory and wondered if it's worth paying $300 more for it. Well, the answer is 'it really depends on what kind of device you are looking for' and 'how much is a fresh OLED screen worth to you?'

Unlike the other ROG 20th anniversary edition bits of Asus gear, the X20 is not about superfluous add-ons (unless you pick up the bundle with XR glasses). You aren't getting a commemorative faceplate here, or extra stickers. You get an OLED screen, TMR thumbsticks, improved thermals, and MicroSD Express compatibility.

You also get Impulse triggers, which means they can rumble independently, and the D-Pad can be flicked around to make the corners more or less pronounced.

The screen is perhaps the biggest sell here, with its 1400 HDR-certified display going up to a peak brightness of 1,400 nits. As I found in my review, it's so sizzlingly bright at points that I looked at the sun in Cyberpunk 2077 while lying in bed one night and actually winced. Check out the full differences below.

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Asus ROG Xbox Ally X20

Asus ROG Xbox Ally X

Processor

AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme

CPU architecture

Zen 5 / Zen 5c

Core / threads

8 / 16

CPU boost clock

5 GHz

GPU architecture

RDNA 3.5

Shader count

1024

GPU boost clock

2.9 GHz

VRAM

8 GB (shared, adjustable)

Memory

24 GB LPDDR5X

Screen

7.4-inch OLED display

7-inch IPS LCD display

Resolution / refresh rate

1920 x 1080 / 120 Hz

Peak brightness

1400 nits

500 nits

Storage

1 TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 2280 SSD

Thumbsticks

TMR

Magnetic

Connectivity

1x USB4 Type-C with DP 2.1 / PD 3.0 / TB 4 compatible

1x USB 3.2 Gen with DP 2.1 / PD 3.0

1x UHS-II microSD Express card reader

1x 3.5 mm combo jack

1x USB4 Type-C with DP 2.1 / PD 3.0 / TB 4 compatible

1x USB 3.2 Gen with DP 2.1 / PD 3.0

1x UHS-II microSD card reader

1x 3.5 mm combo jack

Dimensions

30.0 x 12.1 x 5.13 cm

… Trimmed for readability. Visit the source for the full article.

Extracted and lightly reformatted for readability. · Source: pt