Following the big ROG Xbox Ally price reveal last week, I've seen a lot of online fury directed towards Microsoft and Asus surrounding the decision to release the handheld at $599. While I appreciate that it's a lot of money, and yes, it makes the console more expensive than the Steam Deck, I just don't get the rage. You see, if you look a little bit further than Valve's handheld, at all the handheld PCs you can currently get your hands on, I don't think $599 is all that extortionate.
Take, for instance, our guide to the best handheld consoles. Here you'll find both the MSI Claw 8 AI+ and the Asus ROG Ally X, which cost $899.99 and $799.99, respectively. That isn't to mention some of the devices coming out of China, from brands such as Ayaneo and OneXPlayer, that cost upwards of $1,000. If you take all that into account, the $599 ROG Xbox Ally is actually on the cheaper side, beating out the Lenovo Legion Go S at $649.99 and costing just a fraction more than the Steam Deck OLED, which is currently $549.99.
The thing is, and I'm not sure if everyone is aware of this, but things get more expensive over time, especially if there's a lot of demand or interest in a product. Take the iPhone, for example. When Steve Jobs first introduced the iPhone in 2007, revolutionizing the smartphone industry, the cheapest model cost just $499. Ten years later, the iPhone 7 launched at a retail price of $699. Now, in 2025, the cheapest iPhone 17 model is $799. I'm not going to get into the boring finance details, but that roughly correlates with the rate of inflation in recent years, and it seems that a similar thing is going on with the price of handhelds.
If, like me, you spend too much time online, a lot of the screaming around the price of the ROG Xbox Ally might have you thinking back to earlier this year and the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2. That was another great example of inflation catching gamers off guard, and again, I struggled to understand the fury. If you adjust the original Switch's $299.99 2017 price point for inflation, you're pretty close to $400, so what we're really talking about is a $50 markup to $449.99.
The funny thing is, the ROG Xbox Ally doesn't repeat this pattern, as there's no price hike for inflation. The handheld's predecessor, the Asus ROG Ally, launched back in 2023 for $699, with a slightly less powerful second version arriving in 2024 at $599, so if anything, the new Xbox version is a price match.
While I'm happy to defend the price of the ROG Xbox Ally, I'll admit that it's a bit trickier when it comes to the premium model, the ROG Xbox Ally X. The souped-up handheld is launching at $999, which makes it one of the most expensive options on the market. Even with my inflation math, the $200 difference between last year's Asus ROG Ally X and the ROG Xbox Ally X doesn't make much sense.
The Asus ROG Ally X is available for $799.99, and adjusted for inflation, that's around $830. I can justify a lot of things, but given the relatively similar specs when you compare the two premium handhelds, a mark-up of $170 doesn't seem worth it to me, even if the Xbox handheld comes with a purpose-built operating system in place of Windows 11, which, as I've pointed out plenty of times before, feels awful on a handheld.
It goes without saying that ultimately, we'll have to get our hands on both the ROG Xbox Ally and the ROG Xbox Ally X to see whether each handheld feels worth the price point. It's also worth pointing out that all this isn't to say I love the fact that handhelds are so expensive, I really don't, but I think that, in the case of the cheaper handheld at least, that with some historical context, market awareness, and a bit of inflation calculations, the ROG Xbox Ally's price isn't as offensive as some are making out. As for the premium model, though, you can keep the hot takes coming, and I won't say a word.
Of course, if you're really on a budget, there are a bunch of great Android handhelds out there you can pick up for under $300, and you can check them out in our long list of the best retro handhelds. Or, if you're more concerned with finding a new device to play the best mobile games on, we've got guides to the best gaming phones and the best gaming tablets you can browse, including plenty of affordable picks.