Have you ever sat in a massage chair and received a deep, intense tissue massage while playing a handheld? Thanks to the Xbox booth at PAX 2025, I can now say that I have. Whether it’s to ease us into those price hikes from Xbox Game Pass or just simply a gesture of goodwill, the Xbox booth was packed with all the ways you can play on Xbox that don’t require an Xbox-branded console.
The big ticket item was the ROG Xbox Ally X, their brand new Lenovo Legion-branded portable console that is essentially a Legion Go 2 branded with the Xbox button and haptic triggers that are native to the console.
It’s super lightweight and feels a lot lighter than the original Lenovo Legion Go console. I was able to get a few rounds of Forza Horizon 5 in while my shoulders and back received a much-needed, intense PAX massage.
The console itself comes with a 7-inch display with a 120Hz FHD display that comes with 1080p, which is rounded off with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus. On the console itself, you can use the typical Xbox ABXY button configuration, and the Xbox button gets you instant access to the Game Bar. Alongside this, you can have customisable widgets and really make the ROG Xbox Ally X your own.
The ROG Xbox Ally X comes in at 715g and feels perfectly balanced in the hands. There was no heat that I could feel pumping out of the handheld unit itself, which is in direct opposition to the Lenovo Legion First Generation. Forza Horizon 5 ran like a dream, the gameplay was buttery smooth, and I couldn’t believe how well the controls handled racing on this device.
It was a surprise that a game as graphically intensive as Forza could run and look so well on a handheld device. I can’t wait to get more time with the ROG Xbox Ally X and see how the rest of the Xbox library performs on it.
Thanks to Xbox for hosting us at their booth and allowing us hands-on time with the ROG Xbox Ally X.
