ROG Xbox Ally X

Credit: Microsoft

Microsoft’s upcoming handheld PCs, the ROG Xbox Ally and the ROG Xbox Ally X, are both now officially available for pre-order. Even though they don’t release until October 16, officially licensed storage expansions have just been announced.

Sandisk has revealed two new options for gamers looking to increase the space for downloading software on their shiny new portable ASUS-coded machines: A microSD card that comes in 512GB ($69.99), 1TB ($149.99) and 2TB ($299.99) sizes, and an M.2 2280 NVMe SSD (WD_BLACK SN7100X), which is available in 2TB ($159.99) and 4TB ($279.99) sizes.

For the microSD cards, you’ll see read speeds of up to 200MB/s, and for the 2TB SSD specifically, you’ll get up to 7,250MB/s read and 6,900MB/s write speeds. Specs are slightly slower for the 4TB drive, naturally. Not the craziest speeds when it comes to microSD cards, really, and that honor goes to the Switch 2’s blazing Express NVMe capabilities. As far as I understand, the Xbox Ally handhelds utilize UHS-II technology, which is less impressive but should still get the job done.

The Ally and the Ally X ship with 512GB and 1TB of internal SSD storage respectively, neither of which will hold all that many large-file games, so I’m sure many early adopters will be seeking additional storage right off the bat. The microSD cards can be used in tandem with the internal SSD, and you can play games directly off of them, but upgrading to a larger SSD will require that you swap it out with the larger capacity drive.

Note that you can’t play every single Xbox title from your library natively on these Ally devices, simply because these devices aren’t technically Xboxes. Rather, you can download and experience any of the Play Anywhere titles, as those games are already playable on PC. You can also remotely stream games from Game Pass and the cloud.

This, alongside the decidedly PC hardware quirks, helps to drive home the fact that these powerful handhelds are more computer than Xbox; if you’ve ever increased your NVMe storage on a desktop computer, then you’ll surely feel right at home here.

It’s also important to say that you don’t necessarily need to purchase one of these official SSDs or microSD cards for your Xbox Ally, because the Allies are essentially tiny Windows 11 PCs with full-screen, integrated Xbox experiences. In other words, we’re not dealing with the proprietary storage expansion card situation from the Xbox Series S|X ecosystem, which is fantastic.

That said, I think we’re all still recovering from the sticker shock of the Xbox Ally lineup, and adding additional storage to an already expensive portable PC could be a punch to the gut for many consumers.

The lower-end Xbox Ally, which comes in white and sports 16GB of memory, is priced at $599.99, while the flagship Xbox Ally X, which comes in black and features 24GB of RAM, will set you back a whopping $999.99. The latter outprices even the Xbox Series X 2GB Galaxy model, an older home console that recently saw a price increase to $800. Industry prices are getting crazy, truly, and even Nintendo recently started asking more for many of its products.

Yes, gaming was always a luxury hobby, but now it’s even more so. But… many people are willing to pay, which is evidenced by the fact that pre-orders for the ROG Xbox Ally X have already sold out in several online locations. Pre-orders for Sandisk’s new suite of microSD cards are up now, and its licensed SSDs are expected to ship later this year.