4w ago

Microsoft dives into the handheld gaming PC wars with the Asus ROG Xbox Ally

arstechnica.com Microsoft dives into the handheld gaming PC wars with the Asus ROG Xbox Ally

Bespoke handheld interface hides the desktop while offering access to “all Windows games.”…

This will probably be the biggest competition the Steam Deck has within the handheld PC space.

Most noteworthy is that windows is finally focusing on providing a decent handheld experience, including booting straight to a controller friendly interface, and reducing background processes for better fps and battery.

Edit: The handheld Xbox UI will.come to all windows PCs, but it's not clear if the reduced performance bloat version will be available. It sounds like only Xbox branded devices may get the full benefit of optimized windows.

It's also the ugliest handheld PC yet (imo), but I can appreciate that they're pushing for comfort over looks.

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I fail to understand why hardware manufacturers are so afraid of dual track pads and 4 back buttons. Do they think that including these features will reduce sales?
- I didn’t think I would use the trackpads much, but now that I have them, I can’t move to a handheld that doesn’t have them. They are just too convenient.
  
  Mainly I use them for more keybindings but they are essential for that.
  
  It's so cool to play the old X-Wing and TIE Fighter games and be able to control them with some custom HUDs.
  
  The cyberpunk thing is, if we were actually fighting in a resistance and you needed to practice flying TIE Fighters to know how to steal one or fight against them, you would probably be playing an emulator of an outdated but still very good empire TIE fighter simulator on a third party device :)
  Rebel af
  
  Its much more real than you think.
  ... What do you think an FPV aerial drone control set up looks like?
  ...
  Apparently, the way they're doing it now is that many of the drones just have an unwinding spool of fiber optic cabling, instead of being wireless...
  Because you can't jam that, can't hijack it.
  So... kinda like a TOW missile.
  Also... thats why it was called Operation Spider's Web.
  Gossamer strands, mile and miles long.
  
  Yeah the strategic goal of the operation better be to create a realtime DAS acoustic/seismic sensor network and that data better be given to geologists after the fact because otherwise that is a massive waste.
  
  I'm sorry, I don't follow... what?
  I am talking about the mass FPV drone attacks Ukraine just did inside Russia, by rigging up a bunch of semi-trucks as essentially road borne aircraft carriers.
  
  DAS
  https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/sm/2023/12/02/what-is-das/
  The Ukranian battlefield is a massive high resolution DAS survey waiting? to happen, the drones laying down the fiber optic cable in my opinion are the nice "two birds with one stone" benefit.
  Those fields crisscrossed with fiber optic cables, well they are from a signal analysis standpoint a spiders web in that any disturbance in the microtremor wavefield is highly resolvable in terms of location and nature. Footsteps, a drone clandestinely dropping an an antitank mine, large weapon fire etc...
  If you could access fiber optic cables in the vicinity of an artillery target you could determine fairly easily where exactly it fell algorithmically to a high degree of confidence. Fiber optic cables laid down for unrelated infrastructure purposes even.
  I am sure I am not the first idiot to realize this shrugs the idea aggressively jumps out at you if you understand the science.
  This is ambient seismology not necessarily active though a howitizer would make a mighty fine source impulse.
  
  Damn.
  I'd never heard of any of that.
  Thanks for letting me know!
  
  Conversely I bought a Steam Deck specifically because of the trackpads but I find I only ever use them on the rare occasion that I need to go to desktop mode. I love my Deck but I've discovered that could easily live without the trackpads if they weren't there.
  
  I can't and won't play any first person perspective game with a regular controller. Track pad + gyro is so much fun! It love to at least see capacitive touch sticks + gyro adopted by other manufacturers.
  
  I end up using the stick for movement, the pad for aiming.
  And, due to a hand/wrist injury... switched the aiming to the left pad, and movement to the right stick, and then the right trigger is still fire, and the right track pad is a 4 way gated set of 'buttons'.
  In desktop, ive got the left pad moving the mouse, up click on the right pad is left click, down click on the right pad is right click... and then any kind of click on the left pad is screen zoom.
  Yep, its weird, but I love it lol.
  The only thing they could improve, at this point, imo... is a way to adjust the left right up down sizes of the zones for the edge scrolling to work on a pad.
  It works perfectly when you point your finger at it at a perpendicular angle, but with a thumb, the surface area of the thumb makes contact over a different shape, so thats why theres so many reports of edge scrolling 'not working' for people with certain sized/shaped thumbs and grips.
  
  I tried so hard to make that combo work for me, but ended up back with the sticks. Maybe I need to try something other than Half-Life 2.
  
  Can't look back since I got my first Steam Controller. Once you get used to them trackpads are way more comfortable (and durable) than joysticks. I'd be happy with a controller with no joysticks too. Much easier to throw in a bag and take for a trip.
- I understand the trackpads somewhat since they take up space, but the lack of back buttons is inexcusable.
  Personally though, I'd buy a trackpad only deck (maybe with a real d-pad) but I know I'm in the minority on that one.
  
  Personally though, I’d buy a trackpad only deck (maybe with a real d-pad) but I know I’m in the minority on that one.
  I can't understand this. There are a few fans of the original Steam Controller (I have one too from launch of it) and they seem to be okay for the missing d-pad. Maybe if you play games where d-pad is never needed, I can see it. But games like Fighting Games, classic Platformer or anything that requires precise single clicks (even menus, like RPGs) are better with d-pad in my opinion. And if you are a fan of emulation like me, then there is no discussion, a d-pad is a must.
  Do you really never use the d-pad?
  
  Well, I did say "maybe with a real d-pad", it's just the thumbsticks that aren't necessary.
  I actually did play with the Steam Controller for years using the trackpad as d-pad. It was more of a comfort thing that made it less than ideal which was due to the shape/texture of the original SC, but I could live without it personally if it's done right.
  I've even played shmups with it, with the right settings, but I get there is a learning curve and its easier to use a physical d-pad.
  
  Oh, I'm sorry, I completely misread that part about "with a real d-pad". Not sure what happened there.
- Well, it makes the hardware more complicated to manufacture, more error prone, more bigger, more costly. The software becomes also a little bit more complicated. Maybe they are afraid that trackpads wouldn't appeal to normies, because it looks weird first and most "console" gamers might want to use a "normal" gamepad like handheld, like any other handheld. Trackpads look so different and weird compared to the Switch in example. Being similar to the Switch in the look might be a reason for them to exclude it. But most importantly, it makes it more costly. So, I can see reasons for this.
  Having said this, I would never buy a PC handheld without a single trackpad again. I love them (not in the literal sense BTW :D). Compared with good software for input, like Steam Input, they become invaluable.
- Trackpads cost "money", and besides you already have a touchscreen.
  The thing that really makes me jealous is the Freesync panel. The secret to getting a battery-powered GPU to keep up with the screen is to stop making it keep up with the screen.
- I love the trackpads on my steam deck, but I think the best part is steam input. Having so much control on their behavior and being able to map various kinds of menus make them so powerful!
  The same trackpads with shitty software wouldn't be half as useful.
- @tiberius @Fubarberry If they put trackpads will scare away many users. The handheld needs to look like a console. Many gamers don't want to go into PC gaming territory so xbox is wrapping this one as a "console".
  
  What an impressive way to dismiss the behaviors of others as "fear". And in the face of no data even. So brave!

55 comments