Prongs rock

Here’s a hot take: gaming handhelds are better with prongs.

How do I know? I hold a lot of handhelds^[1] (and gamepads^[2]) here at The Verge, but Microsoft and Asus’s upcoming Xbox Ally X^[3] might take the cake for the most comfortable to hold. And that handheld has basically the exact same design as the existing ROG Ally X I’ve reviewed not once^[4] but twice^[5] — except for two big prongs that let you grip the device.

Seriously, check out my comparison photos: the Xbox Ally X is an Ally X with upside-down antlers. It’s the one distinguishing design change, and that change alone instantly makes it feel comfortable, familiar, and secure.

From the front, it looks like Microsoft got Asus to ape the Nintendo GameCube (or better yet Wavebird) controller, but it’s more than that. I have a GameCube controller right here, as I type these words, and my hands delightfully melt into it too — but the Xbox Ally X doesn’t abandon the tips of my pinkies like the GameCube’s shorter kids-to-adults prongs do.

These are more like Sony’s PS5 DualSense prongs, or, I suppose, the prongs on a modern Xbox pad. They let me get my whole fingers around them, with that all-important notch at the bottom for my fingertips.

I can’t yet say that the Xbox Allys are the most comfortable to play, partly because I didn’t get to play much and partly because Microsoft and Asus, like other competitors, are all still firmly rejecting Valve’s superior thumb ergonomics. The Steam Deck places the thumbsticks, D-pad, and face buttons up top, all within perfect reach of my thumb’s natural arc, so I barely have to bend.

But though the Steam Deck, Lenovo Legion Go S^[6], and MSI Claw 8^[7] all have substantial grips, and the Ally X wasn’t bad, I can’t get my fingers fully around around any of them. I can with the prongs and notches on the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X. It’s worth it, even though it makes the console look like a box with handles. My colleague Ash, who doesn’t appreciate the Steam Deck’s ergonomics, said in June that the Xbox Ally^[8] “felt like a literal dream.”

Ergonomics are far from the most important question to ask about the Xbox Ally and Ally X, of course. The real questions are whether Microsoft has actually fixed handheld Windows — my colleague Tom gave the new Xbox Full Screen Experience faint praise^[9], calling what he saw a “small first step” — and whether Microsoft and Asus will be able to restrain themselves from pricing it like a powerful gaming laptop. (The Lenovo Legion Go community had very strong feelings about its successor’s sky-high price tag last week^[10].)

But when I visited Asus to check out the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X, the company wouldn’t talk about price, and wouldn’t let me evaluate the new Windows experience. I spent my time comparing the hardware, then zeroed in on one core truth that, I expect, will ripple across the handheld industry: prongs rock.

These handhelds will ship October 16th, which suggests that pre-orders will open soon. But despite my praise for prongs, I hope you’ll wait for the reviews. Meanwhile, here are some additional photos that Tom got when he took the Xbox Ally X for a spin^[11], but didn’t get to use!