ROG Xbox Ally X20 pre-orders open at $1,299 with a translucent throwback shell

Remember when gadgets wore their guts on the outside? The see-through shells of the PS1 era are back, and they are attached to the most expensive handheld ASUS has ever asked mainstream gamers to consider. The ROG Xbox Ally X20 opened pre-orders this week at $1,299, dressed in translucent black plastic with a gold skeleton inside, built to mark 20 years of the Republic of Gamers brand.

What you get for the money

The X20 is not a new chip inside a new body. ASUS confirmed in its pre-order announcement that the internals carry over from last year’s ROG Xbox Ally X, including the AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme processor. The headline upgrade is the debut of ROG’s Nebula HDR Display, a 7.4-inch OLED panel running 1080p at up to 120Hz, a step up from the 7-inch LCD of the current models.

The throwback touches are where the X20 earns its anniversary badge. Ars Technica’s breakdown of the hardware notes the new TMR thumbsticks, which replace the carbon-film potentiometers that made the original more prone to stick drift, plus a lift-and-twist D-pad that converts from a four-direction cross into a circular eight-direction pad. The library button also gives way to an action button, and the face buttons are quieter with better rubberized grips.

The bundle is where it gets wild

ASUS is selling the X20 two ways. The standalone handheld costs $1,299.99, which Mashable reports is 300 dollars above last year’s Xbox Ally X. The $2,499.99 bundle throws in the ROG XREAL R1 Edition 20 AR glasses, a dbrand Killswitch case with kickstand, a custom Pelican Protector Case, a matching skin, and a 68W charger. The glasses plug into the handheld over a single USB-C cable and project what ASUS claims is a 171-inch virtual screen at four meters, with a 240Hz micro-OLED panel and audio tuned by Bose.

Canadians get their own pricing: the X20 lists at CA$1,899 standalone or CA$3,499 bundled, with Best Buy pre-orders open now and ASUS Store pre-orders starting September 24. Everything ships October 15.

From bundle-only to standalone, after the backlash

Here is the part that should sound familiar. When ASUS unveiled the X20 at Computex in June, it was announced as a bundle-only product, and reviewers were blunt about it. Ars Technica called the AR-glasses pairing a “limited-edition bundled curiosity” and hoped ASUS would offer the hardware standalone. Over the summer, ASUS changed its mind, and the standalone version is now the default way to buy one. If you wanted the glasses anyway, the bundle remains the only route to the collector packaging.

Will the Philippines even get it?

No PH word yet. ASUS has not announced Philippine pricing or availability for the X20, so treat any local price you see as speculation. For context, the first-generation ROG Xbox Ally line landed here in October 2025 with the base model at PHP 36,995 and the Ally X at PHP 56,995 per YugaTech. A $1,299 device converts to roughly P75,000 before local taxes, so if the X20 does make the official jump, it would sit in a very different bracket from its predecessors.

Handheld gaming has never been a cheap hobby, and the ceiling keeps rising. Valve’s Steam Machine and the Switch 2 have pushed the handheld and hybrid price wars into new territory, and ASUS just planted its flag at the top of it. Filipino gamers who want in without the import gamble can watch ASUS Philippines’ channels, or consider the Acer Nitro Blaze Link as the budget-friendly local alternative in the meantime.

For readers eyeing the AR side of the bundle, our smart glasses buyer’s guide breaks down what the XREAL R1 can and cannot do away from the dock. As always with anniversary editions, stock tends to be limited; treat the October 15 date as real and everything else as subject to change until ASUS Philippines says otherwise.