Handheld gaming PCs have been creeping up in price across the board. Asus is a notable exception, and right now Best Buy is making the deal even sweeter. Excellent condition Asus ROG Xbox Ally units are currently listed at $497.99 with free shipping, which is a clean $100 below the standard retail price. These are Geek Squad-certified refurbished units, not open-box mysteries.
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What you're actually getting for under $500
The ROG Xbox Ally launched in October 2025 and runs on an AMD Ryzen Z2 A processor paired with 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and a 512GB SSD. The name throws people off at first. This is not an Xbox console. Think of it as the next generation of the original ROG Ally line, running Windows 11 but booting directly into the Xbox App instead of Windows Explorer.
That boot experience matters more than it sounds. Skipping straight to the Xbox App means fewer background processes eating into your performance headroom. You get a controller-native interface that feels purpose-built for handheld play, which is closer to what Steam OS delivers on the Steam Deck than what a standard Windows 11 desktop offers.
The Ryzen Z2 A is a capable chip for the price point. It sits below the Ryzen Z2 Extreme found in the higher-end ROG Xbox Ally X, so demanding titles like Crimson Desert or Monster Hunter will hit limits. Thousands of games in the PC library run without issue on this hardware, though, and that library is the real selling point.
The Steam Deck comparison that keeps coming up
The ROG Xbox Ally has been drawing direct comparisons to the Steam Deck for months now, and the general consensus is shifting. At this price, the Xbox Ally delivers a comparable gaming experience to the Steam Deck while offering access to the full Windows ecosystem and Xbox Game Pass integration. The Ryzen Z2 A trades blows with the Steam Deck's APU in most real-world scenarios, so the performance gap is not the story here. The software experience and price-to-value ratio are.
For players already deep in the Xbox or PC ecosystem, the Xbox App integration removes friction that has historically made Windows handhelds feel awkward compared to Steam OS.
Getting the most out of the hardware
The ROG Xbox Ally's performance ceiling depends heavily on how you configure it. The Ryzen Z2 A responds well to tuned power profiles, and the difference between default settings and optimized TDP configurations is noticeable in practice. If you pick one up and want to squeeze out the best frame rates, check out our tested settings guides for games already optimized for this hardware, including a ChainStaff ROG Xbox Ally X settings guide covering 900p and 1080p profiles, an Invincible VS performance guide targeting 60 FPS on the Ally lineup, and a Killer Bean stuttering fix for players hitting FPS drops.
The $497.99 price point puts the ROG Xbox Ally in a range where it genuinely competes with the Steam Deck OLED on value. If you have been sitting on the fence about a handheld gaming PC, this is the kind of discount that makes the decision considerably easier. The Best Buy listing includes free shipping, and the 15-day return policy on the Ally X preowned units applies to that model as well. Stock on refurbished units tends to move fast at this price, so the window here is likely short.
