ASUS ROG Ally 2 And Xbox Handheld Specs And Photos Leak At FCC
We're going to cover several separate stories all in this one post, so buckle up kids, because there's a whole bunch of news here. Microsoft's Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox, has spoken on record several times about his intent to create an Xbox handheld. More recently, rumors flew that Microsoft was collaborating with ASUS on an Xbox-branded handheld. Now it seems as if those dreams have borne fruit, as pictures have leaked of both what appears to be the ASUS ROG Ally 2 as well as what is very likely an Xbox handheld based on the same hardware.
The sources on this story are kind of fuzzy. The pictures you're seeing above and below of the two different handhelds apparently originate with the FCC, and were discovered by Indonesian tech site 91mobiles. However, 91mobiles has removed the images from its site along with any mention of the FCC. Instead, 91mobiles' article points out that it found mention of the "ROG Ally 2" in certification listings with the Indonesian SDPPI, which is essentially that country's version of the FCC. Those devices had model names "RC73XA" and "RC73YA".
The pictures were saved by Huang514613 (@94G8LA on Xwitter), who notes that the RC73XA is the black-colored device, while the RC73YA is a White colored device. Huang lists charging values of 100W for the RC73XA (Black) device, and 65W for the RC73YA (White) handheld, which doesn't tell us a lot aside from that the Black device—the one with the Xbox button—supports a higher power delivery profile.
However, Huang then quote-reposted himself with pictures of the labeling on the back of the devices. The RC73YA seems to use an AMD "100-000001835", which is a real processor mentioned in AMD's export classification matrix. The sticker goes on to note "4C 6-20W PC", which is a little strange, but would seem to imply that this unknown AMD CPU is a quad-core with a 6-20W TDP. Videocardz reports that this chip is "Aerith Plus", a successor to the Aerith processor used in the original Valve Steam Deck. That machine also appears to have 16GB of RAM and a Mediatek Filogic 330 Wi-Fi chipset.
Arguably the more interesting of the two is the RC73XA, and not just because it seems like it may be a licensed Xbox device. This machine comes with an AMD 100-000001684, which Videocardz says is a Ryzen Z2 Extreme. AMD has announced that processor, way back at CES; it's a cut-down variant of Strix Point with three Zen 5 cores, five Zen 5C cores, and the full-fat 16-CU RDNA 3.5 GPU. That chip is paired with what seems to be 32GB of LPDDR5X memory running at 8533 MT/s, the same as Intel's Lunar Lake processors, and a 2TB NVME SSD in full M.2-2280 size.
If you're thinking that there was already a ROG Ally 2, you're remembering the ROG Ally X, which is really more of a refinement of the original experiment rather than a sequel. It was based on the same Ryzen Z1 Extreme SoC and used 24GB of slightly faster 7500 MT/s memory instead of the 16GB of 6400 MT/s RAM in the original.
Other specifications are mostly up in the air, as are the all-important pricing and release date details, although to be fair, very little of what we're seeing here is actually officially-confirmed. The name "ROG Ally 2" is a very odd choice given that a system powered by a successor to the Aerith chip would be a significant step down from the current Ally. It may be that it is simply one of many configurations.
On the other hand, it will be fascinating to see if Microsoft tries to sell the ASUS RC73XA as an "Xbox" device. While the specifications make it considerably more potent than the extant ROG Ally X, it's still not going to match up to the Xbox Series S in terms of graphics performance, to say nothing of the Series X. Despite that, it's going to have to be priced no lower than $600, and probably more than that if we were to guess.
