ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X Teardown Reveals Handheld's Highs & Lows For DIY Repairs

The teardown specialists at iFixIt got their hands on the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X handheld (same model we reviewed) and promptly took it apart, and you can view all of the gory (and not-so-gory) details of the surgery in a short video spanning just under six minutes long. How did it fare? Quite well overall, with the ROG Xbox Ally X largely mimicking a traditional PC in terms of design and access.

Designed in collaboration with Microsoft, the ROG Xbox Ally X (as well as the less powerful and more affordable ROG Xbox Ally) is basically a PC in a handheld form factor, like so many that have come before it. So in that regard, it's not surprising to see it score high marks in a teardown analysis. That said, there are both high points and low points that come with the design, some of which are inherent in the handheld form factor.

Fortunately for enthusiasts who want to perform their own DIY repairs and upgrades, there are more pros than cons. Getting inside the handheld is as easy as removing eight screws, all with the same Philips bit, and then popping off the back cover.

From there, it's a matter of disconnecting the button flex cable and unplugging the hefty 80Whr battery's cable. You also need to remove five more screws to unseat the battery, which opens up access to the handheld's main guts. Once that is done, you can access the M.2 solid state drive, should you ever need to replace it or want to upgrade it to a more capacious model.

The downside to replacing the SSD is that the Cloud Recovery process can take a long time. It's a "glacial" process that will "eat up your afternoon." However, it's not difficult.

Getting to the other components is pretty simple too. It's mostly a matter of removing more screws and sometimes cables, depending on the part. So on the bright side, it's not a chore to replace the potentiometer joysticks. Sadly, these types of joysticks are known to suffer from stick drift, so it's unfortunate that Microsoft and ASUS didn't decide to use hall effect joystick instead.

"If these are like all of the other pententiometer-based joysticks we've seen, lots of people will start to experience drifting joysticks within a hundred hours of playtime," iFixIt says. "But unlike on the Nintendo Switch 2, where a drifting stick means a lengthy repair or a new Joy-Con, swapping out this stick is easy," iFixIt states.

There are some permanently attached parts, like the wireless module being soldered and the 7-inch display being glued in place to the housing, the latter of which is likely designed as as single service module. But most everything else is easily accessed and serviced, including the battery, storage, modular sticks, and other parts. And you'll only need a single screw bit, which is nice.

When all was said and done, the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X earned a preliminary 7/10 repairability score.