On the Game Bar, Task Switcher, and Bluetooth Interfaces on the Xbox Ally Smartphones: How we are going to get acquainted with Windows
Microsoft and Asus intend to share pricing in the coming months for the soon to be released XBOX Ally handhelds.
The device that galvanized those teams and got everybody marching and working towards a moment is what we are excited to put into the hands of players, says Roanne Sones.
The full version of the Windows desktop is hidden from view when you exit this full-screen mode. “We’ve reduced many notifications and pop-ups, and we will continue to listen to feedback from players to make continued improvements,” says Sones.
The Xbox app itself in full-screen mode looks very similar to what exists on Windows right now, except the library is now full of all of your PC games from Steam and other stores, alongside ones from Xbox Play Anywhere and Game Pass. The Game Bar is where it gets really interesting.
Over the last year, we made a lot of improvements to the Game Bar in order to drive towards this device. A short press on the Xbox button on the Xbox Ally devices brings up the Game Bar interface, and you can use this to access device settings like Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, Asus’ Command Center interface, and even Microsoft’s new Gaming Copilot. The task switcher that you get with the Xbox button will let you alt+tab between games and apps on your handheld.
I will need to try this interface out for myself to know what to expect from Windows changes. “This isn’t surface-level changes, we’ve made significant improvements,” says Potvin. We can run some games while the components are off in Windows because we get over 2 gigabytes of memory back to them.
There is a lot of feedback surrounding the experience of handhelds and one of the things that people like the most is the sleep situation, where Windows-powered devices often draw too much battery life during the day.
Asus and Microsoft announce two Xbox Ally handhelds with new Windows full-screen experience: A briefing report on the new hardware and game consoles
You will soon be able to see all of your Steam games on any PC thanks to the aggregated gaming library within the Xbox app.
You will feel the impact of bullets in a game and terrain of roads in racing games with the impulse Trigger on the Xbox Ally X. The new Xbox Ally X will have the ability to connect an external graphics card to it, as well as a single hard drive port and a MicroSD card reader, thanks to the inclusion of aUSB-C 4 port. The Xbox Ally uses two USB-C 3.2 ports instead.
“We know that to take this handheld experience to the next level, we cannot do this alone,” says Shawn Yen, vice president of consumer at Asus, in a briefing with The Verge, admitting that some gamers have found it “frustrating and confusing” to navigate Windows with joysticks and button until now.
If you own a handheld, you should be able to use it to launch any game you want, even if it is not installed on it, and you should also be able to use the cloud to play any game you want.
The two Xbox Ally devices have similar grips. It’s as if Microsoft and Asus have taken an Xbox controller and squeezed a screen between the grips, similar to what Sony did with its PlayStation Portal. The grips have been designed to make it easier for you to wrap your hands around the controls so that you can access all the buttons.
Source: Microsoft and Asus announce two Xbox Ally handhelds with new Xbox full-screen experience
The Z2 Extreme and the Z2 A: the most powerful and most efficient handheld PCs AMD has reportedly revealed (finally)
“For this generation the most important thing to us is efficiency. Efficiency is our new superpower,” says Yen. The games will be able to play cooler and quieter in order to give you more battery life for your game. AMD told us in January that the Z2 Extreme would be both its most powerful and most efficient handheld chip yet, while the Z2 A is rumored to be based on the Steam Deck’s less powerful but battery-sipping Van Gogh-based chip.