We first heard about an Xbox-branded gaming handheld earlier this year in March when the rumor mill started churning out reports about Microsoft working with an OEM partner for it. Now, a fresh set of leaked images have shown up online, giving us our first look at what appears to be ASUS’ ROG Ally 2 handheld. There are two different models posing for these photos, and one of them features a dedicated Xbox button, which further fuels the rumors of an Xbox-branded handheld. Head below for a closer look and more details of these handhelds.
Is this Microsoft and ASUS’ Xbox-branded PC gaming handheld?
The rumors about Microsoft’s “Project Kennan” started picking up earlier this year, and it looks like we’ll see it on the market sooner rather than later. The black variant seen in the leaked photos, as you can tell, has a small button in the top-left corner above the D-pad bearing an engraved Xbox logo. This particular button is blacked-out on the white model in the pictures, and it’s speculated to be either replaced pr removed entirely from the regular ROG Ally 2 version.
The folks over at 91mobiles spotted these listings for the ROG Ally 2 at the Indonesian certificate, which were then linked to an FCC listing for the Wi-Fi modules in these devices, which includes photos of the hardware as well. These listings also reveal some specifications – a 7-inch 120Hz LCD panel, an 8-core, 36W AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme CPU included in the Xbox edition (black one), and a less powerful 4-core, 20W chip in the white version.
The leaked images also give us a good look at these handhelds, and they appear to have a new design, with more molded controller grips on each side. They have a slight resemblance to the existing ROG Ally handheld, but it remains to be whether this is the final design. ASUS is said to showcase these new handhelds at Computex later this month, so we’re likely to have more details of these devices soon.
It’ll be interesting to see how these new handhelds will stack up against the options on the market from the likes of Lenovo. Between this and the Nintendo Switch 2, it looks like folks looking to get their hands on new portable gaming consoles are in for a treat in the coming months. We’ll keep our eyes peeled for more images, so stay tuned.
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