If you’re curious about how Microsoft plans to transform Xbox into a true console–PC hybrid, the best place to look right now is the steady stream of updates arriving on the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X. Rather than flipping a switch overnight, Microsoft is gradually reshaping the handheld’s software experience to feel far more like a traditional console and far less like a finicky Windows PC. While there’s still plenty of work left to do, the experience today is already dramatically better than it was at launch.
Just a month ago, it was obvious that the Xbox Ally’s so-called full-screen experience needed significantly more time in the oven—especially when compared to Valve’s purpose-built SteamOS, which was designed from the ground up for handheld gaming. The latest update may look modest on the surface, but its long-term implications for Microsoft and Asus’s handheld ambitions are substantial.
At their core, the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X are still portable gaming PCs, meaning players traditionally had to fiddle with graphics settings, power limits, and performance sliders to achieve acceptable frame rates. Microsoft even required users to dive into Asus Armoury Crate SE to manually adjust TDP (thermal design power) settings in order to squeeze out smoother performance—often at the expense of battery life.
That’s now starting to change.
Microsoft has introduced Default Game Profiles for select titles, a console-style feature that automatically applies preconfigured graphics and system settings designed to deliver stable performance with minimal user input. In short, you launch a game—and it just works.
At the moment, around 40 games support these profiles, with a heavy emphasis on popular titles and Xbox-published games. The current list includes Fortnite, Gears of War: Reloaded, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Sea of Thieves, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and 7. These profiles are still in preview, but after testing them on the Xbox Ally X, the difference is immediate and striking—the handheld becomes far easier and more enjoyable to use.
Microsoft has also listed Halo: The Master Chief Collection as a supported title. However, in testing, those default profile options only appeared when launching games through Xbox’s own ecosystem, not via Steam. This reinforces the idea that Microsoft isn’t just improving usability—it’s quietly incentivizing players to stay within familiar Xbox services.
This Is the Console-Like Experience People Wanted
With Default Game Profiles enabled, the Xbox Ally dynamically adjusts TDP and visual settings depending on the game. In Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, for example, the system locks graphics to a medium preset, enables temporal anti-aliasing (TAA), and targets 30 frames per second. In practice, performance hovered between 29 and 33 fps during gameplay and cutscenes.
Interestingly, the profile doesn’t enable AMD’s FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution) by default, which can significantly boost frame rates by upscaling from a lower resolution. Turning FSR on manually pushed performance closer to 40 fps at the same power level—but Microsoft’s choice makes sense. The priority here is consistency, not peak numbers.
Other supported games show even more impressive results. The Xbox Ally X regularly hits 60 fps or higher with virtually no effort from the player. Titles like Doom: The Dark Ages, which recently received handheld-optimized settings on Steam Deck and other mobile PCs, run smoothly on the Ally X with FSR enabled. The same holds true for Gears of War: Reloaded and Gears 5.
Despite running near the upper limits of the system’s 35W TDP, battery life has actually improved compared to launch. By relying on predefined profiles instead of constantly tweaking power settings, the handheld delivers more predictable performance—and longer play sessions. During testing, it was possible to play for over two hours and still have enough battery left for later use.
Lower-demand titles benefit even more. Hollow Knight consistently ran at 120 fps using much lower wattage, with no need for manual adjustments.
Still a Work in Progress
That said, the Xbox Ally experience isn’t flawless. While controller responsiveness has improved after login, persistent issues remain. In testing, the device occasionally refused to accept a PIN after waking from sleep, and overnight the thumbstick LEDs continued flashing while the system was supposedly asleep. Microsoft acknowledges these sleep-related bugs, which have been among the most common complaints since launch, and says fixes are still in progress.
Updating the device is also far from seamless. To access all these new improvements, users must independently update Armoury Crate SE, the Xbox app, and Windows 11. For a system marketed as Xbox-adjacent, that fragmentation feels clumsy. A true console experience would handle updates automatically at boot.
It can feel, at times, like watching a system relearn how to walk. Xbox clearly understands how to design clean, gamepad-first interfaces—as evidenced by the Xbox Series S and Series X—so its ongoing struggle to implement intuitive, bumper-driven navigation on handheld remains baffling.
What Comes Next
Microsoft says features like Auto Super Resolution (Auto SR)—its AI-powered upscaling technology—won’t arrive until next year. When it does, it could significantly enhance performance without further taxing the hardware. Xbox will also introduce clearer cloud save sync indicators for Xbox Anywhere titles, reducing anxiety about lost progress when switching between PC and handheld.
All of this points toward a bigger picture. Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox is expected to blur the line between console and PC more than ever before. If future Xbox hardware allows access to Steam libraries, Microsoft will need compelling reasons for players to keep buying games inside the Xbox ecosystem. Default Game Profiles, system-specific optimizations, and console-first convenience could be part of that strategy.
Whether this vision succeeds may depend on how well Microsoft can tighten the experience before competitors—old and new—steal the spotlight. For now, though, the Xbox Ally X is finally starting to feel like what many hoped it would be from the start: an Xbox you can hold in your hands.