ROG Xbox Ally X Disassembly + Repairability Review | iFixit

The power of an Xbox console in your  backpack? Microsoft and Asus have  

teamed up to make it a reality. Say  hello to the all new ROG Xbox Ally X.

We tore down the ASUS ROG Ally two years ago,  and we were impressed by how easily repairable  

it was. So, we’re expecting to see a similarly  repairable design with the ROG Xbox Ally X.

Can we change a dead battery? Swap out  some sticky buttons? And most importantly:  

Can we upgrade the stock 1TB storage?

Let’s start this teardown and find out!

Teardown Begins

First up, eight Phillips screws  stand between us and the inside.  

That’s going to be a theme throughout,  for this teardown I’ll only need this  

one Phillips bit which makes  disassembly that much easier.

With the screws out, the back cover lifts  away and after disconnecting the paddle  

button flex cable, I’m greeted to a very  hefty looking battery front and center.

Let’s disconnect that battery  before going any further to  

prevent any accidental damage to the console.

Five more screws and the whole battery tray  lifts away. That’s a much easier battery  

replacement process than the Steam Deck  or any of the Nintendo Switch handhelds.

The battery is rated for 80Wh  which is a nice capacity for  

a handheld—it’s even bigger than  some laptops we’ve opened lately.

It only takes one screw to remove the M.2 drive,  

a quick and easy removal. With a lot of  popular AAA titles topping 100GB apiece,  

that stock 1TB of storage might not be big  enough for your gaming appetite. No big deal,  

thankfully. You can easily swap in a larger  M.2 SSD before you even boot your Xbox Ally X.

We have multiple storage options that  will work perfectly with your Xbox Ally  

X so head on over to our store to check them  out. We’ll have a link in the description.

I’m going to pause the teardown  and reassemble everything so I  

can show you the m.2 upgrade process.

Each time you disconnect the battery, the  console is going to need a little help  

waking up—plug it into mains power, and with  an empty SSD it’ll boot straight into BIOS.

From there, press the “Y” button  to switch to Advanced Mode,  

tap right to go over one tab, then  tap down to select Cloud Recovery.

Follow the prompts and let it crawl through  the reinstall. We’ll warn you now—this part  

is glacial. The physical swap is easy; the  cloud recovery will eat up your afternoon.

Just like the previous gen devices, the user  interface on the ROG Xbox Ally X is still Windows,  

and that can be a real pain to deal with at times.  Updates and drive upgrades are one of those times.

But, other than that the upgrade  process is extremely straightforward.

With the new drive out for safekeeping,  we dig deeper. On the right-hand side,  

I’m going to disconnect the  ribbon and trigger cables,  

then remove three screws  holding in the joystick module.

These are potentiometer sticks—not  Hall effect—which is disappointing  

since pots have been shown to be very susceptible  

to drift. If these are like all the other  potentiometer-based joysticks we’ve seen,  

lots of people will start to experience drifting  joysticks within a hundred hours of playtime.

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.  Plus, there’s upgrade potential here, too: with  

easily swappable modules, it won’t be long before  aftermarket Hall and TMR sticks become available.

The process is similar on the left side  with the screws holding the stick module  

down. The triggers themselves come next—I  need to remove these before I can access  

the next component you might want to  pop out for a quick clean: the fans.

I’ve got one more screw and a bit of tape, and  once the cables are disconnected the fans come  

right out. It’s always nice to see modular  fans that aren’t attached to the heatsink.

Next up, I’ll tackle the left-side button board  

which is also modular and held in  by two screws and a flex cable.

The rumble motors come next—each held  down with two screws and a small metal  

plate. A quick pry with my spudger frees  the left one, and the right one comes out  

just by tugging on the cable—though  maybe don’t do that, use a pry tool!

Speakers are last on my list of modules.  I have three screws per speaker,  

each mounted on a vibration soaking grommet. With  those removed, I can disconnect the connector on  

the mainboard and to remove them fully,  I also need to pop the coax cable running  

to the wireless card—which, unfortunately, is  soldered to the mainboard so pray it doesn’t fail.

Now it’s time for the mainboard. I’ll  disconnect the display cable from both  

the board and screen sides, then remove  two screws from the bottom corners of  

the board. That fully releases the  board which lifts up and slides out.

Four screws securing the  heatsink to the System on Chip,  

and note the numbers in each corner if  you find yourself reassembling these.

Underneath is the AMD Ryzen Z2  Extreme—an impressive piece of  

silicon for a handheld—it reportedly  delivering higher performance at lower  

power draw when compared to  the previous gen Z1 Extreme.

On the reverse side of the mainboard  there’s four 6GB SK Hynix LPDDR5X  

modules totaling 24 GB, which is  double the RAM in the ROG Ally X.

The remaining shell houses LED lighting around  the sticks, a flex cable for the power button,  

and a screen that’s firmly glued in place.  We didn’t separate the 7” 1080p display from  

the housing—it’s doable, but likely  designed as a single service module.

Repairability Score and Outro So there you have it—a very  

accessible and easily removable 80-watt-hour  battery, socketed 2280 NVMe for storage,  

modular sticks that are easy to  replace—though cursed with the  

drifting spell—and a one-phillips-bit-fits-all  design that makes service and repairs a breeze.

This handheld is a pleasure to  open, though it’s not without flaws.

First and foremost, I wasn’t able to  find any repair guides or spare parts  

for this console. It’s early days, and  I do hope Asus will release these soon,  

but repairability counts for little if we can’t  get the spare parts to service the device.

The screen is also a little bit of a concern. If  people are throwing this thing in their backpacks,  

there will be lots of scratched  and broken screens. Time will  

tell if it being attached to the housing makes  that more expensive, but we’re betting “yes.”

With all this in mind, the ROG  Xbox Ally X earns a provisional  

repairability score of 7 out of 10  on the iFixit repairability scale.

And if you want that 4TB drive, you’ll  find it in the iFixit store—along with  

everything you need to keep  your gaming gear in top shape.

There’s room for improvement here, and  Asus and Microsoft can nab themselves  

some easy points by releasing  those repair guides and parts.