Microsoft Made the Excellent Characteristic for Gaming Handhelds—however Good Luck Making an attempt To Set up It

There’s nothing worse than FOMO, the dreaded concern of lacking out, to set players’ tooth on edge. The $1,000 Asus ROG Xbox Ally X—which launches Oct. 16—sports activities a brand new model of Home windows all its personal. The grasping little handheld PC would be the first in its class to run a model of Microsoft’s OS constructed custom-made to make it simpler to entry video games. Oh, and your titles might run higher than they did on earlier variations of Home windows.

The brand new model of Home windows constructed for handhelds sports activities the FSE, a boring initialism for a fair duller identify, the “full display expertise.” What this does is place all of your home windows as separate apps you may spool by means of with an extended press of the Xbox Ally’s particular Xbox button. It means you not have to make use of a touchscreen in desktop mode to entry all of your varied sport launchers. It really works properly sufficient at this early stage; I want it had been out there to all Home windows PCs, akin to Steam’s Massive Image Mode.

For the second, nevertheless, the characteristic is restricted to the Xbox Ally. In the previous few months, we’ve heard various things at totally different instances from each Asus and Microsoft about whether or not different handhelds may quickly obtain it. Lenovo has claimed to The Verge that its units will obtain the replace in spring of subsequent yr. However that’s not what Microsoft is saying. In an e mail assertion, Xbox informed Gizmodo, “We’re centered on launching the full-screen expertise on the ROG Xbox Ally handhelds for Oct. 16. We now have nothing extra to share right now.”

The FSE remains to be early within the crib. It’s higher to consider it as a beta, regardless that Asus and Microsoft are eager to launch it completely with the Xbox Ally on Thursday. I’m one in all a number of reviewers who’ve skilled glitches the place waking the hand-held from sleep leads to a black display. The software program additionally eats up battery, even when the system is ostensibly asleep. Asus has confirmed that these are identified points, reassuring me Thursday that fixing the glitch is “undoubtedly excessive within the precedence checklist.”

However even earlier than all its kinks are ironed out, the FSE would nonetheless make units just like the Legion Go 2 infinitely extra accessible. So I fired up a unit and tried to make it occur.

PC players are properly used to digging by means of Home windows for hidden or beta options. You’ll find a number of guides on-line detailing the method to put in the 25H2 Home windows 11 replace, although you’ll want to join the Home windows Insider beta program. There’s already an in depth information on Reddit out there for many who dare to attempt. Nevertheless, chances are you’ll find yourself utilizing a third-party program referred to as ViVeTool to manually drive the replace onto the hand-held, which is probably going sufficient of a hindrance to provide less-dedicated PC players pause. Altering your settings might even break controller-first menu navigation, as IGN detailed in a report final month.

So somewhat than drive a nonstandard model of the FSE onto the Lenovo Legion Go 2, I attempted loading the 24H2 replace (KB50657089). No cube—even with that put in, the hand-held was displaying the common Home windows desktop with no choice to swipe by means of full-screen apps.

Apparently, although, I nonetheless noticed improved efficiency. In Cyberpunk 2077 benchmarks, I skilled a median of 5 extra frames per second after the replace than I did once I first reviewed the Legion final month on the steady Home windows channel. Shadow of the Tomb Raider efficiency additionally improved by a median of three fps.

After I requested Microsoft whether or not the promised efficiency uptick was as a result of FSE or a basic replace, the corporate informed me, “Whereas the Home windows Replace might embrace basic Home windows enhancements, the Xbox full-screen expertise gives the reminiscence and efficiency enhancements, together with minimizing background duties to provide extra energy again to your video games.”

In 3DMark benchmark assessments on the Legion Go 2, I may nail between 100 and 200 factors higher in Time Spy and Metal Nomad Gentle assessments. That won’t look like loads, however 3 or 5 fps could also be sufficient to allow you to increase graphics settings or make a beforehand unplayable sport playable.

I then tried porting the identical replace onto the original ROG Ally X from 2024. I additionally ended up tied to the normal desktop on that system. I may, in contrast to with the Legion, entry the brand new Sport Bar with the left menu button. However the efficiency bump on this mannequin was underwhelming: Although the system is now working a bit higher than it was at launch final yr, it didn’t show almost the identical increase in efficiency that the Legion Go 2 did post-update. Lengthy story brief, there doesn’t seem like a clear approach for people who don’t personal the Xbox Ally, particularly, to expertise the total advantages of the FSE.

That’s not the most important downside—but. The FSE-equipped ROG Xbox Ally X nonetheless can’t run all the newest AAA titles at 60 fps on their highest settings. You’ll be able to web 30 fps in most intense video games whenever you push down the graphics and sacrifice any hope of ray tracing. That stated, the body price positive aspects listed below are much like the delta I’ve seen between the Home windows-powered Legion Go S and the Legion Go S with Valve’s Linux-based SteamOS. Which signifies that if Microsoft finds it in its coronary heart to provide extra folks this replace, perhaps some players gained’t really feel as robust a need to jump over to Linux and keep away from the gradual decline of Home windows 11 as a gaming platform. Microsoft nonetheless has to repair some bugs first, although.