XBOX Ally X Open-Box Price Makes Z2 Extreme More Accessible

The open-box market for the Xbox Ally X is showing prices that bring its Z2 Extreme configuration below $1,000. With an excellent-condition unit available for about $900, the handheld costs less than several similarly equipped PC handhelds while still offering the Z2 Extreme and 24GB of memory.

The use of the open-box section for the Xbox Ally X is interesting. You can get an excellent-condition unit, the highest tier and most complete condition, basically brand-new, for about $900. This isn't necessarily the best deal ever. Still, in some respects it's fantastic, especially compared with modern contemporaries.

Xbox Ally X Open-Box Model Drops to Around $900

By comparison, the Xbox Ally X is available for under $1,000 in open-box condition with the same Z2 Extreme power. Granted, it comes with only 24GB of memory instead of 64GB or 32GB on higher-tier models, but 24GB is plenty for what most people will be doing with this thing.

To me, it is the most logical configuration for a PC handheld if you're trying to use your budget wisely. At $900, this is arguably a significantly better value than its cheaper younger brother, the white Xbox Ally, which has been one of the better deals for PC handhelds if you were looking for something around the level of a Steam Deck.

A lot of those start at about $1,500 and scale up to $1,800. When you're spending, in this case, about $600 less than the cheapest Panther Lake chip, to me, that is a significant enough savings that the loss in performance and some other quality-of-life features, depending on the handheld you choose, is worth the sacrifice.

A small win is that the open-box variant comes with a 3-month Game Pass Premium trial subscription, and the new one probably does too, if we're being honest. That might make it compelling for a lot of people because it not only gets you a handheld for $900, but it also gives you a few months of games you might not have money to buy right after spending that much.

You might not necessarily be a Microsoft gamer when you buy this.

Game Pass Premium for a few months could give you time to rebuild your coffers, earn some of that money back, buy games in the future, or maybe even keep your Game Pass Premium subscription. It might buy you enough time to consider buying other games or something like that.

While this handheld, by virtue of being called an Xbox handheld and whatnot, might be more enticing for the Microsoft gamer in your life, generally speaking, it is still a PC handheld with a nicer Xbox Windows launcher mode, now available on most Windows-based devices.