Fears of ARM CPU on Xbox handheld are abruptly dismissed - it's rumored to use custom AMD SoC

It isn't as if it seemed remotely likely to us, but recent speculation has suggested Microsoft could be looking at an ARM chip for the 'real' Xbox handheld.

Fears of ARM CPU on Xbox handheld are abruptly dismissed - it's rumored to use custom AMD SoC
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TL;DR: Microsoft’s true Xbox handheld will feature a custom low-power AMD APU, and not an ARM processor as some recent speculation has suggested. However, when it comes to Xbox-branded Windows 11 gaming portables, well, that's a very different matter, and these will use a variety of chips including Snapdragon X.

More chatter has been coming through from the grapevine about the dedicated Xbox handheld and it dispels any notion that Microsoft might be mulling an ARM chip, and will instead use an AMD SoC (as you might expect).

The Windows handhelds like Project Kennan will be very different and only Xbox-branded, with a dedicated Xbox button, controller-style (Image Credit: Microsoft)
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The Windows handhelds like Project Kennan will be very different and only Xbox-branded, with a dedicated Xbox button, controller-style (Image Credit: Microsoft)

A regular hardware leaker, Kepler (often seen on X), made the revelation in a post on the NeoGAF forums as flagged by Wccftech.

The leaker noted:

"They [Microsoft] have a custom low power APU design with AMD for the 'real' Xbox handheld, but the Windows 'Xbox' handhelds will just use whatever APUs are available to OEMs (Z2E from AMD, Lunar/Panther Lake from Intel, [Snapdragon] X Elite 2 from Qualcomm and N1 from NVIDIA)."

By the 'real' handheld, Kepler means the true Xbox gaming portable Microsoft has in the works, as opposed to the Windows spins on handhelds which will be Xbox-branded. The latter includes 'Project Kennan' which is a collaboration with ASUS to bring in a version of the ROG Ally 2 with a dedicated Xbox button (and logo).

As Wccftech points out, some left-field theories in recent times have suggested that Microsoft could use an ARM SoC for the true Xbox handheld, but Kepler is obviously dismissing that idea.

A custom APU from AMD certainly makes a lot more sense than trying to use a Snapdragon chip for a pure gaming handheld, which would cause a lot of complications and headaches on the compatibility and performance fronts.

At least if the 'real' Xbox handheld is anywhere near fruition, and not a long old way off in the future (and tied into some kind of streaming, cloud gaming plans, perhaps, but we're rambling now).

As Kepler indicates, though, the Xbox-branded handhelds, like the version of the ROG Ally 2 Microsoft is involved with, could employ Arm chips. They're only minor variants of the base handheld, after all.