ASUS and Microsoft quietly ship ROG Xbox Ally's screen at 720p out of the box

With ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X having now launched, many of those who pre-ordered the handheld PC are now picking up their shiny new gaming machine. However, there is something owners of the base ROG Ally should know: Microsoft and ASUS have configured the console's display to be 720p out of the box, despite the display being capable of 1920 x 1080p.

This interesting factoid was pointed out by The Verge's Tom Warren, who shared a helpful video of how to change the display resolution on his personal X account. Warren speculates that ASUS and Microsoft decided to make 1280 x 720p the default resolution for the display to force games that are launched to also run at that resolution.

However, even if the display is set to 1920 x 1080p, or the native resolution of the display, gamers can simply go into the settings of the game and change the resolution down to 1280 x 720p if they so choose.

Additionally, Warren speculates that Microsoft and ASUS are aware that the chip within the Ally, which is the Z1 A, is more suited toward 720p gaming, which is true. The Z1 will certainly handle 720p gaming better than 1080p gaming, and running the device at 720p will conserve battery life, compared to 1080p gaming. However, this isn't what gamers paid for, nor what ASUS and Microsoft has advertised.

Ultimately, if ASUS and Microsoft are so concerned about the performance of the machine at 1080p they should have made the display a 720p display, not a 1080p display.

Owners of the ROG Xbox Ally who are thinking their screen appears somewhat blurry, the display being set to 720p is the reason why. You can change this by heading to: Windows Settings > Display > Display Resolution > Select 1920 x 1080p.