This is an Xbox

Microsoft commits to pushing its console branding everywhere, extending to handheld PCs from Asus

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Opening on a clinically lit chamber, its plain grey walls suggesting some kind of scientific facility, music with accentuated drums suggests that we are about to witness something important. A transparent cuboid is suspended in midair. Now there are hands holding it and it's beginning to change shape, angular edges melting away as it reconfigures into a more palm-friendly form. A new controller, perhaps? No - an entirely new videogame console, which no one tuning into the Xbox Games Showcase on June 8 was expecting. Yes, everyone knew that Microsoft had a handheld Xbox in development, but was it really ready to show it off? Yes, it turns out that it was. Except it wasn't an entirely new videogame console, after all, but a reconfigured version of Asus's ROG Ally line of handheld PCs. Using the same basic form factor as the original models, but fattened and reconfigured to feel more like a traditional Xbox controller in the hands, a key difference is the addition of a dedicated Xbox button, intended to operate in much the same way as it does on a typical console.