For months, the rumor mill has worked overtime regarding the supposed Xbox handheld device. Now it seems like the wait could be even longer, with Windows Central reporting that Xbox has paused its own handheld in favor of improving the Windows 11 experience on third-party devices. There’s been no official announcement regarding the handheld, although numerous codenames have leaked.
To be clear, Xbox’s Project Kennan with ASUS isn’t delayed. It’s the company’s own internal handheld that has been placed on the back burner. While an explicit reason wasn’t given, it’s speculated that Microsoft wants to streamline Windows 11 performance on handhelds, especially since SteamOS outperforms Windows in most tests.
Windows Central’s own sources reportedly indicate that Microsoft is still interested in developing a handheld, so the project hasn’t been canned — just delayed for a bit. Phil Spencer first mentioned the idea of a handheld in November 2024, but he suggested it could be a while before a device landed in players’ hands. The Xbox handheld had a tentative release date of 2027, but it may now be later than that.
On the other hand, Project Kennan is still expected to launch later this year. Believed to be a variant of the ROG Ally, images of this handheld leaked earlier this month. The leaks showed a device with a layout similar to that of an Xbox controller, alongside a dedicated Xbox button. Alongside the images, a few specs also leaked.
The handheld will reportedly use AMD’s Ryzen Z2 Extreme CPU, boast a 7-inch 120Hz display, and come with 64GB of RAM. The non-Xbox variant is said to have reduced specs, featuring a weaker CPU. There’s no word yet on how much storage capacity the handhelds might have or whether the device will feature an SD card slot for optional expanded memory.
