- Microsoft’s Xbox Full Screen Experience is coming to all Windows 11 handhelds
- This happens from today, at least for larger suppliers
- Several smaller players in the Windows 11 handheld market may take longer to roll it out, but in the meantime support may be fudged
If you’ve been jealously eyeing the Xbox Full Screen Experience (FSE) that came with the Asus ROG Xbox Ally, here’s some good news – it’s now available for all handhelds.
As VideoCardz reports, during their Xbox Partner Preview broadcast, Microsoft revealed a bunch of new games and also broke the news that FSE is “generally available” starting today, November 21, across “all handheld gaming devices currently on the market.”
As mentioned, this streamlined interface, which makes the user interface much friendlier for a gaming device with a small screen, was first seen on the Asus ROG Xbox Ally when it first appeared.
However, soon after it was brought to the MSI Claw (in preview), but now we’re getting it across all Windows 11 handhelds as a full release.
Microsoft further notes, “In addition, we’re expanding FSE to more Windows 11 PC form factors through the Xbox and Windows Insider programs soon.”
It has been taken as a hint that the rumored next generation Xbox PC will be built on FSE, which would of course be an obvious path for Microsoft to take.
Analysis: FSE for all – well, almost, but some fudging may still be needed for now
While you can fudge it so that an unsupported Windows 11 handheld runs FSE, it’s obviously much better to have the officially supplied version on your laptop, and that’s the case for everyone as of today. Microsoft seems to be nicely ahead of schedule here, as it was originally thought that some handheld gaming devices wouldn’t get FSE until early 2026.
That’s good news because FSE is not only about the streamlined interface that’s easier to navigate with a controller, but it also saves system resources (freeing up RAM), which is a huge bonus for handhelds in terms of games running more smoothly and giving them better battery life.
As I said that all get FSE now, that might not be the case quite yet for some players. While owners of a device from the major handheld manufacturers, which include Asus, MSI and Lenovo, should benefit from FSE right now (or immediately), it’s not clear when this feature might debut with some of the more obscure brands out there – at least as far as the general public is concerned – such as Ayaneo or GPD.
It depends on how fast these vendors are with their respective rollouts and we’ll just have to see, but so far several enthusiast gamers (the typical buyers of these models) have declined to support anyway.
It’s worth noting that FSE isn’t a panacea for all the problems you’ll encounter using Windows 11 on a handheld, but it’s nonetheless a significant step forward in catching up to SteamOS.
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