Amid several announcements of new handhelds powered by AMD Ryzen Z2 processors, Microsoft also talked about its highly anticipated upcoming Xbox handheld at CES 2025.

The Verge was able to discuss the matter with Jason Ronald, Vice President of Xbox Gaming Devices and Ecosystem at Microsoft. Ronald, who previously led development for the launch of the Xbox One

We’ve been really innovating for a long time in the console space, and when we partner with the rest of the industry, it’s really about how we take the innovations that we’ve been incubating and developing in the console space and bring them to PC and bring them to the handheld gaming space .

I think it brings together the best of Xbox and Windows, because we’ve spent the last 20 years building a world-class operating system, but it’s really locked into the console. What we’re doing is we’re really focused on how we bring those experiences for players and developers to the broader Windows ecosystem.

We focused on simplifying it and making it more of a console experience. Our goal is to put the player and its library at the center of the experience and not all the Windows work you have to do today.

The launch of the Xbox handheld isn’t that close, but Ronald hinted that Microsoft will share more later this year.

There have been rumors about Microsoft’s handheld device project for years. Head of gaming Phil Spencer finally confirmed this with his recent comments but also said that the handheld is still ‘a few years’ away. Putting it all together, it looks like late 2026 could be the release window. A new Xbox home console is also rumored to debut in late 2026.