Did someone really get the Xbox ROG Ally X early?

Yesterday, rumors started to spread in the tech world that a gamer had accidentally received the upcoming Xbox ROG Ally X gaming handheld weeks before its official launch. The gamer even took to Reddit to post an early review of the device, in a now-deleted thread.

If you hang around the tech space long enough, you'll eventually hear stories of unsuspecting customers getting new devices ahead of schedule. Case in point: Earlier this year, some folks who pre-ordered the Samsung Galaxy S25 received their units a few days before launch thanks to expedited shipping error. Usually, these surprises happen a few days early at the most, which makes it very interesting that someone is claiming they received the Xbox ROG Ally X more than two weeks early.

The story started to spread thanks to the deleted Reddit post titled "WTFF ALMOST 3 WEEK BEFORE!" from a user named Technical_Fun77. The Redditor expressed their very great surprise that they received the unit so early, an apparent mistake on the part of Amazon France, they said. The post, which was saved in a screenshot by Windows Central, shows that the user did a quick review of the alleged ROG Ally X, praising its lightweight design and the Xbox Full Screen Experience.

The post garnered hundreds of responses that were a mixture of congratulations and jealousy. However, because we can't independently verify these reports, some skepticism is also in order.

So, what's really going on with the case of the early Xbox ROG Ally X?

The early release was traced to an Amazon France listing. A screenshot circulating online shows that the device would be delivered as early as Oct. 1, a full 15 days before the official release date of Oct. 16. We checked the listing, which you can view online, shows no available delivery options or dates, as of this writing. A Wayback Machine screenshot of that listing from September does show an early delivery time, but the product is listed for sale from a dubious-looking third-party seller, and pre-orders weren't even available at that time. (You can pre-order the Xbox ROG Ally now, however.) That means the users may have unknowingly purchased a counterfeit unit from a third-party seller on Amazon.

And there's yet another reason to be skeptical: the original Reddit post didn’t contain any image. So, would Amazon France have really shipped the long-awaited handheld gaming console more than two weeks early? While it seems very unlikely, after the news initially popped, other Redditors have come forward with their own early deliver stories, this time with pictures 

As of this writing, there are now a couple of additional user posts in the ROG Ally X subreddit from gamers claiming that Amazon France also sent them units by mistake. These newer posts all have pictures as well, with users showing the alleged units in and out of the packaging. Mashable reached out to these users and Amazon for more information, and we'll update this post if we learn anything new.

We should note that thanks to generative AI image makers, it's now trivially easy to create fake images and screenshots. However, based on these reports, it seems there's a non-zero chance that someone at Amazon France royally flubbed something.

You can pre-order the new console for yourself; it's scheduled to launch on Oct. 16.