Microsoft's new Xbox Ally update brings big battery life boost in 40 games, including Hollow Knight Silksong and Minecraft

Microsoft has just announced a new ROG Xbox Ally feature that should help boost battery life while maintaining great game performance. Named 'Default Game Profiles,' the feature applies optimal power and FPS limit settings to supported games, saving you from having to optimize your settings yourself.

Already supporting 40 games, including Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Doom: The Dark Ages, and Minecraft, the setting will be applied by default when you're running your handheld on battery, making it a completely seamless experience. The update is now available for the Xbox Ally X and Xbox Ally, but we'd expect it to eventually roll out to the other Windows options, such as those you'll find on our best gaming handheld guide, though Microsoft hasn't confirmed this yet.

Highlighting the power of this new feature, Microsoft notes on its website that, when playing Hollow Knight: Silksong, the new Default Game Profile feature boosted battery life by "nearly an hour" compared to using the device's Performance mode, yet it still delivered 120fps gameplay.

The company describes the Default Game Profiles as being "hand-crafted per-game" and that they set a recommended TDP level and FPS limit for each - options that are both already available to set manually on the handheld. However, it doesn't specify whether these profiles are simply selecting from the already available list of options (13W, 17W, and 25W for TDP and 30, 45, 60, 90, and 120fps for FPS Limit) or whether they're able to tap into a finer grain of TDP and FPS-limiting options.

Describing in more detail how the system works, Microsoft points out that if a game falls short of its target FPS, the game profile will automatically boost power (TDP), trading some battery life for a smoother frame rate. Meanwhile, if a game is performing above the target FPS, the game profile will "limit FPS at the target rate to save power."

Microsoft has also added the option to turn on or off the feature for each game. While in a game, you can bring up the Armoury Crate overlay and tap the Default Game Profile button to toggle this setting.

Microsoft hasn't yet released the full list of supported games, but here are the ones we know about so far:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• Call of Duty: Warzone
• DOOM Eternal
• DOOM: The Dark Ages
• Forza Horizon 5
• Gears 5
• Gears of War: Reloaded
• Gears Tactics
• Halo: The Master Chief Collection
• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
• Minecraft
• Sea of Thieves
• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4

Along with Default Game Profiles, Microsoft also lists a number of other features included in the latest release of its Xbox Ally software. These include:

• Improved Gamepad response after login
• Quicker Library loading, especially for players with large game libraries
• Improved Cloud Gaming page performance, loading faster
• New Game Gallery filter by Performance Fit, helping you see how well games will run on your device
• Bug fixes and performance enhancements for improved stability and responsiveness

The company has also stated that it's working on enhancements for "sleep and wake reliability, improved formatting options for microSD cards, and more" in future updates and that "early next year, ROG Xbox Ally X will also introduce exciting AI-powered features such as Automatic Super Resolution (Auto SR) and highlight reels," so that's something to, er, look forward to.

The latest update for Xbox Ally handhelds is available to download now, via the device's normal update feature.