It seems like every company wants to release a gaming handheld these days. And let me tell you. I could not be more happy about that.
Having a powerful device to play great games wherever you want is a neat idea. Lenovo did not want to stay behind after the release of Steam Deck and ROG Ally and gave their Legion Go to the world.
Lenovo Legion Go starts at a steep 699$ price tag. Now that’s a lot for a handheld.
Is it any better than the competition? Should you buy it? I’ll do my best to answer these and more questions you might have about Lenovo’s new handheld computer.
Design
First of all. Legion Go is way bulkier than the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally. It weighs 845 grams, so it can get quite heavy in your hands after gaming for a longer time.
For most people, it will probably be quite a big and heavy handheld, unless you have big hands.
But that also means the Legion Go has a big screen, which for some users will be crucial. It is indeed a very large screen, coming at 8,8″, but I will get to the screen in a moment.
The ergonomics of the device are not bad either. Legion Go sits ok in hands, but as I just said, it is quite heavy.
But Lenovo thought of that and on their handheld, you will find detachable controllers, much like Joy-Cons on the Nintendo Switch. And just like on the Nintendo hybrid console, there is a kickstand on Legion Go. That option is awesome because it frees your hands and prevents your wrists from being exhausted after a long gaming session.
The device sports a neat matte black finish. Under the thumb sticks you will find adjustable LED rings, so Legion Go fits well in the PC design direction many producers have taken lately.
Personally, I like the Steam Deck design better, but Legion Go is still a very nice looking piece of tech. It is futuristic and will draw the attention of tech and gaming enthusiasts.
Screen
As I said Lenovo Legion Go has a massive 8,8″ IPS screen. It supports a resolution of up to 2560×1600 pixels and has a 144Hz refresh rate. So spec wise it blows away the competition. It hits 500 nits of peak brightness, which should be enough for most situations.
The only con here is the lack of an OLED panel, like in Steam Deck, but everything looks super crispy and beautiful on this display.
So, if you’re looking for the best screen specs on a handheld, look no further. Lenovo is miles ahead of the competition here.
Personally, I don’t think a resolution needs to be that big for a handheld screen, but I always say I like to have options, and Legion Go gives me exactly that.
Performance
Lenovo Legion Go comes with an AMD Z1 Extreme processor on board with RDNA GPU and 16GB of RAM. That means it is more powerful than Steam Deck and somewhere in the same alley as ROG Ally (pun not intended, lol).
Lenovo’s portable computer runs Windows 11, which is both good and bad because Windows 11 doesn’t really have a touchscreen friendly mode, but it gives your device much desired freedom of installing basically anything you can install on a desktop.
On top of the Windows system, you will find a Legion Space overlay/app, which keeps everything well organized and clean.
Good specs and Windows support mean, you can install thousands of games on Legion Go. But how do recent games run on it?
Don’t expect to play Cyberpunk on ultra settings with 60fps of course, but it is very playable and enjoyable at around 40fps with medium settings, which on a less than 9″ display still looks great in my opinion.
And that’s what you can expect from most of the newer AAA titles. Sometimes you will go to 60fps and high settings, but usually, you will hit medium settings with a bit lower resolution around 800-1080p with 40-50fps.
When you stay plugged into the power outlet you will squeeze a lot more power from your Legion Go, but that is if you would like to stay plugged in all the time. I wouldn’t. I buy a handheld device to play wherever I want, not to be stuck with a cable sticking out of it and on a couch all day.
That’s obviously a compromise compared to a PC, but let’s not forget we’re talking about a handheld device over here. It simply gets the job done and it does it well.
Storage
Legion Go comes with a 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB PCIe gen. 4 SSD on board, with an option of a Micro SD card up to 2TB, which combined should give plenty of storage for every user. And with a fast enough SD card like U3 A2 speed you can run most games of it with no issues.
Battery life
Lenovo equipped Legion Go with a 49.2Wh battery, which is not bad, but when you take the possibilities the device gives you when gaming into consideration, it’s not that great anymore.
With AAA titles on high resolution and fast refresh rate, Legion Go can go below 2 hours of battery life, which is quite bad if you ask me.
Of course, you can lower the resolution and play at 30fps and prolong your gaming session, but when a device gives you such good options with performance, you want to take advantage of them.
On the other hand, with Windows 11 installed on Legion Go you can just plug it into the power outlet and use it as a small personal computer. And if you plan to game mostly on the couch or in bed, you can just stay plugged in all the time. You have to ask yourself if you think this battery life is good enough for you.
Lenovo Legion Go comes with a 65W fast charger in the box, which is just ok. The big cell loses its charge very fast and is not charging very fast. It’s best to buy yourself a third party 100W charger, which Legion Go can handle and turn the device off. Then you’ll be able to charge it fully in under two hours.
So far the battery life is the biggest downside to Lenovo’s handheld computer. I would say it’s big enough to draw someone out of buying it.
Features
The biggest feature of Legion Go are the detachable controllers, just like with the Nintendo Switch, that, first of all, give you the option to play with the screen standing anywhere, and on top of that they offer an FPS Mode.
This mode turns one of the controllers into a sort of mouse. You put the controller vertically in a little puck/stand and hold it like a classic joystick. The sensor in the bottom lets you use this joystick just like a mouse. The experience of using it is super weird at first, but it grows on you with time. You can play FPS games with a better accuracy than with the analog sticks.
Playing with detached controllers and with an FPS mode is easier thanks to the very sturdy kickstand, similar to the one found in Switch OLED, but even tougher.
Legion Go gives you two USB Type C ports, one on top and one on the bottom of the handheld, which I really appreciate because you can for example charge it while it stands on a table.
Lenovo took a good hint from the Steam Deck and put a trackpad on the right controller, which is super useful when using clean Windows on Legion Go.
Summary
From the three biggest players – Steam Deck, ROG Ally, and Legion Go – Lenovo’s piece of tech is the one filled with the most features. It’s rocking the biggest and fastest screen. It has the most power out of all three. It has detachable controllers. Seems like a dream.
But there are some setbacks. The battery life is simply terrible on Legion Go. Sometimes it won’t even last for two hours. Compared to Steam Deck it’s a very poor battery performance. I know Steam Deck is not as powerful and feature heavy, but it seems like they found a good balance of power and comfort of use.
Lenovo’s device price starts at 699$ for the base model, which is a lot of money. At this price point, you could start to look for a cheaper gaming laptop with a similar performance.
So would I recommend it? If you’re a person enjoying a little gaming session in bed before sleep and this pricetag is not too scary. Sure, why not? Keep it on the charger a lot, but it is possible.
But if you would like to play on the go. On a plane, train, or during a road trip, not so much. The battery is a big issue with Legion Go. Hopefully, they will release a follow up for it in the future and address this problem.
It is a very impressive piece of tech and I can’t wait for what the future brings for handheld computers, but for now, I think Steam Deck is the best option out of them.
