Highlights
- Lenovo Legion Go enters the handheld gaming market dominated by Valve, Asus, and Ayaneo, offering detachable controllers, a faster CPU, and a touchpad.
- The Steam Deck, with its form factor and value, captured attention in the handheld gaming market, leading to the entry of other players like Asus with its ROG Ally.
- Lenovo Legion Go features an 8.8-inch QHD+ display, AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor, detachable controllers, an efficient cooling system, and fast charging, priced at EUR 799 (around $1174).
Lenovo Legion Go is the latest handheld gaming device in the market that has been quite active for the past year. After a few rumors and leaks, the company has officially announced its entry into the space that is dominated by players like Valve, Asus, and Ayaneo. The Lenovo Legion Go takes inspiration from the Steam Deck, ROG Ally, and the Nintendo Switch to bring useful features like detachable controllers, a faster CPU, and a touchpad.
The handheld gaming market, ever since the launch of the Steam Deck early last year, has been exploding. Even before the Steam Deck, there were players like Ayaneo and others dedicated to making gaming more accessible on the go. But the Steam Deck captured everyone’s attention because of the form factor and value. It allowed customers to play almost the entire Steam library on the go. To capitalize on this market, Asus stepped into the game as well and released its ROG Ally. It boasts better specifications than the Deck in a smaller form factor but is more expensive.
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Steam Deck
Valve's long-awaited portable console is here, and it's taking the handheld gaming market by storm. Valve partnered with AMD to create Steam Deck's custom APU, optimized for handheld gaming. It is a Zen 2 + RDNA 2 powerhouse, delivering more than enough performance to run the latest AAA games in a very efficient power envelope.
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Asus ROG Ally
The Asus ROG Ally is the ultimate handheld system for PC gamers. Relying on the new AMD Ryzen Z1 series of processors, the ROG Ally can handle any game thrown at it. The 7-inch 1080p Full HD display with FreeSync Premium on the system provides gamers with a crystal clear and smooth gaming experience. The advantage of the ROG Ally is that it can run most Windows-compatible games and is compatible with Xbox Game Pass titles. It also comes with 3 months of Game Pass Ultimate. The ROG Ally also features an ergonomic design that makes gaming for long periods enjoyable.
Lenovo Legion Go Specifications
Lenovo is the latest brand to release a handheld gaming device which it has named the Legion Go. As the name suggests, it is part of Lenovo’s Legion gaming brand, and it comes with the same build quality that we have come to expect from the Legion lineup of products. It features a larger 8.8-inch QHD+ 16:10 display with up to 500 nits peak brightness and up to 144Hz refresh rate. The Legion Go comes with up to 16GB LPDDR5X (7500Mhz) RAM and up to 1TB PCIe Gen4 SSD. It also has a micro-SD slot supporting up to 2TB.
Powering the device is the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor with RNDA graphics, the same chip present in the ROG Ally. Lenovo Legion Go has a maximum power draw of 25W which is 10W lower than the Ally. Lenovo is using its Coldfront thermal technology that includes a liquid crystal polymer 79-blade fan to keep the device cool. All this is backed by a 49.2Wh battery (bigger than both the Steam Deck and ROG Ally) that also supports fast charging, and the company claims it can reach 70 percent in just half an hour.
Coming to the design and functionality of the Legion Go, the device comes with detachable controllers that are similar to the Nintendo Switch. While the two controllers cannot be used as independent controllers for two players, the right one can be used as a vertical mouse using an accessory that is included in the box. This controller has a mouse wheel and a different ordination for the buttons to support mouse-like ergonomics. The left controller has the joystick and D-pad along with three more buttons. The right controller has a joystick, ABXY buttons, a menu button, and a touchpad. It uses Hall Effect joysticks for better reliability and longevity.
For connectivity, there are two USB Type-C ports with support for DisplayPort 1.4 and Power Delivery 3.0. Lenovo Legion Go comes with Wi-Fi 6E3 as well as Bluetooth 5.2 for wireless connectivity. There is also a solid kickstand at the back that is similar to the one on the Microsoft Surface products.
Lenovo Legion Go Price And Availability
The Lenovo Legion Go will be available for purchase starting in November, but the company has not shared an exact date yet. It is priced at EUR 799 (around $1174) for the base model that comes with 256GB storage. There is a 512GB and a 1TB model as well but pricing for those is unclear at this point. While all three come with 16GB of RAM as standard, Lenovo is offering “up to” an AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme with RDNA graphics with the Legion Go.
The Lenovo announcement comes just days after Ayaneo announced its flagship offering, the Ayaneo KUN. Unlike the Legion Go, the KUN is powered by the Ryzen 7 7840U and will be sold via an Indigogo campaign. The KUN starts at $999 which is early bird pricing till it starts to officially retail for $1209. On the other hand, the Steam Deck starts at $399 while the ROG Ally is priced at $599.
Ayaneo KUN
Ayaneo's upcoming handheld gaming device, the Ayaneo KUN, will come with the latest AMD Ryzen 7040 series APUs that have integrated Radeon 700M graphics. The Ayaneo KUN features a large 8.4-inch 1600p display that is flanked by hall-effect joysticks and touchpads. The most exciting feature of the KUN is its massive 75Wh 19500mAH battery which is about four times the capacity of the Steam Deck.