Lenovo Legion Go

MSRP $700.00

“The Legion Go is a creative portable PC that delivers progressive features, though they are not at all times probably the most practical ideas.”

Pros

• Strong construct quality
• Top-of-the-line display
• Tabletop mode is great
• Matches ROG Ally in power

Cons

• Aspirational features are impractical
• Awkward button placements
• Legion Space needs work

I at all times love that special moment where an progressive tech device launches and I get to play with it for the primary time. Once I first got my hands on the Steam Deck, I felt like a child on Christmas as I experimented with PC gaming on the go. It’s a cherished moment, but it surely’s not what I actually look ahead to most every time a recent product category launches. My real excitement is reserved for just a few years after that moment when competitors should get creative to face out in a recent frontier that’s rapidly flooding with copycats. If you need to understand why I like that period a lot, look no further than Legion Go.

It’s not that Lenovo’s Steam Deck competitor is a greater alternative to Valve’s hit system. In loads of ways, it’s a messy experiment that’ll need loads of post-launch tweaking to get it in control with its rivals. It’s, nonetheless, a bit of hardware that emphasizes the fun of good-spirited tech competition. In an effort to face out, the Legion Go takes some wild swings that make it probably the most unique portable PC available on the market today. It might not be the most effective option you’ll be able to buy at once, but it surely could possibly be probably the most influential one down the road.

The Legion Go checks loads of the correct boxes in the case of its price, power, and the unbelievable screen that sets a recent bar for this sort of device. Mix that with its Nintendo Switch-inspired design and also you’ve got a versatile gaming device with loads of good ideas. For all its creativity, though, Lenovo often forgoes practicality within the name of innovation. It makes for a decent, but area of interest gaming device that’s equally loaded with features and caveats.

Design and display

I’d bet that almost anyone who lays eyes on the Legion Go for the primary time may have the identical first response: “It’s that big!?” Yes, Lenovo’s system is Godzilla in comparison with what’s out available on the market today. Weighing in at 1.88 kilos, it’s far heavier than the 1.65 pound Steam Deck or 1.34 pound ROG Ally. That’s a clue right off the bat that the Legion Go isn’t exactly the most effective option for many who want a simple on-the-go experience with minimal strain.

It’s a tool that primarily shines in tabletop mode.

Lenovo does profit from that hulking form factor. While it’s heavier than the Steam Deck, it’s concerning the same length and width as that device. The difference is in its 5.16-inch height — versus. the Steam Deck’s 4.6 inches — but there’s a very good reason for all that extra space: the Legion Go’s best-in-class display. The hand held boasts an 8.8 inch, 16:10 QHD+ IPS display with impressive specs. It’s a 1600p screen and has a 144Hz refresh rate. Onboard tools give players room to dial that right down to either 1200p or 800p, and take the refresh rate right down to 60Hz if need be. It’s an enormous, brilliant, colourful display that goes above and beyond for a handheld like this.

The construct quality is essentially high across the board. It’s a sturdy system that’s easy to grip, even when it could possibly be a strain to carry for long periods of time. What’s perhaps most impressive is its built-in kickstand that permits players to set the device up in a tabletop mode, identical to the Switch. It’s a powerful hinge that permits for a spread of angles. It may well get angled enough that I can plug something into its bottom USB4 charger while playing.

Giovanni Colantonio / Digital Trends

The package is rounded out by some standard features: Bluetooth 5.1 support, as much as 1TB of storage, a microSD card reader, a headphone jack, two USB4 ports, and sizable vents on the highest and back. It even comes with a handy storage case with a built-in charging slot. The one area where it isn’t as much as snuff with the competition is with its weak speakers, which may’t get as loud because the ROG Ally’s — a shame considering it’s a tool that primarily shines in tabletop mode. It’s also price noting that its microSD card slot isn’t too far off from its top vents, a design decision that caused broken SD cards on the ROG Ally. It’s too early to say if the Legion Go avoids that problem, however the slot is spaced far enough away from the vents that it shouldn’t be an issue in theory.

Controls

The Legion Go’s biggest creative swings come from its approach to controls. At first glance, they appear standard. It’s anchored by two sturdy hall effect joysticks, seemingly high-quality face buttons, and responsive triggers. As a one-up on the Ally, it even has a right trackpad for many who wish to simulate a mouse. It’s not nearly as responsive because the Steam Deck’s pads, but it surely’s a pleasant extra for many who were upset that the ROG Ally didn’t have any of its own.

Giovanni Colantonio / Digital Trends

That setup isn’t without its flaws. The trackpad is somewhat low for comfort and it sports a surprisingly poor D-pad that’s not ideal for diagonal inputs. Its most frustrating flaw comes from its baffling menu button placements. The 2 buttons sitting where every major controller’s menu buttons are literally open up Lenovo’s Legion Space app. The right menu buttons are on the underside of the left controller, which takes loads of brain-rewiring to get used to.

What’s more commendable is that the controllers can actually be detached from the system like (very thick) Joy-cons. That, combined with the kickstand, makes the Legion Go more enticing as a tabletop device than a handheld. I’ve spent most of my gaming time treating it like a small laptop with a strong display. That’s a great use case, because the heavy design and loud vents don’t make it probably the most portable-friendly device.

Lenovo seems to know where the Legion Go shines most and has built its most distinct feature around that. FPS mode is a singular setting that turns the correct controller right into a mouse when docking it in a magnetic circle built to slip around a table. It’s an inventive concept that takes Nintendo’s Joy-con setup to a different level. Though like most of the Legion Go’s defining features, it’s more a neat party trick than a practical approach to play.

Giovanni Colantonio / Digital Trends

I’ve found that FPS mode is great for some specific games which are mostly controlled by mouse clicks. Gears Tactics is an ideal use case here, as I can move the controller around and click on to do absolutely anything. Sarcastically, it’s far less useful in first-person shooters — the very genre the mode is known as after. In attempting to play Battlebit Remastered within the mode, I’d quickly realize the inherent flaw of a mouse and keyboard mode with no keyboard. I could aim and shoot just high quality, but I simply didn’t have enough buttons to strafe, heal, drive vehicles, etc.

The Legion Go tries to account for that with the addition of several extra buttons, including a scroll wheel and 4 back buttons. Unfortunately, the location of those extras isn’t very graceful. The scroll wheel is awkwardly tucked under the correct trigger, and the back buttons on the correct controller are far too easy to press when gripping the device naturally. To make matters worse, there doesn’t look like any approach to create custom controller profiles for individual games at present. All of that makes FPS mode a very good idea with cumbersome execution.

Specs and performance

Performance is one other high point that puts the Legion Go ahead of its competitors on paper, but with asterisks. The capable system comprises an AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme and 16 GB of memory. That theoretically puts it right next to the ROG Ally, something we’ve been capable of back up with our testing up to now. It’s frankly astonishing that I can run the Xbox Series X-exclusive Forza Motorsport on the device and make enough tweaks to get it running well at around 40 frames per second (fps). Even when it requires me to dial right down to low settings to attain it, that’s still “next-gen” power in a small form factor.

Cross-generation games yielded some impressive results when running benchmark tests. Immortals Fenyx Rising was capable of hit 62 fps when running at 800p and a custom 30-watt thermal mode. We saw similar results with the more demanding Cyberpunk 2077, which hit 61 fps at that setting. Toggling the wattage right down to 15 still gave us solid performance, with Cyberpunk hitting 37 fps. Forza Motorsport didn’t fare too badly there either because it hovered right under the 30 mark. With the correct tweaks (and a willingness to sacrifice quality), even brand recent releases fare well on it.

Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

The Legion Go doesn’t give players a ton of the way to tweak their settings, but it surely meets the minimum for personalization. Players have the choice to swap between three resolutions, two refresh rates, and a few OS power modes. More powerful are its thermal mode options, which let players dial the wattage anywhere from 5 to 30. That’s probably the most impactful tool within the suite, as games see a big performance boost when maxing the slider out (in our tests, it saved 15 to twenty frames over the Balanced thermal setting).

That’s all great for 800p, but how does the hand-held fare using its defining 1600p resolution? That’s a special story. The resolution boost demands maxed wattage with a purpose to approach a smooth experience, and even that’s a tall order. Cyberpunk 2077 barely clears the 30 fps mark at 20W and Forza Motorsport taps out at 23 (each running in low settings). Bumping the wattage any lower produces some expectedly poor results. Immortals Fenyx Rising only hit the 21 fps mark in those tests, while Forza struggled at 15.

Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

As you’ll be able to imagine, great power comes on the expense of battery. In my battery drain tests, Cyberpunk 2077 took the device right down to 0% in about two hours. That was running at 800p on a balanced thermal setting, which is on the lower end of the machine’s power. Should you’re attempting to hit smooth frame rates and high visual quality in modern games, the battery can easily drain in closer to an hour. None of this is just too shocking, but I’ve found that the battery life doesn’t bug me as much because it did on the Ayaneo 2S. I even have enough wattage and determination customization options to get some extra life out of it. Though what’s more crucial is that the Legion Go’s endurance is larger in its tabletop mode, where I’d ideally leave it plugged in and maxed out anyhow. It’s one among many areas where the added versatility works to Lenovo’s advantage here.

Onboard tools and UI

While power and performance are at all times a high priority with devices like this, a very good user interface that makes it easy to make use of can go a great distance. Just take a look at the Steam Deck, which has a clean SteamOS interface that makes it feel as polished as a house console. It’s an area that Lenovo unfortunately doesn’t nail down  with the Legion Go, selling its impressive device short at launch.

The great (and sometimes bad) news is that the device runs Windows 11. It’s essentially a Windows tablet, which makes it easy to put in and cargo up any game launcher. I used to be capable of turn my machine into a great Xbox Game Pass device, playing games like Jusant on it from start to complete. There was some friction to get that going easily, as Windows has loads of annoying quirks which are hard to work around on a smaller screen. It took a day of settings tweaking to get every thing working right, and I hit some puzzling roadblocks along the way in which (like Diablo 4 freezing on the Blizzard logo each time I’s try as well it), but most of the Legion Go’s problems are simply Windows problems you have got to live with.

Legion Space is a low-quality tool that’ll need loads of post-launch support.

What’s inside Lenovo’s control, nonetheless, is its poor Legion Space app. Just like the ROG Ally, the Legion Go comprises its own custom software that lets players tweak settings, organize games, and more. The app even has its own game storefront stuffed with exclusive deals. But because it stands now, Legion Space is a low-quality tool that’ll need loads of post-launch support to get it in a healthy place. Text awkwardly wraps onto two lines, images are blurry, the app doesn’t consistently open once I press the menu buttons. It feels only somewhat more refined than Ayaneo’s custom app by itself devices.

Other quirks are downright weird. Pressing the correct menu button opens the performance overlay, but when closing it and pressing it again, it opens up a left-side quick menu as an alternative. It often takes three button presses to get to the menu you’re actually attempting to access. When opening the performance menus, my inputs are still detected on the sport below. Quite a lot of these issues are fixable and I imagine we’ll see Lenovo steadily improve the tool over time just as Asus and Valve have done with their very own devices. It just lends to the general feeling that the Legion Go can have been rushed to market to capitalize on a moment.

Giovanni Colantonio / Digital Trends

Just like the Steam Deck, the Legion Go feels a bit like an experimental prototype that’ll pave the way in which for a greater second model. Lenovo has its head in the correct place in the case of innovation, but there’s loads of “proof of concept” work happening here. Its 1600p display isn’t really practical for gaming at once, its button layout is a multitude, and Legion Space isn’t any SteamOS at present. Even so, the creative handheld still stands out in a field that’s filling up fast. It fills a distinct segment for many who still wish to retain as much of the PC gaming experience as possible in a handheld. That use case won’t be enough to persuade most individuals to drop one other $700, but it surely’ll be an ideal fit for the correct audience.

Sometimes that’s about the most effective result you’ll be able to hope for when the competition is stiff.

Editors’ Recommendations