Lenovo is entering the Windows handheld gaming space with its own competitor – the Legion Go. This gaming powerhouse features an 8.8-inch LCD with QHD+ (1,600 x 2,560px) resolution and a 144Hz refresh rate. The touchscreen panel offers a 16:10 aspect ratio and up to 500 nits brightness. It supports varying resolutions from 1600p down to 800p and can dial down the refresh rate to 60Hz for better power management.
Lenovo took some inspiration from the
Nintendo Switch and outfitted the Legion Go with detachable controllers called
Legion TrueStrike and a kickstand. The controllers feature Hall effect
joysticks and a plethora of buttons including a touchpad, 10 re-mappable
shoulder triggers and a scroll wheel. Lenovo even went a step further and added
a controller base module which attaches to the right controller via magnets and
allows you to prop the controller and use it as a mouse. The right controller
has an optical sensor at the bottom just like a real mouse.
Lenovo went with AMD’s Ryzen Z1 series
chipsets and you can configure up to a Z1 Extreme. The GPU side is covered by
RDNA 3 graphics. Legion Go is configurable with up to 1TB PCIe Gen4 SSD (M.2
2242 size) and you also get a microSD card slot that supports up to 2TB extra
storage. All models come with 16GB LPDDR5x RAM running at 7,500 MHz.
Cooling is handled by a dedicated thermal
cooling system consisting of a liquid polymer blade fan which maxes out at 25dB
while still running 25W of total graphics power (TGP) in Custom Mode. In terms
of I/O, you get two USB-Type C ports (USB 4.0, DisplayPort 1.4, Power Delivery
3.0), a microSD slot and a 3.5mm audio jack. Legion Go also boasts Wi-Fi 6E and
Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity. The software side is covered by Windows 11 Home
with a special overlay called Legion Space. This is where all you games and
launchers live and Lenovo is also offering a free three-month Xbox Game Pass
Ultimate subscription with each Legion Go handheld.
Legion Go is equipped with a two-cell
49.2Wh battery which supports fast charging promising a 0-70% charge in 30
mins. Legion Go also supports power bypass mode when gaming while plugged into
power which helps preserve the battery. Lenovo is shipping it with a 65W PD
charger. Lenovo Legion Go will start at US$ 699/€ 799 for the base model and will
be available from November.
