At a look

Expert’s Rating

Pros

• Impressive efficiency
• Clear and sharp show
• Versatile

Cons

• Large and heavy
• Several minor points with interface and options
• Unimpressive sound

Our Verdict

The Lenovo Legion Go has a wonderful show, a gradual kickstand and feature-rich, versatile controls. However, it has a complicated and cluttered platform. If you possibly can look previous that, it’s sensible for gaming and much more.

Price When Reviewed

$699

Best Prices Today: Lenovo Legion Go

$699.99

$699.99

$699.99

$699.99

After the Nintendo Switch proved that customers needed to have the ability to take their gaming with them on extra than simply their cellphones, handheld gaming gadgets received a brand new lease of life. This was largely due to a concentrate on power-efficient however game-friendly x86-based cellular processors from AMD.

The Steam Deck was first – it was well-built and optimised, however Linux-based and restricted to pick video games in Steam’s personal retailer. But it didn’t take lengthy for different producers to catch hearth and begin handheld gaming PCs.

Asus launched its Windows machine, the ROG Ally, and now the Lenovo Legion Go is one other competitor within the house. It is constructed on the identical processor, AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme, has the identical quantity of reminiscence and storage, 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD, and roughly matches the ROG Ally in efficiency.

The AMD circuitry with Zen 4 structure and RDNA 3 technology offers spectacular graphics efficiency on PC titles, and I get the identical satisfactory body fee and high quality as I did once I examined the ROG Ally. I can run video games like Starfield and Cyberpunk on medium graphics settings, between 30 and 60 FPS. These are low numbers for any performance-oriented gaming PC builder, however most of us might not need to pay as a lot for simply the graphics card as we’re paying for a complete handheld PC right here.

Many video games require a lot much less efficiency and run even higher at 60 FPS or extra, some all the way in which as much as the display’s most frequency of 144Hz. One draw back is that the Legion Go doesn’t assist Freesync. Lenovo claims that it shouldn’t be crucial with a display as quick as this one, with a body fee of 144Hz, however I appear to see a touch of display tearing in some conditions anyway. When I run the display in 60Hz frequency mode and restrict it to 60Hz, it turns into extra noticeable. But is that this a giant downside? No, you shouldn’t anticipate perfection in such an reasonably priced machine.

Mattias Inghe

Large and daring show

You might be forgiven for pondering that Lenovo had seen the ROG Ally after which crammed all of the upgrades and options they might consider to not solely construct on Asus’s laptop, however remedy gaps the place it was missing. That’s not what occurred in fact – they’ve been growing in parallel, however because the Legion Go was launched a number of months later, it seems like a direct response to it.

The display is bigger, 8.8 inches versus 7, has the next peak frequency, 144Hz versus 120, and better decision, 2,560 x 1,600 pixels the place the ROG Ally has 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. It’s additionally a colourful show with a gamut near the dci-p3 normal and a excessive brightness of as much as 500 cd/m2. Even although black surfaces leak some background gentle at full brightness, it offers crisp distinction, particularly if I dim the brightness to half, which isn’t an issue indoors.

The show could be very sharp and delightful to take a look at, and so long as AMD’s {hardware} retains up, you get an exceptionally good stream. The show means its additionally nice for non-gaming duties, like watching movies. Plus, the bigger floor space additionally offers higher immersion in video games. Should the total decision be an excessive amount of for the {hardware} to deal with in heavy video games, it’s simple to decrease it to both 1,280 x 800 or 1,920 x 1200.

Mattias Inghe

Controls like a Switch

The Lenovo Legion Go settings menu slides in from the aspect of the display with the press of a particular button. Here you can too management body fee, and set different basic items for the machine, akin to sound quantity, display brightness, RGB gentle results within the controls, and easy efficiency and fan management. You additionally get a fast test on battery ranges in your laptop and controls.

The controls are removable (like on a Nintendo Switch) and talk wirelessly with the centerpiece. This means you don’t have to carry up the whole Legion Go, which weighs virtually 9Kg. Instead, you possibly can place it on a desk and sit with half a controller in every hand. Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be a central holder to connect them to, like there’s for the Switch. Lenovo must work on that.

The controls, whether or not in place or unfastened, are practical and really feel well-built. There’s the same old mixture of two d-pad management sticks, set off buttons on the highest, management crosses and motion buttons. They are all fairly simple to succeed in and have good mechanical suggestions. If I had one grievance, it’s that a few the buttons on the highest have a barely oversensitive set off, so I must study to not relaxation my fingers on them.

In addition to those, there are additionally two extra buttons on every bottom that may be manually mapped to non-obligatory features in your video games. Honestly, I keep away from them – they’re so simply accessible on the again that I’m always urgent them by chance.

Mattias Inghe

…and two kinds of mouse!

One factor that the Legion Legion Go boasts over the ROG Ally is mouse management. This is effective for a lot of non-gaming duties, and for additional management and precision in sure video games. ROG Ally solved that with an alternate mouse pointer mode for one of many d-pad sticks, but it surely’s a poor substitute for a real conventional mouse.

That’s what you get within the Legion Go. Partly with a mouse pad on the entrance of one of many controls, and partly with what Lenovo calls FPS Mode. The proper management has an optical mouse sensor on the backside, and a swap that prompts that mode. It then turns into a daily wi-fi mouse, and may be positioned in a particular assist and dragged throughout the desk. On the aspect of the management are mouse buttons that work as regular proper and left clicks, and also you even have a scroll wheel with a middle button press.

It sounds good in concept, however in actuality it’s not simple to make use of. The mouse is uncomfortable to grip with angular shapes, unusual button placement and a joystick that uncomfortably pokes my palm.

Mattias Inghe

The standard gaming PC beast

With the appropriate half as a mouse, I lose all different button controls on that aspect, and video games assume I’ve additionally linked a keyboard, so I’ve to painstakingly map the remaining buttons and controls to correspond to keyboard buttons, apart from a number of which can be pre-configured.

That’s assuming the sport you need to run has good assist for it, which not all do. And even those who do, it’s not all the time simple. For instance, I examined this in Starfield and found after half an hour of button reprogramming that I had run out of accessible issues to press, and nonetheless forgot the bounce button.

In addition, on a few events I discovered that unfastened controls misplaced contact with the primary unit, so typically I needed to interrupt a recreation session, reconnect and even restart the entire Legion Go for the whole lot to begin working correctly once more. Another downside with FPS Mode is that the left d-pad begins feeding WASD instructions to the system. It works inside video games, besides that you simply don’t get the appropriate analogue management there, however could be very impractical in all different modes.

Mouse management is a good suggestion, however Lenovo must positive tune the implementation earlier than it’s value utilizing. It shall be a lot simpler to easily join a mouse and keyboard, and play that approach as an alternative. It appears to work fairly steady.

Mattias Inghe

Almost full as a docked laptop

The best method to join gadgets is through Bluetooth, however in the event you’re like me, you might have considered trying to have the ability to use Legion Go as your full PC. A superb laptop is an effective laptop, and it might be a disgrace to not make full use of it. I like to recommend investing in a USB-C dock or a monitor with all that in-built.

You have two USB-Cs, one on the highest and one on the underside. Both with the identical USB 4 pace, energy provide assist and show port output. With a very good docking station, it’s simple to plug within the display, energy and wired equipment. Then you minimise or shut Lenovo’s Legion Space program to get a standard Windows desktop as an alternative.

The solely factor lacking for full PC performance is a webcam. I’m simply as upset on this as within the ROG Ally. Surely they might have provided a easy one? After all, the most affordable laptop computer or pill has it. But certain, even that may be docked and hung in your desktop display.

Mattias Inghe

All video games in a single place

Legion Space is an software that begins mechanically while you launch the Legion Go, and offers a console-like interface to maintain monitor of and launch put in video games. They can come from most main PC recreation shops like Steam, Xbox, Epic Games, and GOG. Lenovo additionally has its personal recreation retailer constructed into the Legion Space, and you may freely add every other put in video games or packages to your library.

If you’ve Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, a menu for its streaming recreation library can be built-in, and also you get a three-month trial subscription to it as nicely. Finally, there’s a tab for Android video games too, but it surely’s at the moment inactive with a “Coming Soon” message, so what’s going to seem there sooner or later stays to be seen.

It’s the identical complicated distress of leaping between completely different recreation shops and completely different interfaces to purchase, set up video games and get them neatly into the library menu in Legion Space in an effort to then neatly and easily launch them. It might also require separate launchers and add-ons to begin, requiring their very own login and popping up with messages and necessities for safety codes, account linking, cloud seeding of save recordsdata and far more.

This is nothing {that a} Windows gamer isn’t already frustratingly conscious of, but it surely provides an additional layer of litter and annoyance to making an attempt to handle in handheld console format on a cramped little display. Then the mouse pad truly helps some, however removed from sufficient. That’s one more reason to dock the Legion Go – then you possibly can configure the whole lot the way in which you need it first, and even fine-tune particular person video games after which return to handheld console mode.

Mattias Inghe

Price and Verdict

The Lenovo Legion Go begins from £699/$699. It’s accessible from Lenovo, Amazon and Currys within the UK, and Lenovo, Walmart and Best Buy within the US.

Like the ROG Ally, the Legion Go has a formidable construct and it’s outstanding that it prices as little because it does. It’s a full-fledged mini PC with the capability for each productiveness and funds gaming you can additionally play on whereas mendacity on the sofa, or for gaming periods on the go. That stated, these are brief periods, because the battery gained’t final greater than a few hours.

Lenovo raises the bar a bit from what the ROG Ally delivers, with a greater display and really versatile controls, however that results in frustration and complications as a lot as alternatives. A whole lot of person suggestions and interface updates are wanted earlier than it’s perfected, and I feel Lenovo might have carried out extra of that internally first earlier than releasing this console. Not all the {hardware} is high notch both – I’m not impressed with the comparatively weak sound, for instance.

Finally, I’m as soon as once more asking laptop producers and AMD to go all-in on the Ryzen Z1 Extreme, and launch extra compact computer systems with this sensible processor. Not essentially handheld consoles, however small gaming laptops at a very good value might actually stir the pot.

This evaluate has been translated and localized from M3.se – you possibly can read the original here.

Specs

Product Name: Lenovo Legion Go 83E1000KMX
Tested: November 2023
Manufacturer: Lenovo
Processor: AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme, 8 pcs Zen 4 cores as much as 5.1 GHz
Graphics: AMD Radeon Graphics 12CU, 2.7 GHz
Memory: 16GB lpddr5
Storage: 512GB ssd, micro sd slot
Display: 8.8 inch shiny ips, 2560 x 1600 pixels, 144 Hz, multitouch
Webcam: No
Connections: 2pcs usb-c 4 with displayport, 3.5 mm headset
Wireless: Wifi 6e, Bluetooth 5.2
Operating system: Windows 11 Home
Other: Removable gamepad controls, optical mouse, mouse pad, fold-out stand, carrying case
Noise stage: 0-37 dBa
Battery life: 40 Wh, approx. 1 hour 20 min recreation (full brightness), approx. 7 hours 30 min passive (low brightness)
Size: 29.9 x 13.1 x 2-4.1 cm
Weight: 865 grams