Lenovo Legion Go Review: Best Windows Handheld?

The Home windows handheld console race is beginning to warmth up in India. Whereas there was technically no actual marketplace for handheld consoles even a yr in the past, we now have choices from huge gamers comparable to Asus, MSI, and Lenovo. Sure, you may get your palms on different handheld consoles on-line, just like the Steam Deck OLED or Ayaneo, however these aren’t obtainable formally. You’ll be able to solely purchase the Asus ROG Ally or the MSI Claw A1M in India with out worrying about service and spares.

Now, you can even get your palms on the Lenovo Legion Go. It is the newest Home windows handheld console to hit the Indian market and affords higher options than the Asus and the MSI. Are these higher options sufficient so that you can purchase the Legion Go? Are you able to play AAA titles? How lengthy does the battery final? Is it extra transportable than a laptop computer? After spending a few week making an attempt out the Legion Go, here is what I feel.

Lenovo Legion Go worth in India

The Lenovo Legion Go might be obtainable in India beginning July 1 for Rs. 89,990. You’ll be able to solely have it in a Shadow Black color possibility, and just one variant (512GB SSD) is presently obtainable in India. Fortunately, the storage is upgradeable.

The carrying case is massive and would not accommodate the charger

Lenovo gives a pleasant huge carry case for the Legion Go, a 65W charger (you’ll be able to’t place it contained in the carrying case), and a controller base.

Lenovo Legion Go Assessment: Design and show

The Legion Go is huge and heavy (854g) for a handheld. Lenovo has tried to cram every kind of options and controls onto the system. You get a pleasant huge display screen up entrance protected by Gorilla Glass 5 and controllers on both aspect of it. Because of the best way the hand-held is designed, you should utilize it in numerous methods. You may use it as a conventional handheld with the controllers hooked up. If you happen to discover it too heavy, which you’ll do after about half an hour of utilizing it, you’ll be able to detach the controllers, come out the kickstand on the again and proceed enjoying.

The Legion Go’s kickstand is a multi-level adjustable

Removable controllers are one thing you will not discover within the competitors, and I am grateful Lenovo considered this. I will speak extra in regards to the controllers in a bit.

The again homes the consumption grille with the exhaust port on the prime. You may additionally discover the Energy button, a 3.5mm headphone port, a microSD card slot, a USB Sort-C port, quantity buttons, and twin audio system on the prime.

Each USB Sort-C ports assist Energy Supply 3.0 and DisplayPort 1.4

The underside of the Legion Go has one other USB Sort-C port. The benefit of the hand-held is that each USB Sort-C ports are USB 4.0 and assist Energy Supply 3.0 and DisplayPort 1.4. You’ll be able to join an eGPU or perhaps a monitor and switch it right into a desktop PC.

Let’s discuss that huge show. The Legion Go has the most important show within the section. It will get an 8.8-inch QHD+ IPS show with a 144Hz refresh fee and 500 nits of brightness. The display screen is loads shiny to play indoors. The show is vibrant, gives an excellent contact response fee, and is sufficiently big to see what you are doing on Home windows 11. Lenovo claims the panel additionally meets 97 % of the DCI-P3 color gamut. Gaming is easy and pleasurable on the Legion Go, due to the 144Hz refresh fee. The glass masking the show is shiny and catches fingerprints simply.

The Legion Go has the most important show within the Home windows handheld section

Speaking about fingerprints, the mushy matte end of the Legion Go additionally attracts fingerprints and oil smudges. Whereas cleansing the show is straightforward, eliminating all of the smudges on the physique is a activity.

Lenovo Legion Go Assessment: Controllers

As I discussed to start with, Lenovo has tried to cram loads of controls on the Legion Go. It may be a bit an excessive amount of at occasions, nevertheless it’s additionally good to have in some uncommon instances. You get hall-effect joysticks on the controllers, which is nice for gaming. Each the controllers are additionally removable, which is one thing I discovered very helpful when enjoying for greater than half an hour. A push of a button and a slide-down motion enables you to detach the controllers, nevertheless it’s tougher than it sounds.

Detaching the controllers is not tremendous simple, however re-attaching them is

The left controller has the Legion Area key on the prime proper nook, the L/S joystick with click on, a D-pad, and the Menu and View buttons on the backside. I did not discover the underside placement of the Menu and View buttons very helpful, as they’re troublesome to succeed in in some video games. Across the again and the highest, you will discover extra buttons, such because the set off, LB, and Y1 and Y2, that you could assign to numerous actions.

The precise controller has a Fast settings button on the prime left nook, the R/S click on joystick, A/B/X/Y keys, and a small trackpad that may double as a mouse. It additionally has the correct set off on the prime, M1 and M2 keys on the aspect, one other button on the prime, and a scroll wheel, M3 and Y1 keys on the again.

There’s loads of buttons on the controllers, nevertheless it could be an excessive amount of

The precise controller additionally has a cool little secret. You may discover a button on the backside that claims FPS mode. Toggling this can allow you to use the controller as a vertical mouse. All it’s important to do is detach the controller, mount it on the included controller base, toggle FPS mode, and begin taking pictures the place up (in-game, clearly). Nonetheless, I solely used the controller in FPS mode as soon as, because it’s a lot simpler to make use of as an everyday controller.

The FPS mode shouldn’t be one thing you’d use usually

The controllers have a pleasant really feel to them and supply grip. You do find yourself urgent a few of the buttons unintentionally when lifting up the Legion Go, however fortunately, these buttons do not do something outdoors of a sport.

Lenovo Legion Go Assessment: Specs and software program

Specs on the Legion Go are fairly much like these of the Asus ROG Ally. You get an AMD Ryzen Z1 Excessive CPU with AMD Radeon RDNA 3 graphics, 16GB LPDDR5x-7500 RAM, and as much as 1TB M.2 2242 SSD storage. The RAM is not upgradable, however you’ll be able to set up an M.2 2242 drive so as to add extra storage. You additionally get Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.1 for wi-fi connectivity.

The Legion Go homes a 49.2 Whr battery, with the controllers housing 900mAh batteries every.

The Legion Area software program wants some sharpening, however it’s a straightforward technique to change issues on the hand-held

Shifting on to software program, the hand-held runs Home windows 11 House out of the field. You additionally get the Legion Area software program, which helps you to change the efficiency modes, customise different system settings, and act as a central hub for all of your video games. You can even use the Fast settings button on the correct controller to vary decision and energy modes, change refresh fee, and regulate every kind of system settings.

I will be sincere: Home windows 11 is not designed for handheld PCs. Microsoft must do one thing about it, or OEMs have to provide you with their customized OS for handhelds. Nonetheless, the 8.8-inch show on the Legion Go did make the Home windows expertise much less irritating.

Lenovo Legion Go Assessment: Efficiency

Now, let us take a look at how the Legion Go performs in video games. Whilst you can play AAA titles on the hand-held, do not count on excessive body charges and Extremely graphics. It nonetheless packs in a cellular chipset that may’t supply that form of efficiency. You get three energy modes on the Legion Go, every providing a distinct TDP. In customized mode, you’ll be able to rise up to 30W TDP from the AMD Ryzen Z1 Excessive, and that is the place you will discover the perfect body charges in video games. You additionally get a Quiet, Balanced, and Efficiency mode. I ran the system in efficiency mode whereas enjoying video games, and it delivered 20W of TDP.

You get three preset modes and customized modes with a max TDP of 30W

I ran a few benchmarks and performed a number of video games, comparable to Hogwarts Legacy, Far Cry 6, Snowrunner, and a few different indie titles. With video games like Hogwarts Legacy and Far Cry 6, I needed to decrease the refresh fee and set the decision to 1080p or decrease to realize easy gameplay. I received round 50 to 55 fps in Hogwarts Legacy with low graphics and about the identical in Far Cry 6 at excessive.

In benchmarks comparable to PCMark 10, the Legion Go scored 5,907 factors, whereas, in 3DMark, the hand-held managed a rating of 3042 within the Time Spy benchmark check. General, the Lenovo console affords good gaming efficiency.

Taking part in AAA titles shouldn’t be as a lot enjoyable as enjoying much less demanding video games

Relating to cooling, the Legion Go does job of holding the warmth away out of your palms. It will get a single fan setup, which will get loud sufficient to drown out the twin audio system as they’re positioned close to the fan.

Lenovo Legion Go Assessment: Battery life

The battery life on the Legion Go is nothing nice. If you happen to’re enjoying AAA titles, you’ll be able to count on wherever from 1 to 2 hours of steady playback. Lighter video games and indie titles will allow you to push the battery life to about 3 hours. The 49.2 Whr battery simply is not sufficiently big for lengthy hours of gaming. I additionally seen that the drop from 20 % to five % is reasonably fast. The sleep operate is non-existent. I used to be consistently woken up at evening with the system randomly turning on with the fan spinning at full blast. However that is more than likely a Home windows drawback, not Lenovo.

You may get extra battery life in the event you play video games at a decrease decision with low settings

As for charging, it took me about one and a half hours to completely cost the Legion Go from zero, and a 10-minute cost gave the hand-held about 25 % battery, which is not actually sufficient to play video games.

Lenovo Legion Go Assessment: Verdict

The Lenovo Legion Go’s solely two official opponents within the Indian market are the Asus ROG Ally and the MSI Claw. As we noticed in our Asus ROG Ally review, the Legion Go performs equally in each gaming and different situations. It is solely barely higher in terms of increased fps in video games. We have not tried the MSI Claw, however I do not count on it to carry out higher than the Lenovo.

Lenovo’s Legion Go shines due to its sensible show and good efficiency regardless of providing too many buttons on its controllers. It is also very massive, and even bigger whenever you place it inside its case. You’d want a complete backpack to hold the factor round. You’ll be able to as a substitute use that backpack to hold a decent-spec gaming laptop computer, which must be simply obtainable at Rs. 89,990.

The Legion Go is nice if you’d like a handheld Home windows PC that’s largely used at dwelling. If it had been me, I might look ahead to the following iteration. If you happen to’ve received the cash, go for it, as it is a enjoyable gadget. Is it the perfect handheld console? No. But it surely actually is the perfect Home windows handheld presently obtainable in India, as there’s not loads of competitors in the intervening time.

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