Console gaming fans may have been used to being able to play their favourite titles on the go thanks to handheld gaming consoles or portable gaming devices such as the Nintendo Switch and the old PlayStation Vita and PlayStation Portable, but the PC master race also jumped on to the bandwagon thanks to the likes of the Steam Deck enabling them to enjoy their PC gaming titles anywhere, anytime.
The Lenovo Legion Go was unveiled in September 2023 by Lenovo as the Chinese company’s first Windows gaming handheld device, allowing PC gamers to as their tagline says “give gamers more freedom to game however—and wherever—they want.” This Windows 11 Home powered console measures in at 20.1 x 210 x 131 mm or 40.7 x 298.83 x 131mm with the controller and tips the handheld scales at 640g or 854g with the controllers attached. This makes it easy to hold and handle whilst gaming on the Gautrain, on the airplane, Uber or wherever you choose to indulge in your Windows gaming catalogue, or Steam library.
Under the bonnet of this handheld resides an AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme Processor that sports 8 Cores and clocks in at 3.3 GHz while being capable of ramping up to 5.10 GHz, and it is coupled with 16GB LPDDR5X worth of onboard RAM clocking in at 7500MHz (Not Upgradable), and offers 512GB M.2 2242 PCIe 4.0×4 NVMe Solid State storage built-in. AMD Radeon Graphics ensures frame rates remain snappy and smooth whilst gaming whether you are playing less demanding titles such as Counter-Strike 2, eFootball, Resident Evil 2, or read your favourite game in the case of Disco Elysium, or more demanding titles such as Mortal Kombat 11, Gran Theft Auto V, Apex Legends, or Forza Horizon 5. All of these Steam titles looked good on the 8.8-inch WQXGA IPS 144Hz 500nits Glossy / Anti-Fingerprint Touchscreen Display (2560 x 1600) while sounding fine on the built in dual 2W Stereo Speakers, though we mostly used our wired gaming headset during extended sessions.
You will have to tinker with the graphical settings though on some titles in order to get a game to play or stop crashing, whether that means scaling down the resolution or lowering the framerate from 60 fps to a targeted 30 fps so just keep that in mind and it is also worth noting that the default settings (even when you enable the game to set these based on demoing performance) may not always allow the games to run properly. Lenovo Legion’s Coldfront thermal technology is also present in the Lenovo Legion Go, featuring a liquid crystal polymer 79-blade fan that keeps the device cool at less than 25dB of fan noise in Quiet Mode when silence is paramount, while still allowing the device to reach a full 25W of TGP in Custom Mode when every bit of power is needed to win while preventing thermal throttling during extended gaming sessions.
You control the action on screen by connecting a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse for games that require a keyboard (onscreen virtual keyboard also accessible for easier OS navigation and input), whilst the built-in controllers feature hall effect joysticks that mean no joystick drift and minimal dead zones that maximize responsiveness and accuracy during grueling gaming sessions. Other inputs include an integrated trackpad, a large D-pad, an angled mouse wheel, and a total of 10 mappable shoulder buttons, triggers, and grip buttons. Ensuring a cool esthetic as well is the RGB lighting is present on the power button adorned with the iconic Lenovo Legion ‘O’ that switches colors to indicate the user-selectable fan mode, and customizable RGB rings around the joysticks add another layer of flair while also acting as a notification system for controller pairing. Like the Switch, you can also detach the controllers and stand the screen to play using its built-in stand.
Thanks to a 49.2Wh capacity battery, gaming sessions can go longer without needing to recharge and when you do run out of charge, the Lenovo Legion Go sports support for Super Rapid Charge, allowing the battery to recharge up to 70% in just half an hour. Lenovo also includes additional smart functionality such as a power bypass mode when gaming while plugged in, which protects the battery from extra degradation while also eliminating heat normally produced while charging.
In terms of connectivity, you get two USB4 40Gbps (support data transfer, Power Delivery 3.0 and DisplayPort 1.4) ports, a combined 3.5 Headphone/Mic Combo Jack to plug in your favourite gaming headset, a Card reader to expand your gaming storage, amongst others.
While it is sold out on Lenovo’s SA website (probably to make way for the Lenovo Legion Go S), but you can get it for less from local retailers like Makro for R15 500, Evetech for around R14000, which makes it more affordable than the ASUS ROG Ally X with only the original ROG Ally and non-OLED Steam Deck going for less. It should definitely be on your shortlist along with the ROG Ally X and Steam Deck OLED when shopping for a handheld gaming system.
