The Lenovo Legion Go has made its official debut as the company’s first Windows gaming handheld device. Competing against the likes of the Steam Deck and ASUS ROG Ally, the Lenovo Legion Go features Switch-inspired detachable controllers called Legion TrueStrike controllers. The starting price in the U.S. will be $699 when the device launches sometime in October and those interested will be able to select up to an AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor with AMD RDNA Graphics. For display, Lenovo opted to use a rather large 8.8-inch QHD+ Lenovo PureSight gaming display with a 16:10 ratio. The display offers up to 500 nits of brightness and has a 97% DCI-P3 color gamut, supporting resolutions up to 1600p and up to 144Hz refresh rates. Configurations will also support up to 16GB of RAM, up to a 1TB PCIe Gen4 SSD (with microSD for expansion) and up to 2TB of extra storage.
Battery life will be a topic of discussion for this device, given the specs of the screen. Lenovo did say it has a 49.2Wh capacity battery, but hasn’t disclosed any official battery life estimates. It will, however, support “Super Rapid Charge” that allows the battery to go up to 70% in just 30 minutes. For cooling, the device includes a liquid crystal polymer 79-blade fan that generates less than 25dB of fan noise in Quiet Mode.
What truly sets this device apart from the competition are the hall effect joysticks, which means no drifting and minimal dead zones, and that they’re detachable, just like the Joy-Cons on a Switch. The right detached controller can be placed into an included controller base via magnet, and the optical eye at the bottom of the controller allows for more precise aiming and control. It’s almost like using a mouse, Lenovo said.
For connectivity, the Lenovo Legion Go uses dual USB Type-C ports, allowing users to dock and charge while connecting to other accessories. It will support DisplayPort 1.4 and Power Delivery 3.0, along with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2.
Since the device is running Windows 11, it will come with a complimentary three-month membership of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
Look for more information about the Lenovo Legion Go, including where to preorder, as we get closer to its launch date sometime in October.
