Lenovo Legion Go Review - Windows Gaming Handheld PC

[@LonSeidman]

ERRATA: I incorrectly noted that the built-in display has variable refresh rate support, it does not. However VRR will work on external displays that support it.

[@SIPEROTH]

Best way to use this devices is by sticking a battery pack at the back and connecting it to the USB-C. The problem is that this device is already so heavy. With a battery pack it will become really tiring to hold.

[@LGHTSPD675]

I bought one for our family because I really like the idea of docking and having a very powerful windows PC that is portable, it's worked out well, full office functionality and more. Also, they updated some parts of the Legion software already. However, as you noted, the dead zone on the right controller stick is absurdly bad and they did not update that part of the software - note: only the right stick matters as it is trying to simulate a mouse instead of the left stick which is only trying to simulate wasd keystrokes. We own both the Legion Go and the Steam Deck, the Steam Deck was very popular, but it is clear everyone in the family wants to use the Legion Go. The Steam Deck, though good, is a second tier device in our household at this point - by a long shot. Quick tip: if you are running more than one device on the same Steam account, you can shut your wifi off for one or the other device and continue to play. Obviously, the person that is playing the online/match based game needs wifi access.

[@pandabearmadness6263]

As someone who owns allot of pc handhelds including the steam deck, I'm really loving my legion go it's not quite as comfortable as a steam deck it's not uncomfortable but the screen is like really good and it just pops it's hard to go back to the steam deck cuz it's like such a dinky screen with a huge bezel. I know over the months they're definitely going to be able to optimize the performance on this machine and as of right now it's pretty solid

[@larrybraham4884]

As a fellow owner and steamdeck owner I couldn't have put it better myself.

[@todoroki4418]

Steam Deck Oled

[@OTDECK]

But what about the steam deck oled it’s already battered the go screen and it’s barely been out 😂🤷‍♂️

[@daviddevoye7615]

@@OTDECK mais pas de puissance donc ton oled c'est pas beaucoup mieu

[@ITX-EcoClass]

​@@daviddevoye7615 But if it's higher frame rates you're looking for, I wouldn't even look towards the handheld PC market - you'll always be better served buying a gaming laptop, instead.

[@yukonman7613]

Set my device up yesterday. Just disable legion space it’s a mess for now. No controller issues. Feels premium. Controllers feel nice and snug on the unit. I didn’t find any hand digging to be an issue. Heat wasn’t a problem. Played dead space remake for 2 hours no issue. Fan is pretty loud. Once we can put steam OS on this its gonna be dope.

[@shaolin95]

Legion Go is a beast and has gotten a LOT better with all the updates..it's the handheld King 👑

[@LonSeidman]

I need to do a follow up!

[@ITCodex]

Dude, I prefer windows... It's that legion go is pc that I can do whatever I want to do outside of the gaming. Seriously, Z1 Extreme is really capable. You can connect it through usbc with 4k display to do casual work or learn and play on the go seriously marvellous thing for me that laptops in that price range make me uneasy as their build quality is at least crappy.

[@larrybraham4884]

Im enjoying mine so much. You can never really come to grasp how special it is until you have it in person. The investment is already paying off. The biggest gripe i have is the analog sticks. They have no sensitivity atleast on mine at all its terrible. Hopefully they fix that sooner than later. I use my xbox controller and ha e no other noticeable issues. Cheers 🍻

[@V3ntilator]

I bought Lenovo Go 3 days ago, and i love it. A beta BIOS have the option for 6.GB VRAM, but i would wait for the official one.Lenovo have already posted a long roadmap with tings to upgrade, add and fix first. That also includes more settings for analogue sticks, remapping etc. A new AMD Driver should be out tomorrow or so. Last one is from 6th November. People who want Steam Deck OLED have to to remember it runs on Steam OS, and is way less compatible with games, launchers, DRM than Lenovo Go/Rog Ally.

[@ajwalker4416]

I think 7-inch is great but not the way the Switch is made. I'd be very interested in seeing V2 of this device. The Steam Deck V2 has me intrigued.

[@V3ntilator]

I waited 3 years already for a handheld like Lenovo Go with big screen, and i'm not waiting another 1-2 years. ;) Bought Lenovo Go on day 1.

[@ajwalker4416]

@@V3ntilator I like a larger screen as much as the next person, however, I like the 7-inch sweet spot of the Switch/Steam Deck. And I just watched some reviews of the refreshed Steam Deck with a larger OLED screen and it looks very nice.

[@bigload6]

In New Zealand it hasn't launched yet and it's set at $1.9k NZD for only the 500gb model. I picked up my 500gb steam deck for $800 NZD. I absolutely love the look of the Legion go, the size, controls and windows looks amazing. But I can't justify that price point it's absolutely ridiculous, they've pretty much added an extra $700nzd to what it should cost for zero reason at all

[@denvera1g1]

Alot of people are saying the Lenovo should have gone with a 1080/1200p screen, or even 1440p. I think 1600p is perfect It looks great on games that can run on it, but unlike the previous mentioned resolutions, 1600p is the lowest resolution that supports perfect 4:1 scaling down to the minimum supported UI and OS resolution of 800P(this is why the Steamdeck is 800p natively despite 720p pannels being more common and thus cheaper/wider array of choice) Sure i would have liked a 1080p 144hz OLED, but on the games that cant run 60, i cant just drop it down to 720p without it looking weird, and most games dont support 540p Yes a 1440p would look much better at 720p than a 1080p screen at 720p, but 1600p means i do not have to worry about menu hitboxes overlapping if i drop it down to 800p, or cutting off parts of the HUD like you do with a 1440p screen at 720p

[@samcurmudgeon]

Minor correction: at the moment (11/11/23) you can't change the Go's refresh rate if the Go is not connected to power. Lenovo is working on an update to fix this.

[@nineflyerr3866]

U can do it in windows display settings

[@xMRxLAMAx]

If I were looking to get a new pc I’d definitely consider the legion go first, but hopefully lenovo get a few more updates out and all the software and the usb ports work as they should. I like the idea of the detachable controllers, more to have the tablet by itself. Like you said, I bought a handheld to use it…handheld. I play on pc because I like having options, but I play using a handheld controller because I don’t want to sit at a table and use a mouse and keyboard. For the people who do want mouse action, being able to just grab the legion go case and everything you need is in there, I can totally see the benefits. I recently got a steam deck. I live where valve doesn’t distribute so the 64GB model I got was about $800. The rog ally was cheaper, but not far enough in price I figured I’d get the one with the controller I wanted.

[@yeahBradley]

If Lenovo can hit USD$700 with this device that basically has a 7840u, 16GB of LPDDR5x-7500 RAM, 512GB ssd, 2 USB4 40GB ports, 500nit QHD touch display, 49.2WHr battery, and a custom controller input that doubles as a mouse then what the hell are they doing with their laptops? All a laptop has on this is a larger chassis, larger display, keyboard+trackpad, webcam, and some more ports.

[@LegendaryMaoMao20]

I really got excited and bought it unboxed it and... Until I used yeah, it's not uncomfortable, it's comfortable to me, but the software is quite buggy, so I might return it until they fixed the software issue... I hope you'll review the GPD Win 4 soon though!

[@jeffreynegapatan]

gpd win 4 sucks. i saw the specs

[@ecko07111]

Can you do a review on the Beryl AX portal router please?🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽

[@COREcasual]

I have a deck, Ally, and GO. At first, i wasn't sure i'd like the GO as much as my Ally... but after tweaking some settings and spending a couple of weeks with it...i really do love the GO. There are still a handful of issues i have with it, but most can be fixed with updates. The only thing that can't be fixed is done if the weird button placement like the R1 button wrapping all the way down the right controller because it turns into "M1" but you cannot disable M1 so it's easy to accidentally push R1 when you don't mean to. Other than that, the performance is great, the screen is great. It's got a bit of an unusual resolution, so some games have trouble running on it. The screen is a portrait screen turned into landscape, so it seems like a few games just cannot figure that out. But overall it is a really good handheld that is only going to get better with updates

[@gormondprecursor3525]

The Steam Deck OLED is my personal choice but it's great to see competition in this space. The Legion Go looks like an awesome device if it fits your needs.

[@daviddevoye7615]

steam deck oled ok mais a un moment faut de la puissance 😂

[@gormondprecursor3525]

@@daviddevoye7615 For me it's not worth the cost of terrible battery life - I think 15W APUs are my preferred for handhelds.

[@shaolin95]

😂 yeah and the joy also the burn in of OLED. The legion go let's you play anything pretty much unlike the deck oled ​@@gormondprecursor3525

[@IraQNid]

Nice. So can you use the buttons on the back to map to the X Box game recorder feature in Windows ? I didn't see it mentioned on lenovo's website but what is the maximum video output that it supports? Are there docking stations / port replicators for this? I could see this being used for more than just gaming. But as a regular Windows PC, home theater PC, tablet PC, remote control for RC vehicles, AR/VR setup with the Legion Glasses accessory.

[@CeciltheGamelord]

I really appreciate your review! I do have a question for your opinion. I have the Steam Deck and I adore it!…however, my desktop computer is an Apple and is severely limited for gaming. I’d like to get into the PC gaming field with Windows, but a stand alone gaming desktop is outside my price range. Would this be worth selling my Steam Deck and purchasing this because it DOES allow a Windows gaming experience?

[@LonSeidman]

That's up for you to decide .. Hopefully the review helps you know what this one is capable of. You could also install Windows on the Steam Deck with a little shoe horning.

[@arch1107]

i find it weird, the detachable controllers and the mouse emulation, it is too weirdtbh, no one asked for a gaming tablet that had detachable accesories like those, the switch already did that and they moved to the lite version because people likes to not having detached the controllers

[@volcalstone]

Dunno about you guys but several of my Gamepass games are not showing their correct thumbnails within the actually game library of Legion Space. It does however shows up correctly on the "recently played" quick menu so go figured. Also my GoG games doesn't automatically show up on the game library as well and when I manually add them it doesn't show the correct names for them. It just takes whatever name the .exe file is which most of the time it's just "game". Super annoying at this time as they don't like you rename it as well. Basically Legion Space is trash right now and they need to fix everything about it. They need to get rid of all the storefront stuff as well. Just give us a button if we want to buy their games.

[@LeeLee-fi7mx]

Considering it's faster ram, I wonder if the legion go would make for a entry level VR pc paired with a quest 2 or 3 and also using frame reprojection technology like SSW or ASW.

[@LonSeidman]

Might be able to squeeze out some playability on some older titles but not newer ones imho.

[@Valk-Kilmer]

The legion go DOES NOT have VRR! That is incredibly misleading

[@lextor1996]

Hi guys, this Lenovo console can be used like a notebook gaming? I mean if is possible to install example cad software or something like this because use windows 11. You know something about this? Tnx

[@greentray1231]

It's a windows 11 computer. So any software you could install on a windows 11 laptop or desktop will also be installable on this device as well. It's basically just a computer that looks different

[@OledBurnInKing]

Lon, do you know if any of the manufacturers will make and sell a 8tb or 16tb ssd for any of handheld gaming devices for the steam deck, asus rog ally and lenovo legion go . Call of duty modern warfare 3 uses more than 200gb so even having a 2tb ssd is not enough with having large library of games from steam, epic games and gog games. Also having a high capacity ssd will help with enough space for having a bunch of emulators and roms as well as having android apps and android games with windows 11 from the asus rog ally and the lenovo legion go. It's better to have more than not enough. I wonder if anyone has used msi afterburner to overclock the cpu and gpu on the steam deck, asus rog ally and lenovo legion go and used amd's version of Intel xmp to overclock the ram on the steam deck, asus rog ally and lenovo legion go.

[@LonSeidman]

I don’t think there are any that size in the smaller form factor - at least not yet

[@yeahBradley]

You should have added a 7840u comparison with its 780m on the Time Spy benchmarks. The recent HP Pavilion Plus 14 scored 2,712 Overall. I'm surprised to see the Legion Go punch 600 points higher at 3,327.

[@yeahBradley]

Actually, is the Z1 Extreme just a 7840u? Same cpu and gpu core count (8/16, 12), same boost speed (5.1Ghz), and same LPDDR5x speed (7500).

[@BGeldz]

@@yeahBradley - I believe the 7840U has AMD's new Xilinx FPGA-based XDNA AI accelerator enabled, while it is disabled in the Z1 extreme. I *may* be wrong about that, so don't quote me. :)

[@adelin081]

What enclosure are you using? Have you had any issues with installing the drivers for the eGPU?

[@LonSeidman]

I use an older Akitio Node - kzbin.info/www/bejne/a3TUqn-qjcaMnJo - pretty simple installation, just install the GPU drivers and you're good to go.

[@tconvey15]

Great review

[@gaming-zombie1392]

For $700 dollars is a Great Gaming Hand-Held....

[@robertmason7013]

What handheld do you recommend.

[@asan1050]

Lon ! , Thanks Much !.......

[@mixedhairless]

I don’t have a PC so Lenovo would be the way to go ?

[@ahshitherewegoagain.5861]

Pc will always be superior because of upgrade capability gpu,cpu more future proof as far as something to take on a trip or you wanna play on your bed or away from a desk i say Lenovo i had a rog ally you will need to have it on a usb-c majority of the time but performance did not disappoint me and it can run any game i played what kept me away from steam deck as it cant run some aaa titles. Im more of a pick up and go guy rather than installing 3rd party apps to get something to run on my pc handheld rog i did not have that problem and since they both have the exact same z1 chip you wont have a problem i say both asus and lenovo are good choices.

[@lucianovicente6065]

Does your fps show 0 fps?

[@LonSeidman]

The fps counter must have broke when I installed the drivers for the egpu

[@user-gq3zz2yx9g]

Is the device available for the xbox online gaming?

[@robertmason7013]

I was told by a employee at GameStop not to buy this because there weren't many gams on there platform.

[@theholypickle4861]

Tbh you got like the entire PC library🧍

[@rope435]

That employee should be fired

[@ajwalker4416]

Just goes to show, don't trust what some random employee at Gamestop says about anything that isn't Xbox or PS5 🤣

[@jmr]

Trying to save the last one for himself? 😆

[@HealyHQ]

LOL, a computer can play basically anything and everything, what were they on about?

[@robertmason7013]

With tax and shipping around 800$ way to much.

[@robertmason7013]

@ksandysid2 never heard of this card do you have to pay interest are outher fees. Does it cost you more in the long run to use it ?.

[@V3ntilator]

It's cheaper than a premium cell phone who can't run the 100.000 Windows games at all. It's cheaper than a Gaming Laptop. No, it's not expensive for what you get. In Norway you can buy Lenovo and Asus Rog Ally in local stores country wide and don't need to be shipped.

[@michaelrfx7]

They should have have made the resolution of the screen a native 1080p screen!

[@yeahBradley]

You won't have any pixel scaling issues at 1280x800 because it is a perfect multiple of 2560x1600. However, 1080p won't scale properly. And if it was a native 1080p screen, then you'd have pixel scaling issues at 1280x800.

[@V3ntilator]

@@yeahBradley There is a registry file out already to add more resolutions on Lenovo Go.

[@matthewparker2910]

The Legion Go does not have VRR Lon.

[@TJ-cs6vu]

I brought it, i cant recommend it. So far it seems everyones following the hype. I returned it yesterday. Its super uncomfortable, it digs into your hands, the software is so buggy. The most importnat thing is gaming..the drivers are old, and the RSR that was supposed to upscale to 1600p doesnt work. Your basically forced to play in 1600p, it kills performance. If you go at 800p its blurry af. The fans..super aggressive with no fan curve edits, it makes a loud coil wine which did my head in. Will answer any questions, i love competition but this was rushed and made poorly.

[@Antisocialnerd2]

First question why are you the only one with these problems?

[@acervans312]

Hes not, theyre active problems that Lenovo is working on currently, but I personally dont even let them bother me, Im loving the Go so far

[@M-8o5]

bro it's hasn't even been a month i doubt you even bought to begin with

[@TJ-cs6vu]

@@M-8o5 thats funny, i did buy it, what good does it do to write something about my experince and lie. Just helping those who need to know its for early adopters. Do better bro

[@jjbibk6105]

@@acervans312 let em cry

[@DarthVader1977]

First!

[@chowna7941]

Omg. You're all praise but won't max the setting. Whats the point in having a powerful handheld if your just at 50%.

[@BGeldz]

It was designed to be an 800p gaming machine that happens to give you more if you can use it. Also, the point is partially that this is not just a handheld - it's a decently powerful Win 11 machine that can be easily be used as one, unlike a SteamDeck or (to a lesser extent) a ROG Ally. A laptop with these specs would cost more, but a Go and a bluetooth keyboard/mouse combo makes for a great ultraportable PC at least cost (and arguably more convenience).

[@JogBird]

800p for more demanding games, w integer scaling 1600p for less demanding games

[@LonSeidman]

I’m not sure what you’re referring to - the system was running at full tdp. Nothing is playable at max setting which was stated in the review.

[@chowna7941]

@@LonSeidman running it 60fps. Thats the max setting your of that. Then what rights does it have to be belong to on HAVING GREAT SPECS

[@chowna7941]

@@LonSeidman cannot max it out coz the system of Legion go is not built to handle that. Whats the use of the HYPE SPECS if you are only running it at 50% of its capacity. I remember. Coz its battery cannot handle that load. Why not plug it? Cannot play the LEGION GO while charging. What the F@CK!