Hey, remember when I said the RG 40XXV was my new favourite handheld? Well it kinda still is but specifically as a handheld emulator because there’s a new queen1 in town and it’s called the Lenovo Legion Go.
Released by Lenovo in October 2023, the Legion Go is marketed as a handheld gaming computer, shipped with Windows 11 and Lenovo Space, its proprietary game launcher. It was the company’s first handheld computer (to my knowledge) and came out as a competitor to the Steam Deck and probably to the Nintendo Switch because apparently anyone with a hint of tech experience wants to try and kill Nintendo. That means we can expect something of a go-between when it comes to overall design and feel but with the advantage of better specs and performance overall which you’d expect for £/$599–749.99 MSRP.
So let’s look at the specs, what I like, and what I don’t like about the Lenovo Legion Go.
(Please note: this isn’t an extensive review with lots of tests and gameplay etc. If you’re looking for anything beyond tech specs and first impressions/a regular guy who played with a device for a week and wanted to write about it, check out some of the links I’ve dotted around in the article.)
Table of Contents
Tech specs
| Criteria | Specs |
|---|---|
| APU | AMD Ryzen Z1 (256 GB model); AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme (512 GB and 1 TB models) |
| RAM | 16 GB LPDDR5X-7500 |
| Storage | 512 GB/1 TB 2242 M.2 SSD (can be upgraded to 2 TB); 1 SD card slot for cards up to 2 TB |
| OS | Windows |
| Connectivity | WiFi: WiFi 6E* 802.11AX (2 x 2) Bluetooth: 5.12/5.33 HDMI: capable of HDMI out via USB-C |
| Battery | 49.2 Wh Lithium-ion battery 4S1P, 2-cell |
| Colours | Black |
| Dimensions (with controllers) | 40.7 mm x 298.83 mm x 131 mm (D x W x H) Weight: 0.854kg |
| Display | 8.8-inch, 2560 × 1600 with a 144 Hz variable refresh rate 16:10 aspect ratio |
What I like about the Legion Go
Price
The Lenovo Legion Go has three price points (in USD):
- $599.99 (for the Ryzen Z1 model, 256 GB)
- $699.99 (for the Ryzen Z1 Extreme model, 512 GB)
- $749.99 (for the Ryzen Z1 Extreme model, 1 TB)
It might seem outlandish to suggest these prices are things to like as they’re still quite high for a handheld device. But it’s been nearly 18 months since it came out and thanks to Moore’s Law4 and its competitors, the Legion Go is often on sale for cheaper. I got my 512 GB model for £499 and that’s a pretty good deal for a machine that’s far from obsolete. Of course, if you’re looking for a gaming handheld that just runs SteamOS, Linux, or Android, you’ll find something cheaper but this is a Windows PC in a horizontal form factor with these specs, so expect to cough up a few more of those Bison dollars.
Performance
Full disclosure: I know next to nothing about CPUs, GPUs, and APUs other than what they do and the fact that an APU does the job of the first two. When my son asked what the GPU was, I then discovered the thing about the APU and that it was the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme. Is it the best? Let’s put it this way: it outperforms the Steam Deck’s SoC56
I haven’t actually tested out any CPU-intensive games yet… but my son has. He played Fortnite and Poppy Playtime Chapter 4 on it and experienced no lag whatsoever. The FPS was consistently at 60 on low-to-medium which was a welcome relief, considering he’d hated how sluggish the former was on his Switch. In terms of the games I’ve played, they’ve all been through emulation and the most powerful system so far has been PS2 and PSP which have had no problems.
If you want to see how well this thing does in live tests, Retro Game Corps did three videos on the Legion Go.
Screen
I love the display on this thing. You get up to 1600p, it’s a touch screen, the colours pop. You’ll get everything you need out of it and more, especially for emulation. Oh, and it’s huge. 8.8 inches is a lot and the biggest on the market (even after the Switch 2 comes out as that’s meant to be 8 inches). The 16:10 aspect ratio means any 16:9 games will fit nicely on this without too much empty space.
Storage
If you include adding your own SSD, you can get anywhere from 256 GB to 2 TB in this thing which should be more than enough for regular gaming. There’s also an SD card slot for cards up to 2TB so that’s potentially 4 TB of storage space for all your games, not including any external storage you can plug in via USB-C. You won’t be short of space with this.
Emulation
As this is effectively a Windows mini PC with a touch screen, you have lots of options for emulation. The main ones will be things like RetroArch as a standalone, using EmulationStation as a frontend, or opting for EmuDeck. I went for EmulationStation as I’ve used it in the past and everything runs smoothly via the controllers. Of course, you can plug in your own separate controllers or use Bluetooth ones but your experience will remain the same: it’s awesome. The Legion Go runs pretty much everything except for the Sega Saturn (consistently because nothing really does) and PS3 onwards (at least with a maintainable frame rate). And you can even get Switch games to work on here if you really wanted but games like Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom may be sluggish depending on your settings. All the retro stuff though? Piece of cake.
What I didn’t like about the Legion Go
Controllers
While I love the Legion Go, I have a few things that I’m not ecstatic about. The first is the controllers. They’re big and they take a bit of getting used to in terms of buttons and knowing which ones work for what. Having come from the Switch, I found myself pressing the top corner buttons a lot forgetting they weren’t like Start/Option buttons but instead loaded Legion Space or the sidebar that has some of the quick settings. I tried swapping them but then my brain decided that was weird so I guess muscle memory will dictate that for me. You can remove these and use them separately, including the right controller in “FPS mode” which turns it into a joystick mouse thing. My son also tested this and didn’t enjoy it as much. You can also map some of the side buttons to do specific things which is a neat touch. Oh, and there’s a trackpad which is kinda nice and much bigger than the Steam Deck’s.
Battery life
Because my gaming sessions aren’t super long and I haven’t left the house with it yet, I haven’t experienced how quickly this device loses power like other reviewers and owners. But the specs tell the story for me and I have got a taste of it. If you’re playing a modern PC game without charging, you’ll likely get a couple of hours before it’s time to plug it in (and your mileage will definitely vary). That sounds rough considering most people are going to get the Legion Go for that reason but when you put it into perspective, it makes sense. Adding a bigger and better battery drives up the cost, the size, and the weight on an already large machine and, let’s not forget, it’s a whole PC in your hand.
The fan
This is an objective criticism: the fan can whine when pushed even a little. I’ve read some reviews where that has annoyed people and while it sounds like birdsong compared to my PS4 Pro when you so much as look at it, it’s a legitimate gripe. There isn’t really a way around it beyond never playing a modern game or anything that’s going to push the APU.
Conclusion
So those are my thoughts after playing on my Legion Go for a week. My use case is likely different to most people as I don’t play any AAA games or any that need the best specs possible. And the primary reasons for getting it was Steam Deck FOMO (I got this on a salary sacrifice scheme otherwise I might have got a Steam Deck) and the guy on Instagram with the cool Gundam Legion Go skin. But now that I have one, I’ve loved every minute of it. I can play any game I could desire and not worry that it’ll be sluggish or need a wing and a prayer to run.
The Legion Go covers all the bases I need in a handheld, much like the RG 40XXV (still) does. The screen is perfect, it has a horizontal form factor that works for a lot of consoles, plays all the retro games I could ever want, and Windows 11 hasn’t been that bad (yet). And, what’s more, I can use Syncthing to sync up my other handhelds so they never have to be obsolete. I won’t be taking this out of the house unless I’m going on a long journey so my RG 40XXV and TrimUI Smart Pro (yes, I got one of those too last month) can pick up the slack. It’s a nice little handheld family and the Legion Go is the big mama.
- It’s a queen/mama because I named mine Roberta, after Roberta Flack (RIP) ↩︎
- Lenovo says it starts at 5.1 ↩︎
- Wikipedia says it’s 5.3 ↩︎
- Not necessarily true but everyone else uses it as a reason for tech advancements and price increases so why not me? ↩︎
- According to a Geekbench test performed by Tom’s Hardware and yes that is a review of a completely different device but they share the same APU ↩︎
- Ultrabook Review also has a comparison ↩︎
