Yet another player seems to be about to enter the gaming handheld market. Lenovo is reportedly working on its own competitor to the Steam Deck and the Asus ROG Ally. Now, it’s pretty safe to assume that this device is more than just a rumor, all thanks to the high-quality renders of the Lenovo Legion Go that just emerged. It definitely looks like Lenovo may have taken inspiration not just from its direct competitors, but also from the Nintendo Switch.
As can be seen in the image above (courtesy of WindowsReport), the Lenovo Legion Go appears to be equipped with detachable controllers, which are very similar to the Joy-Cons used by the Nintendo Switch. It also comes with a stand in the back, implying that — when combined with these removable “joy-cons” — it could work well for co-op gaming on the go. At the very least, it seems like you will be able to set it down and play without needing to hold it in your hands the whole time.
While the concept of detachable controllers is very Switch-like, the controllers themselves are a bit of a blend of the Asus ROG Ally and the Steam Deck. The button placement resembles the ROG Ally, but there’s also a trackpad like on the Steam Deck. WindowsReport has also spotted an interesting addition to the right “joy-con” — a wheel.
The console itself sports a large 8-inch screen with a 16:9 aspect ratio. It comes with two USB-C ports, a headphone jack, and a micro-SD slot for extra storage. It has plenty of vents on the back, which could possibly help it avoid issues with thermals that have been present in the Asus handheld. This could come in handy if Lenovo is gearing this one up to be capable of running some of the most demanding games, which seems possible right now.
Of course, as this is still just an unofficial report, we don’t know much about the kind of hardware the handheld houses within its chassis. We do know, however, that it’s most likely an AMD APU and AMD’s latest Phoenix lineup seems very likely. It’s hard to say whether AMD will have made a custom APU the way it has done with the Ryzen Z1 for the Asus ROG Ally, or perhaps we will see a chip along the likes of the Ryzen 7840U.
The Lenovo Legion Go is rumored to use Windows 11, which could prove to be a blessing or a curse, depending on how well Lenovo integrates the system into any proprietary user interface it might implement. In any case, it’s a familiar OS for many, so that can be a good thing.
This isn’t Lenovo’s first attempt at making a handheld device. A few years back, it also attempted to launch a device called Legion Play, but it never made it to the market. Given these renders, though, it seems that the Legion Go might actually happen. Unfortunately, the release date is still a mystery, as is the development status right now. It’d make sense for Lenovo to launch this soon, though, so we might see a formidable competitor to the current top handhelds in the near future.
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