Skip to main content

Lenovo’s Legion Phone Duel 2 is seriously cool, and in more ways than one

You need a cool head to play games at a high level, you need a cool phone to look the part when doing so, and the phone itself needs to be kept cool so it performs at its best. The new Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2 has a comprehensive cooling system with a real, spinning fan, plus masses of power and a highly unusual design, making it a seriously desirable mobile gaming companion.

It doesn’t look like any other smartphone available at the moment. The Legion Phone Duel 2 is made to be held in landscape orientation, with three glass sections on the back and a metal chassis, which houses a total of eight different touch-sensitive buttons — four on the shoulders, two force-touch buttons in the screen, and two touchpads on the back. There are up to 200 different possible configurations for all these keys, giving masses of control over games.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

What about the cooling? First, there’s an actual, physical, spinning fan built into the back of the phone, which pipes cool air through a dedicated tunnel inside the phone. Don’t worry, the fan doesn’t blow air directly onto the device’s components, so there’s no risk of dust or water ingress. It’s just part of the extensive cooling system, which consists of copper tunnels and pillars, graphite panels, and a vapor chamber too. A set of 14 sensors dotted around the phone’s body monitor the temperature and avoid any overheating. The system’s design ensures the parts of the phone you hold are kept as cool as possible.

Recommended Videos

Why go to all this effort? Lenovo says by minimizing the temperature as much as possible, it can unlock even more power from the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chip powering the phone, which is joined by up to 16GB of RAM. On the front is a 6.92-inch AMOLED screen with a 2460 x 1080 pixel resolution, a 144Hz refresh rate, and a 720Hz touch sampling rate, plus support for HDR10+. Audio is played through dual stereo speakers housed inside 1.6cc chambers, complete with Dolby Atmos support. On the back, the Y logo has customizable RGB lighting effects to complete the gaming device’s look.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

The Legion Phone Duel 2 has a pop-up selfie camera, but it’s set on the side of the phone making it ideal for streaming games, which are mostly played in landscape orientation. The 44-megapixel camera has a wide-angle lens, auto-focus, a 240 frames per second slow-motion mode, the ability to blur the background in your shot, and a “virtual avatar” mode if you want to remain anonymous. On the back of the phone is a 64MP main camera and a 16MP wide-angle camera.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

What else? There’s a dual-cell 5,500mAh battery which can be charged up in 30 minutes if you use the dual USB Type-C ports, or 45 minutes if you use just one. There’s 5G and Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, a fingerprint sensor, four microphones, dual haptic feedback motors, up to 512GB of storage space, and a choice of black or white color schemes.

Lenovo

Lenovo will release the Legion Phone Duel 2 in the U.K. and Europe during May, but it has not confirmed when or if it’ll come to the U.S. The 12GB/256GB model costs 699 British pounds, or around $961, while the 16GB/512GB model is 899 pounds, or about $1,236. When it arrives, Lenovo will be going up against the current gaming phone champion, the Asus ROG Phone 5.

Andy Boxall
Andy is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends, where he concentrates on mobile technology, a subject he has written about for…
Is the Nothing Phone 2 waterproof?
The Nothing Phone 2's camera module with the lights lit up.

Nothing may be a newcomer to the smartphone scene, but it really made an impact with the Nothing Phone 1. Debuting last year, the Phone 1 brought a unique design, good specs, an affordable price, and of course, the Glyph lighting system. Now, the Nothing Phone 2 is here, complete with the Glyph lighting system and some extra new tricks to tempt you into Nothing's bustling ecosystem.

But the Nothing Phone 2 has more going for it than just a fancy lighting system, and those looking for a strong specs sheet won't be disappointed. Nothing's new phone has an adaptive refresh rate that peaks at 120Hz, up to 512GB of storage, 12GB of RAM, and the powerful Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor. But how durable is it? Water resistance has become a feature we really want in smartphones, as it means phones are better insulated against the damage caused by accidental slips into baths, pools, and even toilets. So, is the Nothing Phone 2 waterproof?
The Nothing Phone 2 has an IP54 water resistance rating

Read more
The Nothing Phone 2 just leaked, and it’s not what I expected
Nothing Phone (2) leaked render.

Nothing has been hyping up It’s next phone with executive interviews and social media drop-feeding recently. But merely weeks before the anticipated July launch and eventual brand arrival in the U.S. market, the leaking world has spoiled the design surprise.

Prolific leaker Steve H. (aka @OnLeaks ) teamed up with SmartPrix to drop high-resolution renders of the Nothing Phone 2 based on a “testing stage unit.” To sum up my first impression after seeing these renders, I’d say it’s underwhelming — especially for a brand that takes a lot of pride in its design chops.

Read more
These 3 things were just confirmed for the Nothing Phone 2
The Nothing Phone 1's camera module.

Every time we hear new details about the Nothing Phone 2, it becomes that much more enticing. Now, a recent tweet thread from the official Nothing Twitter account just confirmed three new and exciting features.

In an attempt to create more eco-friendly devices that are made using sustainable practices, Nothing announced several key details regarding the Nothing Phone 2's production — from things like its recyclable aluminum frame to the company's partnership with ASI and IRMA (two companies devoted to helping push sustainable practices in the mobile industry). Owners of the Nothing Phone 2 will feel the company's devotion to sustainable practices in its firmware updates.

Read more