Lenovo has formally introduced its Legion Go portable gaming system recently in an attempt to bring Windows to portable gaming devices for the first time. Lenovo has made quite some efforts to differentiate this new system in a competitive market.
The CPU's power-efficient gaming configuration is achieved by customizing AMD Phoenix silicon, which results in lower TDP profiles as compared to normal Ryzen 7040 laptop chips. There will be two variants of the Legion Go: one with the Ryzen Z1 Extreme and the other with APUs that aren't Extreme. While the latter is a 6-core Zen4 model with a boost rate of up to 4.9 GHz, the former has 8 Zen4 cores with a maximum boost clock of 5.1 GHz.
The non-Extreme version is built on a separate silicon called Phoenix2, which blends the microarchitectures of Zen4 and Zen4c. The Ryzen Z1 Extreme features 12 RDNA3 Compute Units at up to 2.7 GHz, whereas the less expensive variant only has a 2.5 GHz GPU frequency, which might not be enough for the 1600p screen. This is an important difference in GPU power between the two variants.
The Legion Go outperforms the Ally and Deck in terms of memory, providing up to 16GB of LPDDR5X-7500 memory. Since the GPU shares memory bandwidth with system memory, memory bandwidth frequently acts as a bottleneck in integrated graphics performance. Regarding storage, the Ryzen Z1 Extreme variant of the system comes with either 512GB or 1TB. Although it was previously suggested, a 256GB version is not now accessible. The platform has a PCIE Gen4 interface and the M.2 2242 form factor. The SD card slot allows users to add up to 2TB of additional storage to their existing storage. Interestingly, for about $100 (roughly PHP 5600) more, merchants like BestBuy provide customers with the option to upgrade to 2TB of primary storage.
Comparable to the Nintendo Switch, the Legion Go's detachable controllers are an intriguing feature that distinguishes it from the Ally or Deck. In first-person shooters, this controller's mouse functionality helps players hit targets more accurately. Furthermore, the system's USB Type-C connector allows it to handle external GPUs, which gives it a distinct advantage over the ROG Ally, which can only support ROG XG proprietary graphics.
All things considered, the Lenovo's newest handheld has a number of benefits and is a great complement to the premium handheld gaming platform. It will probably put pressure on rivals like AYANEO and ASUS to reevaluate their prices. Moreover, this is a noteworthy advancement for AMD, broadening their console ecosystem even more. Legion Go has been released on October 31, 2023 and is now officially available in the Philippines in Legion Exclusive Stores, Lenovo Exclusive Stores, and authorized resellers only. Pre-orders will start on the 15th of November and will last for 1 month. The official local price for the Legion Go 512gb variant is PHP 49,995, however Lenovo Philippines has not given out any comments about its 256gb variant.
Lenovo Legion Go Specs and Features
With a resolution of 2560 x 1600, the Legion Go's 8.8 QHD+ screen is twice as high as Valve's Steam Deck. The screen is noteworthy for having a refresh rate of 144 Hz, which is higher than even the 1080/120 Hz display on the ROG Ally. It also accepts 10-point touch input and offers a broad color gamut coverage of 97% DCI-P3. It's important to remember that this screen is designed to be used in portrait mode, which could result in slightly less text clarity. But this might not be a big deal given the hectic gaming experience it was intended for.The CPU's power-efficient gaming configuration is achieved by customizing AMD Phoenix silicon, which results in lower TDP profiles as compared to normal Ryzen 7040 laptop chips. There will be two variants of the Legion Go: one with the Ryzen Z1 Extreme and the other with APUs that aren't Extreme. While the latter is a 6-core Zen4 model with a boost rate of up to 4.9 GHz, the former has 8 Zen4 cores with a maximum boost clock of 5.1 GHz.
The non-Extreme version is built on a separate silicon called Phoenix2, which blends the microarchitectures of Zen4 and Zen4c. The Ryzen Z1 Extreme features 12 RDNA3 Compute Units at up to 2.7 GHz, whereas the less expensive variant only has a 2.5 GHz GPU frequency, which might not be enough for the 1600p screen. This is an important difference in GPU power between the two variants.
The Legion Go outperforms the Ally and Deck in terms of memory, providing up to 16GB of LPDDR5X-7500 memory. Since the GPU shares memory bandwidth with system memory, memory bandwidth frequently acts as a bottleneck in integrated graphics performance. Regarding storage, the Ryzen Z1 Extreme variant of the system comes with either 512GB or 1TB. Although it was previously suggested, a 256GB version is not now accessible. The platform has a PCIE Gen4 interface and the M.2 2242 form factor. The SD card slot allows users to add up to 2TB of additional storage to their existing storage. Interestingly, for about $100 (roughly PHP 5600) more, merchants like BestBuy provide customers with the option to upgrade to 2TB of primary storage.
Comparable to the Nintendo Switch, the Legion Go's detachable controllers are an intriguing feature that distinguishes it from the Ally or Deck. In first-person shooters, this controller's mouse functionality helps players hit targets more accurately. Furthermore, the system's USB Type-C connector allows it to handle external GPUs, which gives it a distinct advantage over the ROG Ally, which can only support ROG XG proprietary graphics.
All things considered, the Lenovo's newest handheld has a number of benefits and is a great complement to the premium handheld gaming platform. It will probably put pressure on rivals like AYANEO and ASUS to reevaluate their prices. Moreover, this is a noteworthy advancement for AMD, broadening their console ecosystem even more. Legion Go has been released on October 31, 2023 and is now officially available in the Philippines in Legion Exclusive Stores, Lenovo Exclusive Stores, and authorized resellers only. Pre-orders will start on the 15th of November and will last for 1 month. The official local price for the Legion Go 512gb variant is PHP 49,995, however Lenovo Philippines has not given out any comments about its 256gb variant.
