Lenovo Legion Go 2

Kim has just reviewed Asus' ROG Xbox Ally X, and in doing so, he made a few points that are extremely relevant to this review, which is almost a follow-up. Firstly, he said that the price is too high for this type of handheld gaming PC, especially if you don't get top-tier components to match the premium price. And yes, through their collaboration with Microsoft, Asus is introducing an Xbox overlay that broadly frees the console from Windows 11 and makes the experience via this interface layer much more pleasant in everyday use.

The results of Kim's review are a bit of a "cheat sheet," a cheat code that acts as a shortcut to the review's conclusion. But if we're going to start by spoiling the ending a little, the Lenovo Legion Go 2 is a pretty direct response to Asus and Microsoft's latest attempt, but unfortunately in all respects, not just... well, you know, the points of criticism.

And we might as well start with the elephant in the room; no, at the time of writing, the Lenovo Legion Go 2 does not have the Xbox overlay that the ROG Xbox Ally X is launching with, and it is, to put it mildly, not a welcome return to Windows 11 via this type of input, quite the contrary. Setting up such a device while it thinks it's a PC still feels completely ridiculous, considering the amount of money you pay for the pleasure and the lack of a more curated experience. despite Lenovo's proprietary Legion software suite, is still something that comes up many times a day, and yes, almost every time you use it.

That said, when measured solely on components, the Legion Go 2 manages to better demonstrate why these handheld gaming PCs cost so much, even though it actually costs quite a bit more than its Asus competitor. And yes, let's get that out of the way; this machine costs around £1,000 for 2TB of storage. That's an absurd amount of money.

But okay, at least Lenovo responds here in the best possible way to Kim's points of criticism from the Xbox Ally X review by including the following:

• 8.8-inch OLED in 1920×1200 in 16:10 format - up to 144Hz with VRR


• AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme (8 cores/16 threads) with AMD Radeon GPU (RDNA 3.5 architecture/16 cores) in the top model
  <li>Up to 32 GB LPDDR5X (8000 MHz)
  <li>Up to 2 TB PCIe Gen4 M.2 SSD

At least it's clearer what you're paying for. Firstly, Lenovo undoubtedly gives you the best handheld screen on the market right now. There are no ugly, thick screen bezels, and it feels much more spacious as a result. It's also a colourful, bright OLED that can easily cope with direct sunlight, but provides the contrast that actually comes into its own in these smaller formats. Just as the difference between the Switch and Switch OLED was significant, so it is here.

And again, there are a few more ideas at play here, and it's easy to see that Lenovo is simply willing to take more chances when it comes to including quirky features in their hardware. You can once again remove the controllers in true Joy-Con style and pull out a kickstand, which makes it much more comfortable over time. No, you don't get a holder, and you don't actually get the previous FPS Mode stand that turns it into a kind of pseudo-mouse. So it's a shame, especially considering the price. However, it's nice to see these "value-adds" and that Lenovo is once again willing to take chances.

Z2 Extreme, 32GB LPDDR5X RAM, 2TB storage, much of it is the same, which naturally leaves actual differentiation to the cooling, but there is more good news before that. First and foremost, there is a microSD card reader, which broadly means that you can expand by an additional 2TB if the built-in 2TB is not enough, but also two USB-C ports, DisplayPort 2.0, WI-FI 6E, and Bluetooth 5.3. It's all packed into a device that weighs 920 grams, which is quite a bit heavier than the Asus ROG Ally Xbox's 715 grams, but to be honest, I didn't notice it in most scenarios, namely when I had it on my lap or sitting with it in bed.

The weight also has something to do with the cooling solution as this handheld is almost absurdly large in relation to its dimensions, but it's all to make room for giant ventilation channels at the top of the device. Whereas a vapor chamber of some kind might also make sense, it's hard to argue against the results, and during our toughest stress test, with the aforementioned Cyberpunk 2077 running throughout the battery's lifetime on Performance in 1200p, yes, we saw about 42 degrees at the back. It's warm, make no mistake, but it's quite impressive that this effect is only achieved through increased thickness and more ventilation channels.

In terms of benchmark results, I had much better luck downloading and executing tests with selected titles than Kim did with the recent Asus ROG Xbox Ally X. We primarily tested in the Lenovo Legion Go 2's own native resolution, i.e. 1200p, but we have of course also tried 1080p, which gives a difference of about 15% in actual, executable frames per second, a single example is Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which jumps from 41fps in 1200p to 50fps in 1080p. So just keep that in mind.

Generally speaking, the Legion Go 2 could easily achieve around 60fps in most modern, intensive games, especially if you are willing to tweak the settings a little, and in specially optimised titles that usually perform well on handhelds, including Forza Horizon 5 and Cyberpunk 2077, the balance between settings and frame rate was pretty much in harmony. And yes, this also means that virtually all indie titles, AA games, and older games all run flawlessly. That much is clear.

However, while we were running these benchmarks, the noise was noticeable. It's virtually non-existent when playing non-intensive titles, as mentioned above, but during testing we are at around 40dB, which is definitely noticeable and audible. Is this a dealbreaker? It's hard to say, but it's roughly equivalent to a Steam Deck OLED in terms of both the frequency and volume of the noise, and when it occurs.

And finally, you don't have to sacrifice battery life, even though the 74Whr battery is actually smaller than the one in the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X. In the Cyberpunk test, we squeezed out 2.5 hours of playtime, and that's in Performance Mode, where the system is pushed to its limits. We also played a lot of Hades II, and then four to five hours of general use.

Reportedly, this Xbox overlay will arrive as a free update for the Lenovo Legion Go 2 in the spring, and if that happens, it will be a really attractive alternative to Asus' handheld, which has just been released. The detachable controllers that also function as mice, the robust construction, the excellent battery life, the fantastic display. It's really only the almost absurd price that keeps me from declaring this a "de facto" Windows-based gaming handheld, because £1,000 is truly insane and is almost twice as much as a Steam Deck OLED with 1TB (we've measured it based on the price on Valve's website of €679). That said, once we get more out of Windows 11, this will probably become the best handheld we've seen so far. When that happens, you can add a little to the score.