Lenovo Legion Go: The handheld Xbox to rule them all?

Mention handheld gaming gear to any gamer in the know, and their answer will invariably be, “Oh, so you bought a Nintendo Switch?” There are many good reasons for this. Sony struggled with the PSP, and Microsoft has yet to venture into the land of handheld Xbox widgets.

But with the Xbox GamePass subscription service proving insanely popular, with game titles coming in a steady stream every month, the gaming community has been murmuring about the lack of an Xbox handheld console. Nintendo has shown that the handheld category has plenty of gas in the tank as sales of the Switch continue to soar.

None of this has escaped the attention of those clever Trevors at Lenovo, who have launched the Legion Go, which offers all the portable Xbox gaming goodness any gamer worth their salt would ever need and then some more for good measure. But, of course, with all the nifty features you’d expect from a Nintendo Switch.

They’re not the first to do this: Asus has already launched the ROG Ally, and there’s the Steam Deck plus MSI’s Claw, which may eventually launch in our neck of the woods. The Legion Go hasn’t launched here yet, but Lenovo says it’s imminent.

They might not be the first off the blocks with a handheld gaming machine, but Lenovo has put much thought into the Legion Go’s design. For a start, it’s no shrinking violet, weighing in at 854g and being just over 30cm wide and 4.1cm deep. This translates into a solid black-on-black device that feels substantial and built to last (a good thing for any portable gaming gadget). Its chunky form factor and design lend the Legion Go a distinctively Xbox look and feel.

The device is rectangular and has twin detachable controllers (more on that later) and a kickstand that allows you to put it on a desk while you (and a friend) sit back, each with a detached controller. I found that while it works perfectly in most situations, it could have done with a rubberised strip on its bottom to stop it sliding about on slick surfaces.

Another nice feature showing the extra thought put into the Legion Go is the twin USB-C ports and MicroSD card reader. One USB port sits atop the Legion, with the other on its underside. This not only makes for significantly more flexible charging but also makes connecting the Legion to compatible larger displays a doddle.

What sets the Legion Go apart from many of the contenders is its detachable controllers. For multiplayer gaming, this makes the Legion Go uniquely placed. Using it with detached controllers allowed me to comfortably sit back and game. The real fun began when I fired up Halo and handed the second detached controller to a friend.

In use, the Legion felt solid and well-constructed. However, the DPad buttons and controller triggers felt a tad spongy. In addition to all the controller buttons/DPads/thumbsticks, you also get a trackpad. It’s small, but it does the job.

Another pleasant surprise was FPS Mode. Once detached, you flick a small switch on the right-hand bottom of the controller and it transforms into a vertical mouse. For the likes of single-player FPS frag fests, it proved to be an unlikely (but insanely useful) addition.

Rounding things off is the QHD+ 8.8-inch IPS LCD display. Its generous size delivered an immersive and near TV room console gaming experience. Its 120hz refresh rate keeps the on-screen action silky smooth too. In use outside on one of the few sunny days a year we get in Wellington, gaming was helped along thanks to the display’s ability to crank out 500 nits of brightness. While its speakers were basic and passable, getting any real boom out of FPS titles or using audio sound to get a feel for your in-game environment will require you to opt for wired or Bluetooth ear gear.

Everything ran surprisingly smoothly, and best of all, even when I was running a particularly demanding title (Cyberpunk 2077), its chassis never got uncomfortably warm. That said, if you run it in performance mode, expect some fan noise and impact on run time.

Equipped with an AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme and a 512GB SSD (plus optional storage expansion via the MicroSD card slot), the overall spec is ample. The only real performance issue I noticed was that the Legion Go had an average battery life of just over two hours. In performance mode, that fell to just shy of an hour and a half, but efficient Quiet Mode and a less demanding title saw me stretch out battery life to 3 hours 14 minutes. Thankfully, the bundled 65W charger took the Legion Go up to 100% battery from zero in just under an hour. Charging via USB-C also gave me a few extra options via high-wattage power banks.

While it looks like a handheld Xbox and it certainly feels like one, the Legion Go is an ultra-portable Windows 11 machine that takes advantage of Xbox remote play. Unfortunately, that means using the tiny trackpad to navigate Windows 11 is a pain in the ass. Still, the inclusion of Legion Space utilities seriously adds to its tweakability.

Lenovo’s Legion Go isn’t small, and at $1699 it isn’t cheap, but it is good. A vivid and bright display, the ability to dock with a larger screen and two detachable controllers, one of which is a mouse, make the Legion a standout option if Xbox games on the go are your jam.

https://www.lenovo.com/nz/en/p/laptops/legion-laptops/legion-9-series/legion-go/len106g0001