The Home windows handheld console race is beginning to warmth up in India. Whereas there was technically no actual marketplace for handheld consoles even a yr in the past, we now have choices from massive gamers similar to Asus, MSI, and Lenovo. Sure, you may get your arms on different handheld consoles on-line, just like the Steam Deck OLED or Ayaneo, however these aren’t obtainable formally. You possibly can solely purchase the Asus ROG Ally or the MSI Claw A1M in India with out worrying about service and spares.
Now, it’s also possible to get your arms on the Lenovo Legion Go. It is the most recent Home windows handheld console to hit the Indian market and presents higher options than the Asus and the MSI. Are these higher options sufficient so that you can purchase the Legion Go? Are you able to play AAA titles? How lengthy does the battery final? Is it extra transportable than a laptop computer? After spending a couple of week attempting out the Legion Go, here is what I feel.
Lenovo Legion Go worth in India
The Lenovo Legion Go will likely be obtainable in India beginning July 1 for Rs. 89,990. You possibly can solely have it in a Shadow Black color choice, and just one variant (512GB SSD) is at present obtainable in India. Fortunately, the storage is upgradeable.
The carrying case is giant and does not accommodate the charger
Lenovo gives a pleasant massive carry case for the Legion Go, a 65W charger (you’ll be able to’t place it contained in the carrying case), and a controller base.
Lenovo Legion Go Evaluate: Design and show
The Legion Go is massive and heavy (854g) for a handheld. Lenovo has tried to cram every kind of options and controls onto the machine. You get a pleasant massive display up entrance protected by Gorilla Glass 5 and controllers on both facet of it. Due to the best way the hand held is designed, you should use it in several methods. You may use it as a standard handheld with the controllers hooked up. In the event you discover it too heavy, which you’ll do after about half an hour of utilizing it, you’ll be able to detach the controllers, come out the kickstand on the again and proceed taking part in.
The Legion Go’s kickstand is a multi-level adjustable
Removable controllers are one thing you will not discover within the competitors, and I am grateful Lenovo considered this. I will discuss extra concerning the controllers in a bit.
The again homes the consumption grille with the exhaust port on the prime. You may additionally discover the Energy button, a 3.5mm headphone port, a microSD card slot, a USB Kind-C port, quantity buttons, and twin audio system on the prime.
Each USB Kind-C ports assist Energy Supply 3.zero and DisplayPort 1.4
The underside of the Legion Go has one other USB Kind-C port. The advantage of the hand held is that each USB Kind-C ports are USB 4.zero and assist Energy Supply 3.zero and DisplayPort 1.4. You possibly can join an eGPU or perhaps a monitor and switch it right into a desktop PC.
Let’s discuss that massive show. The Legion Go has the most important show within the section. It will get an 8.8-inch QHD+ IPS show with a 144Hz refresh price and 500 nits of brightness. The display is a lot vibrant to play indoors. The show is vibrant, gives a fantastic contact response price, and is sufficiently big to see what you are doing on Home windows 11. Lenovo claims the panel additionally meets 97 % of the DCI-P3 color gamut. Gaming is easy and gratifying on the Legion Go, due to the 144Hz refresh price. The glass protecting the show is shiny and catches fingerprints simply.
The Legion Go has the most important show within the Home windows handheld section
Speaking about fingerprints, the delicate matte end of the Legion Go additionally attracts fingerprints and oil smudges. Whereas cleansing the show is straightforward, eliminating all of the smudges on the physique is a activity.
Lenovo Legion Go Evaluate: Controllers
As I discussed at first, Lenovo has tried to cram loads of controls on the Legion Go. It may be a bit an excessive amount of at instances, but it surely’s additionally good to have in some uncommon instances. You get hall-effect joysticks on the controllers, which is nice for gaming. Each the controllers are additionally removable, which is one thing I discovered very helpful when taking part in for greater than half an hour. A push of a button and a slide-down motion permits you to detach the controllers, but it surely’s more durable than it sounds.
Detaching the controllers is not tremendous straightforward, however re-attaching them is
The left controller has the Legion House key on the prime proper nook, the L/S joystick with click on, a D-pad, and the Menu and View buttons on the backside. I did not discover the underside placement of the Menu and View buttons very helpful, as they’re troublesome to succeed in in some video games. Across the again and the highest, you will discover extra buttons, such because the set off, LB, and Y1 and Y2, you can assign to varied actions.
The suitable controller has a Fast settings button on the prime left nook, the R/S click on joystick, A/B/X/Y keys, and a small trackpad that may double as a mouse. It additionally has the precise set off on the prime, M1 and M2 keys on the facet, one other button on the prime, and a scroll wheel, M3 and Y1 keys on the again.
There’s loads of buttons on the controllers, but it surely is perhaps an excessive amount of
The suitable controller additionally has a cool little secret. You may discover a button on the backside that claims FPS mode. Toggling this can allow you to use the controller as a vertical mouse. All it’s important to do is detach the controller, mount it on the included controller base, toggle FPS mode, and begin taking pictures the place up (in-game, clearly). Nonetheless, I solely used the controller in FPS mode as soon as, because it’s a lot simpler to make use of as an everyday controller.
The FPS mode will not be one thing you’d use typically
The controllers have a pleasant really feel to them and provide a great grip. You do find yourself urgent a few of the buttons by accident when lifting up the Legion Go, however fortunately, these buttons do not do something outdoors of a recreation.
Lenovo Legion Go Evaluate: Specs and software program
Specs on the Legion Go are fairly much like these of the Asus ROG Ally. You get an AMD Ryzen Z1 Excessive CPU with AMD Radeon RDNA Three graphics, 16GB LPDDR5x-7500 RAM, and as much as 1TB M.2 2242 SSD storage. The RAM is not upgradable, however you’ll be able to set up an M.2 2242 drive so as to add extra storage. You additionally get Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.1 for wi-fi connectivity.
The Legion Go homes a 49.2 Whr battery, with the controllers housing 900mAh batteries every.
The Legion House software program wants some sprucing, however it’s a straightforward method to change issues on the hand held
Shifting on to software program, the hand held runs Home windows 11 Residence out of the field. You additionally get the Legion House software program, which helps you to change the efficiency modes, customise different machine settings, and act as a central hub for all of your video games. You can too use the Fast settings button on the precise controller to alter decision and energy modes, change refresh price, and alter every kind of system settings.
I will be trustworthy: Home windows 11 is not designed for handheld PCs. Microsoft must do one thing about it, or OEMs must provide you with their customized OS for handhelds. Nonetheless, the 8.8-inch show on the Legion Go did make the Home windows expertise much less irritating.
Lenovo Legion Go Evaluate: Efficiency
Now, let’s take a look at how the Legion Go performs in video games. When you can play AAA titles on the hand held, do not count on excessive body charges and Extremely graphics. It nonetheless packs in a cell chipset that may’t provide that sort of efficiency. You get three energy modes on the Legion Go, every providing a special TDP. In customized mode, you’ll be able to rise up to 30W TDP from the AMD Ryzen Z1 Excessive, and that is the place you will discover the perfect body charges in video games. You additionally get a Quiet, Balanced, and Efficiency mode. I ran the machine in efficiency mode whereas taking part in video games, and it delivered 20W of TDP.
You get three preset modes and customized modes with a max TDP of 30W
I ran a few benchmarks and performed a number of video games, similar to Hogwarts Legacy, Far Cry 6, Snowrunner, and a few different indie titles. With video games like Hogwarts Legacy and Far Cry 6, I needed to decrease the refresh price and set the decision to 1080p or decrease to attain easy gameplay. I bought round 50 to 55 fps in Hogwarts Legacy with low graphics and about the identical in Far Cry 6 at excessive.
In benchmarks similar to PCMark 10, the Legion Go scored 5,907 factors, whereas, in 3DMark, the hand held managed a rating of 3042 within the Time Spy benchmark check. General, the Lenovo console presents good gaming efficiency.
Taking part in AAA titles will not be as a lot enjoyable as taking part in much less demanding video games
In terms of cooling, the Legion Go does a great job of conserving the warmth away out of your arms. It will get a single fan setup, which will get loud sufficient to drown out the twin audio system as they’re positioned close to the fan.
Lenovo Legion Go Evaluate: Battery life
The battery life on the Legion Go is nothing nice. In the event you’re taking part in AAA titles, you’ll be able to count on wherever from 1 to 2 hours of steady playback. Lighter video games and indie titles will allow you to push the battery life to about Three hours. The 49.2 Whr battery simply is not sufficiently big for lengthy hours of gaming. I additionally seen that the drop from 20 % to five % is moderately fast. The sleep operate is non-existent. I used to be always woken up at evening with the machine randomly turning on with the fan spinning at full blast. However that is most definitely a Home windows drawback, not Lenovo.
You will get extra battery life if you happen to play video games at a decrease decision with low settings
As for charging, it took me about one and a half hours to completely cost the Legion Go from zero, and a 10-minute cost gave the hand held about 25 % battery, which is not actually sufficient to play video games.
Lenovo Legion Go Evaluate: Verdict
The Lenovo Legion Go’s solely two official opponents within the Indian market are the Asus ROG Ally and the MSI Claw. As we noticed in our Asus ROG Ally overview, the Legion Go performs equally in each gaming and different eventualities. It is solely barely higher with regards to increased fps in video games. We have not tried the MSI Claw, however I do not count on it to carry out higher than the Lenovo.
Lenovo’s Legion Go shines due to its sensible show and good efficiency regardless of providing too many buttons on its controllers. It is also very giant, and even bigger if you place it inside its case. You’d want a complete backpack to hold the factor round. You possibly can as a substitute use that backpack to hold a decent-spec gaming laptop computer, which must be simply obtainable at Rs. 89,990.
The Legion Go is nice if you’d like a handheld Home windows PC that’s largely used at residence. If it had been me, I would anticipate the subsequent iteration. In the event you’ve bought the cash, go for it, as it is a enjoyable gadget. Is it the perfect handheld console? No. Nevertheless it definitely is the perfect Home windows handheld at present obtainable in India, as there’s not loads of competitors in the meanwhile.
Execs:
- Glorious show
- Good efficiency
- Removable controllers
- Good construct high quality
- Can play loads of PC video games
Cons:
- Cumbersome
- Common battery life
- Home windows 11 OS
Rankings (Out of 10)
- Design: 8
- Show: 9
- Software program: 7
- Efficiency: 9
- Battery life: 6
- Worth for cash: 7
- General: 8
