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 resembling Asus, MSI, and Lenovo. Sure, you will get your arms on different handheld consoles on-line, just like the Steam Deck OLED or Ayaneo, however these aren’t accessible 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, you can too 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 making an attempt out the Legion Go, here is what I feel.
Lenovo Legion Go value in India
The Lenovo Legion Go might be accessible 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 the moment accessible in India. Fortunately, the storage is upgradeable.
The carrying case is massive and does not accommodate the charger
Lenovo supplies a pleasant massive carry case for the Legion Go, a 65W charger (you may’t place it contained in the carrying case), and a controller base.
Lenovo Legion Go Evaluation: 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 screen up entrance protected by Gorilla Glass 5 and controllers on both aspect of it. Due to the best way the hand-held is designed, you should use it in several methods. You could possibly use it as a standard handheld with the controllers connected. When you discover it too heavy, which you’ll do after about half an hour of utilizing it, you may detach the controllers, come out the kickstand on the again and proceed enjoying.
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 am going to discuss extra concerning the controllers in a bit.
The again homes the consumption grille with the exhaust port on the high. 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 high.
Each USB Kind-C ports assist Energy Supply 3.0 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 4.0 and assist Energy Supply 3.0 and DisplayPort 1.4. You possibly can join an eGPU or perhaps a monitor and switch it right into a desktop PC.
Let’s speak about that massive show. The Legion Go has the biggest show within the phase. It will get an 8.8-inch QHD+ IPS show with a 144Hz refresh price and 500 nits of brightness. The display screen is loads vibrant to play indoors. The show is vibrant, supplies an important 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 satisfying on the Legion Go, because of the 144Hz refresh price. The glass overlaying the show is shiny and catches fingerprints simply.
The Legion Go has the biggest show within the Home windows handheld phase
Speaking about fingerprints, the delicate matte end of the Legion Go additionally attracts fingerprints and oil smudges. Whereas cleansing the show is simple, eliminating all of the smudges on the physique is a process.
Lenovo Legion Go Evaluation: Controllers
As I discussed to start with, Lenovo has tried to cram a variety of controls on the Legion Go. It may be a bit an excessive amount of at occasions, nevertheless it’s additionally good to have in some uncommon circumstances. 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 enjoying for greater than half an hour. A push of a button and a slide-down motion helps you to detach the controllers, nevertheless it’s tougher than it sounds.
Detaching the controllers is not tremendous simple, however re-attaching them is
The left controller has the Legion Area key on the high 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 tough 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, which you could assign to varied actions.
The correct controller has a Fast settings button on the high 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 best set off on the high, M1 and M2 keys on the aspect, one other button on the high, and a scroll wheel, M3 and Y1 keys on the again.
There’s loads of buttons on the controllers, nevertheless it may be an excessive amount of
The correct 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 capturing the place up (in-game, clearly). Nevertheless, I solely used the controller in FPS mode as soon as, because it’s a lot simpler to make use of as a daily controller.
The FPS mode is just not one thing you’d use typically
The controllers have a pleasant really feel to them and supply an excellent grip. You do find yourself urgent a few of the buttons unintentionally when lifting up the Legion Go, however fortunately, these buttons do not do something exterior of a sport.
Lenovo Legion Go Evaluation: 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 3 graphics, 16GB LPDDR5x-7500 RAM, and as much as 1TB M.2 2242 SSD storage. The RAM is not upgradable, however you may 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 Area software program wants some sprucing, however it’s a straightforward option to change issues on the hand-held
Shifting on to software program, the hand-held runs Home windows 11 House out of the field. You additionally get the Legion Area 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 too can use the Fast settings button on the best controller to vary decision and energy modes, change refresh price, and modify 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 have to give you their customized OS for handhelds. Nevertheless, the 8.8-inch show on the Legion Go did make the Home windows expertise much less irritating.
Lenovo Legion Go Evaluation: Efficiency
Now, let us take a look at how the Legion Go performs in video games. When you can play AAA titles on the hand-held, do not anticipate excessive body charges and Extremely graphics. It nonetheless packs in a cellular chipset that may’t supply that type of efficiency. You get three energy modes on the Legion Go, every providing a special TDP. In customized mode, you may stand up to 30W TDP from the AMD Ryzen Z1 Excessive, and that is the place you will discover the most effective body charges in video games. You additionally get a Quiet, Balanced, and Efficiency mode. I ran the machine in efficiency mode whereas enjoying 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, resembling 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 received round 50 to 55 fps in Hogwarts Legacy with low graphics and about the identical in Far Cry 6 at excessive.
In benchmarks resembling 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 take a look at. Total, the Lenovo console presents good gaming efficiency.
Enjoying AAA titles is just not as a lot enjoyable as enjoying much less demanding video games
In terms of cooling, the Legion Go does an excellent job of protecting 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 Evaluation: Battery life
The battery life on the Legion Go is nothing nice. When you’re enjoying AAA titles, you may anticipate anyplace from 1 to 2 hours of steady playback. Lighter video games and indie titles will allow you to push the battery life to about 3 hours. The 49.2 Whr battery simply is not sufficiently big for lengthy hours of gaming. I additionally observed that the drop from 20 % to five % is slightly fast. The sleep perform 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 almost certainly a Home windows drawback, not Lenovo.
You will get extra battery life when you 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 Evaluation: Verdict
The Lenovo Legion Go’s solely two official rivals within the Indian market are the Asus ROG Ally and the MSI Claw. As we noticed in our Asus ROG Ally evaluate, the Legion Go performs equally in each gaming and different situations. It is solely barely higher relating to greater fps in video games. We have not tried the MSI Claw, however I do not anticipate it to carry out higher than the Lenovo.
Lenovo’s Legion Go shines because of its good show and good efficiency regardless of providing too many buttons on its controllers. It is also very massive, and even bigger whenever you place it inside its case. You’d want a complete backpack to hold the factor round. You possibly can as an alternative use that backpack to hold a decent-spec gaming laptop computer, which needs to be simply accessible at Rs. 89,990.
The Legion Go is nice if you’d like a handheld Home windows PC that’s largely used at dwelling. If it had been me, I would look forward to the subsequent iteration. When you’ve received the cash, go for it, as it is a enjoyable gadget. Is it the most effective handheld console? No. Nevertheless it actually is the most effective Home windows handheld at the moment accessible in India, as there’s not a variety of competitors in the meanwhile.
Professionals:
- Wonderful show
- Good efficiency
- Removable controllers
- Good construct high quality
- Can play a variety of PC video games
Cons:
- Cumbersome
- Common battery life
- Home windows 11 OS
Scores (Out of 10)
- Design: 8
- Show: 9
- Software program: 7
- Efficiency: 9
- Battery life: 6
- Worth for cash: 7
- Total: 8