Based on the images, Lenovo’s take on a PC gaming handheld looks a lot like devices such as the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally, but it also has a lot in common with the Nintendo Switch.
According to Windows Report, the Legion Go has an eight-inch screen, images show two Joy-Con-like controllers that can be removed, and it even appears to have a wide Switch OLED-like kickstand that you can pop out for tabletop gaming.
The Legion Go’s controllers appear to be a blend of the Switch’s flat but removable Joy-Cons and the Steam Deck’s contoured but attached grips.
Perhaps the most important takeaway from these apparent images of the device (there are more, and you can see them all at Windows Report) is that Lenovo isn’t shying away from making the Legion Go thick.
Asus steered away from thickness and heft with the ROG Ally, which wound up with middling battery life, but we’re beginning to see portables like the upcoming Ayaneo Kun pointed towards beefier batteries.
Lenovo has dabbled with handheld gaming devices in the past, showing the “LaVie Mini” concept in partnership with NEC at CES 2021 and building an unreleased Android-based device called the Legion Play.
I would have preferred two touchpads, but the fact that they're including one already sets them leagues ahead of the rest of the Steam Deck's competition in the handheld PC market.
With how useful the touchpads are on the Steam Deck for navigating a desktop interface, I can't imagine using a device without them.
Fully agree with you. Though I can't imagine that a hardware company like Lenovo would be able to get two TouchPads working with games in any meaningful way; at least not without direct support from valve. Valve can only do it because they developed steam input with the two TouchPads in mind. Given Lenovo's laptop experience I'd say the trackpad on this thing is likely just a mouse and can't be configured as something else (which like you said is still a vast improvement over all these other non-steam deck handhelds that either poorly emulate mouse input with a joystick or worse don't have any mouse control at all other than a touch screen). Though I guess Lenovo could have their own app that configures this stuff on its own. But I doubt that would come anywhere close to being as good as steam input. I also can't imagine how cumbersome that kind of a solution would be; not to mention the almost guaranteed issues with game compatibility it would bring.
This seems like the right way to go for Lenovo imo without them having to invest in their own bloated software.
The position of the sole touchpad is a bit shit though. Valve really got it right with the Steam Deck.
Before you get a steam deck: how many fps does it get?
After you get a steam deck: if I run it at 10 fps can I get 8 hours of playtime?
I have the Rog Ally and I love it but there are some issues with this. I’m digging how this looks and the detachable controllers are really dope. I might just return mine and wait for this. Windows really needs to find a big picture mode to work. At least the Xbox App.
Theres at least steam big picture mode and you can filter all your games/apps through that. Otherwise yeah, its funny that there was that big push starting with 8.1 to "unify" everything and yet their new OS sucks on tablets.
So many people complained about 8, sadly. 8.1 wasn't so bad once there's a way to switch to boot to Desktop on default. 10 regressed on the tablet side.
Keep the deck, I want those controllers.
I use the Lenovo gaming phone (Legion duel) it's great hardware wise but the software is seriously flawed, and they have never fixed it after 2 years... So yeah I think I'll stick with the steamdeck
Valve should allow these companies to use SteamOS 3.0, Linux game support would further improve and Valve gets more customers for steam.
It should be possible once valve releases an ISO for it. But has we all know, valve seems to have a problem releasing anything with a 3 in the name...
Yeah. We can dream. I can't wait for the day I can 100% ditch Windows for Linux
They could ship and support ChimeraOS as well
https://chimeraos.org/about/
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Based on the images, Lenovo’s take on a PC gaming handheld looks a lot like devices such as the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally, but it also has a lot in common with the Nintendo Switch.
According to Windows Report, the Legion Go has an eight-inch screen, images show two Joy-Con-like controllers that can be removed, and it even appears to have a wide Switch OLED-like kickstand that you can pop out for tabletop gaming.
The Legion Go’s controllers appear to be a blend of the Switch’s flat but removable Joy-Cons and the Steam Deck’s contoured but attached grips.
Perhaps the most important takeaway from these apparent images of the device (there are more, and you can see them all at Windows Report) is that Lenovo isn’t shying away from making the Legion Go thick.
Asus steered away from thickness and heft with the ROG Ally, which wound up with middling battery life, but we’re beginning to see portables like the upcoming Ayaneo Kun pointed towards beefier batteries.
Lenovo has dabbled with handheld gaming devices in the past, showing the “LaVie Mini” concept in partnership with NEC at CES 2021 and building an unreleased Android-based device called the Legion Play.
I'm a bot and I'm open source!
5 crisp dollars says lawyers at Nintendo are double checking joy-con patents to see if there is anyway to get a lawsuit here.
I would have preferred two touchpads, but the fact that they're including one already sets them leagues ahead of the rest of the Steam Deck's competition in the handheld PC market.
With how useful the touchpads are on the Steam Deck for navigating a desktop interface, I can't imagine using a device without them.
Fully agree with you. Though I can't imagine that a hardware company like Lenovo would be able to get two TouchPads working with games in any meaningful way; at least not without direct support from valve. Valve can only do it because they developed steam input with the two TouchPads in mind. Given Lenovo's laptop experience I'd say the trackpad on this thing is likely just a mouse and can't be configured as something else (which like you said is still a vast improvement over all these other non-steam deck handhelds that either poorly emulate mouse input with a joystick or worse don't have any mouse control at all other than a touch screen). Though I guess Lenovo could have their own app that configures this stuff on its own. But I doubt that would come anywhere close to being as good as steam input. I also can't imagine how cumbersome that kind of a solution would be; not to mention the almost guaranteed issues with game compatibility it would bring.
This seems like the right way to go for Lenovo imo without them having to invest in their own bloated software.
The position of the sole touchpad is a bit shit though. Valve really got it right with the Steam Deck.
Before you get a steam deck: how many fps does it get?
After you get a steam deck: if I run it at 10 fps can I get 8 hours of playtime?
I have the Rog Ally and I love it but there are some issues with this. I’m digging how this looks and the detachable controllers are really dope. I might just return mine and wait for this. Windows really needs to find a big picture mode to work. At least the Xbox App.
Theres at least steam big picture mode and you can filter all your games/apps through that. Otherwise yeah, its funny that there was that big push starting with 8.1 to "unify" everything and yet their new OS sucks on tablets.
So many people complained about 8, sadly. 8.1 wasn't so bad once there's a way to switch to boot to Desktop on default. 10 regressed on the tablet side.
Keep the deck, I want those controllers.
I use the Lenovo gaming phone (Legion duel) it's great hardware wise but the software is seriously flawed, and they have never fixed it after 2 years... So yeah I think I'll stick with the steamdeck