Lenovo Legion Go

XeNoNF50 · 18 Sep 2025 at 20:01

sgavan said:
Preview of the next Windows\Xbox app update coming to handhelds, probably the Legion go range as well. Could be good and I would prefer windows for ease of access to other launchers

We hacked the new Windows 11 Xbox Mode onto the old ROG Ally — how does it optimize performance?

Microsoft's new handheld gaming mode for Windows 11 is launching first on the upcoming Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X, but it will be coming to all gaming handhelds eventually. Here's a first look at the experience running on an original ROG Ally.

www.windowscentral.com

I am installing today. You need to go to windows insiders updates and sign up for release preview. Think the Xbox full screen experience is in the 25H2 update preview.

Similarly new Xbox app in Xbox insiders. Installing it all on my Lego, will report back.

sgavan · 18 Sep 2025 at 20:57

I may reinstall windows on my legion go s at the weekend and try it out, seems the 25h2 is due for release next month so may wait for that rather than the beta

XeNoNF50 · 18 Sep 2025 at 20:58

XeNoNF50 said:
I am installing today. You need to go to windows insiders updates and sign up for release preview. Think the Xbox full screen experience is in the 25H2 update preview.

Similarly new Xbox app in Xbox insiders. Installing it all on my Lego, will report back.

Had to hack it on after I installed the updates using instructions in this article using ViVeTool https://www.pcguide.com/news/xbox-m...og-xbox-ally-launch-heres-how-to-download-it/

Didn't just turn on by default using the windows insiders preview build.

Now to use it...

degen · 18 Sep 2025 at 21:49

sgavan said:
Preview of the next Windows\Xbox app update coming to handhelds, probably the Legion go range as well. Could be good and I would prefer windows for ease of access to other launchers

We hacked the new Windows 11 Xbox Mode onto the old ROG Ally — how does it optimize performance?

Microsoft's new handheld gaming mode for Windows 11 is launching first on the upcoming Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X, but it will be coming to all gaming handhelds eventually. Here's a first look at the experience running on an original ROG Ally.

www.windowscentral.com

Still doesn't improve the sleep function with windows which is the single biggest issue with using it on a handheld. Makes it a complete non starter.

XeNoNF50 · 19 Sep 2025 at 08:46

degen said:
Still doesn't improve the sleep function with windows which is the single biggest issue with using it on a handheld. Makes it a complete non starter.

Yeah they need to sort that but this is a very good step forward. Still lots to do.

adamg64 · 19 Sep 2025 at 09:43

Mine is due to arrive today and im looking forward to giving it a try. It is more than likely not going to see much action as its main use is for when i travel.

I am very concerned about the battery life at this stage. Has anybody used it on a flight before? I fly virgin a lot and they have usb on the seats/screens but its usually a very under powered USB port but do you find its enough to keep the unit going along with a full battery?

I'm off to orlando in 5 weeks and a long flight ahead, we also have power banks too. But usb is an extra option

Rroff · 19 Sep 2025 at 09:50

adamg64 said:
I am very concerned about the battery life at this stage. Has anybody used it on a flight before? I fly virgin a lot and they have usb on the seats/screens but its usually a very under powered USB port but do you find its enough to keep the unit going along with a full battery?

I've not tried it with the USB port on Virgin but Googling it suggests they are only 5W capable which the device will probably not accept aside from very slowly charging with it turned off.

Battery life will depend a lot on the settings and usage.

degen said:
Still doesn't improve the sleep function with windows which is the single biggest issue with using it on a handheld. Makes it a complete non starter.

I don't even bother with sleep on mine most of the time - as standard it boots to a fully loaded desktop from cold in 5 seconds, with a few tweaks you can get that down to around 3 seconds!

ZXSpectrum · 19 Sep 2025 at 11:16

You will get a decent battery life if you are playing indie games or emulation you can get up to about 4-5 hours.. Less intensive games then you are maybe looking at 2-3 hours.. For AAA games then 1.5-2 hours max in my experience. Can you take a 20000mah battery on a flight? I know you can get some 65w output ones (I think i have the iniu 20000mah one that does that) So that would probably last you the flight.

XeNoNF50 · 19 Sep 2025 at 13:01

adamg64 said:
Mine is due to arrive today and im looking forward to giving it a try. It is more than likely not going to see much action as its main use is for when i travel.

I am very concerned about the battery life at this stage. Has anybody used it on a flight before? I fly virgin a lot and they have usb on the seats/screens but its usually a very under powered USB port but do you find its enough to keep the unit going along with a full battery?

I'm off to orlando in 5 weeks and a long flight ahead, we also have power banks too. But usb is an extra option

Is that the legion Go 2 or the Legion Go? Gen 2 has a much larger battery. You should be able to play AAA games at 18W (to get same power as Z1E from Z2E), add a few more W for system/screen. Battery is a 74Wh, so do some math on how long that will last, but easily 3+ hours. Think you should be good on a flight if it has a power outlet, but if an in flight USB port, more than likely not good enough. Power banks work with 65w output and can extend time, I have 2 small sized INUI 25000mah I use that extend the life nicely of my OG GO. I will be doing the same to NY soon but think United airlines who I am flying with this time has power outlets.

adamg64 · 19 Sep 2025 at 15:04

XeNoNF50 said:
Is that the legion Go 2 or the Legion Go? Gen 2 has a much larger battery. You should be able to play AAA games at 18W (to get same power as Z1E from Z2E), add a few more W for system/screen. Battery is a 74Wh, so do some math on how long that will last, but easily 3+ hours. Think you should be good on a flight if it has a power outlet, but if an in flight USB port, more than likely not good enough. Power banks work with 65w output and can extend time, I have 2 small sized INUI 25000mah I use that extend the life nicely of my OG GO. I will be doing the same to NY soon but think United airlines who I am flying with this time has power outlets.

Just the legion Go , i have two 20000mah i think i might get one of them larger more power wattage ones too we.

I have twin 3 year olds i need them ipads running on over time for the 10 hour flight so the powerbanks help

I'm looking to play borderlands 3 on it, if it will run it.

currently playing borderlands 4 for the first playing the series and love it, so want to play that.

Bradmax57 · 20 Sep 2025 at 13:25

just installed the xbox full screen experience on my go s, quite liking it so far

degen · 20 Sep 2025 at 22:01

Rroff said:
I don't even bother with sleep on mine most of the time - as standard it boots to a fully loaded desktop from cold in 5 seconds, with a few tweaks you can get that down to around 3 seconds!

Booting it up isn't the issue though. It's loading the launchers. Loading the game. Getting back to where you were previously. With Steam OS it's instant. Every. Single. Time.

Bradmax57 · 20 Sep 2025 at 22:09

degen said:
Booting it up isn't the issue though. It's loading the launchers. Loading the game. Getting back to where you were previously. With Steam OS it's instant. Every. Single. Time.

I think this xbox experience maybe the death of Steam OS tbh but time will tell, so far im loving it so much better than standard w11 and steam os imo,

Besty · 20 Sep 2025 at 23:26

Haggisman said:
which plugin are you using? I installed Decky/LegionGoRemapper, and it works perfectly.

unless they have been updated in the past week or so (possible) the control using that combo broke when the controllers firmware was updated.

Either that or your firmware on the controllers is on the last release, perfectly fine of course , don't upgrade!

adamg64 · 21 Sep 2025 at 06:52

It finally landed on Friday and initially i was really impressed with the quality for the unit and the look of the huge screen, navigating through windows and installing updates was very smooth.

Yesterday i decided to install a few games with mixed results, my go to casual game is rocket league so installed and ran and on first run it was very blurry i played with settings (Changed to max) and it looked amazing and ran around 60fps which wasn't bad.

Next i tried eFootball (PES) and it was unplayable on all settings and res prob abit too much for it which i was surprised at not exactly a high demanding AAA game so now im a little set back about it.

I am currently running the stock windows and , installed steam and epic game launcher which allows to you to run and install anything in your library, is there anything out there software wise that recommends games that are playable on a default handheld settings?

My main concern is the Battery

Upon a full charge testing 1-2 games within 30mins it was down to around 48% , and before i knew it was 29% , 17% and needed charging. I checked battery health as its a refurb model its on 97% battery health so very high.

I'm a little gutted about this, it makes it almost non portable without the need to carry a powerbank or be plugged in, i know people have mentioned drop the resolutions and play on low settings to extend battery life but even 10 year old rocket league it looks terrible when you drop it that much.

I dunno what to do, am i expecting too much from this device? maybe i should have gone for something else?

XeNoNF50 · 21 Sep 2025 at 08:08

adamg64 said:
It finally landed on Friday and initially i was really impressed with the quality for the unit and the look of the huge screen, navigating through windows and installing updates was very smooth.

Yesterday i decided to install a few games with mixed results, my go to casual game is rocket league so installed and ran and on first run it was very blurry i played with settings (Changed to max) and it looked amazing and ran around 60fps which wasn't bad.

Next i tried eFootball (PES) and it was unplayable on all settings and res prob abit too much for it which i was surprised at not exactly a high demanding AAA game so now im a little set back about it.

I am currently running the stock windows and , installed steam and epic game launcher which allows to you to run and install anything in your library, is there anything out there software wise that recommends games that are playable on a default handheld settings?

My main concern is the Battery

Upon a full charge testing 1-2 games within 30mins it was down to around 48% , and before i knew it was 29% , 17% and needed charging. I checked battery health as its a refurb model its on 97% battery health so very high.

I'm a little gutted about this, it makes it almost non portable without the need to carry a powerbank or be plugged in, i know people have mentioned drop the resolutions and play on low settings to extend battery life but even 10 year old rocket league it looks terrible when you drop it that much.

I dunno what to do, am i expecting too much from this device? maybe i should have gone for something else?

If original Go you need to set wattage to 17w or lower to extend battery life. I play at 20w usually to get about 90mins.

The best devices for battery will be the Claw 8 AI+, Claw A8, Rog Ally X (but this will be replaced by Xbox Rog Ally X in a month or so, same high capacity battery, so absolutely do not buy this for it's current price), or Legion Go 2. All the non-Lenovo ones mentioned have 80Wh battery (vs LeGo OG 50Wh). LeGo 2 has 74Wh.

adamg64 · 21 Sep 2025 at 09:16

XeNoNF50 said:
If original Go you need to set wattage to 17w or lower to extend battery life. I play at 20w usually to get about 90mins.

The best devices for battery will be the Claw 8 AI+, Claw A8, Rog Ally X (but this will be replaced by Xbox Rog Ally X in a month or so, same high capacity battery, so absolutely do not buy this for it's current price), or Legion Go 2. All the non-Lenovo ones mentioned have 80Wh battery (vs LeGo OG 50Wh). LeGo 2 has 74Wh.

Its the Legion GO not the S

XeNoNF50 · 21 Sep 2025 at 09:45

adamg64 said:
Its the Legion GO not the S

Yep so same as I've got right now.

Rroff · 21 Sep 2025 at 12:41

adamg64 said:
I dunno what to do, am i expecting too much from this device? maybe i should have gone for something else?

As above have you used Legion Space to tweak power settings? you won't get more than about an hour or so on any reasonably demanding game with the default performance mode.

The GPU at the end of the day hovers around GTX1030-1060 performance depending on game. I'm also a bit wary of the advice to allocate 6GB VRAM as that can take too much away from the physical RAM for some games to play well and if you are using much more than 3GB or so VRAM you probably are trying to use settings which are too demanding on its GPU performance so it becomes a bit of a juggling act - hence why I'm likely to jump on a 32GB device sooner than later.

Personally I'd say if your main use is purely gaming the original Go is not the optimal device, it is a great device if you want a general entertainment platform with the ability to put it to use for even desktop tasks on the go, but for a purely gaming focused handheld there is better.

XeNoNF50 · 21 Sep 2025 at 14:26

Rroff said:
As above have you used Legion Space to tweak power settings? you won't get more than about an hour or so on any reasonably demanding game with the default performance mode.

The GPU at the end of the day hovers around GTX1030-1060 performance depending on game. I'm also a bit wary of the advice to allocate 6GB VRAM as that can take too much away from the physical RAM for some games to play well and if you are using much more than 3GB or so VRAM you probably are trying to use settings which are too demanding on its GPU performance so it becomes a bit of a juggling act - hence why I'm likely to jump on a 32GB device sooner than later.

Personally I'd say if your main use is purely gaming the original Go is not the optimal device, it is a great device if you want a general entertainment platform with the ability to put it to use for even desktop tasks on the go, but for a purely gaming focused handheld there is better.

I keep vram on auto and it works fine. For gaming everything 800p with integer scaling.

Separate to this tried to get Xbox full screen experience on my pc which I use primarily with controller on TV. Didn't manage to get the option unfortunately.