Thanks for the in-depth answers mate. AppreciatedI don't think there is a "best" to be honest. They all have advantages & drawbacks.
Ally - I'd say this is now the basic no-frills Windows handhelds of choice. Following its price cut, it's around £150 cheaper than the Legion Go for similar performance. You just forgo some of the Legion's more interesting features - the larger screen, the detachable controllers, the track pad.
Ally X - this is probably as close to a "best" device as you can get. But it's £800At the end of the day, it's just a regular Ally with 32GB RAM, a larger SSD, larger battery, and a minor redesign. At the heart, it's still the same Z1 Extreme processor powering things. It needs a hefty price cut.
Legion Go - largely covered above. Offers interesting features, but it's more expensive than some better performing rivals. Personally, I'd love to see the Legion get the Ally X treatment.
Antec Core HS - great value at £550, especially if you're quick & get the accessories bundle with it. One of the top handhelds for performance & it has a built in keyboard. However, the screen is only ~6", or about the same size as a smartphone's screen.
MSI Claw - plagued with issues. Best avoided.
Steam Deck - the most "console-like" experience of all these handhelds, with a great screen & best in class battery life. However, the latest Windows handhelds are a lot more powerful.
Also, while the Linux OS is great for getting maximum performance out of the hardware, there's a growing gap between what the Deck can handle and what the latest Windows handhelds can do. Running on Linux also has some drawbacks. Many common Windows tools simply don't have compatible Linux counterparts. Mods can be more difficult (or in some cases, impossible) to install. And if you want to play Game Pass titles, you have to either dual boot Windows, or stream them from the Cloud.
I'm happy with my Steam Deck. But I'm reluctant to say it's the best. The reality is that the hardware simply cannot handle some 2023 & 2024 releases. And this is a problem which is likely to get worse in the coming years. It's also disappointing to have to jump through hoops to play Game Pass titles.
Lenovo Legion Go
- Thread starter kakarott
- Start date
Good spot. Makes the asking price even more comical (and makes the Antec look like an even better deal).
The booting issue shown here regarding other os via usb or microsd (will start at the point needed) :-
Trying to find the video where loading or saving to the microsd only does 10Mb/s reading and writing, so even tiny games used for emulation would stutter loading. On expensive good quality sd cards, not some random cheap card and once that card is pulled from the legion go and stuck in another handheld it works correctly and even on a microsd card reader on a pc, so something is up with the microsd slot and that put me off as I wanted to run my roms from the sd card and not bother updating the 512GB ssd then as the largest 2230/2242 is only 2TB too, yes you can buy a 2242 to 2280 adapter to mod a 2280 ssd in but they also get a little warm as they sit over the battery area and you have to mod the case by clipping off some of the plastic and screw holder areas down, so basically zero warranty after the mod to get a 2280 ssd in.
Will try find the video but would love to see you test the write and read speed you are seeing.
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I'll try and get around to it but I keep forgetting to do it at an appropriate time.
Lenovo really should have done a proper keyboard with USB-C pass through and maybe even a USB-A hub which could be used like that or folio style with the Go itself as mentioned in the comments - that would have been pretty handy.
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Getting some annoying behaviour, albeit I don't think a Lenovo or AMD issue, with the latest Windows 11 updates on my Go 
******* Microsoft. Certain MS background tasks instantly close the Start Menu or other menus, etc. until they've completed, unless in higher power modes certain things like anti-malware background tasks while running cause videos to stutter or the picture stop updating until the background process goes idle again. Mostly happens around 1-2 minutes after starting up for about 30 seconds then goes away but still. Windows developers need a good slap around the head.
******* Microsoft. Certain MS background tasks instantly close the Start Menu or other menus, etc. until they've completed, unless in higher power modes certain things like anti-malware background tasks while running cause videos to stutter or the picture stop updating until the background process goes idle again. Mostly happens around 1-2 minutes after starting up for about 30 seconds then goes away but still. Windows developers need a good slap around the head.
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Did some quick and dirty testing with copying large files from my dashcam on and off the SD card and hitting the expected read and write speeds of the SD card for sustained operations anyhow. Haven't tried a storage benchmark yet.
Quick question, does it still need to be plugged in to change the screens refresh rate from 60 to 144Hz ? That was an issue where if you changed the refresh rate you couldn't set it back up without it being plugged in.
I've never had that issue - mine appears to be able to change to and from 144Hz and 60Hz at will on battery.
Maybe they finally fixed that with a BIOS update, I'm just wondering if to grab one for emulation only as I like the 16:10 screen for that and 16GB RAM will never be an issue for that, just have to get use to the silly controllers and figure out how to fix the D-pad, the steam deck OLED is another possibility too, but don't like the fact it doesn't have enough power to run PS3,XBOX/360,Switch .. not enough cpu and gpu power with its older SOC.
But the OLED screen and the two track pads may swing it as there is a few games I like that will make good use of the track pads in emulation. Just trying to decide before they restock the Antecs tomorrow as I may just end up grabbing a second one but in white this time and use that for emulation.. Want to keep the original one I purchased for pc games only and liking it a lot for that ...
Thanks for getting back mate, as I'm trying to figure this out by tomorrow as that's when the restock happens for the Antecs and need to be quick as always to grab one before they vanish and last drop now with the free bundle, also the LeGo is on sale again for £600, the Asus Ally OG Z1 Extreme was on sale other day for £450 but back to £500 at some places so was also thinking about that, but then remembered all the issues with it and kept saying nope to myself even as an emulation device only and I would like to be able to use MicroSD cards for that too and we know what the Ally does to them grrr.
The SD card issues aren't great on either side there. I dunno if I've got lucky with my Go but I've really not ran into any of the more common problems aside from briefly the speaker one. I'm surprised there isn't more drama around the Ally though as literally every person I know in person who has bought one has either ended up returning it or having 1-2 replacements to sort issues like the SD card, poor build quality especially certain sticks/switches or failing screens (though from Googling seems one of those is a colour managed software issue rather than hardware failure though there is also a known hardware failure with the touchscreen due to heat).
I was never going to buy the original Ally even if they sold it for £350.. Too much hassle with a good few things wrong with it, I would rather buy an MSI Claw again than risk all the headaches and even the X version is showing again typical Asus QC on these devices (£800 LOL, you're having a laugh, they are heading to never seeing my money again because of their behaviour mainly), anyways I grabbed the last new Legion Go while the sale is on at my not so local Purple shirt place grrr.
Only unpacked it and charged it up and not even switched it on yet, waiting for a 2TB SSD to come for it tomorrow and then will change the drive and have a day of updates and all that windows stuff.. The steam deck OLED idea went the way of the Dodo after seeing how quickly the screen can burn in too.. no thanks not for me and that was the only thing that made me want to buy one even with its low specs and issues with some emulators not running fast enough. A real shame its an amazing screen with HDR.
So grabbed the legion go and will give people a chance to buy the Antec's that don't have one before I grab a second one as a back up or for something else and I do want the white one too as I have the black one and its really impressed me a lot. Plan so far for the LeGo is my main emulation machine and any pc game that has a lot of small text type of game, the Antec screen is really nice, just a shame my eyes are starting to give up on me too.. How I miss the days of playing on tiny screens and seeing everything pin sharp, thankfully at normal holding distance everything is clear and now I have the two perfect sized devices, I did want a small and large device and waiting for next gen I have a feeling will only upset me with the silly prices, we already saw what ps5 pro has done and worrying same will come to the handhelds, Zotac and Asus are already pulling the prices up even before next gen.
Also I will check out the MicroSD slot too and trying to figure out which dock to buy as the official LeGo dock is out of stock with lenovo and can grab one on the river but I think I may want one with Display port too, not just HDMI as if I plug it into my ultrawide 32:9 screen I don't think the HDMI will use the correct native resolution and DP is the fix..
Do you use a dock and which one do you use with yours ?
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Currently I've just got a Cable Matters 4-in-1 Portable USB C Hub w/ HDMI and 100W PD and the Razer Core X Chroma (though that has some complications to running it stable
).Ironically I don't use the Go much as a handheld device with the joycons but as a portable gaming device - most of the time it is joycons off and flip stand out using either a travel keyboard and mouse or a smaller controller.
This explains why the Legion Go has been missing in action on Lenovo's site for it...
www.forbes.com
Legion GO Suddenly Disappears From European Lenovo Sites [UPDATED]
Maybe it's time to revive those Lenovo Legion GO Lite discussions? Especially with IFA kicking off this week.
www.forbes.com
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@Rroff See what I mean regarding next gen prices ? The HX 370 APU is costing double the 8840U price
.
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This explains why the Legion Go has been missing in action on Lenovo's site for it...
Legion GO Suddenly Disappears From European Lenovo Sites [UPDATED]
Maybe it's time to revive those Lenovo Legion GO Lite discussions? Especially with IFA kicking off this week.
LOL now we know why they were really removed ... They are now £750 with a 1TB SSD from the past £700 with the 512GB SSD they originally retailed at.
Back in stock at Lenovo..
Lenovo Legion Go
Lenovo Legion Go has AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processors with RDNA graphics. Plus it features an 8.8″ QHD+ Lenovo PureSight Gaming display and Legion Space.
www.lenovo.com
Lenovo's Product Specifications Reference
Now states the 1TB version for UK models that wasn't there before..
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psref.lenovo.com
So if you want the 512GB SSD model and to upgrade to 2TB+ SSD then go grab one while they are on sale for £600 if you can find one that they will deliver or do pickup in store, usual high street places currently on the £600 sale price. Clearly their way to keep the prices up and just sell off the remaining 512GB models and discontinue them.
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Want more RAM as that is the real issue with 16GB RAM shared with VRAM with such devices.