Lenovo Legion Go

[EddScott]

I'm sending the Go back. Having used it this afternoon back to back with an OLED Deck, I've decided to keep the Deck.

The Go is by far the better piece of hardware. I like how you can take off the grips and use it as a stand alone little TV I guess for travelling. Playing games on the Go compared to the Deck, the Go has better graphics and is smoother. I've been playing AMS2 on both and it's noticeable how much nicer the Go is - although when I first fired it up, it was a laggy mess. Having come from the Deck, I assumed it would "just work" like they do on the deck. I hadn't anticipated having to fiddle a bit to make it work. No great shakes I guess but a drawback of having Win11 as an OS.

A quick comment on the OLED deck. Given the price difference of the orignal Deck compared the OLEDs, I don't think the screen is worth it. The extra space, maybe. 512GB LCD Deck and save yourself £180.

If I could have the Go but with the Steam OS then they'd be no competition. As it is, the convenience of the Deck won the argument for me. If you're happy to tweak as you go, then I'd imagine the Go would suit you more. I'm too old and lazy

 

[Rroff]

I like how you can take off the grips and use it as a stand alone little TV I guess for travelling.

I'm actually finding it really useful, way more than I thought, controllers off, flip stand out, and that kind of use - with the latest updates and some tweaks can get nearly 8 hours of battery life out of it watching YouTube (while also having a very performant Windows device - negating a lot of the need for having a laptop). Battery life is still a bit of a downside to it especially in tablet form but not terrible.

Windows 11 is a big let down for this kind of use, but overall I prefer having a full Windows install even if it means a bit of messing around. but Windows 11 could be infinitely better designed to accommodate things kind of thing - I have to have battery saver on at 100% to even remotely keep Windows 11 from being disruptive and even than it isn't ideal. Lenovo have been trying to resolve it but half the reason the fans ramp up periodically isn't a Lenovo problem but squarely a MS being clowns problem...

 

[Purgatory]

Lenovo Legion Go drops to 629 EUR in Germany, a 21% reduction from the original MSRP (£538)​

Lenovo Legion Go drops to 629 EUR in Germany, a 21% reduction from the original MSRP - VideoCardz.com

Legion Go price cut in Germany Lenovo offering their flagship handheld console at a really good price. The Legion Go and ROG Ally have been battling for the title of the most popular high-end gaming handheld running on Windows. While these devices can’t compete with the Steam Deck in terms of...

videocardz.com

Lowest price in UK has been £647.99 and currently can be found for £649.99

Lets hope we get a price drop too as £540 seems about right Even £500, £700 is too expensive I think for this after trying one.

 

[Rroff]

Yeah - I got one through the benefits scheme thing at work for £500, felt like a good price, £700 I'd struggle to justify. To be fair I'd probably buy another one with a decent discount as I find it a very useful device outside of game uses albeit could be better. Looks like there is a reduction in the amount of stock available for it though currently.

 

[PaulC2K]

Joined the LeGo club today, havent really done much with it so far, but it feels nice and responsive. I havent tried any of the other handhelds, but the screen looks really vibrant & sharp, and it doesnt feel as heavy as i expected. So far i think all of my concerns have been over-blown, having spent a decent amount of time reviewing the main 3 devices and the Steam Deck is a clear winner on things like the weight and software, but everything seems fine to me. Im sure side-by-side they're absolutely right, but ignorance is bliss etc and for me the LeGo won because i wanted windows, i wanted to access GamePass and my regular desktop apps as this will allow it to replace my Surface Pro 2 (2013) that i otherwise couldnt justify replacing cos its a glorified bedside browser.

The main purpose for it is to try and keep my sanity during hospital visits (4h, 3 times/wk) and after 5mo and recently being told instead of stopping this month i need to do another 2-3mo before i can go back to home treatment, so thats when i pulled the trigger on this. Beforehand i'd opted not to because it was only gonna be a few months and £500-700 just made no sense because i dont travel much, my desktop is plenty. I considered retro devices, cos im really interested in giving that a go, but it felt like a lot for something i might find im not that into (20yo games not being what you remember etc).

So im quite up-beat *at the moment* I've loaded Everspace 2 and hopefully i'll have more time to load some other games on after tomorrow. Im hoping theres a few games i wouldnt typically bother playing that the LeGo pushes me to because im looking for controller-first games.


Is there anything that people recommend you do in order to get the most out of the device? Uninstall as much useless Win11 Apps as possible, change window processes, enable/modify bios settings, etc etc??

 

[Rroff]

Is there anything that people recommend you do in order to get the most out of the device? Uninstall as much useless Win11 Apps as possible, change window processes, enable/modify bios settings, etc etc??

I find battery life, for non-gaming, is massively improved by selecting 5 watt TDP, running the display at 60Hz and settings battery saver to come on from 100% (so basically always on) in Windows, though it is a bit of a faff to undo that when you want to game, etc. but personally I use the device probably 80% of the time as a tablet, and Windows grumbles a bit when it comes to updates, etc. with battery saver on. With a bit of tweaking I can get it up to around 8 hours use from a full charge watching stuff on YouTube, etc.

The CPU on it is actually hilariously overpowered for what it needs, though that is useful for my uses, the problem with just using an off the shelf SoC like this as about 25% less CPU power and shifting those resources to GPU instead would have made more sense. It'll actually put many recent(ish) desktop CPUs to shame while using very little power.

and it doesnt feel as heavy as i expected

This is something I found - it is actually quite a heavy device for what it is, but I've never really noticed it when actually using it.

 

[Emlyn_Dewar]

I've also hopped on to the Lenovo Legion Go train.
Had been using an Ayaneo Air with a 5560u for the last year, and it had been great but I've been having a mare of a time getting a replacement battery after I noticed a small amount of swelling. I wasn't even asking for a free battery, just wanted to buy one! Even in China they're not great for support.

As mentioned in the previous 2 posts, I am surprised at the weight. Coming from one of the lightest x86 handhelds to one of the weightiest, I expected it to be ridiculous in hand. It isn't.
Unfortunately I won't really get proper time with it until the weekend, but I'm glad I jumped. It was between this and the Ally for me, and I'm sure either one would have been good. Just felt like the bigger screen would be beneficial for RPGs.

 

[kenny_st]

been thinking of getting the go, has anyone connected it to a 55inch tv and the games are playable ?

 

[Rroff]

been thinking of getting the go, has anyone connected it to a 55inch tv and the games are playable ?

Depends on how old the games are and what resolution - anything recent at 4K is a complete nope - none the less the GPU shares the 16GB RAM with the system so if you are pulling a few GBs off for the GPU at 4K it doesn't leave much for the game :s

Older games at 4K will run fine though.

I've connected it up to a 4K display via a simple USB-C adapter and TB3 e-GPU enclosure with a 3070 in it and both work fine in terms of driving the display.

 

[kenny_st]

Depends on how old the games are and what resolution - anything recent at 4K is a complete nope - none the less the GPU shares the 16GB RAM with the system so if you are pulling a few GBs off for the GPU at 4K it doesn't leave much for the game :s

Older games at 4K will run fine though.

I've connected it up to a 4K display via a simple USB-C adapter and TB3 e-GPU enclosure with a 3070 in it and both work fine in terms of driving the display.

thank you it would be only the odd time i would connect it, mainly playing fortnite and a few older games, might just grab one and see what all the fuss is about lol

 

[willhub]

How much performance you loose with eGPU Vs in a pc?

 

[Jonezy]

How much performance you loose with eGPU Vs in a pc?

eGPU Performance Loss - PCI Express vs. Thunderbolt

This is the question that many users wants to know: How much performance drop of my Video Card i will have if i put it in the eGPU with Thunderbolt 1,...

egpu.io

 

[Rroff]

How much performance you loose with eGPU Vs in a pc?

With a 1070 in the eGPU enclosure and TB3 seeing about 15-16% drop like the link above, just put one of my 3070s in but not got to test that.

 

[willhub]

With a 1070 in the eGPU enclosure and TB3 seeing about 15-16% drop like the link above, just put one of my 3070s in but not got to test that.

Wonder if it is worth me using an eGPU on my ROG Ally i,e taking gamerock 4080 out of pc into enclosure

 

[carl5363]

I'm thinking of getting this, mainly due to the screen size.

How does Fortnite play on it?

 

[willhub]

I'm thinking of getting this, mainly due to the screen size.

How does Fortnite play on it?

With scaling it'll play ok I suppose, my ally with a 1080p plays ok with scaling. no ray tracing though

 

[Rroff]

Wonder if it is worth me using an eGPU on my ROG Ally i,e taking gamerock 4080 out of pc into enclosure

Problem is the bandwidth between the eGPU enclosure and device - generally limited to around 2.5GB/s effective throughput - not even PCI-e 3.0 x4 link performance. Which will massively hinder a 4080.

I'm thinking of getting this, mainly due to the screen size.

How does Fortnite play on it?

I don't have the game myself but by all reports it plays fairly well on it - the Go can do 800p at quarter scaling, native 1600p, which helps with performance, though does mean 1080p isn't an ideal resolution on the screen.

 

[Rroff]

Slightly discounted at a few places currently - about £50 off normal price.

 

[Emlyn_Dewar]

I only just bought lossless scaling last night. That should have been a day 1 purchase tbh. Not really sure why companies aren't building this sort of functionality into their launcher. All of them offer a half assed kind, but the quality difference is quite high.

Aside from that, got the Planet Crafter. Runs alright on the Legion Go, and seems like it'll be a good time.
Sold of most of my PC after buying the Legion. Enjoying gaming on it more than the desktop.

 

[Taziir]

I'm flipflopping on going in on the Legion Go.
In terms of bang for your buck, how does the LeGo as an all-in-one stack up vs going for a budget mobo/CPU/ram/GPU at a similiar price point?

Tbh my use case is more about budget first, as most of the fund for this will come through retailer specific discounts & vouchers via work. This restricts where I can buy to places like Currys/Argos - you work with what you can get right.
In terms of actually using the device I would be mostly plugged in for gaming on a 4k 60hz tv for games such as Elden Ring, Baldurs Gate 3, Hogwarts Legacy, RDR2. I'm not expecting the LeGo to go to 4k and would stick with 1440 or 1080, wherever frame rates can be relatively smooth.
I regularly make 3hr train journeys, so the portability for gaming & movies would be a bonus but is not my primary driver.