Lenovo Legion Go

[Emlyn_Dewar]

Yeah, I'd just build a PC and watch movies on your phone for that train journey. Maybe get a small retro handheld if you really want to game.
Buying it to primarily be a plugged in experience would not be a good plan, and doubly so for those mentioned games. As far as I'm aware, there's still no battery bypass for this device either, which would be bad times for always plugged in.

Playing the Planet Crafter I've noticed issues with (I think) the latest BIOS moving the device to STAPM. Twice the whole device just went to ultra slowdown mode after playing for a while, the second time needing me to hold power button to get it to turn off. Changing this mode to STT seemed to resolve the issue (although it did come up with a chipset driver reinstall in Legion Space). Since changing this, the issue has not repeated.

 

[Rroff]

As far as I'm aware, there's still no battery bypass for this device either, which would be bad times for always plugged in.

What do you mean by that? it appears to correctly manage charging the battery and running off AC with a 100 watt charger connected.

Unless you mean being able to bypass battery at an arbitrary percent charge.

 

[Emlyn_Dewar]

Just going by what I read online, but that could very well be tripe! I haven't kept mine connected to my screen for too long, in fear of wrecking another handheld battery.

 

[Rroff]

Just going by what I read online, but that could very well be tripe! I haven't kept mine connected to my screen for too long, in fear of wrecking another handheld battery.

People have reported it constantly cycling the battery from 94% to full under heavy load on the original 65 watt charger and/or other charging settings causing undesirable wear. I've not seen it doing that plugged in with 100 watt PD, I've not used it for longer periods plugged in on the provided charger (my battery is still showing 0% wear and over 50Wh capacity after months of use).

 

[Combat squirrel]

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.

How easy was it to get an EGPU running on this? Worth it ?

 

[Rroff]

How easy was it to get an EGPU running on this? Worth it ?

A bit of messing about with drivers but not too bad, there seems to be some power management issues though - unless you run the GPU at full power or mess about with notebook drivers for the GPU it sometimes locks up at idle. Some people have found the drivers for the add-in NIC and USB card on the Razer one unstable but I've not had a problem with that so far.

 

[Scougar]

Put my Steam deck up for sale (USA.. so no threat to OCUK lol)... and was looking at the Go to replace it. I barely touched the Steam Deck, as I just use my gaming PC. I couldn't use Fusion 360 on the steam deck either, so the Legion interests me when I'm away.

The legion should technically perform better than the Ally due to higher memory speeds. A ton of mods for both. I like the bigger screen on the GO, since this year, my eyesight started to have focus issues up close.

Price still seems a little high though, and I missed the recent sale.

 

[Rroff]

Screen is nice on the Go but a real shame they didn't use a VRR one, I'm hoping they come out with a version 2 with a few improvements like that.

Have to be honest gaming use on my Go is relatively infrequent - much more I use it with the kickstand out, joycons off and watching YouTube or something like that. It is also quite capable for desktop productivity tasks, etc. as the CPU is no slouch - I'm often using it with a USB4 hub to connect a mouse, keyboard and monitor instead of toting a laptop around.

 

[Emlyn_Dewar]

I'd guess Lenovo will respond to that spec-bumped Ally soon enough? Might be worth holding off. Then again, sometimes good to just jump in without waiting.

I find the screen on the Legion Go to be pretty fantastic. It's big enough that I don't feel like I'm missing out playing on it, over my dust gathering ultrawide/desktop.
Coming from a smaller OLED handheld before, it's a night and day difference in usability. I was worried it'd be way too heavy for longer gaming sessions, but it just isn't.

 

[Rroff]

I'd guess Lenovo will respond to that spec-bumped Ally soon enough? Might be worth holding off. Then again, sometimes good to just jump in without waiting.

I find the screen on the Legion Go to be pretty fantastic. It's big enough that I don't feel like I'm missing out playing on it, over my dust gathering ultrawide/desktop.
Coming from a smaller OLED handheld before, it's a night and day difference in usability. I was worried it'd be way too heavy for longer gaming sessions, but it just isn't.

Though not essential but given the shared RAM/VRAM 24 or 32GB RAM would be much nicer - some games can be cutting it fine even though in most cases if you are using more than ~3GB VRAM you are probably playing at settings beyond the performance of the GPU.

Better battery efficiency and/or bigger battery wouldn't go amiss as well as properly fitting a 2280 NVME.

On a personal level though having VRR on the display would be a big plus and that plus more RAM would be an instant purchase from me.

 

[TNA]

Screen is nice on the Go but a real shame they didn't use a VRR one, I'm hoping they come out with a version 2 with a few improvements like that.

Have to be honest gaming use on my Go is relatively infrequent - much more I use it with the kickstand out, joycons off and watching YouTube or something like that. It is also quite capable for desktop productivity tasks, etc. as the CPU is no slouch - I'm often using it with a USB4 hub to connect a mouse, keyboard and monitor instead of toting a laptop around.

You have a Legion Go? Interesting.

Got a bog standard steam deck myself. Love it.

What I like is that these pc handhelds are now a thing. They will only keep getting better. Eventually if pc gaming gets too expensive and I do not have enough gaming time to justify keep upgrading, might just stick to these and upgrade every few years

My PC can stay and play as is. My current setup play my whole steam library anyway.

Doubt I would go down that route, but nice to know it is an option.

 

[Rroff]

You have a Legion Go? Interesting.

Yeah - there was an offer through the benefits thingy at work with a decent discount and I couldn't help myself. No regrets but I definitely think if they actually build on what does and doesn't work with these the next generation of devices will be massively better.

I'm actually impressed by the CPU performance more than anything though, while it probably wouldn't last as long as desktop components ran heavily long term and thermal throttles more easily the Ryzen Z1 Extreme holds up really well against not that old desktop class CPUs despite being 4x Zen 4, 4x Zen4C (think e-cores) / 16 threads - even at 5 watt TDP it can give my old Xeon 1650 V2 @4.4GHz a run for its money and even beat it at some things and at 30 watt isn't far off a Ryzen 5800X depending a bit on what you are doing - some stuff is doesn't hold up as well as other stuff.

Eventually if pc gaming gets too expensive and I do not have enough gaming time to justify keep upgrading, might just stick to these and upgrade every few years

I have the Razer Core X Chroma eGPU for mine with a 3070 in it - though anything faster than approx a GTX1070 is wasted really with only 2.5GB/s PCI-e bandwidth via TB3/4, one area an oculink port would be an improvement. But not exactly a cost saving over a PC LOL.

 

[Rroff]

Only just go around to testing Quake 2 RTX on this - holds up surprisingly well at 1280x800 w/ 75% resolution scaling and FSR and high settings getting a fairly playable ~40FPS not amazing but not bad for full path tracing on a device like this. With a little compromise on quality can get 60 FPS.

Having to resist the urge to buy a second one as I find it so useful, but it would be better to save the money for a hopefully improved second generation of the device.

 

[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.

Lenovo Legion Go drops to $551, the company addresses 7-inch handheld rumors - VideoCardz.com

There’s no 7-inch Lenovo Legion Go (yet), but the original is getting cheaper The company responded to misleading information in the product description. There’s good news and bad news. The good news is that the Legion Go handheld, which debuted last year, is now available at a much lower price...

videocardz.com

$551 now in USA and we have a sale on now too for £600... Cheapest it has been and can be found for £590 too but come on still more expensive than what EU got it a while back and now USA at an all time low and makes it £431.50.. yes no VAT/sales tax (but some USA states have 0% sales Tax) for USA.. Even with 20% VAT still cheaper than our ripoff UK sales prices.. At USA price with UK VAT at 20% it should be £517.80.

Also the ALLY X is comically priced USA $799 and UK £799.. For basically a larger battery, 8GB RAM, 2280 NVME sized slot and so called better fans and joysticks that are again not Hall effect...

 

[Rroff]

Also the ALLY X is comically priced USA $699 and UK £699.. For basically a larger battery, 8GB RAM, 2280 NVME sized slot and so called better fans and joysticks that are again not Hall effect...

To be fair the Go would be better with 24GB - once you've got a few GB dedicated to the video memory it can be cutting it fine - some games like Hogwarts Legacy don't like less than 16GB. But for me personally the Go is so much of a better device in the ways I care even if it wasn't Asus I wouldn't even consider the Ally X.

At least so far my Go has been flawless for quality control as well unlike seems to be the story with the Ally line where nearly everyone I know in person who has one has had to RMA it.

I do find the lack of VRR support on the screen a bit of a downside though as at optimal compromise between performance and image quality you are often sitting with FPS in the 40s where VRR really comes into its own. What I do find interesting is that even with the CPU limited to 5 watt TDP it can still give like the top end Intel 9000/10000 series (or equivalent AMD) desktop CPUs a run for performance, never mind at 35 watt.

 

[Purgatory]

To be fair the Go would be better with 24GB - once you've got a few GB dedicated to the video memory it can be cutting it fine - some games like Hogwarts Legacy don't like less than 16GB. But for me personally the Go is so much of a better device in the ways I care even if it wasn't Asus I wouldn't even consider the Ally X.

At least so far my Go has been flawless for quality control as well unlike seems to be the story with the Ally line where nearly everyone I know in person who has one has had to RMA it.

I do find the lack of VRR support on the screen a bit of a downside though as at optimal compromise between performance and image quality you are often sitting with FPS in the 40s where VRR really comes into its own. What I do find interesting is that even with the CPU limited to 5 watt TDP it can still give like the top end Intel 9000/10000 series (or equivalent AMD) desktop CPUs a run for performance, never mind at 35 watt.

The ALLY X price is actually £799/$799 sorry typo and corrected now at top. So basically £300 more than the current UK sale price £500 for the original ALLY and £200 more than LeGO when on sale. Which is silly to me and makes zero sense for it to be £300 more for hardly any changes from the original and even has new issues to add.

Yes looking at these devices again in recent days the Legion GO is still the best device even with its issues too, but they are no where near as bad as the ALLY/X issues .. I'm just annoyed at the UK pricing of the LeGO compared to other countries, currently the lowest it has officially been is £600 which it is at currently while on sale.. but it still costs £70-85 more than other countries sale price with VAT added and in USA with no VAT states it is £431.50 .. making it £168.50 cheaper than UK ... or with states sales tax say that they have 20% VAT as we do in UK would make it £517.80 and £82.50 cheaper than UK sale price now .. Why are we getting ripped off so much here ?

 

[Rroff]

and in USA with no VAT states it is £431.50 .. making it £168.50 cheaper than UK ... or with states sales tax say that they have 20% VAT as we do in UK would make it £517.80 and £82.50 cheaper than UK sale price now .. Why are we getting ripped off so much here ?

I got mine at what is basically the US price + sales tax through work which feels like about what it should be, but personally I'd have no problem paying the current UK prices for it - £699 was a bit steep - I've had to resist buying a second one with the current price drop I find mine so useful - holding out for hopefully a model with more RAM and some other features updated hopefully.

 

[Purgatory]

Zotac ZONE Portable Handheld Gaming Console

Order Zotac ZONE Portable Handheld Gaming Console now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

The price is just LOL for the Zotac Zone in UK and USA it's $799, but as we see UK £850... This will end up like the MSI Claw and have a huge price reduction too.. Only thing it has is an AMOLED screen with again no VRR and a portrait display.. 16GB RAM and 512GB ssd ... with a small battery still compared to the Asus Rog Ally X.. Wish the Ally X came with Hall effect sticks and triggers.. but that's Asus planned obsolescence again and silly RMA fees..

Still no perfect handheld it seems with the latest ones released .. I give up really.. will wait till sales and see what is going at a more sensible price, all I want to have is a windows handheld to mostly run emulators on and play the odd pc games.. Silly money for such low spec devices and 16GB is really on death's door now especially with windows 11 bloat. 32GB should be the minimum now and that way give the GPU 8/12GB and rest for the system for PC gaming as some games are clearly destroying 8GB VRAM now.. Closest mainstream device so far is the Asus Rog Ally X with 24GB, but the lack of Hall effect inputs is the main issue I have with it, stick drift I hate in time with all none hall effect sticks..

 

[FlyingFish]

Closest mainstream device so far is the Asus Rog Ally X with 24GB, but the lack of Hall effect inputs is the main issue I have with it, stick drift I hate in time with all none hall effect sticks..

The X sticks are a hundred times better than the original Ally sticks. They have needed zero calibration, and feel a lot better to use in real life, no matter what tech they use.

The Ally & X both have hall effect triggers.

I did try a set of hall effect in my original Ally, but I wasn't impressed in the slightest, they took a lot of calibration, and even then it felt like a compromise, so I removed them back to stock sticks. I think the device as a whole needed to be designed with hall effect sticks from the ground up......

I could have imagined it, but during the X press/media meetings, didn't they show hall effect sticks as an upgrade option? I'm sure I watched a video with the X disassembled on a table with different sticks. I'll have a look on YouTube, my old man memory isn't what it used to be So I might of dreamt it.

 

[Purgatory]

The X sticks are a hundred times better than the original Ally sticks. They have needed zero calibration, and feel a lot better to use in real life, no matter what tech they use.

The Ally & X both have hall effect triggers.

I did try a set of hall effect in my original Ally, but I wasn't impressed in the slightest, they took a lot of calibration, and even then it felt like a compromise, so I removed them back to stock sticks. I think the device as a whole needed to be designed with hall effect sticks from the ground up......

I could have imagined it, but during the X press/media meetings, didn't they show hall effect sticks as an upgrade option? I'm sure I watched a video with the X disassembled on a table with different sticks. I'll have a look on YouTube, my old man memory isn't what it used to be So I might of dreamt it.

I found the video and issues regarding hall effect sticks on the Ally as the unit have hall effect triggers but when adding hall effect sticks they cause interference issues with each other ..

Video is on this reddit post and discussed by others too.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ROGAlly/comments/14ht9r0/hall_effect_joysticks_rog_ally_installed_tested/

Thanks for the heads up on the issue and now explains why you were not happy with the mod to the sticks with hall effect sensors.

Will wait on a price drop on the Ally X as I don't believe it is worth £300 more than the original version, that is selling now for £499 and easy to mod the 2280 ssds and then only other advantage the X has is the larger battery only and some slightly better sticks and 8GB more RAM.. Bit of a hard pill to swallow when other brands out there have more for that sort of money and more RAM and more upgrade options.. Bit of a strange market at the moment with these devices and the pricing is all over the place all the time, from the sale prices to the prices they go back up to.

So far have the Ally X in mind and maybe a GPD Win Mini 2024 with the 120Hz VRR 7" screen or even the MAX 2 2024 model but sadly has only a 60hz screen that one but a full keyboard and can be nicely used as a small portable laptop too... Will see and still thinking what to get, but I really wish the Legion Go had a landscape display with VRR and more RAM and would have been the perfect device... but all so close and all missing some important marks too.

The new Zotac Zone was so close too but low RAM and portrait AMOLED screen and silly price .. and yet to see what other issues once reviewed it will have.