Lenovo Legion Go specs make it the biggest Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally rival yet

The Lenovo Legion Go specs outpace the Steam Deck and it feels more versatile than the Asus ROG Ally – at the same price

The Lenovo Legion Go specs kind of speak for themselves. This newly announced PC gaming handheld is more powerful than the Steam Deck and feels more versatile than the Asus ROG Ally. It’s also bigger than both and has faster RAM. It won’t be released until October 2023, but there are reasons to hold off on buying one of its competitors for now.

I got to test out the Lenovo Legion Go for a few hours, install games, play them, and even try on the latest Lenovo Legion Glasses. A few things impressed me – the value, the detachable controllers, the trackpad and the huge screen – despite the fact that there’s heavy competition and this remains a Windows 11 machine that we have a love-hate relationship with among handheld gaming devices. That said, nothing touches the Lenovo Legion Go price given its superior screen size.

Let’s dive into the Lenovo Legion Go specs and then talk about what makes it unique enough to feel like every PC gamer’s dream of owning a Nintendo Switch OLED-like handheld built for the best PC games.

Lenovo Legion Go specs

• 📆 Release date: October 2023

• 💰 Price: $699

• 📏 Dimensions (without controllers): 8.27 x 5.15 x 0.79 inches

• 📏 Dimensions (with controllers): 11.8 x 5.15 x 1.61 inches

• 🏋️‍♀️ Weight: 854g with controllers attached (640g without)

• 🎨 Color: Shadow Black

• 📺 Display: 8.8-inch screen, QHD+ (2560 x 1600 resolution) IPS, touchscreen, 144Hz refresh rate

• 💪 Processor: Up to AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme

• 🐏 RAM: 16GB 7500Mhz LPDDR5X on board

• 🗄️ Storage: 256GB / 512GB / 1TB NVMe M.2

• 🖥️ Operating system: Windows 11 Home

• 🔋 Battery: 2-cell 49.2WHr super rapid charge (controller are 900mAh)

• 🔌 Power: USB Type-C, 65W AC adapter

• 👉 Ports: 3.5mm audio jack, 2x USB Type-C ports, microSD card reader

• 🎧 Audio: 2 x 2W Speakers and a dual-array near-field microphone

• 🛜 Connectivity: 2 x 2 Wi-Fi 6E (802.11 ax), Bluetooth 5.2

Lenovo Legion Go hands-on

💰 The Lenovo Legion Go is the best value in handheld gaming. When this thing is in stock for the first time, it’ll fittingly be ‘Go! Go! Go!’ to snag a pre-order. It costs $699 which is how much the top-end Asus ROG Ally costs right now. We were impressed when Asus got things down to under $700 back in June. And the Lenovo Legion Go price is even more impressive for a device that includes an 8.8-inch screen. Yes, the highest-tier Steam Deck costs $649 but it has weaker specs given it’s a little dated now. This is the Steam Deck 2 and possibly Nintendo Switch 2 you’ve been looking for.

📺 The 8.8-inch screen is huge. I’ve become a PC handheld gaming expert given the fact that there’s a new one every few months in 2023, starting with the Razer Edge 5G at CES in January. I can honestly say the Lenovo Legion Go hits a little differently. The 8.8-inch screen is noticeably bigger than every 7-inch competitor out there. It’s easier to read text (important for game dialogue and directions) and the games feel a bit more immersive at this size at run smoother thanks to its 144Hz refresh rate. The big screen is the reason to consider buying the Legion Go.

🎮 The detachable controllers are a major win for PC gamers. I got to detach the side controllers of the Lenovo Legion Go (it’s more of an unclip mechanic than a slide-off maneuver used by Nintendo’s on-rails controllers), and it’s a game changer for a few reasons. First, it allows you to play in tabletop mode like you would a Nintendo Switch. This is the sort of versatility that the ROG Ally and Steam Deck lack. Second, because the 8.8-inch screen is massive, it makes it easier to stow the Legion Go in a bag. It cinches down a little more than it would if the controllers were permanently attached.

🪟 It runs Windows – that’s good and bad news. We have a love-hate relationship with Windows on handheld gaming devices. The good is that it’s very compatible – you can install every major PC game and game streaming service. But the bad is that it’s not always optimized for a small screen. I experienced that with the Asus ROG Ally, and I’m sure it’ll rear its ugly head here, too. Between now and October, Lenovo’s biggest mission is to tame Windows so that all we have to worry about is which game to play next.

💪 Powerful specs. The AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme has proven itself in the Asus ROG Ally, and that’s what we have here in the Lenovo Legion Go. With 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and options for 256GB, 512GB or 1TB (the ROG Ally is 512GB), this is a powerful PC gaming handheld that makes the PlayStation Portal (priced at $200) feel like a child’s toy. Yes, you’ll have less storage for the $699 starting price than the ROG Ally, but what I like more is that 8.8-inch screen, which you can’t upgrade with the Ally.

Image credit: Kevin Lee / The Shortcut

🖱️ Trackpad and simulated mouse. RTS games can be played on the Lenovo Legion Go and feel natural. One of the big criticisms we had with the Asus ROG Ally was that it lacked any sort of trackpad as seen on the less powerful Steam Deck, meaning real-time strategy games were hard to play. The Legion Go has a trackpad underneath the right analog stick and you can detach the right controller, prop it up on a stand, and move it around to simulate a very tall mouse. Major RTS and Excel spreadsheets win.

Lenovo Legion Go at all angles

📐 It feels “Legion” premium. Lenovo isn’t skimping on materials, so the Go feels like a good fit for its premium gaming “Legion” line usually associated with laptops. The joysticks, the buttons, the bumpers, the six assignable grips and the HD haptics feel like Lenovo is throwing the kitchen sink at what gamers want. Yes, it’s made of plastic, but it doesn’t look like it and the full-width hinge on back has metal with a more solid feeling vs the Nintendo Switch OLED. There are even two USB-C 4.0 ports, one at the top and another at the bottom.

🥽 Lenovo Glasses. We’ve tested other Lenovo glasses before (like when I tested the Qualcomm Snapdragon G3x Gen 2 chipset in a gaming handheld reference device). The benefit of these pocketable Micro OLED glasses is that they project what looks like a much larger display into your line of sight. With a cable length of 1.2m (3.93ft), they were easy enough to connect to the Legion Go via one of the USB-C ports. At just $329, these aren’t the AR glasses of the future, but they also don’t carry the extreme Apple Vision Pro price.

More Lenovo Legion Go impressions to come

These are just our first impressions of the Lenovo Legion Go one month before the PC gaming handheld is due to launch. While the market is crowded and the Nintendo Switch 2 is supposedly coming next year, there’s space right now for an 8.8-inch handheld with detachable controllers. The current population of that specific configuration is one, and Lenovo is owning it.

If Lenovo can launch with as a more reliable alternative to the Asus ROG Ally and tame Windows compatibility, the $699 price is a no brainer for PC gamers who want to go mobile when Black Friday rolls around. Stay tuned for our Lenovo Legion Go review in just a few weeks.