Legion Go: Lenovo's gaming handheld is a Switch - with Windows

The Digitec and Galaxus editorial team reports directly from Berlin from IFA 2023. You can find all the news and background information published so far in our overview:

Most gaming handhelds from the last two years have fixed controllers. Lenovo has decided to make them detachable. This allows you to place the screen in front of you. A USB-C output even makes it possible to use larger, external monitors.

The specs

An overview of the most important data of the Lenovo Legion Go

• Display: 8.8 inches, 2560 × 1600 pixels, DCI-P3 97 per cent, 144 hertz, 500 nits
• CPU: AMD Ryzen Z1
• GPU: AMD RDNA
• RAM: 16 GB
• Storage space: 256 GB, 512 GB or 1 TB SSD + microSD
• Operating system: Windows 11 Home
• Battery: 49.2 Wh, PowerDelivery 3.0
• Wireless connections: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2

With the controllers, the Legion Go officially weighs 854 grams. It looks comparatively large and clunky. The display is nice and bright and razor sharp.

Controller with many buttons and functions

Each controller has an analogue joystick. The left one also has a directional pad and the right one has the Xbox ABXY buttons. There are also shoulder buttons and up to four more on the back as well as a scroll wheel. You can place the right-hand controller in the supplied holder and move it like a mouse. Lenovo has designed this primarily for FPS games.

Windows is tricky to use without an external mouse or keyboard. This is despite the fact that the cursor can be controlled using the joystick or the small touchpad on the right-hand controller. But Windows is also intended more as an operating system in the background that runs Steam, the Xbox app and other game launchers. Lenovo has also developed and pre-installed its own with Legion Space.

The games pre-installed for demonstration purposes were entertaining. However, they did not pose a major challenge for the hardware. Accordingly, their performance cannot yet be finally assessed.

Lenovo equips the Legion Go with two USB-C ports. One for charging the battery, which should be half full after just 30 minutes. The other is intended as an output for the image signal and allows the gaming handheld to be connected to a large screen or monitor glasses.

Lenovo Legion Glasses

The Lenovo Legion Glasses are the further development of monitor glasses that Lenovo already showed at IFA last year. You connect the new model to the Legion Go using a 1.2 metre USB-C cable. You can then see the screen content floating in front of you in large format. The two displays in the glasses have a resolution of 1920 × 1080 pixels.

However, I was unable to try out the Legion Glasses. Therefore, the image quality cannot be assessed. However, the first time I tried them on was sobering. I may be spoilt as a glasses wearer, but despite a certain degree of adjustability, the Legion Glasses were not particularly comfortable. What's more, I already tended to squint into the real world under the virtual display last year. And even if Lenovo has thought about dioptre correction, the question remains for me: is it strong enough for me and can it be adjusted differently for each eye?

The concerns are great and yet I think it's good that the Legion Glasses should not only work on the Legion Go. You should be able to connect them to all smartphones and Windows PCs that transmit image signals via their USB-C port.

Price and availability

The Lenovo Legion Go should be available from autumn for 799 euros/francs. The manufacturer has also given the same vague timeframe for the Legion Glasses. The monitor glasses are expected to cost 499 euros/francs.