Lenovo Legion Go: I Didn't Expect To Like It, But I Do. ❤️

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Truth be told, I never intended to buy the Legion Go. For me, the Steam Deck satisfied every on-the-go gaming itch I had. But I couldn't pass a good deal, and a couple of months ago I snagged one up with the intent to just make a video and then be done with it. But now I kinda dabble in the thoughts of keeping it and, dare I say, waving goodbye to the Steam Deck instead. The bigger screen and the more powerful hardware, at least in theory, were always intriguing arguments for the Legion, but ultimately, it's the detachable controllers among other features that sold me on it. Something I never thought I'd care about. But not because of the FPS mode, as fun as that is. However, I'm still a little undecided as to what I want, so should I steam or should I go? Just to be clear, this video won't be a detailed spec rundown comparison between the OG Steam Deck and the Legion GO. I will draw comparisons between them though, because I own both, but mostly focus on the experience itself. If you've also seen my Steam Deck video, you know that I like to take these things on larger trips, especially long flights, or where I think these kinds of devices outpace any other entertainment options. But before we get there, just in case you've never heard of the Legion GO, let's run through some basics to get you up to speed. After that, we will be taking a closer look at the hardware and software before we end with the triumphant finale. The Legion Go entered the market in October of 23, just four months after the ROG Ally, and just like it, it's a Windows-powered system as opposed to the Steam Deck that runs its own operating system, that is SteamOS. The Legion and the Ally also share the same APU, the AMD Z1 Extreme, at least the higher-end model of the Ally DOS. There is also a more affordable version of that, that comes with the Z1 minus the Extreme. Sometimes you can really see the performance differences, like here in Tomb Raider where you go, is getting almost double the FPS using the exact same settings and resolution as on the deck. But whereas the Go has more raw power, Valve has done a better job at making sure the games run more smoothly, so it really depends on what you intend to play and do. There are also other differences, like faster RAM compared to both other competitors as well as a bigger battery, but again, software makes a big difference, especially when it comes to power management, and this is an area where the deck truly shines. There are of course also other handheld PCs out there, but as I don't own any, I'm left to just acknowledging their existence, like the offerings from iAneo and One X Player, which also has models with detachable controllers by the way. Price wise, the Legion Go often is the most expensive one after Major 3, coming in at around $699 US, 4512 GB version, which is the one that I have, and $749 for the 1TB one. The Allies theoretically price the same, but often discounted, for example right now, it's $100 off on Best Buy. But what do you actually get with that higher price? Well, let's dig into the hardware and find out. The most notable difference is probably the giant 8.8-inch display with 144Hz that sports a ridiculous 2560x1600 resolution. This screen is a beauty and it is significantly better than the one found on the original Steam Deck. However, we all know there is an OLED version now. It's not all bells and whistles though. The size and resolution are quite power-hungry and even though the Legion Go sports the largest battery out of the three, on full throttle you're lucky to get more than 2.5 hours out of this. The second most notable difference is probably the detachable controllers, very much inspired by the Nintendo Switch. The main purpose however is not multiplayer, you can't actually use them individually, but instead we have one of the weirdest features I've seen in a while. A sort of mouse. After moving the right control, you can flip a switch at the bottom, take the included base, which has a nice storage slot in the carrying case, and wham-bam, you've got yourself a full-fledged mouse, including a scroll wheel. Well, sort of. I keep saying "sort of" because this does take a while to get used to and even when you do, it might not ever reach the familiarity of your rodent at home. The initial reaction I witnessed to this has always been "surprise", followed by an expression that can only be described as a mixture of confusion and a slight mental breakdown. Unless you are used to vertical mice, it takes a while is what I'm trying to say. And even when you do, some things are difficult to ever get used to. For example, the analog stick is always in the way and even if you remove the tip, there's a stick poking out and poking at you. Because of how the mouse needs to work, the customizable buttons on the back are also aligned a little differently. For mouse play this is fine, but in normal handheld mode you'd be hard pressed to not hard press these things constantly. The wheel is also placed a little oddly too. I still haven't gotten used to it. It's just a bit uncomfortable to reach and I feel like I'm losing my grip whenever I try to activate it or maybe I'm just losing my mind. Okay, I'm sorry. I'm gonna stop with these puns now. I'm very sorry. But once you get used to it though, it's actually kinda nice. You also get a satisfying feeling of accomplishment, so keep trying. You can of course also play in controller mode when they are detached, just like on Switch. There is no included controller attachment though, but if you don't like the free floating experience, you can get one of these. I got this from E-Band, it seems to just be a 3D printed piece, and I picked it up because of its unique shape that lets you fit it into the carrying case, but in retrospect, the resulting ergonomics from it aren't exactly ideal. The rest of the Legion go is more standard fare. On the back we have the just mentioned customizable buttons on each side, and on the surface you've got the expected controls, such as two analog sticks that feature Hall Effect sensors, which is nice, arranged in the Xbox layout, just like on the Ally. This means that the second analog stick is just a little lower while the face buttons are directly under your thumb. The Steam deck leans more towards the PlayStation model, with the analog sticks being level. When it comes to the overall ergonomics though, the deck wins hands down. The Legion go is very blocky and has a lot of sharp, unnatural corners. Holding the deck in comparison feels like going to the spa after camping in the woods. We also got a single touchpad, as opposed to 2 on the deck and 0 on the ally, as well as your usual arrangement of start, select, triggers and bumpers. There are also individual volume rockers at the top, a micro SD card slot, top-facing speakers, a large exhaust for all that heat, a freaking headphone jack and the dedicated power button, with a glowing ring around it that can be turned off if you don't want to spread any RGB propaganda. One thing that makes the Legion go very unique is that it's the only one out of the major three that has two USB-C ports, one at the top and one at the bottom, which both are USB 4 and Thunderbolt 3-specced. Meaning yes, this does support an eGPU, but I don't have one so I can't tell you anything about it other than that it should work. Now, I don't know how many people will care about two ports, but I do very much, because I use one of these. These are the Vitcher XR glasses and are basically screens for your eyeballs. If you want to learn more about them, I made a dedicated video a while back, which you can find linked in the description down below or up here. But in a nutshell, once connected you basically get a giant screen in front of you, which is a lot more comfortable as you can lean back and delay our inevitable evolution into trim people. On an airplane, this thing is fantastic and I use the second USB-C port for the glasses while the first one is connected to an outlet or power bank. Speaking of power banks, there is one issue I had which after a quick Google seems to plague a lot of other users as well, including ROG ally ones and that's the compatibility of said power sources. I tried my Shark Geek ones as well as an Anchor power bank and even the one I got from Vitcher that includes the Nintendo Switch adapter. None of them worked and even though the Shark Geek ones can charge at a required 65W instead of charging the Legion, the Legion actually charged the power banks for some reason. Now, I'm sure we all enjoy our occasional rule reversal during a powerplay, but not here. I end up having one last power bank in my arsenal, which luckily did work and that's the OmniCharge 20+. Why it had to be the most expensive one, I don't know. But in case you're in a pinch and you are looking for one, this one will work. And if you know of any other smaller ones, please let me know in the comments down below. Anyway, back to the second USB-C port. You of course don't need to, you can just use a dongle to charge and display at the same time, but the less I have to carry the better, so this is a feature I very much appreciate. Mind you though, if you use the kickstand, the bottom port becomes practically unusable, unless maybe you are on the lowest level. Speaking of kickstands, let's look at that one next. This too is something I didn't think much about, but have since come to really depend upon. It's not just for the FPS mode, actually have it popped up most of the time, because placing the Legion go down with an active stand is just easier. It also prevents the ventilation holes in the back from being covered, if you are lying on the couch or have an uneven surface underneath you. You know, like a backpack. But beware, it doesn't have a lot of surface space to grip onto in this state, and those tiny airplane trays can get slippery, especially on a more turbulent flight. So keep an eye out on this, especially if you're jacked into the Matrix with your eyeball-frying XR glasses. Also keep an eye on the ventilation. With the controllers detached and no kickstand deployed, the go doesn't have any space to draw in fresh air. The stand itself is very sturdy and reminds me of the one found on the Switch OLED. It's not as nice, but it's really well made nonetheless and has a very nice, satisfying sound when it closes. Except for the individual controllers, which do feel a bit hollow and light when detached, the whole unit is solid and everything is firm and trustworthy. Whereas the Joy-Cons on the Switch always have a little play, these have a much tighter fit. However, that tight fit comes at a price of a much less satisfying mechanism. The release button is at the bottom here and you have to slide the controllers down instead of up like on the switch. For some reason, even after having owned this thing for months, I still occasionally hit the power button on accident. It's annoying and a little fiddly to be honest and you can't launch a device or power it on with the controllers detached. You have to attach them, power the Legion Go on and then detach them again to be used in this mode. But playing like this can also be more comfortable than having to hold the 860g device for a prolonged time. In its fully assembled state, it's a heavy and large KIDR ride. The Steam Deck was already a chonker and had trouble fitting in my bag and yes, I know it fits but just doesn't fit the way that I want it to, which I've gotten a lot of slack for saying in my Steam Deck video. But I stand by it. Yes, I complain about mundane little things that aren't real problems, but it's my whole shtick. You take this away from me all that is left is a black wig and underwear I should have changed weeks ago. Anyway, the Legion Go can be transformed and yes, that means it fits much easier, even into my little 14 litre travel backpack. And the controllers neatly take shelter in my little camera cube and wabam, I'm ready to go. Now the only thing left is to change my underwear. Lastly, we have the D-pad. This is probably something that will divide people. The question you're gonna have to ask yourself is, do you like it clicky or not? I don't. For interface navigation it's fine. Gameplay on the other hand, well, it's not great. But speaking of gameplay, it's time to finally make it to the next round. Let's get the elephant out of the room first. This is Windows, with all its ups and downs. And yes, you do occasionally run into those dreaded update loops when you power the Legion go on. So it can get quite frustrating if you just want to get a quick round of Endless Dungeon in before your next exit on the train. It's not the first time I've used Windows on a device like this though, I did briefly dual boot my Steam deck, but rarely have ever actually entered the gates. I didn't need to, because most of my games are with its Steam, which is where my primary source of entertainment is, which is great, because Steam runs fantastic on the Legion Go. That doesn't mean you get all the same features though. For example, the Legion has its own version of the settings overlay. But I was still positively surprised at just how similar both devices are when it comes to Steam and if you also do what I did, which is to set it to launch on boot, well, you'd never know that you were using Windows. Well, until you launch a new game and you get barrage with additional installs, authentication approvals and the usual Windows shenanigans. But most of the time that only occurs during the first initial launch and the severity also heavily depends on the game. Titles that have their own launchers also work a little better on here than on the deck, if you ask me. But that isn't always the case, for example, Cyberpunk doesn't require the CG project launcher on the Steam Deck. But how about other launchers? Well, it's a bit of a mixed bag. For example, if you are an Xbox Game Pass, PC, or Ultimate Holder, this thing, or any other machine really, theoretically becomes a goldmine of a gaming library. If the Xbox app wasn't so horrible. Navigating through it via the controller can get frustrating very fast. It almost feels like every press on the d-pad is simply sending out tabs from the keyboard with seemingly random elements being highlighted until you finally get to the one that you actually wanted. There is no equivalent big screen mode, and even worse, sometimes the controls in games just plain doesn't work at all. Ironically, if you add the Xbox Game by Steam's non-Steam game option and launch it through there, it works, which is hilarious. Theoretically, there is a solution to this, an interface they already have, and could adapt to these portable PCs, but that's a topic for another day. The Epic launcher is even worse, if you ask me. Also support is completely absent in the launcher, but fortunately present in games. Ubisoft is for once a lot better and even has support to get through the entire installation process, so good on you Ubisoft. Well done. Of course, both can also be navigated by the touchscreen, but I'm a sucker for physical controls and hate to take my hand off the Legion, it's quite heavy for one-handed operation anyway. All of them also work just fine in installing games onto the SD card. As I touched on my Steam Deck video, the performance can take a little hit, and load times are slower but not by much, surprisingly. However, I don't install all of my games like this, the heavy hitters stay on the internal drive while all the small ones, applications and so on, sit on the SD card. As I mentioned, I have the 512GB version, but I must confess, it is most of the time close to the limit and I've been toying around with the thought of upgrading it to a 1 or 2TB drive, but haven't pulled the trigger yet. If you intend to have a couple of big titles installed, I'd highly recommend paying the extra $50 up front, rather than having to buy an additional drive later on. But let's get back to the launchers. If you are a multi-launch hopper, there is also Planite Launcher, which is an open-source game library manager. It's not exclusive to the Legion Go either, this can be installed on any Windows PC, and is a nice alternative if you want to have a centralized view of your games. The Legion Go launcher does this as well, apart from constantly trying to sell you deals, but it's quite dreadful to use, not as bad as the Xbox app, but nothing I'd hold my breath for. It is the place to configure some of the Legion Go's basic settings though, such as controller mapping, dead zone, sensitivity configuration for the sticks, trackpad and triggers. You can also enable or disable the rumble, the little RGB rings around the sticks, which by the way there's a whole topic on how to get them to react to games with third-party software if you're into that sort of thing. This brings me also to the settings overlay I touched on before, this one can be activated by the top right button if you haven't remapped it. Similar to this Steam Deck, it brings up frequently used settings, but most importantly, performance profiles. I'll be honest with you, on an airplane, I put everything on maximum. It's not like anyone is going to notice the fan of this thing going off. Even though at home, it can end up sounding like said airplane, sitting in an actual flying machine, it's unnoticeable. You can also create custom profiles, which can be very important if you're trying to maximize your better life depending on the game. For example, you could set a TDP limit in order to limit the power that you're feeding to the go. You can also change the fan profile, add an FPS limiter, easily change the resolution and refresh rate, as well as enable Radeon Super Resolution or RSR. This is a pretty cool feature. Basically, if you run a game below the screen's native resolution in either full screen or borderless full screen, it will use AMD's spatial upscaling, but only if the game doesn't have its own scaling system. But there are better solutions for upscaling, which I'm going to get to in a second. In the overlay, you can also change the controller configuration, including how strong the rumble is, which is not very strong by the way. Not sure if this has something to do with the detachable nature, but never have I ever been left this unsatisfied by a vibrator. ♪ Jeez, Hervelets! Terrible jokes since 2021! ♪ [cough] One of the quick settings feature I very much appreciate though, is that you can deactivate the touchpad if not needed. I do every now and then hit it with my old flappy palm, so I have it off most of the time, but it's nice to be able to activate it in a pinch. There are also some Windows-related shortcuts in here, you know if you ever need the old Ctrl-Alt-Elite to solve a profile problem, and lastly, you can set the external display to be used as the primary one. That way, the Legion Go becomes the extension, rather than extending from the Legion Go. Speaking of multiple screens, if you have something like the Vitcher glasses, you will want the Legion Go to turn off its own display when connected. The Steam Deck behaves like this per default, if you want the Legion Go to do the same, hit the display settings and disable the first screen when connected. You might also get a funny flipped or portrait-oriented screen when you connect the Legion Go for the first time. That is because it's probably the default hardware configuration of the screen. This is something Lenovo could have or should have fixed, but will only happen the first time. Once you change your settings, you probably won't have to come back again. I know I keep complaining about it, but it isn't all bad. Windows does have benefits, for example, because it has a built-in gyro, and Windows has services in place to detect and auto-rotate. You can do just that, and to top it off, the kickstand works in this orientation as well. You may wonder why anyone would want to do this, so let me introduce you to one of the greatest shoot-em-ups that has ever been made. Ikaruga. Like all those old-school Glorious shoot-em-ups, it was made for arcade machines back in the day, and those had vertical aspect ratios, so this... This is very cool. Very cool indeed. With the convenience, if you can call it that, of Windows, you can also play, well, everything that runs on Windows, such as games that have their own launchers. You can get all of those running on the Steam Deck with SteamOS as well, and it's not even that hard, but you might face potential bans, as some of the games don't like it if you run your anti-cheat software through a compatibility layer, due to this Steam Deck running Linux. Speaking of companies that don't like it if you're under a games on different platforms, let's quickly talk about emulation. Emadek was originally created for the Steam Deck, hence their name, but has since become available on other platforms as well. The Windows version is still in beta, but you can give it a try, it's really easy to install. Keep in mind though that you will have to supply your own ROMs. Emulation is always a fun way to add a lot of great games to your portable arsenal. It's also where the 2560x1600 screen resolution can really shine, because these games don't require that much horsepower to run and thus can be run at maximum resolution. As I briefly mentioned at the beginning of this video, the screen is amazing, but it is very hard to drive for a device that is portable. The 144Hz kind of falls into the same category. If your main enjoyment is 2D platformers and emulation, you're going to have a great time here. It's amazing seeing this level of fluidity, and just like on a big screen, once you go high refresh, there's no real turning back. But there is another way to kind of get there. You see Lenovo did an interesting thing picking this exact resolution, because 2560x1600 is exactly double of 1280x800, which is what the Steam Deck is running on. Maybe you're familiar with Apple's retina displays, like their studio displays for example, which have a 5K resolution, that is 5120 by 2880, which is as you might have guessed it, exactly double that of 2560 by 1440, also known as 1440p. And if you hook it up to your Mac, by default the desktop screen real estate will be that of a 1440p display, not a 5K one, meaning that it's using double the pixels, making everything look super sharp, or as they like to call it, retina. Now, the Legion Godus kinda works the same, at least in theory. You have to set the screen to the full 2560x1600, then enable full panel integer scaling in the GPU settings and run the games at half the resolution, so 800p, to achieve the same result. Well, kind of. The effect isn't as stark as with Apple, or at least I could never see that much of a difference, to be honest. I tried a few approaches, windowed, fullscreen and so on, and even edited my own registry in the earlier days when the driver support wasn't there yet, but it just never looked that much better. However, I found another solution, an application that you can get for a small fee on Steam called "Lostless Scaling", which works great and even works for non-Steam games. You still don't get the Apple experience, and it's a little finicky to use, but you also get a lot more additional scaling methods such as AMD's FSR, which works great for 3D titles and looks a lot better than the integrated RSR. In the meantime, I've also learned that the integer scaling works best for 2D titles, so you might want to use that for only those games. In FSR, you also don't have to run the games at 800p, it's no longer about doubling the exact numbers of pixels. For example, on Grand Blue Fantasy, I run it at 720p, which granted is just half, but letterboxed. This way I can play with high settings at a decent framerate, which is just fantastic. In general, FSR has become a real game changer for me, it's not as sharp as running the games natively, but it gets close enough, especially on a display of this size and turns titles that are otherwise a little fuzzy and underwhelming into great experiences. All you need to do is make sure the games run in windowed mode, and once they are launched, tap into lossless scaling, select your preferred scaling method and hit scale. Tap back into the game, wait a few seconds and wabam, welcome to Crispville, population EU. Let's talk about a few more enhancements you can make to your gaming experience. First is the obvious one. Update your drivers. There are surprisingly multiple ways to do this. The easiest is probably through the Legion launcher, just hit the respective button and during the launch it should check for the latest updates. You can also go into the settings, scroll all the way down to the drivers and hit update. There's also a more cumbersome way of doing this. If for any reasons you don't trust the launcher, you can go to the Legion updates site, select automatic update and have it scan your system. If you're doing this for the first time, you may have to install some Lenovo apps in order to get this working, but once you do, it should just be one click. Interestingly though, these tools show different results, but the first one seems more thorough, so let's just go with that one. For the graphics driver you could also forgo this path and take one off the beaten track by downloading the 708040U driver directly from AMD. However, I'm not sure if that is such a good idea. I've heard conflicting reports on this and passed on trying this out at all, since I don't really think it's necessary at least at this point. What you can and probably should do though is set your VRAM to 6GB in the BIOS, which seems to be the sweet spot at the cost of a little bit more heat traded for a few more FPS. Or so they say. This can be done very easily. Just power off the Legion Go, hold the volume up button and briefly hit the power button. Then just select BIOS, wait a little, go into more settings, select the configuration tab and adjust the UMA frame buffer size to 6GB. As I said, this is what is collectively known as the "best" setting, and so I followed suit and moved on with my life to do more important things, such as changing my underwear. The next setting is something I highly recommend and vastly improved my Legion Go experience. By default, when you're in a game or anywhere else and hit the power button, the Legion Go will go to sleep. Well, sometimes. The default behavior was a bit of a hit and miss for me. Sometimes it would work and sometimes it would shut down and then immediately turn on again. When it did work, it also continuously drew power to keep the current state in memory. But Windows has an alternative option and that is Hibernate, which instead of keeping the state in memory will save it to the drive and power of the device completely. With this, I actually had the best battery experience ever when powered off on any device that I own. I'll give you an example. Like I said, I like to have it with me when I travel and since I don't travel all the time, it does happen that the Legion Go will sit on a shelf for a couple of weeks or even months. And to my absolute surprise, when I booted it back up after about 4 weeks, the battery was at a shocking 99% and the game was still running with no issues. Now, this isn't a miracle, it's supposed to do that, but honestly, not my iPad, not my MacBook, not even my Power Banks do this. Which honestly, why are you guys draining while doing nothing? Anyway, the only other device behaving like this is the analog pocket and I love both for it. Again, the downside is that it does take a few more seconds to turn on and shut down, so if you're a commute player and you need to jump between trains, this might not be the quick dropout and drop-in experience you're looking for, but if you're not, give this a try, it's pretty wicked. Alright, let's start descending onto the runway and bring this one home. It's conclusion time. By now you should have a pretty good overview of the Legion Go and its capabilities and struggles. When I got it, I never thought that I would end up liking it as much as I did. The more compact form factor when it disassembles, the fantastic hibernate functionality and the ability to install whatever you want because Windows end up making it much more of a convenient device than I thought. For example, technically without the attached controllers, this is just a Windows tablet, a really fat one, but still. You can install Netflix, Plex, Spotify, you know, the usual stuff. So listening to your library or the shackles of the AI-generated discovery playlist on Spotify is as easy as you're used to. There's also the whole topic of productivity, which I didn't touch on at all, but I know from the comments on my Steam Deck video that there are plenty of you out there who intend to use devices like this for exactly that. So depending on which platform you usually do your business on, the Legion Go might be a much more familiar environment, although I like that the deck brings Linux a little closer to the masses. So apart from gaming, it opens up the doors to do a lot more. The caveat is that nothing runs as seamlessly as one might hope for. Everything, every little part of it is a bit clunky. However, if your primary target is gaming and only gaming, and if your library is entirely within Steam, I think it's perfectly fine. But if you seek the all-out Steam Deck experience without the actual Steam Deck, you could also give Chimera OS a try, which is essentially Steam OS that you can install on other systems, like the Legion Go. If you want to stick with Windows, but still want a more gaming-focused environment, there's also Atlas OS. I haven't tried either, as I didn't feel the need for it, but that might change in the future. But moving away kinda defeats one of the main benefits of the Go, if you ask me. As much as Windows can be a pain, it does offer something, or to be a little bit more diplomatic, it is more mainstream and thus has a lot more software support. Which brings me to the final point. I think what it boils down to is, as always, preferences. Are the Legion Go exclusive features things that you care about? Do you like big screens and have difficulty telling anything but the truth? Are you okay with holding a less comfortable and heavier device for a prolonged time? Are you looking for a one-device solution for all your portable entertainment needs with a UI that will occasionally drive you insane? The answer to all of those questions, at least for me, is sort of yes. For now, I intend on taking the Go with me on trips instead of the deck, as blasphemous as that sounds. But I hope that these insights may give you a bit of a better overview of the Legion Go to make a decision. And I also hope that this video was at least a little fun to watch. If not, let me know down in the comments below and of course also what your thoughts are on the Legion Go. Anyway, thank you so much for watching this till the end, it really means a lot and sorry for the long hiatus in posting a video. I hope this was worth the wait, it certainly took a while. So see you soon in the next one, a fresh pair of underwear. Bye!

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Channel: Cheese Turbulence

Views: 54,965

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Keywords: lenovo legion go review, lenovo legion go vs rog ally, lenovo legion go unboxing, lenovo legion go gameplay, lenovo legion go 2024, lenovo legion go, legion go vs steam deck oled, legion go vs steam deck, legion go review, legion go emulation, rog ally vs legion go, legion go vs rog ally, legion go mods, legion go update, legion go unboxing, legion go palworld, legion go gameplay, lenovo handheld, legion go, steam deck, handheld gaming, rog ally

Id: ePZI24WjQQI

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Length: 27min 13sec (1633 seconds)

Published: Sat May 04 2024