Revelations on Lenovo Legion Go from a Steam Deck & ROG Ally Owner

after test driving it for about a week now I  can honestly say that the Lenova Legion go has   the potential to make some serious waves in the  handheld gaming space now this newly launched   windows-based handl PC strives to fit the build  in a number of different use case scenarios and it   mostly exceeds for the most part but the thing is  lenovo's multi-tool approach in some areas comes   at the expense of other benefits this is a device  that is sure to turn heads and it has a few party   tricks up its sleeve but in all its beauty power  and high functionality TR truthfully there's still   much to be done considering the later entry in  the market behind some very strong competition   coming from the Ally the legion space UI right now  feels raw but we're going to get into the software   in just a sec because first I want to talk about  my initial inhand experience now there's no way   around it the legion go is a pretty big boy but  because the massive display has such small bezels   it isn't nearly as large as it could have been if  that care hadn't been taken it comes in at about   880 G on the scale versus 705 of the steam deck  and 630 for the rgi but in spite of the size and   weight disparity the device feels incredibly  solid and the weight very evenly distributed   even though the controllers are much lighter than  I expected the first instinct when you pick it up   is to assume the hand position as you would with  the steam deck but I can tell you right now that   that is a big mistake because the front edges of  the controllers have little to no semblance of a   gradual transition into the more rounded backside  so if you try to twist your hands more inward as   the steam deck's more rounded grips and courage  this is not going to feel good after a few minutes   on the Lenovo Legion go because it'll start to  feel like the controller Corners are digging   right into the epicenter of your palms so what  I found is you're going to have to retrain your   brain and your muscle memory a bit for the Lenova  Legion go in order to obtain a more comfortable   and sustainable grip to do this I start off by  placing the lower backside of the controller into   the center of my palm I then curve my hand inward  a bit so my index finger is parallel to the flat   straight edge and then I bring that fingertip  down on to the shoulder button so as you game   this places the more sharp front corner into the  more meaty area of your hand right below the thumb   which feels much more comfortable than having  the corners dig into the center of your palm with   twisting your hands more inward this is obviously  going to take some practice just as it honestly   took me some time to adjust to the ergonomics of  the Ally nevertheless I've asked myself repeatedly   now why didn't Lenovo just round out these Corners  more to begin with and the answer I keep coming   back to right or wrong is that so in fps mode when  the right controller doubles as a mouse it can lie   more flush on a tabletop and of course for the  sake of symmetry that meant following that very   same design choice for the left controller as well  I have absolutely no confirmation from anyone over   at Lenovo that that is a reason behind the sharper  front edges this is simply a hunch but I'll say   if there is any truth to this my take is that no  secondary feature should ever come at the cost of   fundamental comfort in ergonomics but there is  a silver lining here which is that because the   controllers are removable Lenovo could potentially  offer a more rounded pair of controllers down the   road before we continue this video would not be  possible today if it wasn't for the hard work   and sacrifice for my newly acquired robot by ug  green it charged the go the Ally the steam deck   throughout the entire filming of this video  and never wants to complain about their lousy   battery life so please join me in a round of  applause for the new green Nexon robot Gan fast charger this device is actually a 65 watt  charger and it makes facial expressions based   on the charge status of your device it features  two USBC ports and a single usba a or you can   pick up the 30 wat version which has a single  port it's pocketable PDP compliant and it has   shortcircuit protection it's quickly become one of  my favorite mini portable charg Chargers because   it doesn't have collapsible prongs that often sag  under the weight of a power brick you simply slip   off the feet and you're ready to go ug green also  has a newly released 4K USBC Hub it features a   high-speed ethernet port three usba a ports and  a micro and standard SD card reader make sure to   check out the description and keep an eye out for  Black Friday because they're going to have some   major price Cuts then anyway I do like the flat  and more neutral colored face buttons as compared   to the Ally though I do prefer the larger size of  the Ali buttons thumbsticks have a good range of   movement and feel really nice and grippy but I do  wish they were a little larger as with the Ally   and that the RGB ring had a larger circumference  as with the Ally because with that it grips it's   hard to really appreciate the RGB straight on  without maneuvering the thumb sticks from side   to side ideally all four function buttons should  honestly be placed at the top as with the Ally   but if you're going to go this route the menu  and the view buttons should have most certainly   been placed at the top with the legion buttons  placed down below as on the steam deck because   this Arrangement leads to having to stretch your  left thumb down to launch in-game menus and Maps   there is a more ergonomic workaround however  which involves remapping any of the back keys   for the menu and view button but I really hope in  a future update that these four function buttons   can simply be swapped with one another in the  remapping tool I also find the trackpad a bit   low for my taste but I have pretty long fingers so  it isn't too out of the way overall the trackpad   works really well but I do wish that there was  an option to activate a left Mouse click using   the right shoulder button as with the Ally but  there is a workaround for this as well which   involves enabling Xbox controller input in the  steam settings this allows you to use the right   stick for The Mouse and the triggers for clicks  the problem with leaning on Steam however rather   than having this native is that when the Steam app  isn't launched those features won't be available   nevertheless the legion go probably has the best  Windows navigation layout for any handheld to date   when using the trackpad and the back scroll wheel  in Tandem and you can even passively auto scroll   down or up a page with the wheel lock feature  the volume button placement is in a considerably   better place on the go than the Ally as well as  the SD card slot the air intake and exhaust vents   appear to perform their job very well but the fan  curve software is in dire need of some fine-tuning   I actually really like the exaggerated Triggers on  the go with the dovetail I might even like these   gun-like triggers even more than the Ally they  remind me a lot of iono 2 but I think Lenovo did   it even better with not making them even height  with the shoulder buttons as with iono I'm not   really sure how I feel about M1 and M2 though  because I'm constantly inadvertently pressing   these as well as the four back buttons there's  just a lot going on back here and I'm still   working on getting adjusted and familiarizing  myself with everything now I was worried that   the legion go top firing speakers wouldn't stack  up with the Ally before I got it in hand and it   seems that that concern is very much validated the  gold speakers can hold a candle to the deck yet   along the Ally out of the box they lack volume  and resonance in comparison though they are A   Step Above ey of Neo speakers and check this out  downloading the FX sound software and using the   music preset makes a huge difference the ghost  speakers get significantly louder and they sound   much Fuller than fresh out of the box but I'm  hoping Lenovo can tweak some things on the back   end in the future to make them better compatible  with Doby Atmos for good measure the specs for the   goal are as follows it's rocking a whopping 8.8  in QHD display that currently supports 60 and 144   Herz however it is a native portrait display with  a 16x 10 aspect ratio it has 16 gigs of lpddr 5x   Ram a 49.2 w battery two USBC 4.0 ports Bluetooth  5.1 HD hoptics and Gyro support but the biggest   key takeaway if you're comparing this device to  the RG is that it has faster transfer speeds a   larger battery and not only a larger display 1600p  versus 10 100p but it has even better saturation   and colors than on the Ally which I really wasn't  expecting though the glass is much more reflective   but in time as accessories start to roll out a  good anti-reflective screen protector should be   able to correct this so the first thing I have to  call out for the legion Spas software before we   even jump into the main UI is the fact that there  is absolutely no indication of battery status when   charging the device in sleep or powered off State  we have this fantastic RGB power button here that   notifies you at a glance of your TDP power profile  status but for some reason this isn't utilized to   give users some kind of indication of where your  batter battery level is pulling the charge cable   out and reattaching it is the only way to check  the charge status which has me flabbergasted the   second issue outside of Legion space itself has  to do with the startup prompt Legion space has   this very slow initial load up when you power on  the device and it probably has a lot to do with   this drawn out and heavy animation Loop and right  now it doesn't look like you can turn it off and   you cannot stop Legion space from automatically  launching each and every time you power on the go   okay okay pause this is me from the future Lenovo  actually just dropped the legion space update that   allows you to disable the autolot on boot and I'm  cutting out the whole tangent that I went on who   gave the go-ahead thumbs up seal of approval on  this about the whole ta three times in order to   launch the most essential quick menu tap once  and it now pops up problem is you're no longer   able to access that left click menu unless you're  already in Legion space but thank you Lenovo for   fixing that the color scheme also looks way  better now let's continue with the rest of   the video because unfortunately there's still  a number of things that needs to be fixed now   if you focus on the top left hand corner you're  presented with a popular gaming platforms portal   that houses launchers such as Steam Gog epic  games and Xbox game pass backing out you'll get   some game Planet recommended games on that first  row as well and below the five blue digital tabs   you'll find more featured games organized by  category which are also powered by the games   Planet digital storefront jumping back up to the  five main digital tabs from left to right we have   cloud game which simply launches you into the Xbox  browser game store which launch laes you into the   full game Planet storefront that's advertised to  have exclusive discounts for go owners Library   where your games in theory are automatically  pulled into from other platforms Theory because   this doesn't work very reliably right now and for  some reason the left and right shoulder buttons   can't be used to toggle in between recently played  and the all games tab in fact the shoulder buttons   cannot be used to navigate Legion space at all  outside of the controller mapping subsection but   as you can see I pulled in some useful apps such  as FX sound and Lenovo system update but they   don't rely be launched from here so most times  I have to locate the app outside of Legion space   anyway skipping over settings really quickly  we have the Android game tab which is a nice   ad though I haven't poked around in here too much  just yet and finally we come to the most important   section in all of Legion space the settings tab  and when I cycle through the available sections   for the very first time I couldn't believe just  how much is missing in comparison to the RG Ali   where are my GPU settings to adjust vram without  manually booting into BIOS where are my custom   fan curve settings where are my customizable hot  keys so I can close out games without navigating   in game menus for example where are my controller  configuration settings to adjust dead zones and   Trigger pool sensitivity where my thumb stick and  Trigger calibration settings and the list goes on   and on I understand that the Ally is 4 months  ahead but I didn't imagine that Legion space   would be this hollow at launch but I'm starting to  better understand the early unit embargos because   I think this was Lenovo lamenting themselves that  Legion space isn't the device's strongest selling   point right now the positive though is that  the UI is neatly organized and it doesn't feel   cluttered however in the performance tab thermal  mode is pretty self-explanatory but there should   be information on exactly how many watts each  of the power profiles are actually pulling as   with the Ally I also find it interesting that  the UI differentiates thermal TDP versus OS   TDP but there should be better explanation on how  to best leverage the two to get the most Optimum   performance for gaming in the display tab it'd  be really nice to have the option to leverage   120 HZ in addition to 60 and 144 and I have no  idea why a cable must be attached in order to   switch from 144 htz to 60 The Voice tab is oddly  named it should simply be called audio and as you   can see I'm using the FX Sound audio profile as I  mentioned earlier which I can't recommend enough   for higher volume and Fuller sound the controller  section isn't too bad right now like the vibration   setting the test input and the ability to update  the controller firmware directly inside the button   remapping sub section is also much appreciated  though I've noticed some of the remapping is a   little off for example the menu and the view  appear to be reversed I remapped M3 for the   view button and Y3 for menu but when I click Y3  it brings up View and when I click M3 it brings   up menu not sure what's going on there but I'm  really hoping that the next update corrects it   in addition to this gaming remap functionality  it'd be a really nice ad to be able to remap   keyboard and mouse Keys as well for the customized  section one benefit that go actually has over the   Ally is the ability to customize the brightness  of the RGB thumbstick rings as to this day we're   still stuck with 0 33 67 and 100% presets for  the Ally the other Legion space Tabs are pretty   self-explanatory but I did want to show you guys  that I am using a thirdparty 2 terab SSD from   Microcenter which in reality provided 1.8 tby  for actually storing games and I'm also using   a 1 tby extreme SD card so considering that  the legion go is still such a fresh product   and is using outdated AMD Graphics drivers I'm  not going to do a super deep dive so early in   the game because it's very possible that we can  start to see some pretty significant changes for   the go once these updates and optimization  start to roll in that being said I did bump   up the vram on the go in BIOS from 3 to 4G to  better line up with the Ally prior to running   some early benchmarks to get a better sense of  how the go is stacking up against the Ally right   now so for now we're going to compare the power  profiles against one another which might have   some slight variations the allly silent profile 10  watts versus the Go's quiet the Ally performance   15 watts versus the Go's balance mode the Allies  turbo 25 preset versus the Go's performance and   finally the Allies plugged in 30 wat turbo mode  versus the Go's custom 30 wat setting also keep   in mind that because the goal has a native  aspect ratio of 16 by10 versus 16x9 on the   Ally and that the 720p option isn't available yet  in the cyberpunk menu this isn't a perfect one:   one as resolution goes so it's going to be  720p for the Ally versus 800 for the go the   parameters for the first chart are as shown 800  versus 720p resolution low Graphics preset with   FSR enabled for Ultra performance at 10 watts as  has come to be expected the deck completely runs   away with it with an average FPS of 53 however  as we move into the 15 watt territory the go and   the Ally promptly move move ahead but as you can  see the Ally creates some sizable Separation on   the go at 15 watts an average FPS of 69 versus  60 for the go but just when it looks like the   Ally is about to run away with it at 25 watts  the go pulls in an average FPS of 83 versus 78   for the Ally and at 30 Watts this time it's the  goal that creates a sizable separation from the   Ally 88 FPS for the Go versus 81 for the Ally  shifting gears to Graphics High preset with FSR   enabled geared towards quality at 15 watts we get  a pretty sizable frames drop on the deck down to   an average FPS of 33 however the go and the Ally  jump out immediately at 40 FPS with the Ally just   inching out the go 42 FPS versus 41 the Ally  maintained the lead at 25 watts as well 64 FPS   versus 62 but the go returned to the top at 30  Watts 69 FPS versus 67 for the Ally of course I   ran a lot of other test runs and bench marks off  camera but we're going to keep it short and sweet   for this first impressions video I realized this  is a small sample size but considering that the   go is pushing about 100K more pixels than the Ally  800p versus 700p and the fact that the go is still   utilizing old drivers this is honestly a pretty  impressive first showing for the Lenovo Legion   go so I'm really looking forward to revisiting  performance once these bios and firmware updates   start kicking in looking back at the earlier  sections of this video one might say that I'm   being too tough or too hard hard on the Lenovo  Legion go and perhaps there's some truth to that   but that's what good reason because this device is  burdened with so much potential and I really want   to see it reach those Heights and glossing over a  number of gripes that I brought to the Forefront   is not going to help in that regard competition  is getting stiff and really starting to ramp up   so tech companies are going to have to do more  than simply deliver SPC out handhelds with clever   marketing they're going to have to continually  support them and improve them as time goes on   and consider considering that the Best Buy return  window is currently on end ofe holidays extension   the clock for Lenova Legion go could be ticking s  steing really quickly you'll notice that I didn't   touch on the FPS mode earlier and that's because  the jury is still out for me my first impressions   is that it feels very awkward and that it's going  to require a lot of time and commitment to truly   Master this setup my early thoughts in general is  that you probably shouldn't buy the legion go if   FPS mode is your primary selling point because in  addition to the awkward buttons M you'll probably   find that the magnetic Bas is not as sturdy as  you hoped honestly the massive beautiful QHD   screen with 144 refresh rate is its true claim  to fame but with that being said I have to admit   that gaming with the controllers is detached one  in each hand as you would on the switch offers a   very cool and laidback experience on the go  specifically for the PC platform that could   very well be widely adopted because of this device  if you put hours in on a handheld I'm sure at some   point you've experienced neck pain so being able  to take a more heads up position while leaning   back in your chair offers a different Dynamic  that I never knew that I wanted for PC that was   a revelation for me I'm actually now considering  the go glasses or other AR Alternatives because of   this before you jet drop some things you like to  see in future comparisons for these two handhelds   and what do you think about the steam deck OLED  announcement is this the handheld to rule them   all in 2023 drop a comment what do you think  will be your preferred handheld moving into   2024 and in your humble opinion what do you think  gives it a distinct advantage over the others as   always thanks for watching and supporting the  channel and I will see you guys in the next [Music] one [Music]

Channel: MrTek Suggest

Views: 124,965

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Id: k-PISALAQSk

Length: 19min 23sec (1163 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 12 2023