Lenovo Legion Go goes all Switch as it challenges the Steam Deck

PC and peripheral manufacturer Lenovo has officially announced the Legion Go, a Steam Deck-like handheld device that has a few interesting things going for it – besides its specs. The Legion Go, much like the Asus ROG Ally, runs Windows 11.

Lenovo is working on its own software launcher to manage all the separate PC stores, but right now, you can expect AMD Ryzen Z1 Series CPUs, and an 8.8-inch display.

The screen is QHD+ with a 16:10 aspect ratio. It has a range of supported resolutions, from 800p up to 1600p, and from 60Hz up to a whopping 144Hz.The IPS screen further differentiates itself with 500nits of peak brightness, and a 97% coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut. As expected, it also supports multi-touch.

Every Legion Go has a touchpad, similar to the Steam Deck, that acts as a mouse. While there are different specs you can choose from, all of them use AMD’s latest RDNA graphics, and LPDDR5X RAM. In terms of connectivity, the Legion Go has a micro-SD slot, and two USB-C (USB 4.0, DP 1.4, PD 3.0) ports. There’s also a 3.5mm audio combo jack.

The Legion Go supports Wi-Fi 6E, as well as Bluetooth 5.2. While Lenovo did not touch on battery life, the Go has a 2-cell 49.2WHr battery. Every Legion Go also comes with three months of PC Game Pass.

Where it gets interesting is in the details and the general design. For starters, the Legion Go uses hall effect joysticks, which eliminate stick drift – a problem most controllers eventually suffer from. The back of the unit includes a mouse wheel, but more importantly, both controllers can be detached – much like the Nintendo Switch.

There’s a built-in kickstand, in another nod to the Switch. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the Legion Go is that the right controller can be used with an included controller base to act as a joystick for aiming. This launches a dedicated FPS mode, which may not be the best way to play an FPS, but I digress.

The Lenovo Legion Go will be available this November, starting at $700 / €800 – though the exact specs of that price have yet to be announced.