It’s been two years since Lenovo released the Legion Go gaming handheld. It was big and heavy, sure, but it also had poor battery life, really loud fans and was saddled with Windows 11. To be fair, it was one of the first of the recent crop of Windows gaming handhelds, and the competition hasn’t exactly been exceedingly better. We may be turning a corner, though, with the Legion Go S earlier this year, the upcoming Asus ROG Xbox Ally and now, the Legion Go 2.
Expected to arrive in October, with an eye-watering starting price of $1,049, the Legion Go 2 is bigger and better than the original — at least based on specs and the few minutes I spent playing with one. And when I say bigger, I mean it’s actually larger in all directions and tips the scales at 2 pounds.
The Go 2 is thicc.
The design might not look too different from the original, but Lenovo actually made quite a lot of changes. For example, the bottoms of the detachable controllers have been rounded, so they’re more comfortable. They now have Hall Effect sticks to help with drift. There are three user-programmable buttons, a larger D-pad and a better overall button layout. And there’s still an FPS mode that lets you use the right controller like a vertical mouse.
Lenovo Legion Go 2 specifications
| Display | 8.8-inch 1,920×1,200 OLED 144Hz |
|---|---|
| Processor | Up to AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme |
| Graphics | Up to AMD Radeon 890M Graphics |
| Memory | Up to 32GB 8,000MHz LPDDR5X RAM |
| Storage | Up to 2TB M.2 2242 PCIe SSD (Gen 4) |
| Ports | USB 4.0 Type-C (x2), microSD card reader (supports up to 2TB), 3.5mm Audio Combo Jack |
| Audio | 2-watt stereo speakers, dual-array near-field microphone |
| Wireless | Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3 |
| Battery | 4-cell 74Whr |
| Dimensions | 11.6×5.4×1.7 inches (295.6×136.7×42.3 millimeters) |
| Weight | 2 pounds (920 grams) |
| OS | Windows 11 |
The handheld is still built around an 8.8-inch touchscreen, but this time it’s a great-looking OLED panel with a 30-144Hz variable refresh rate. Disappointingly, the resolution dropped from 2,560×1,600 pixels to 1,920×1,200. Perhaps that’s for the best, though: Even with its new AMD processor and graphics chip, you might not be able to take advantage of a 2.5K resolution, but 1080p should be just fine, especially if your tastes lean more toward less-demanding indie and retro titles.
With its 2-pound weight, table-top gaming using the Go 2’s sturdy built-in kickstand might be the way to go for long gaming sessions.
Lenovo also bumped up the battery size to a 74-watt-hour capacity — more than 50% higher than the Legion Go’s battery. It also has rapid charging with Power Delivery 3.0 support through its top or bottom USB-C ports. A 65-watt power adapter is included.
An optional docking cradle will be available for the Go 2.
Both USB-C ports support DisplayPort 2.0, so you can easily connect to an external display, with or without Lenovo’s optional dock, or to a nice pair of display glasses. (Lenovo updated its Legion Glasses, too, making them “slimmer, lighter and brighter.”) Lenovo even made it easier to securely unlock the device by putting a fingerprint reader in the power button on top.
Will all the updates pay off? Maybe. But at $1,049 — and that’s just the starting price — the Legion Go 2 is in budget gaming laptop territory. Since it is running Windows 11, you can always use it like a desktop PC that also just happens to play games pretty well on the go, too.
