Most folks leave their affiliate links here. I have none. Instead, a few thoughts: The whole point of a review is to give as objective and honest a take as possible. Some of the things I found deal-breaking you might too. You could also shrug them off and consider them as unimportant - and that’s totally okay. *Take what you like, and disregard the rest.* We all have different needs, we game differently, we have different priorities, and so on. There’s no “one-size-fits-all” kind of device. But it’s important to talk about certain things objectively, and that’s what I tried to do here, as much as I could. It’s also important to call companies out when they’re cutting corners and abandoning their products. The Legion Go has been misrepresented on RUclips since day one (subjectively speaking). It’s a whole lot better than expected (an understatement), and also, in a few specific ways, much worse. Thanks for watching. I’ll lurk around in the comments cause I have no social life and really enjoy this RUclips shit. Unless Balatro takes ahold of my life again. P.S. I didn't talk about a bunch of stuff like performance, speakers (which can be improved), lossless scaling (which is amazing), and so on cause the video would've been five hours long. Luckily, RUclips is packed with quality content, so if you're after those details make sure to do a bit of digging.
@@CGD.Studio this comment right here earns you my subscribe. So many only care about the affiliate link, or wouldn’t have added an addendum in the comments section.
Thank you Aaron, really appreciate it. :) I’m not in it for the money, and I’d rather stop doing this altogether than live like a leech by getting 2% off of people’s hard-earned money.
This is my only gaming device, previously owned a switch. I'm in my 60s now and if it hasn't realised it's potential I don't care because it is fantastic
@misters7413 no issues with wrists at all, I play at least an hour a day, maybe more, everything feels comfortable. Perhaps I have larger hands than you!
@@andrewsmyth1641 If you do, you have huge hands, I can easily palm a basketball. That's also part of the problem, I have to really curl my fingers because of the narrow button placement, so it's hard to balance the weight and play finger twister to get to the buttons. Bless you though. I'm screwed when I get into my 60's if my joints are already falling apart...
@@misters7413I can palm an official size ball… and the go is amazing with the right accessories or without. I had the steam deck, and the extra comfort was definitely worth the trade off considering I can detach the controllers.
@@misters7413 So you went from "Wow (person who is presumably average) this device must be killing you" to "Well you see I have super huge hands! Doesn't everyone?"
Just bought it yesterday for 300$ off open box at Best Buy. I personally don't have a TV nor a PC, and I'll be playing plugged almost 100% of the time. I'll try to optimize it as much as possible, but I never cared for max resolution. If I can play my games at a steady 45 to 60 fps I'm gold.
So you’re a modest, rational gamer, love it, I’m the same. 😁 $300 off is amazing! As your only device, I think you’re gonna adore every second of it. You can buy a bluetooth keyboard and use it as a laptop, it can run most games amazingly well, and if you ever get bored with Windows jank, you can just install Bazzite on it and have a much smoother handheld exprerience when it comes to wake/resume and standby times.
I can play most AAA games at 45-60 fps on 1200p low to medium settings. Some occasionally dropping to 30fps but it's fine. Even on low settings, the games look good because you're playing on a small screen anyway. Recently downloaded GOW Ragnarok, it's freaking beautiful on the Legion Go.
@@vc7415 That's been my experience with it. I literally haven't not one single complaint! This is a beast of a handheld. If you have AFMF2, FSR 3.1, and change you're BIOS from stock 4 to 8G you're golden!! 🎉
I suggest everyone that owns 1 look into updating their AMD drivers from a youtuber here that has an easy tutorial, therefore it's never actually behind other devices, personally this the last device ill buy for a while as it fits my needs for foreseeable future
Got my Legion Go back in August and man im sooo happy with it, my Alienware m17 r2 died on me about a month before I got the LEGO and it was either this or a ps5 and man this thing is way too cool lol got me a Uperfect 2k 144hz monitor jsaux dock and razer mouse and keyboard, new main setup now no doubt
Also my RB button stopped responding a week ago and Lenovo sent me a free controller in less than 72 hours literally, and that surprised me so much when it came in the mail that fast...just my experiences so far
Glad to hear it! Saw a bunch of positive comments on Lenovo's RMA practices and warranties. At least they have that going for them. 😁 That being said, it probably varies from region to region. But good news regardless.
This channel will grow keep up the good work you have a fantastic way of getting a point across I only found your channel this morning but already know I'll be here for a long time
I have a Legion Go and im loving it so far. The fact that you can take the controllers off and set it on a table and play is just amazing, and also i can use it as a tablet. Those were the reasons i went with the Legion Go. Also the screen is *chefs kiss*!
The truth? I disagree with most of your criticism. I'm not one of those users who is constantly busy with updates and I still enjoy a device that runs everything I ask for on a huge screen, and despite that I enjoy hearing you. You're sharp and interesting and understand that this is your personal truth.
First of all, thank you for being a rational, _thinking_ human being. :) We can disagree on all sorts of things, but that doesn't mean we can't have a discussion about it. I tend to be the same way, but some of these issues (which will surely, at some point, be ironed out), can creep up even if you're not tinkering with anything and pushing the Legion Go to its limits. It's not a debacle, I may have hammered on it in the second half of the video but that's only because I was disappointed, cause it blew me away so much and because it has so much potential. And if you _do_ want to push it to its limits and extract the most performance, Lenovo isn't gonna help you much - and yet they're always buying time online, always promising updates and either not delivering them or, even worse, shipping them out without thorough testing and validation and then messing something up. It's just not at the level one would expect given who's making it. And I think we, as consumers, deserve better. If the Legion Go were made by a Chinese company and funded through IndieGogo - like so many of those retro handhelds are - then I'd understand, but Lenovo? There's just no excuse. As for the personal truth part, you're totally right, but I also tried to combat the subjective part of it with the bajillion comments I embedded during editing, comments from _other_ people, cause it isn't just me. It's a _lot_ of people online who are angry and disappointed. Not everyone, of course, but a lot nonetheless. My _own_ thoughts don't matter, I always try to gather as much data as possible so that if someone clicks on the video they get a comprehensive review, a wide gamut of thoughts and opinions. And money isn't easy to earn, and a lot of people save up for months if not years to buy one of these devices (and I'm reminded by that in the comment section every so often), so if I'm making a video in an attempt to help someone out, I want to talk about it from a perspective of a normal human being whose daddy isn't an oil magnate, or a typical tech RUclipsr who whips out seven $2000 laptops on a table that were given to him for free as review units. The thing is, you're not gonna get a critical overview of a device on RUclips nowadays. That goes for laptops, gaming devices, consoles, retro handhelds, cameras, and everything in between. The only way for these people to make a living through content creation is through affiliate links and lucrative sponsorships, and if you say it how it is, if you don't lie, then you're not gonna be able to scale. But I'd much rather criticize and stand up for what's right than generate tons of income by praising every piece of tech I can get. Thanks again for taking the time to comment, I'm glad you found it engaging! 🙌
one of those personal truth people eh? You mean "his opinion"? you don't actually believe there are more than one truth and everyone can have their own truth? There's only 1 truth right?
@@bradcruise6291 The problem I have is, like, people are so quick to respond nowadays. One dude, in the comment section, said that the Legion Go outperforms the ROG Ally by 50% in Diablo IV. That's his experience, but he's _objectively_ and _factually_ wrong. So what do you do, do you engage? That's blatantly inaccurate and yet he's shouting it out like it's a fact of life. To make things even worse, most people only look at themselves and _their_ needs and preferences, they cannot fathom the potential that there's someone else out there who might experience these devices differently, people who expect a seamless and streamlined experience, and whatnot. That's why I really don't give a damn about _my_ experience and _my_ thoughts. I'd rather collect what everyone else experienced and focus on that, as it's a much larger sample size. But the toxicity of some people - folks who build their identity through the devices they buy and the brands they align with - is staggering.
Love mine. I game mostly on the Legion Go, which works great on the road when you are stuck waiting for appointments, etc. I also have an EGPU with RTX 4060 that plays every game on Ultra 100+ fps, no prob. 1080P on a 120-inch projector screen. I 3D-printed a cradle to put it in portrait mode, with attachments on the side for the controllers. This is awesome for pinball games It's like having a mini pinball table with hundreds of tables. As the screen is small you do not need to go over 1080 on it and a lot of games look good at 720 if you are looking for higher fps. I like the weight; maybe it is because I have large hands.
How much tinkering will i have to do just to play games from Steam? Both this and the rog ally z1 extreme are on sale for $472, and im really considering purchasing one.
Not a lot, to be honest (if any at all). Lenovo’s overlay might drive you crazy but that’s also somewhat subjective. 😅 The portrait-based display shouldn’t give you any trouble (although a few games from Game Pass _did_ have issues for me), and if you boot straight into Big Picture Mode you won’t have to mess around with Windows too much either. My time with the Ally was a lot less janky, but everyone’s experience is slightly different depending on which games they play and which launchers they use. I think you’ll love for that kind of price. The negatives are a lot easier to swallow if you can get it for less than $499, that’s for sure.
I've been dailying Bazzite since February and I could see an argument back then that it wasn't super stable. However, for the last 6-7 months it's been awesome. I no longer have Windows on my Legion Go at all, so Lenovo's complete failure to support the product hasn't affected me beyond them not releasing a better set of controllers. Why have removable controllers if you're not going to capitalize on it by offering different options? The ergonomics on the stock controllers suck and I don't care about FPS mode.
Glad to hear it! 🙌 Bazzite is definitely the future as far as the Legion Go is concerned. Why have removable controllers? To have a unique selling point. 😁 To have influencers say - _it's like the Switch but it's x86!_ It took them a year to release things people were selling on Etsy a month from the Go's release, just insane, in my opinion. I mentioned FPS mode cause it was all the rage during the review period online, especially on RUclips. Selling it like it can actually replace any kind of mouse, like it actually makes sense. The "expectations vs. reality" kind of situation.
I paid €650 for a brand new Legion Go 512Go. From Germany. I purchased the Steam Deck OLED, the 512 Go too. The LG is the only one I am wanting to tweak its guts and blood. It's clearly not an "User Friendly Handheld Gaming PC". Nope, Sir. It's a frakking handheld gaming PC which, like gaming desktops even gaming laptops, has to be tuned the way you want to play your games. It's a PC. With its pros & cons. But I see it as my main OTG travel gaming setup. It will replace my gaming laptop as soon as I have finished to "adapt" it to my needs. So, yup, the LG is for people who knows how to get the max of gaming devices. You want to play OOTB?? Buy a Steam Deck. Really. You'll never regret it. You love to put your hands in the guts?? Buy a LG, you won't regret it!! My 2 cents.
As someone looking into buying my first PC handheld - primarily as a cheap(ish) way to build up a steam library - this was really helpful. I think I might get one from a place that has a X number of days return policy and see how I get on.
Absolutely, that's always the best option! Watch/read as many reviews as possible, then try it out yourself and have a return window as a back-up plan. 🙌
This is the way, however, you're not even close to limited to just Steam. That's the beauty of Legion Go. Do what you want as you would on a Windows PC. I particularly enjoy playing older AAA games on mine, and it doesn't disappoint.
This is a black Friday that has made me so wishy washy on whether or not to get one. I keep watching vids and the more I watch, the more I see vids stating points like the ones in the vids. Too bad all the others are so small in comparison screen-wise to this. Thanks for the review.
I'd still get it if I were you, unless the bugginess happens to be a total dealbreaker. I think it's a glorious device overall, it's just not as polished as its alternatives. But by no means is it unusable. Far from it - it just takes a bit of finessing depending on your needs. 😁Plus, I don't know where you're from, but if you're in the US, you can just buy it from Best Buy, test it out and if it's not good enough for you, you can return it and get your money back in no time. Amazon probably has a similar return option, not sure. So, in a way, there's no actual risk.
I have reservations for all the reasons you’ve listed. But, that larger screen is just easier on my eyes. The Ally X is just a flat no at 7”. The Steam Deck OLED is passable at 7.4” but only because it’s also OLED and has a lower pixel density and this slightly easier to see. I will certainly be buying the gen2 of this with the OLED screen and am honestly amazed that Lenovo claims the gen2 joycons will be backwards compatible. Not typically Lenovo’s style.
Totally get that. The difference in experience is staggering, honestly. I mean, if you can snag a used LeGo for like $400-450 or something I think it's definitely worth buying. I don't think the LeGo 2 is coming out before Summer, if even then. And it'll surely be over $1000, most likely $1100 or $1200 which, I dunno, it's just way too expensive for that level of performance. I'm not crazy about the idea of paying that much money and still not being able to play AAA games with reasonable performance and image quality, without having to resort to a ton of upscaling and frame gen. You can get a used first-gen handheld _and_ a PS5 for that kind of money, and still have some left over. 😅
yeah i remember asking you about a review for it a couple months ago, ended up selling mine because of the lack of updates and the overall genkiness of it, its was probably the worst best handheld i've had, ended up selling and just buying a steam deck
Dude, the crazy thing is it took me *five f*cking months* to make this. Like, how do you even begin, how do you even cover it? It's so glorious and yet so abandoned. I still have wet dreams of that display though. Crazy that Lenovo doesn't give a damn. Sorry to hear about your experience, especially since it's exactly the same as mine. 😁
Thank you friend, really appreciate it! 😁 2.6K is still 2.6K more than I expected, so I'm more than happy. 🙌 Plus, it feels more like a community, if that makes sense.
Heyy, do you reccomend to buy a legion go for 500usd instead of building a pc for about 600? I dont have any other pc or console, so legion go would be my only device to play
Oof, that's a hard question. Which games would you like to play? I mean, you can build a very capable gaming PC for $600 if you're okay with buying used parts. I just recently built an mATX PC for about the same money with an i3-12100 (used), 16GB of RAM (used) and an RTX 3070 (used). I would personally always build a PC _first_ cause it can do so many things and if something goes wrong it's easy to replace a part (or two). And you can always upgrade further down the line. That's a big benefit. But a Legion Go would also work for you as well. Its integrated graphics are surprisingly capable, but they're not good enough for AAA gaming (unless you set everything to Low/Medium and upscale a ton with FSR+AMD's Frame Generation/Lossless Scaling). But if you're mostly playing legacy titles or newer ones that are easy to run, it'll definitely get the job done! And you can just undock it from your monitor and game in your bedroom when you feel like it. I would also suggest looking into a used Xbox Series S. That + a Game Pass subscription is a match made in heaven. A used Series S sells for around €190 in my country and I'm sure it's a similar case around the world as well. And then you could also buy, I don't know, a used Steam Deck LCD (if its priced appropriately in your country/region) or a used ROG Ally (which you can now find used for less than €400). So for $600 you get a handheld PC which will run basically identically as the Legion Go (but costs less, has less fan noise, isn't as hot when pushed, and has a variable refresh rate display) and you can also hook it up to a monitor and use it as a PC, and also a dedicated gaming console with Game Pass that runs flawlessly. Best of both worlds! If I had $500-600 I would go that route without thinking twice. :)
Well, it wasn't an issue for _you_ . 😁 And I'm happy for that being the case, but a lot of people online are pissed off and angry at Lenovo, people from both camps (those that are tech savvy and those that aren't). That's why it took me six months to make this video, I _really_ tried my absolute hardest to give a fair and objective verdict (hence the bajillion embedded comments in the video). The fact that you or me or some random dude didn't have any issue doesn't mean that those issues don't exist. And it's a hard thing to talk about cause we all use these devices differently, and our needs differ as well. But covering the bad stuff should be a must for any review (one that isn't paid off or sponsored, at least).
Oof, well, it's roughly about as powerful as a GTX 1650. Not even that much, depending on the benchmark. But it's a hard thing to compare cause you're playing most games at 720/800/900p (even if the display is a higher res panel), and you're using things like Lossless Scaling or AMD's AFMF2 along with ample FSR/XeSS, so these devices _feel_ a lot more capable than they actually are. But no, it's not even close to a GTX1070. The handhelds we'll get in 2026 will get there though.
@CGD.Studio I have to limit the fps on the 1070 to 45fps on games like marvel midnight suns, outer worlds ,borderlands 3 and often don't use the laptop because of that and just use my desktop so would this be a no go then as the laptop was brought more for use going downstairs and using in the living room and I imagine I couldn't do that with this if the laptop is struggling. The laptop is a 1080p, 16gb ram, gtx 1070.
I’ve never liked talking somebody about something so funny and intelligent, it was a pleasure to hear it. 😊 Keep up the good work, you deserve way more viewer and subs!
Both prices are great in my opinion. Or amazing, even! It's a lot easier to accept any potential flaws or shortcomings for that kind of price, which holds true for the Ally as well.
I’ve just owned one of it for 2 weeks now. I’m an LCD Steam Deck player previously and It seems everything is working fine for now but I love the things that you’ve mentioned about the cons. I will keep on monitoring my experience with it to see if it matches your info. 1 sub for you my friend 🎉
Thank you, friend, really appreciate it! I hope things go as smooth as butter for you. 😁 There's a lot to love with the Legion Go, that's for sure, especially for those willing to put in a bit of work and set everything up.
The only 2 complaints I have about the Legion are fan noise (its not annoying but i would love a few less decibels) and the battery, other than that Im glad that i sold my steam deck and got this, and in the future I will upgrade to the LeGO 2. Its a very good quality product overall!
Reinstall Legion Space, I'd start there. Check for any available updates too, both in Legion Space _and_ in Windows. If none of that helps, I'd reinstall Windows just to be sure it's not a software-related issue. If it's hardware-related, you can order a new fan straight from Lenovo if I'm not mistaken and do the replacement yourself, assuming it's an issue with the fan itself and not something more serious.
Since lenovo announced we will get steamos support for older legion go, i guess we'll get a better experience. Let's hope we'll get it sooner rather than later
It’s definitely coming together! To their credit they listened to the community. Even the Go 2 will use drivers straight from AMD and the new controllers will be backwards compatible, so cool pro-consumer moves for sure. 🙌
this was a fantastic review. I used to tinker with things but I don't have thr time and id love to just have something that works but I love thr features and the screen on this. it's on black friday sale dor 474 is dollars new. would you get this or a steam deck if you had the choice and knowing what you know now?
Thank you JP, glad you liked it! 🙌 Oof, to be honest, that's a _very_ tough question. They're really hard to compare cause there's a fairly tangible performance difference between them. The Steam Deck is a _lot_ more polished, but if you need Windows or want to play some games with anti-cheat or need the extra performance (or Game Pass or whatever), then it's not really an option. Although you can still install Windows on a Steam Deck, it runs flawlessly with a few third-party tools (first-hand experience). I'd personally still take the Legion cause of the price right now. And you can always install Bazzite on it if you have the energy and are willing to roll up your sleeves and have yourself a beefed-up "Steam Deck" with a much larger display, two USB4 ports, a built-in kickstand, and whatever else. Unless you plan on gaming on-the-go, in which case you should definitely go with the OLED Steam Deck. Apologies for the long, rambling message, it's almost 6AM where I'm at. 😅 But it's complicated, in other words.
@CGD.Studio lol no need for apologies! I really appreciate you tsking the time to respond and I hope to help with building your channel with likes and such. I guess ill do a quick research on just how much of a pain it is to do what you said and to make it more polished by tinkering but that 474 and all the features are very tempting. then again just having something that just works like the steam deck is also appealing. i really appreciate your review and your descriptive answer im very much leaning towards getting the legion go for the price... although supporting a company that has turned its back on thier customers is not good and also a factor hm...
@CGD.Studio hey so not sure what version you have. but i have decided to go with the legion go. but it's 474 usd on Amazon for the 512 gb or 550 usd for thr 1tb. woukd you say the extra price is worth it? I stopped paying attention to tech years ago and im going to jump start back up again. i didn't know which version you had. And the sale ends today haha
@@JP-hg5ru I had the 512GB version. 😁 I personally don't need more than 512GB of storage. I can't play _all_ the games, but that also depends on _what_ you plan on playing. If it's like 100GB AAA titles, then 512GB might be a bit limiting. I would _personally_ go with the base 512 model, you can always upgrade the storage later on. And who knows, maybe you won't even like it, in which case you'll be glad to have bought the cheaper version. I'm not saying you're _not_ gonna like it, but it's always an option with any kind of device. 😅 But the price is fair, that upsell. It's, what, $75 for a 1TB drive, that's totally fair, if not even cost-effective. I see that the Corsair MP600 1TB currently is on sale on Amazon for $84.99, so you'd be getting a larger SSD for less money, without having to put in any work yourself. It's a good deal. 😁 If you're into indies and emulation and AA games (which are mainly, what, 30-50GB in size), then 512GB will serve you fine. But if you wanna, you know, slap Red Dead Redemption 2 on it, Borderlands 3, stuff like that, then you'll run out of space relatively quickly. I personally don't mint focusing on just a few games, finishing them and then installing something else, I don't see the need to have them _all_ available at every possible moment.
@@JP-hg5ru Thank you friend, really appreciate it. :) On the plus side, if you want a relatively seamless and pain-free user experience, you can always install Bazzite on your Legion Go and turn it into a more powerful Steam Deck. Not a shabby option at all. As for supporting the company, ah, they're all the same. I find it crazy when people defend any kind of device that was manufactured at a large scale. We're all just numbers to these OEMs, and none of them give a damn about anything other than their profits. We're always picking between multiple different "evils." But at least we get to choose. ASUS, for instance, didn't do a damn thing and wouldn't have done a damn thing is Gamers Nexus didn't go ballistic on them and kickstarted a ton of pushback.
The LeGo is on sale at Best Buy for Black Friday here in the states for just $550 for the 1TB model. I was thinking of picking one up, but now I'm not so sure.
I'd still buy it if I were you. Honestly. It's not perfect, but neither are its alternatives. It might not be the most fleshed out, but it's still a great device - so long as you're aware of the limitations and certain bugs and flaws you might encounter. And I'm saying this primarily because you can return it, right, within 14 days or something? If it's not good enough for you, you'd be able to get your money back in no time. 😁
@@JayGamingTechTips Dude that's insane. That's like two whole months to tinker with it and see if it "fits." Sucks to be a European, that's for sure. 😁
Thank you friend, really appreciate you watching! 🙌 Oof, the PS Portal. 😁 Not sure, I'm personally not a big fan of it mainly because of the price. I snagged a used Logitech G Cloud with a case and screen protector for €200 and I feel like that was a good deal overall. It's a full-fledged Android device (albeit a weak one), and it runs most systems up to PPSSPP flawlessly (even 2X resolution, in some cases). Like, it's not a paperweight when I can't stream, I can still use it for other things. The PS Portal, to me personally, is just a bit too limiting, it's a one use-case device, which is obviously okay with more than half a million people who bought it, but I've yet to come across someone who's like "this thing is amazing, it totally changed things for me." I've seen people loving it, but it seems to me that they love the fact that they're _streaming_ their favorites games to a portable device, as opposed to loving the Portal itself. I just don't feel like it offers anything unique. If it had an OLED panel, for instance, it would've been a pretty unique option. But I totally get why people like them, it's the convenience of it all.
@ thanks for sharing your thoughts! Couldn’t agree more with The “loving the fact of streaming their games as opposed to loving the system it’s self”Looking forward to the Logitech G Cloud review!
This video has just convinced me to not buy legion go (which costs $730 in my country on blackfriday). It's frustrating that the only handheld pc with large screen has so many software issues, i'm not ready to fight with customer service or experience numerous bugs/crashes etc. Indeed when you buy a device from an established brand you expect something less or more polished + frequent updates that should elevate the experience. But feels more like copmanies' primary principle is gathering small teams and putting little effort to not regret if a product fails later
Oh man what the hell, $730? That's insane. Not worth it at all, in my opinion. Have you checked the second-hand market? It was selling for a whopping €799 in Europe for months, which is dangerously close to the ROG Ally X. (€899) Right now it's around €599 cause it's on sale, but once Black Friday ends retailers will surely jack the price back up.
As you said, I should have waited for an Ally X :) I own my LeGO for a bit over a year. I use it as a desktop pc. I hooked up a usb-c hub, plugged in two monitors and I later added an usb fan to keep it cool. It is nice. The only thing I dont like is the janky-ness you described. Some windows programs constantly run into errors (HitFilm Express, etc. ) or are not supported at all, because of poor optimisation. Lately the Legion space stopped working for me, so I have trouble accessing some of the settings which s frustrating to say the least. I decided on getting the LeGO because of 2 things other handhelds didnt have a year ago: 1. two usb ports, 2. optical mouse (hear me out :D I use my LeGO with Nexdock 360 when I am not at home and having a mouse built in for when I need it is convenient). BTW I had to open it up and clean the inside of the cooling fan like 4 months ago. I think I will have to do that again in 2 months or so. I should have waited for an Ally X and bought a mouse or saved up a bit more and I should have bought a laptop though :D I will never again buy anything Lenovo because of the software issues. Gaming is awesome tbh, the rest is meh.
Thank you for chiming in, some people really don't like hearing the bad stuff while they're in the honeymoon phase. 😅 But to say - as some did - that issues don't exist or that the Legion Go is equally as polished and consistent as, say, the ROG Ally is just a blatant lie. Did you try sideloading the 780M drivers?
I do deep dive research on these types of things, mostly for myself. I was going to purchase one today, but after watching this I am now hesitant. Maybe I should wait to see if the LeGo 2 is better. Or maybe I just get an Asus RoG Ally X instead. I already have a Steam Deck OLED and a Switch OLED. Both do exactly what I want them to do, the SD needed a little bit of tweaking here and there, it does what it was built to do with a tragic battery life. I will continue to research for a handheld that is supported by its creator. So far though for me Switch is leading the charge, shockingly.
I've owned the SD LCD and Switch OLED. Sold both for the Legion Go. Don't be hesitant based on this guys gibberish - watch more videos. The Legion Go will not disappoint. In terms of LG2? Nobody knows, but its looking promising. If you want to wait for it, do it. If not, Legion is the way to.....Go lol. Hope this helps, cuz I love mine and all the things I can do on it.
"Gibberish?" What would you have preferred, a video that 100% covers your and _only_ your experience and ignore thousands of other unsatisfied customers? Would that have been the better option? Come on brother. You can love the thing and still criticize it. No one's picking any sides, and none of these devices are perfect, but Lenovo should've still done better given how much they were charging for it. I'm gonna spitball here but I feel like, 10-15% of the video is my _personal_ opinion, and that's why it took me 6-7 months to make it. I was on Reddit each and every single day, gathering opinions, trying to focus on what _everyone_ feels as opposed to my personal stance which I don't care much about cause who am _I_ to give out a verdict. And I didn't even cover _all_ of the performance and charging bugs that I personally experience a lot cause the video would've been five hours long. And who wants that? People need to understand that their individual experience matters very little with these devices cause the way we use them varies wildly. You'd be surprised by how many people use their LeGos just for game streaming and light emulation. Obviously they're not gonna run into any issues, but that doesn't tell the whole story. It's like those who say "just get a Steam Deck." Nah, man. It doesn't work that way. It's sadly never that simple, and anyone who says otherwise probably has something to sell you, a link, a percentage, a referral. And FOMO sells a lot better than objectivity. As I said in the video, _these_ are the things you need to be aware of, and if you're okay with that, you're gonna love the LeGo cause it _can_ be glorious. But it's also messy, unfinished, behind the curve update-wise, and it's not as good pick for as many people as some other options. That doesn't invalidate it, far from it.
@@CGD.Studio I am a gamer, having all options at my fingertips is just something I feel is necessary to judge what is best for what activity. I can't say if the machine is awful or not if I have never touched it.
I just got mine for black Friday, I was so surprised that it was cheaper than the ALLY with the 1tb. Also the screen is really vibrant and colorful, I had bought the PS portal but didn't like how leaving my home ok hotspot it never worked so I was like if I'm gonna get a portable let me get a good one and bam the GO just seemed like my type, I like the versatility, comes with a case, feels really good on the hand, and yess built like a tank and legit
I paid 475 for the 512gig in November. I’ve done two graphic driver updates since then. I think the legion go is better than the ROG Ally regular. The screen is immersive.
Things have picked up with the updates for legion space (while still not great) works far better than it did when I first got it a few months ago. Driver updates could be more frequent but other than that I have had no complaints. Yes it took some research to get things to run correctly but in my experience, so did the steam deck.
The thing is, if they're making, like, 2 or 3 more devices (I think it might even be 3), it's obvious that they're in it for the long haul, and they're gonna use Legion Space for every forthcoming device as well. If they did't have that in the pipeline, I'm pretty sure we'd still have the original Legion Space. It's a business, but come on, give the people who paid good money for your thing a bit of love, they're the ones who made the Legion Go 2 and Lite possible, in a way. :/
I'm a every day driver on the legion go. I love it. It's not perfect. But who is. Also I use the onexgpu with rokid max. This is the greatest hand held. It can do many tricks❤
New drivers came out yesterday btw. But yes, I agree with all your points. Except for, when its windows, there will always be tweaking with the only exception if you're using top of the line specs. But since this is handheld, I fully understood there will be a lot of tweakings before i even purchased it. But its fine. I feel like everything else still outshines the cons. Its a fantastic device, but it is expensive.
I'd still recommend sideloading the 780M drivers, sadly, as those latest ones are based on AMD drivers from July. :/ No AFMF2 and, in my testing, it's really been a gamechanger. Plus games like Path of Exile 2 run _much_ better, be it due to optimizations or because of AFMF2, either way it's a better and smoother experience.
@@CGD.Studio I recently ordered the 14inch legion slim 5, yours was the only actually good review on youtube that felt like a real user review and not a spec sheet comparison, thank you! i got it with 16gb ram and rtx4050 for 999 euro (pretty fucking good i would say) this is my 3rd time replying, all my replies get deleted wtf
Aw, thank you, that really means a lot. That's the whole point, the whole RUclips space is compromised. All just affiliate links and sponsorship deals. You really have to dig deep for an honest opinion. Disgusting, really. I have more laptop reviews planned for 2025, but they're crazy expensive nowadays. 😂 Plus nothing really exciting at the moment, personally speaking. Oof, €999 for a 4050? I'd buy that in a heartbeat!
Bro finally post another banger video with the review style that everyone should take a note of. Sometimes you should be totally brutal to these companies that treat customers like some shit. These devices cost arm and a leg to buy one and we don't even get proper treatment which still to this day Steam Deck stand likes a king compare to those shitty corporate whose only intention is to suck customers dry. Enough of my ranting:3 keep going mate and i don't mind hour long video of you shitting these companies.
Aw, thank you brother, really appreciate it. Seriously. :) 🙌Comments like these really make it worthwhile, sitting in a room and editing a video for like 50 hours or something. Oh if you like shitting on companies, do I have a video for you! 😂January/February!
I was thinking of getting the legion go instead of an ally simply because of the egpu support. Since I have to go back and forth between my mom and Dad and only at my mom's I have a PC, it would be a lot easier to just bring the legion go and an egpu on a plane instead of a whole PC. I was also already planning on installing chimeraos on it anyways so the software support isn't a big deal. Also on Amazon they are the same price.
Would it not make more sense to just buy a smaller 14" gaming laptop? :/ And I say this as someone who's been obsessed with eGPUs for, like, 6-7 years. The cost of it adds up a lot and you'd also lose out on performance.
@@CGD.Studio I was thinking the legion go because 1. It's 500 dollars on Amazon right now and it seems like a good handheld 2. I can upgrade later with the egpu, meaning I can get the thing and use it and upgrade later after I save up, and 3. I need better airflow than with a gaming laptop because I want to play some light VR games (after I get the egpu ofc) and I know bad airflow can be the death of laptops. I guess I could get a laptop with thunderbolt 4, but I want to be able to use it for gaming in the mean time and I'm getting like a 1060 or 8 gigs of ram for the same price.
That _does_ make sense. An unorthodox upgrade path, but an upgrade path nonetheless. 😁 Quick question though, which eGPU are you thinking of buying? 🤔 All of the mainstream ones are pretty huge and heavy, not exactly ideal for traveling (especially by plane). ASUS' proprietary XG Mobiles are definitely compact, but they're expensive AF and also jankier than regular TB eGPUs, based on what I've read. But if you can snag one for cheap that'd be a pretty ideal setup for traveling.
@@CGD.Studio I'm not sure yet, I was thinking I could get an enclosure and get an upgrade for my main rig, and just throw my 3050 in the enclosure. It runs games fine but I want more performance while I'm at home with my main setup. And addressing the issues with travelling, once I get it configured I may just mail the GPU and enclosure to my dad's and leave it there since I have a perfectly fine rig to play my games on and I don't need 2 rigs to play games on. Also it means I can just bring the legion and be good. But this also all depends on if I can find a good deal on other ones.
@@CGD.Studiowow you are really responsive and helpful, i really admire that in a RUclipsr. Plus I totally love your attitude. First time watcher and I’ll definitely be watching some more just for your dry humour and wit
My biggest complaint with the windows handhelds is when you buy them the first like 4 hours is just installing updates and drivers and stuff. Then once you do that and you download your games you have to go in and mess with the frame generation or the integer scaling or the Radeon super resolution and mess with all the different settings to get the game to run the way that you want it to run. So I do like how on the steam deck it has just a quick access menu that you pull out and can quickly adjust the settings and that's it super easy. Also I just got my legion Go for $400 at Best buy on sale and then returned it because after like 3 days the right bumper would just work sometimes. And it was super buggy and I had to detach the controllers and reattach them to get the game to recognize that I was trying to use a controller versus on the ally you can just hit the quick menu and toggle the gamepad but that's not a thing on the legion for some reason
Couldn't agree more. It's on the OEM to create a sensible and simple overlay and allow us to change as many settings as we need on the fly. And it needs to be easily accessible at all points. Lenovo's still not there yet although they've improved, but ASUS finally caught up with Valve. Armory Crate, in my experience, is absolutely amazing at this point. Sorry to hear about your unit. :/
@@CGD.Studio absolutely. Armory crate is much better. And Legion Space has improved and the quick access menu, but now it seems too...cheap..or cheesy if that's makes sense. Having that little spiny triangle over your settings, reminds me of playing on an N64 back in the day lol
The Legion Go is good. But I spent the first 2 days updating, manually searching for the latest drivers on websites, tweaking the bios setiings etc. Just to get it running decently.
The thing is, I love it. But I pretty much only use it for streaming on it from a desktop PC. Which you can do in super silent mode and have like 6 hours of battery. Else I use it native only for games like hades, which dont need that much power and can be played effective. So youre right. Its not for everyone, but its perfect for people who can use its strong points to the max.
As you should! There's a ton to love with the Legion Go. Criticizing certain parts of it - which are Lenovo's fault first and foremost - doesn't mean a device is bad or not worth buying. But if people aren't vocal about it, then there's absolutely no chance that things will ever change for the better and that the companies making these things will ever try harder. But other than that, I've _loved_ my time with the Legion Go, and there's no device out there quite like it. Whoever can use its full potential will be blown away, and I'm glad you've found it useful in the ways you game. 🙌
thanks for doing a review i was planning to gamble for a prize for quite some time to see the lenovo legion go but now i feel like for me its best to wait for some updates and fixes on rebrand or not getting it.
This was an awesome video and the criticisms are valid! You're also hilarious dude hahaha. Very entertaining video 👍 As a Legion GO owner myself (which I bought an open box one from Best Buy for just $480 + tx USD! imagine that and still had 9 months warranty at that time), I overall love it but I understand all of the criticisms in this video perfectly. Indeed the driver support is abysmal... There is one new GPU driver every 6 months or so. Also, the sound quality of the speaker at default settings is a 6/10 I'd say but when you go in Realtek Audio Controller and change the preset from "Powerful" to "Club" (or you do Custom and boost the bass frequencies yourself) then the speaker sound goes to a 7.5 / 10 and becomes a good sounding device. Not great or amazing like ROG Ally or Steam Deck, but still good and clear on the Legion GO. The last main problem I have is with cardinal snapping on the thumbsticks... You can't make a perfect small circle in your game with the camera view - if you try doing a small tight circle with your view using the right thumbstick for example, it will snap the view slightly left, then down, then right, then up, etc. You have to make a wider circle to have a smooth circular motion with the sticks... This is the single worst thing about this device which I just discovered in the last 2 months. With those main criticisms out of the way... I think overall it's a very useable device when it comes to Windows 11. In fact, I think it's the single best Windows handheld device when it comes to navigating Windows thanks to the trackpad, large screen, high resolution and good touchscreen. It's also fantastic for watching movies on it like a tablet (it's high 1600p resolution + 144 Hz refresh rate which divides evenly the 24 fps framerate of most movies making it really nice to watch stuff). As for gaming performance, it's solid and despite the drivers only being updated once per 6 months, everything pretty much works. The games probably don't work OPTIMALLY, especially new ones, but so far everything I've tried works and runs solidly. In my experience, now that I've set up everything in Windows to my liking, I rarely have weird bugs or glitches or performance issues or anything aside from some minor annoyances like sometimes having to press the touch screen with my finger for a game to once again let me control it using the built-in controller. Also, the right hand "quick" menu for settings like FPS counter etc. isn't really quick... It takes over 1 second to open after pressing and sometimes I have to press the button twice for it to open at first (then it starts opening and closing normally). Oh yeah, but I really like the detachable controllers cause that allows for ultimate comfort if you have a table in front of you to set the device on. The interface of Legion Space and the Quick Menu has also been significantly improved versus the launch version. So I do recommend this device if a person can get it at a good price of $550 USD or less let's say. But... I totally understand why someone wouldn't want to get a Legion Go and feel like an orphan abandoned by Lenovo hahaha. 😂
Thank you, Cobra, glad you liked it! 😁 And thank you for chiming in. It's always nice having objective folks in the comment section. Some people get way too invested with the companies and devices they buy and side with, for whatever reason.
@@CGD.Studio I totally agree! People don't like feeling like they "made the wrong choice" so they'll do mental backflips to justify everything and ignore all the negatives 😅 In other news, I was shocked and pleased to see that a new GPU and Chipset driver were released on Dec. 13th 2024 for the Legion GO! So at least the LeGo is still getting better and supported... for now.
They can backflip all they want as far as I'm concerned, but when the toxicity leaks out, that's when it becomes a problem. 😅 The lengths to which some people are willing to go, it suddenly made sense why so few people on RUclips are willing to criticize anything at all. If you talk sh*t, no one's gonna click on your affiliate links and you're gonna get hated on by _some_ part of the community so it's a lose-lose. It's good that we finally got _something_ but Lenovo's still way behind. That's what I take issue with. If I'm not mistaken, these latest drivers are based on those from 16th of July. So in December, we get drivers that are 5-6 months old? I mean come on. 😂 So Lenovo took however many months to release something and they're still 5-6 months behind. That wouldn't be such a big deal if AFMF2 wasn't such a game-changer, and it's still not present on the LeGo. And sure, we can all sideload 780M drivers, but it sucks that we _have_ to do that for a device that, up until Black Friday, retailed for €800, more or less. That might not be a dealbreaker, but it's definitely worth calling out.
@@CGD.Studio You're totally right! I get the impression that there is a massive amount of corporate red tape and "approvals" required at Lenovo. That's probably why it takes them months to put out updates and when they finally come, they're already months-old drivers (like this latest one). At least we have Lossless Scaling to the rescue, and at least even these drivers mostly seem to work well with most games. Maybe not optimized 100% but still stable in most games at least. New drivers often barely make a difference unless a game has massive problems or is broken at first with current drivers (then new drivers do make a huge difference of course). I gotta be honest, I was shocked that an assortment of Legion Go 2 handhelds is releasing imminently... Considering how hands off and slow Lenovo has been with the LeGo 1. But hey! Good sign that clearly they're in the game and not gonna abandon these devices anytime soon. 😝
Nice review... didnt realize that Lenova abandoned the Go... but I dont use their software, so never knew how bad it is. I just bought it a little while ago after having my first kid. Don't have time to be sitting in my office playing, but do like to pull out the Go when she's napping or I have a little free time. And the thing that sold me was Moonlight/Sunshine streaming. I have a ballin PC (4090 and 14700k) and it is not put to waste as I am able to stream everything on max to my Go. It is seriously badass that we have come so far that I am getting max quality AAA games on a freakin handheld. And yeah I did review all my options... the Oled deck is more optimized and the Ally X is more powerful and portable... but none of that applied for me. I had gaming PC and am 99% of the time playing at home streaming off moonlight... so the Go was a no brainer. If I had to nitpick... it takes some time setting up and I wish the panel was Oled... still a beautiful screen though. So yeah... I have no desire to downgrade my screen for my use case... and if the Go comes out with Oled... or the next steamdeck comes out with a bigger screen... or the Ally comes out with a bigger screen and Oled... that's when I'll retire the Go.
Did you give the Logitech G Cloud a look? I've bought one used a few months ago off eBay for $200 and, honestly, it's been incredible for Moonlight. 1080p, IPS (not OLED sadly, but a pretty good panel), incredible ergonomics, and the battery lasts, like, 10-12 hours. You get the "Battery is Low" message and then you have like 3 more hours of time before it's dead. 😁 Give it a look. It's light and incredibly thin. I'll hopefully get a review out by the end of January (but you obviously have tons of other reviews on RUclips).
@ sweet. Thanks for the suggestion. Won’t go to a smaller screen and less resolution.. Great price point for cloud gaming though. Waiting for the next handheld with same size as lego or bigger with an oled screen… that will push me to upgrade.
I’m an average gamer who will use this maybe 1 to 2 hours a day at most playing GTA or RDR2 type games. Would this be perfect for the average gamer looking for decent performance? In Canada it’s the most affordable right now
I think that, if by "average" you think you're someone who's not super tech savvy and just wants things to work, I'd go with the ROG Ally, primarily because it has a native landscape display. Performance is decent across the board, but on the Ally, you're less prone to encounter display-related quirks. Plus it has a _much_ more user friendly and fleshed out overlay/sidebar so changing settings and things on the fly - which you'll be doing a lot depending on which games you're playing - is a lot easier. But that's not a knock on the Legion Go either, you _can_ handle all of its quirks and flaws, but if they show up, you have to be willing to tinker a bit and find other solutions. You get a more immersive display, but much worse speakers and a ton of fan noise, which are two areas I favor a lot and that's where the Ally shines.
@@CGD.Studiothanks for that great reply. I think I’ve settled on the Steam Deck OLED. a bit cheaper than the Ally and seems to be a stable unit for what it is. Thanks again! I’ll definitely subscribe
Oh for sure, just make sure to check out whether it's strong enough to run your games. It should be, but there's a sizable gap performance-wise between the Steam Deck and other Z1 Extreme alternatives. 🙌
Sounds good! Just keep in mind that you can run most launchers through SteamOS but not Game Pass. 😁 That's the only problem, but depending on your needs it might not be.
Ah, it's still a good device overall. I mean, you just need to know what you're getting yourself into, that's all. And you can always buy it, test it out for a week or whatever and if it's not for you, send it back and buy something else. That's always an option.
It has grown a ton over the last few months. People have had quite a few issues (which was only natural) in the beginning, but the team behind it has put in the work (and then some). It generally solves many of the Windows-related issues and bugginess. And you can dual boot, too, so if you need Game Pass or a specific launcher or want to play a game that requires anti-cheat, that's always an option. Highly recommended by everyone basically.
Thank you, friend! Glad you like it! 🙌 It's still an incredible device, and it _is_ worth buying, it's just not as easy to recommend as one would expect given who's making it. 😁
For me, i dont mind that I have to do some tweeking and tinkering, I can all most see it as a feature and gives me are more personal "relation" to the device, and it can also be quite fun.
For sure! But at a certain point, depending on what needs to be done and tweaked, you might find yourself fighting _against_ the device, that's all. Our preferences vary wildly. It's just important to note that the Legion Go isn't nearly as polished as some other options. For some, that's a barrier to entry. For others, that's not a problem at all.
@@CGD.Studio No. Thats like saying "i whis my Skoda was a F1 car" and none of the handheld is a F1 car, they are great, if you know what to expect. With a tiny bit of tweak, its possible to play Indiana Jones at 30 fps /medium to low settings on 9 inch display on a 30watt total. Thats amazing.
Oh I agree, but I spend an unhealthy amount of time online reading how people are feeling about all of these devices, what their hopes are and so on, and a _lot_ of them don't really know what to expect performance-wise cause they think these devices are about as powerful as, say, an RTX 4050 laptop running at 50W or something. They expect them to just work, to be fully supported, they don't expect to be dealing with (potentially) a native portrait display, lack of VRR, AFMF2 or Lossless Scaling, and so on. That's why I take that approach to reviewing, there's a lot of people out there who think of these things as if they were a Switch. They're incredibly powerful, but some of them need a bit more finessing than others.
I got recently new firmware updates and it’s a GREAT FANTASTIC machine. I have a base to connect to the TV and sometimes I play with my Xbox remote. If I want, I plug in my eGPU and play with it 😊
550 for an ROG Ally X? Dude, don't even think twice about it. 😁 You'll get double the battery life, an M.2 2280 slot as opposed to a 2242, much better speakers, and VRR which, even if you don't need it all that much, can definitely come in handy. Plus, up-to-date drivers, AFMF2, and a launcher/overlay that's miles better than Legion Space. Oh and much, _much_ less fan noise and lower temps as well. The 1.5 update to Armory Crate made it incredibly quick and snappy, it's actually a joy to use. And I say that as someone who made an equally critical review about ASUS about 10 months or so. They knocked it out of the park with the Ally X, that's for sure. All of the big RUclipsrs are using it, which says a lot. If they have access to everything, and they pick _that_ one, there must be a reason for it. (other than a sack of cash from ASUS)
Had the Legion Go since launch, a year after and I am still pissing around with tweaking settings to try and run games smoothly. Every time I update a new AMD driver, it crashes my Legion Space and have to go through a complete reinstall again. The removable controllers are fixed with black loom bands from ebay to prevent wobble. Software and driver support from Legion website has totally dried out, so you're stuck into researching RUclips videos on how to implement improvements for a more flawless console experience by performing various updates manually. Overall the hardware (minus the controllers) is great but the lack of support makes it an incomplete gaming product. Waiting on the new Z2 Extreme handhelds and will go for the next gen Ally.
I have a LCD Steam Deck, and a Legion Go. I am thinking though of selling my deck and getting a reg Ally if I can find one for like 300 bucks open box. I kept the Deck cause the Go was only good in certain instances. I love the Legion Go screen. It's tough to go back to 7inches after experiencing it, but it's just so uncomfortable to use. It's so heavy. You really hit the nail on the head that it's not really a portable device. It's like it's own thing. You can't just crawl up in bed with it. Is the regular Ally much lighter? I heard it was. Or should I just wait for the Ally 2? How far away is that? I hope it at least has an 8inch screen.
It is a lot lighter, had no issues weight-wise with the Ally. It's about 250 grams lighter than the Legion Go, so quite a significant amount. I personally wouldn't wait if you can find a good deal on the original Ally! 🙌 You can find one used for less than $400, or even open box if you have a Best Buy near you. And it's on sale now, too, for about $499 if I'm not mistaken (Black Friday).
Thanks to all early adopters to burn in the fire. This First Generation is about setting up trust. The longterm support of these devices sets expectations for the successors. That's where I would jump in. Asus customer support scandal and MSI half-baked attempt are pretty much a continuation of their past. Valves continuing adding features and improvements on top of selling repair parts on ifixit gives confidence. I was looking forward to the Legion Go 2 and expecting more refinements while looking back at their drivers and software support.
Couldn't agree more. Although, to me, personally, it's how a company behaves within that first year. ASUS has had its fair share of scandals, but Armory Crate - the latest 1.5 update - really made it incredibly fast and snappy. It's a joy to use, to be honest. And they're constantly shipping out updates, adding new features, and trying their hardest. Sure, they break something from time to time but it's a process, and whoever bought the Ally back on day one now has a much more feature-rich and complete product than anyone could have hoped for. Valve is also in a league of their own. We're spoiled for choice, and these things are now selling for way less money than what was originally the case, so the bar has been raised. If a company isn't willing to invest the time and effort into its products and really flesh it out and deliver what people want (a sizable, vocal part of it, at least), then that needs to be talked about.
I'm not surprised about this. I bought a Lenovo tablet. It got one update & was then abandoned. The OS has bugs that were never addressed & conflicts with apps like Google Docs (unlike my Samsung tablet). Never again buying anything from Lenovo.
To be fair, Lenovo has some kick-ass products too. It really depends on who's working on it and what their priorities are. I remember reading somewhere "there are no good or bad companies. Only good or bad products." :/
@CGD.Studio Yeah, but i genuinely think the Steam Deck has been the big success in this market due to their promised (& delivered support). There is just no trust built up by Lenovo. I actually hope they send you a Legion Go 2 review unit, to show how they've been working on all the criticisms that you & other reviewers have repeatedly highlighted 👍. That would make for an interesting video. Thank you for this video. Your honesty was excellent 👍👍
For sure, + a reasonable price point, lots of support, and a fair level of performance. A review unit? Oh man, that's beyond optimistic! 😂 But I really appreciate the sentiment. I doubt I'll _ever_ get a review unit. I'm not gonna sell my soul so there's no reason for any company to risk an _objective_ video. But if my budget allows it, I'll buy it for sure (and then sell it after making the video as has been the case so far). Thank you for the kind words brother, glad you approve! 🙌
I bought LeLeGo since it launch. the reasons for owning over many handheld PCs are. 1-I like pocket PCs but they are hard to find with good specs and thus the LeLeGo is a choice although it is a big for average pocket clothes. 2-I m gaming at work while in a break time. so, the phenomena of detached gamepad makes a PC like an ordnary so, manager and staff are not laughing when I use LeLeGo on a desk for office tasks.3- detach gamepad has a thumb pad witch is nice to use it as a wifi presenter. so, using LeLeGo for presentation is easy and no need for buying extra part. The only major flaw that usually Lenovo previousely made is there are no option for Larger RAM. 16GB with deducted 2.9GB for Vram is not a future proof against upcomming AAA games or testing unoptimised AAA games. also, as Im using it for big data analysis, it processesnvery fast but due it eats a whole ram, it switched to Virtual RAM that slows down the entire system. so, no point for playing with 2K 144Hz screen when you cant use it in future. and no point for using for heavy workload due to limited RAM
Fortunately it seems that the whole spave is shifting towards 24-32GB of RAM as a standard. First the ROG Ally X, and now both MSI Claws (Lunar Lake). So that’s definitely a plus. Lenovo would be crazy not to offer the same next year.
No wonder a brand new legion go on sale is cheaper then steam oled here in Australia. It's straight up abandoned. Thanks for heads up. I had my share with RMA Lenovo office laptops
Supposedly Lenovo's been pretty good with Legion Go RMA's and warranties, so at least they have that going for them. Then again, it surely varies from one region to another. But yeah... I'm pretty sure any update they push out nowadays is solely because there's a LeGo 2 and Go Lite coming out.
I have to agree for the most part. Ive taken the time to 3d print a back plate to allow for an ssd upgrade and better cooling. If had to learn about loading unofficial software and drivers to get AFMF running. Its been a pain in the ass for things that should have come out of the box or been officially supported. With all that said after putting the time into it , setup properly the hardware is really amazing and quite a bit better than the competitors. The screen is just a show stopper when you're hitting good frame rates and makes you forget about so much of the BS it took to get there. I find the screens of the other devices for me are too small, a difference of 5 FPS performance when the screen is straining your eyes is useless. Perhaps an unpopular opinion but I hated the nintendo switch more than i ever had an issue with the legion go because of the screen. I found it unusable due to low rez and size. It was a Yamaguchi watch to me and thought it was a joke console.
Fortunately, Lenovo finally shipped out an update with AFMF2. :) So something's happening at least. And yeah, that display really spoils you. Eh, the Switch targets a different audience. I know it's on the smaller size but I still think it's an amazing device, especially for lighter titles and indies. Small, light, portable, no fan noise, respectable battery life, relatively cheap. Not a lot to complain about if you have your expectations in check. 😁
Agree on all points: sold my Legion Go once the Asus ROG Ally X was announced this summer and even though I miss the awesome larger screen, built in kickstand and nice build quality, the uncomfortable grips, no VRR, gimmicky detachable controllers (it's no Switch) and the horrible speakers were not worth keeping. Lenovo's Legion Space was okay and the last update which broke my AMD Adrenaline software and lack of support for their handheld was enough to go to Asus. Been loving my ROG Ally X (VRR, 2280 SSD, quieter, cooler, more comfy, better speakers and Armoury Crate is just head and shoulders better than what Lenovo did with their first handheld).
Yeah, at a certain point you can't help but say "alright, enough's enough." Glad you've found what you like in the ROG Ally X though! Lenovo's loss is ASUS' gain. 😁
I want an ally x but already own an ally z1e and SteamDeck IDK if I could justify the upgrade unless my kid decides he want a PC and decides to take interest in my Ally. I wish the steam deck had the z1 extreme or the rog Ally x had track pads lol that would make me upgrade both devices no questions asked
On the flip side just picked up a Go brand new for £450 in the UK as a small portable, upgraded it with an 2tb SSD, even if it's just used as a tablet with light gaming, I'm happy with it. As for Asus, just make sure you get a good one because their CS and RMA are dreadful, my laptop screen died after 3 years, 1 week out of warranty after an armourtly crate update, it literally deleted the screens firmware, ASUS quoted £530 to replace it, 8tsalso a common problem "ASUS black screen" I'll never touch an ASUS product again. L
No need to get the Ally X if you already have the OG Ally and a Steam Deck, in my opinion. Like, no reason whatsoever. 😂 I mean, sure, it could replace both of them (best of both worlds, in a way), but you're set for your portable gaming needs. $799 + tax (or €899 in Europe) is just insane in my opinion. You can get an RTX 4050 laptop for that kind of money. That being said, it sure is the best Windows-based option out there.
This was an amazingly great video lol i absolutely love the amount of cursing and idk you just get the point across. Btw im planning on buying the legion go, ive always dealt with insane jankyness ever since someone managed to put linux on the switch.
Thank you Manuel! 😁 Oh I totally get that, the LeGo is absolutely amazing, I just to spread the word that it's not as polished as most RUclipsrs want people to believe, and that if it's ever gonna get any better, it's gonna come through the community, _not_ Lenovo. If you're okay with doing the heavy lifting (if the need arises), you'll love this thing, it's mind-blowing. (but I'd hunt for a good deal if I were you, in which case the negatives become a lot easier to swallow).
I bought this a little over a week ago And since then I have not been able to play more than 5 minutes of a game without it crashing and I’m returning it tomorrow
I own both a ROG ALLY and Legion Go, and as a device I would say that Legion Go is much better as a replacement PC, imo. Also, the FPS mode is great as a vertical mouse, and makes FOPS games much more enjoyable than using a tiny bluetooth mouse of the built-in analogs. As a portable device, yeah the Ally is better, though, but only because it has b better software support from ASUS. Personally, I use the Go for FPG games, adventure games, graphical fidelity games (due to the bigger screen), point and click, RTS, RPGs and JRPGs. I use the ALLy for driving, fighting and action games because of the lighter weight.
Well, I mean, if you can find it on a sale, and if you're already accustomed to SteamOS - and are okay with, say, dual booting - it might still be the right device for you. As I said in the video, I have nothing but praise for the LeGo, and nothing but hate for Lenovo, but the strengths and benefits that the Legion Go has are not only undeniable but also unique.
@ Fun fact- I actually use Bazzite on my SD and dual boot Windows//Bazzite on my work desktop. I would definitely install Bazzite on the LeGO, but… One principle that we all have to consider is voting with our wallets. If a company treats their customers well and provides support to their already sold products, I am more included to support that company by buying their products. I’m not sure if the Legion GO passes that test, even if I do not require their support. Could just get one used. Either way, I really enjoyed your video and can’t wait to hear more from you.
Mate this video was a blast. Really funny and engaging. Shame the legion go hasn’t achieved what it deserved. I’ve owned an Og steam deck and a ROG Ally. Now owning only an OLED Steam deck since it is the only one providing a real handled experience without worrying about the battery life. Always looked at the LGO since I have a Legion 7 Pro and I know Lenovo gaming laptops can be great. Shame I will never buy a LGO because the lack of support has already almost killed it.
Thank you shattia, glad you liked it! 🙌 More to come. 😁 Yeah, I think once you acclimate to the convenience of the Steam Deck - or even the ROG Ally, ASUS fixed nearly all of its previous issues in my testing - it's really hard to go back. Lenovo has the manpower and the money to iron everything out, but why it's been taking so long is anyone's guess. Maybe sales, maybe improper management, who knows. That being said, all of this might change in a year or two's time, so I'm not writing them off just yet.
@ the ROG Ally had some serious work being done and the software has been improved a lot during time. The ally X is interesting but it’s way too expensive considering it has a Z1E and not a newer chip (and its power efficiency is a joke, let’s be honest). The only thing I miss about the Ally is the ability to play game pass games.. but ehi you can always stream with moonlight. Btw I subbed so I’m looking forward for your next videos
Did you try running Windows on your Steam Deck? I used it for like a year and a half, it worked flawlessly, only because of Game Pass. Valve’s drivers are amazing, even sleep/resume worked incredibly well. Literally no drawbacks. 😁
That's a great price, and it's well worth buying! As for the whole AAA part, it really depends on which games you want to play. If they're really demanding, a native landscape panel on the ROG Ally along with variable refresh rate and AMD's fluid motion frames out of box will net you better performance and a smoother gaming experience. Plus you might have to tinker a fair bit and Armory Crate is much more practical in that sense compared to Legion Space (the overlay especially). Lower temps and fan noise at max load, too. The battery life is pretty awful on both devices though. Also, make sure to do a bit of digging on RUclips for the _specific_ games you want to play. These devices are incredibly capable, but they're still limited in what they can do. Some games can run incredibly well, whereas others can't. And there's a sizable number of them that _can_ but require either a lot of tweaking or, as a worst case scenario, look like garbage when upscaled and all settings turned down to low.
What are your thoughts on a legion go 2? Or a similar device to the legion with a big display. I really want a device like the legion go, its on sale for like 440 dollars, after hearing the issues, i might as well just wait for new models in the market
Ah, honestly, I was a _lot_ more excited about the Legion Go 2 and ROG Ally 2 before seeing just how expensive Strix Point laptops are. Like, it's insane. Sure the chip is great, more efficient, 15-20% more capable, but supposedly it also costs twice as much as the 8840U, and even more than that when compared to the Z1 Extreme. I think they're all gonna cost $999. Plus if the upcoming Trump-related tariffs come into play, they're gonna cost even more for US buyers and, most likely, EU ones as well. I personally wouldn't wait. These things are so rationally priced these days that it's literally the best time to make the investment. $440? That's an amazing deal. I'd definitely get that, to be honest, if you want a large display, that is. At that price point, it's a lot easier to accept any potential flaws or quirks the device might have. The MSI Claw 8 with Lunar Lake is supposedly coming out in December, but it'll retail for $899 or something and, other than a beefy 80Wh battery, and a landscape VRR display, it won't be all that much better (if at all) than the Legion Go. So I'd say go for it. Personally I would with the ROG Ally as it's a lot more fleshed out software-wise and is much more well-rounded, but the gaming experience is definitely a lot more immersive on the Legion Go, that's undeniable. It's so good that you're kind of willing to put up with the negatives, and they might not be that pronounced either depending on what you're doing, which games you play, and how hard you're pushing it.
Interesting! What made you switch, the display and versatility? Cause you sacrificed twice the battery life, less fan noise, and better driver support + a portrait display. 😁 I personally gravitate more towards the Legion as well because of the size and screen, but the Ally X sure does stand out (even though the price is, in my opinion, awful).
Hey Man I like your review and I agree on criticism about the device. It's really great and has alot of potential if you do some tinkering, unfortunately not all are techsavy nor had a time to do so, Lenovo is not doing well on the software support which is the main problem of the device.
Thank you Jon, glad you like the video! 🙌 It wouldn't be _as_ big of a problem if we didn't have as many choices as we have right now. 😅 And things are only gonna get more chaotic with Acer's new handheld, the MSI Claw 8, potentially a new Steam Deck, the Zotac Zone, and whatever else.
I own a Legion go and everything you said is true. I feel like Lenovo sold me a prototype with poor speakers and a portrait screen that Lenovo are struggling to get updated gpu drivers working with. I personally will not be buying legion go 2.......... As they say in the UK "once bitten, twice shy"
I got my legion go a couple of weeks ago traded in my rog ally cause if the screen size.I haven't had that many issues out of the box i just use it in handheld haven't used fps mode yet but i do agree with you i loved armory crate legion space is not good with detecting certain games from GOG Epic and Ubisoft but other than that i love legon go
Bought the legion go and ended up selling it for the following reasons : It’s bulky, it’s heavy, the battery life is really bad and you need to buy a power bank to get the true “handheld experience”. Otherwise you will get about 45 minutes on a single charge when playing steam games. I used it mostly for emulator games and I got 2.5 - 3 hours of play time. Unlike steam deck, you can’t put it on a sleep mode and resume playing so you have to shutdown windows and power it back up every time. At this point I decided to play steam games on my gaming pc and emulator games on my Samsung tablet with an Xbox controller instead The things that I liked about the legion go was, the screen resolution, the screen size, the 1tb storage + SD card slot, and the removable controllers. It’s still the best handheld device when it comes to specs but the cons outweigh the pros unfortunately which defeats its purpose in my experience.
Thank you for chiming in! I hope those reading the comment section will find this helpful. 🙌 I tried to not go too hard on it cause it really does have some huge strengths and benefits, but yeah, it's a bit too janky and uneven for most people.
What made you go with the Claw as opposed to the Ally or Legion Go? 😁 I've seen that people are quite happy with it (mostly on Reddit), especially now that it's selling for around $400, more or less.
I've owned them all, Legion Go is the only device I still have. In fact, it's really the only electronic I use other than my phone and work macbook. I hate legion space as well, I installed playnite which is working alright. I really like this device, using it right now as a desktop to watch this video.
Totally get that. If I had to choose just one, it would definitely be the Legion Go cause it fits every use-case seamlessly. Still, I think it's important for new (potential) buyers to be aware of the whole picture. I've spent the last six months lurking on Reddit and many of my thoughts are shared with a bajillion different people. If so many people share the same emotions - and they're not readily available on RUclips for whatever reason - then that has to change. May your LeGo serve you long and well, Frank! Thanks for taking the time to comment. 🙌
You hit the nail on the head! Great hardware, some weird gimmicks (FPS mode), and lackluster software. The Software is quite buggy, albeit laid out fairly well. If it just worked, that’d be great! The other big omissions are FreeSync and 24GB of RAM. 16GB is just not much on a Windows device with CPU/GPU sharing. I picked one up on a special deal for about $430, and installed a 4TB NVMe 2280. So for what it is and what I paid, I’m pretty happy with it. But the joysticks took some adjustment to make them good for me. But I am a tweaker, a PC gamer and former support tech. The average person should NOT buy this. Lenovo, PLEASE! Stabilize the software we already have and give us regular driver updates. I’d happily get a Legion Go 2 if it has FreeSync, 24GB of RAM, while not losing the great qualities of the first generation. And improved software support is a MUST!
Thank you, James, for chiming in! 🙌 This was your opportunity to label me as an "ROG snob" or a "Steam Deck faithful" but, alas, you chose the rational route. 😁 And yeah, for that kind of price, there's very little complain about, insane bang for the buck. Funnily enough, I wasn't planning on releasing this video during the Black Friday mania, if I knew it'd go for less than $500 I would've probably been a bit more lenient.
I'd rather think of handhelds as primarily a desktop pc but you can use it as a handheld which means for me it needs about 50% more power to look nice on a monitor.
For sure, but they're not really marketed that way. That's what I'm trying to say in any of these videos. They're all amazing and mind-blowing in their own right, but they can also be a pain in the ass depending on how comfortable one is with tinkering. A lot of people just aren't all that tech savvy, so they should know what they'd be getting themselves into - regardless if it's the Legion Go, ROG Ally, MSI Claw, or something else entirely. But yeah. They're basically just Windows PCs in a different form factor, couldn't agree more!
bruh, mine is getting delivered today and this is the first time im hearing about a bunch of these issues noooooooo, so I can expect dust buildup in a few months?
My opinion: don't worry about it! Give it a shot first, go into it blind. They might not be a problem for you personally, you might be totally okay with everything. It's important to know that these issues exist, but they don't show up for everyone. And, fortunately, the people using the Legion Go have figured out most alternatives and solutions anyway (it took a while, sadly) so for any problem you might face, you'll be able to find a solution. As for the dust, there are no guarantees. A dust filter was obviously necessary, but the issue isn't universal, although it _has_ affected a lot more people than it should. Fortunately, the Legion Go is pretty easy to open up and you can just clean the fan (you can find many tutorials online if you've never done it before). And you won't have to check either, cause your temperatures will slowly but surely start rising should the dust start building up. 😁
The Anal Intruder 3000 would definitely be atop my list of anal intruders. Slightly more refined than the previous model, but still capable and penetrating in both its design _and_ function.
I've heard leaks about SteamOS 3 containing references to Asus ROG button. I wonder if resources have been pulled by Lenovo because leGO will be moving to that as well.
Oh I think Valve flat-out confirmed that SteamOS will be supporting the ROG Ally, and other handhelds as well. 😁 So that's a plus for sure. Although, to be honest, not sure what the benefits will be over running something like Bazzite which is already available. As for Lenovo, I doubt it. I think they're just slow, that's all. Too few people working on it, based on what Ben said on the official forums. They were shifted to a different project a while ago, stuff like that. A big company, too many cooks in the kitchen I guess. I don't think any of these companies will _ship_ their devices with SteamOS though. Users will have the option to pick and choose what they install. They'll still run Windows out of the box, that's why most people love them (despite the Windows-related bugginess).
Oof, well, I mean, the ROG Ally X would be your best choice at this point. It's the only mainstream option with 24GBs of RAM, but it's also twice the price of a used ROG Ally (the original model). I think that's by far the best purchase at this point from a price-to-performance standpoint. Next-gen handhelds (with Strix Point) are gonna be a lot more expensive and they're gonna be, like, 15ish percent better, depending on the title, maybe a bit more, maybe less. The Ally X retails for €899 which is just insane in my opinion. You can buy a used PS5 and a used ROG Ally and still maybe have some money left over for ice cream. It's a glorious device, no doubt about it, but still. So, personally, I'd go with the original Ally (used or open box) and then save the money later on for an upgrade. Unless you want to mess around with an eGPU, in which case the Legion Go would definitely be your best choice (cost/performance/flexibility).
Bought 1tb model last week for 570euros from lenovo I'm happy enough with it but agree its not for the inexperienced I've set it up with emudeck which works really great so far been playing bo6 and remote playing xbox as well
Be careful with CoD multiplayer though, people have been getting banned on both the LeGo _and_ the ROG Ally. It seems to be random, but don't use any overlay in-game and don't change the TPD while you're playing, otherwise the anti-cheat might pick it up (cause it's broken) and send out a shadow if not even a permanent ban. :/
That really depends on the laptop. I'm pretty sure you can get a laptop with an RTX 3050 for around $500/600 when it's on sale, and it's going to outperform _all_ of these handhelds devices (an understatement). Even the RTX 2050 will deliver better performance. But the laptops are not gonna be as well built, they'll probably be louder, and they'll have much worse displays (lower contrast, not as saturated, subpar color accuracy, 250-300 nits of brightness maximum). So you get some you lose some. 😁
Most folks leave their affiliate links here. I have none. Instead, a few thoughts: The whole point of a review is to give as objective and honest a take as possible. Some of the things I found deal-breaking you might too. You could also shrug them off and consider them as unimportant - and that’s totally okay. *Take what you like, and disregard the rest.*
We all have different needs, we game differently, we have different priorities, and so on. There’s no “one-size-fits-all” kind of device. But it’s important to talk about certain things objectively, and that’s what I tried to do here, as much as I could. It’s also important to call companies out when they’re cutting corners and abandoning their products.
The Legion Go has been misrepresented on RUclips since day one (subjectively speaking). It’s a whole lot better than expected (an understatement), and also, in a few specific ways, much worse.
Thanks for watching. I’ll lurk around in the comments cause I have no social life and really enjoy this RUclips shit. Unless Balatro takes ahold of my life again.
P.S. I didn't talk about a bunch of stuff like performance, speakers (which can be improved), lossless scaling (which is amazing), and so on cause the video would've been five hours long. Luckily, RUclips is packed with quality content, so if you're after those details make sure to do a bit of digging.
@@CGD.Studio this comment right here earns you my subscribe.
So many only care about the affiliate link, or wouldn’t have added an addendum in the comments section.
Thank you Aaron, really appreciate it. :) I’m not in it for the money, and I’d rather stop doing this altogether than live like a leech by getting 2% off of people’s hard-earned money.
subbed!
Thank you Toji! 🙌
This is my only gaming device, previously owned a switch. I'm in my 60s now and if it hasn't realised it's potential I don't care because it is fantastic
In your 60s? How is this thing not destroying your wrists? I am in my 30s and it's so uncomfortable to hold longer than like 15 mins. It's a brick.
@misters7413 no issues with wrists at all, I play at least an hour a day, maybe more, everything feels comfortable. Perhaps I have larger hands than you!
@@andrewsmyth1641 If you do, you have huge hands, I can easily palm a basketball. That's also part of the problem, I have to really curl my fingers because of the narrow button placement, so it's hard to balance the weight and play finger twister to get to the buttons. Bless you though. I'm screwed when I get into my 60's if my joints are already falling apart...
@@misters7413I can palm an official size ball… and the go is amazing with the right accessories or without. I had the steam deck, and the extra comfort was definitely worth the trade off considering I can detach the controllers.
@@misters7413 So you went from "Wow (person who is presumably average) this device must be killing you" to "Well you see I have super huge hands! Doesn't everyone?"
Just bought it yesterday for 300$ off open box at Best Buy. I personally don't have a TV nor a PC, and I'll be playing plugged almost 100% of the time. I'll try to optimize it as much as possible, but I never cared for max resolution. If I can play my games at a steady 45 to 60 fps I'm gold.
So you’re a modest, rational gamer, love it, I’m the same. 😁 $300 off is amazing! As your only device, I think you’re gonna adore every second of it. You can buy a bluetooth keyboard and use it as a laptop, it can run most games amazingly well, and if you ever get bored with Windows jank, you can just install Bazzite on it and have a much smoother handheld exprerience when it comes to wake/resume and standby times.
@CGD.Studio Thanks for the tips, mate!
I can play most AAA games at 45-60 fps on 1200p low to medium settings. Some occasionally dropping to 30fps but it's fine. Even on low settings, the games look good because you're playing on a small screen anyway. Recently downloaded GOW Ragnarok, it's freaking beautiful on the Legion Go.
@@vc7415 That's been my experience with it. I literally haven't not one single complaint! This is a beast of a handheld. If you have AFMF2, FSR 3.1, and change you're BIOS from stock 4 to 8G you're golden!! 🎉
$300 for a Legion go at best buy. Where? At mine it's never less than 550
I suggest everyone that owns 1 look into updating their AMD drivers from a youtuber here that has an easy tutorial, therefore it's never actually behind other devices, personally this the last device ill buy for a while as it fits my needs for foreseeable future
Got my Legion Go back in August and man im sooo happy with it, my Alienware m17 r2 died on me about a month before I got the LEGO and it was either this or a ps5 and man this thing is way too cool lol got me a Uperfect 2k 144hz monitor jsaux dock and razer mouse and keyboard, new main setup now no doubt
Also my RB button stopped responding a week ago and Lenovo sent me a free controller in less than 72 hours literally, and that surprised me so much when it came in the mail that fast...just my experiences so far
Glad to hear it! Saw a bunch of positive comments on Lenovo's RMA practices and warranties. At least they have that going for them. 😁 That being said, it probably varies from region to region. But good news regardless.
@@AutoTuneLabsDid you have to ship out your broken one?
@@EyyShawn No they never requested it, told me to keep or dispose it
Wow! Thanks for making this review. you really hit the nail in a lot of things you said in the video. I couldn't agree more.
Thanks for taking the time to comment! 🙌 Glad you liked it!
Legion Go is one of the better handhelds purely for how useful it is
That's true. I mean, you can use other handhelds in various different ways as well, but the Legion Go is basically a jack of _all_ trades.
This channel will grow keep up the good work you have a fantastic way of getting a point across I only found your channel this morning but already know I'll be here for a long time
Thank you Martin, really appreciate it. :) 🙌
incredible sense of humour, split my sternum by laughing when you went on the legion space rant
Thank you for forcing me to google the word sternum 😂 appreciate it friend!
Good watch , like the way you give out info and opinions sooooo yeah ... hope to see more.
Thank you friend, really appreciate it! New video dropping today, hopefully. 😁 🙌
I have a Legion Go and im loving it so far. The fact that you can take the controllers off and set it on a table and play is just amazing, and also i can use it as a tablet.
Those were the reasons i went with the Legion Go. Also the screen is *chefs kiss*!
That screen, man... The colors, the vibrancy. Chefs kiss indeed. 😁
same...as an artist, i also want to use it as a drawing tablet
The truth? I disagree with most of your criticism. I'm not one of those users who is constantly busy with updates and I still enjoy a device that runs everything I ask for on a huge screen, and despite that I enjoy hearing you. You're sharp and interesting and understand that this is your personal truth.
First of all, thank you for being a rational, _thinking_ human being. :) We can disagree on all sorts of things, but that doesn't mean we can't have a discussion about it.
I tend to be the same way, but some of these issues (which will surely, at some point, be ironed out), can creep up even if you're not tinkering with anything and pushing the Legion Go to its limits. It's not a debacle, I may have hammered on it in the second half of the video but that's only because I was disappointed, cause it blew me away so much and because it has so much potential. And if you _do_ want to push it to its limits and extract the most performance, Lenovo isn't gonna help you much - and yet they're always buying time online, always promising updates and either not delivering them or, even worse, shipping them out without thorough testing and validation and then messing something up. It's just not at the level one would expect given who's making it.
And I think we, as consumers, deserve better. If the Legion Go were made by a Chinese company and funded through IndieGogo - like so many of those retro handhelds are - then I'd understand, but Lenovo? There's just no excuse.
As for the personal truth part, you're totally right, but I also tried to combat the subjective part of it with the bajillion comments I embedded during editing, comments from _other_ people, cause it isn't just me. It's a _lot_ of people online who are angry and disappointed. Not everyone, of course, but a lot nonetheless. My _own_ thoughts don't matter, I always try to gather as much data as possible so that if someone clicks on the video they get a comprehensive review, a wide gamut of thoughts and opinions. And money isn't easy to earn, and a lot of people save up for months if not years to buy one of these devices (and I'm reminded by that in the comment section every so often), so if I'm making a video in an attempt to help someone out, I want to talk about it from a perspective of a normal human being whose daddy isn't an oil magnate, or a typical tech RUclipsr who whips out seven $2000 laptops on a table that were given to him for free as review units.
The thing is, you're not gonna get a critical overview of a device on RUclips nowadays. That goes for laptops, gaming devices, consoles, retro handhelds, cameras, and everything in between. The only way for these people to make a living through content creation is through affiliate links and lucrative sponsorships, and if you say it how it is, if you don't lie, then you're not gonna be able to scale. But I'd much rather criticize and stand up for what's right than generate tons of income by praising every piece of tech I can get.
Thanks again for taking the time to comment, I'm glad you found it engaging! 🙌
@
You honestly earned another subscriber.
one of those personal truth people eh? You mean "his opinion"? you don't actually believe there are more than one truth and everyone can have their own truth? There's only 1 truth right?
@@bradcruise6291 The problem I have is, like, people are so quick to respond nowadays. One dude, in the comment section, said that the Legion Go outperforms the ROG Ally by 50% in Diablo IV. That's his experience, but he's _objectively_ and _factually_ wrong. So what do you do, do you engage? That's blatantly inaccurate and yet he's shouting it out like it's a fact of life. To make things even worse, most people only look at themselves and _their_ needs and preferences, they cannot fathom the potential that there's someone else out there who might experience these devices differently, people who expect a seamless and streamlined experience, and whatnot.
That's why I really don't give a damn about _my_ experience and _my_ thoughts. I'd rather collect what everyone else experienced and focus on that, as it's a much larger sample size. But the toxicity of some people - folks who build their identity through the devices they buy and the brands they align with - is staggering.
Love mine. I game mostly on the Legion Go, which works great on the road when you are stuck waiting for appointments, etc. I also have an EGPU with RTX 4060 that plays every game on Ultra 100+ fps, no prob. 1080P on a 120-inch projector screen.
I 3D-printed a cradle to put it in portrait mode, with attachments on the side for the controllers. This is awesome for pinball games It's like having a mini pinball table with hundreds of tables.
As the screen is small you do not need to go over 1080 on it and a lot of games look good at 720 if you are looking for higher fps.
I like the weight; maybe it is because I have large hands.
How much tinkering will i have to do just to play games from Steam? Both this and the rog ally z1 extreme are on sale for $472, and im really considering purchasing one.
Not a lot, to be honest (if any at all). Lenovo’s overlay might drive you crazy but that’s also somewhat subjective. 😅 The portrait-based display shouldn’t give you any trouble (although a few games from Game Pass _did_ have issues for me), and if you boot straight into Big Picture Mode you won’t have to mess around with Windows too much either.
My time with the Ally was a lot less janky, but everyone’s experience is slightly different depending on which games they play and which launchers they use.
I think you’ll love for that kind of price. The negatives are a lot easier to swallow if you can get it for less than $499, that’s for sure.
Informative and amusing, to the point and unpolished (when needed). The best review of the Legion Go. Subscribed and liked 😂👌
Thank you, friend! Glad you liked it! 😁
I've been dailying Bazzite since February and I could see an argument back then that it wasn't super stable. However, for the last 6-7 months it's been awesome. I no longer have Windows on my Legion Go at all, so Lenovo's complete failure to support the product hasn't affected me beyond them not releasing a better set of controllers. Why have removable controllers if you're not going to capitalize on it by offering different options? The ergonomics on the stock controllers suck and I don't care about FPS mode.
Glad to hear it! 🙌 Bazzite is definitely the future as far as the Legion Go is concerned.
Why have removable controllers? To have a unique selling point. 😁 To have influencers say - _it's like the Switch but it's x86!_ It took them a year to release things people were selling on Etsy a month from the Go's release, just insane, in my opinion.
I mentioned FPS mode cause it was all the rage during the review period online, especially on RUclips. Selling it like it can actually replace any kind of mouse, like it actually makes sense. The "expectations vs. reality" kind of situation.
I paid €650 for a brand new Legion Go 512Go. From Germany. I purchased the Steam Deck OLED, the 512 Go too. The LG is the only one I am wanting to tweak its guts and blood. It's clearly not an "User Friendly Handheld Gaming PC". Nope, Sir. It's a frakking handheld gaming PC which, like gaming desktops even gaming laptops, has to be tuned the way you want to play your games. It's a PC. With its pros & cons. But I see it as my main OTG travel gaming setup. It will replace my gaming laptop as soon as I have finished to "adapt" it to my needs. So, yup, the LG is for people who knows how to get the max of gaming devices. You want to play OOTB?? Buy a Steam Deck. Really. You'll never regret it. You love to put your hands in the guts?? Buy a LG, you won't regret it!! My 2 cents.
As someone looking into buying my first PC handheld - primarily as a cheap(ish) way to build up a steam library - this was really helpful. I think I might get one from a place that has a X number of days return policy and see how I get on.
Absolutely, that's always the best option! Watch/read as many reviews as possible, then try it out yourself and have a return window as a back-up plan. 🙌
This is the way, however, you're not even close to limited to just Steam. That's the beauty of Legion Go. Do what you want as you would on a Windows PC. I particularly enjoy playing older AAA games on mine, and it doesn't disappoint.
This is a black Friday that has made me so wishy washy on whether or not to get one. I keep watching vids and the more I watch, the more I see vids stating points like the ones in the vids. Too bad all the others are so small in comparison screen-wise to this. Thanks for the review.
I'd still get it if I were you, unless the bugginess happens to be a total dealbreaker. I think it's a glorious device overall, it's just not as polished as its alternatives. But by no means is it unusable. Far from it - it just takes a bit of finessing depending on your needs. 😁Plus, I don't know where you're from, but if you're in the US, you can just buy it from Best Buy, test it out and if it's not good enough for you, you can return it and get your money back in no time. Amazon probably has a similar return option, not sure. So, in a way, there's no actual risk.
Look up the ayeneo Kun, ryzen 7, 32gbs of ram and I believe up to 4tb ssd, 8,4 inch screen, very expensive though
I have reservations for all the reasons you’ve listed. But, that larger screen is just easier on my eyes. The Ally X is just a flat no at 7”. The Steam Deck OLED is passable at 7.4” but only because it’s also OLED and has a lower pixel density and this slightly easier to see.
I will certainly be buying the gen2 of this with the OLED screen and am honestly amazed that Lenovo claims the gen2 joycons will be backwards compatible. Not typically Lenovo’s style.
Totally get that. The difference in experience is staggering, honestly. I mean, if you can snag a used LeGo for like $400-450 or something I think it's definitely worth buying. I don't think the LeGo 2 is coming out before Summer, if even then. And it'll surely be over $1000, most likely $1100 or $1200 which, I dunno, it's just way too expensive for that level of performance. I'm not crazy about the idea of paying that much money and still not being able to play AAA games with reasonable performance and image quality, without having to resort to a ton of upscaling and frame gen. You can get a used first-gen handheld _and_ a PS5 for that kind of money, and still have some left over. 😅
yeah i remember asking you about a review for it a couple months ago, ended up selling mine because of the lack of updates and the overall genkiness of it, its was probably the worst best handheld i've had, ended up selling and just buying a steam deck
Dude, the crazy thing is it took me *five f*cking months* to make this. Like, how do you even begin, how do you even cover it? It's so glorious and yet so abandoned. I still have wet dreams of that display though. Crazy that Lenovo doesn't give a damn. Sorry to hear about your experience, especially since it's exactly the same as mine. 😁
I was expecting atleast 500k subs ....wtf man your content is top notch
Thank you friend, really appreciate it! 😁 2.6K is still 2.6K more than I expected, so I'm more than happy. 🙌 Plus, it feels more like a community, if that makes sense.
Heyy, do you reccomend to buy a legion go for 500usd instead of building a pc for about 600? I dont have any other pc or console, so legion go would be my only device to play
Oof, that's a hard question. Which games would you like to play? I mean, you can build a very capable gaming PC for $600 if you're okay with buying used parts. I just recently built an mATX PC for about the same money with an i3-12100 (used), 16GB of RAM (used) and an RTX 3070 (used). I would personally always build a PC _first_ cause it can do so many things and if something goes wrong it's easy to replace a part (or two). And you can always upgrade further down the line. That's a big benefit.
But a Legion Go would also work for you as well. Its integrated graphics are surprisingly capable, but they're not good enough for AAA gaming (unless you set everything to Low/Medium and upscale a ton with FSR+AMD's Frame Generation/Lossless Scaling). But if you're mostly playing legacy titles or newer ones that are easy to run, it'll definitely get the job done! And you can just undock it from your monitor and game in your bedroom when you feel like it.
I would also suggest looking into a used Xbox Series S. That + a Game Pass subscription is a match made in heaven. A used Series S sells for around €190 in my country and I'm sure it's a similar case around the world as well. And then you could also buy, I don't know, a used Steam Deck LCD (if its priced appropriately in your country/region) or a used ROG Ally (which you can now find used for less than €400). So for $600 you get a handheld PC which will run basically identically as the Legion Go (but costs less, has less fan noise, isn't as hot when pushed, and has a variable refresh rate display) and you can also hook it up to a monitor and use it as a PC, and also a dedicated gaming console with Game Pass that runs flawlessly. Best of both worlds!
If I had $500-600 I would go that route without thinking twice. :)
The only thing I agreed with is the dust you need to clean the fan yearly. Everything else wasn't an issue.
Well, it wasn't an issue for _you_ . 😁 And I'm happy for that being the case, but a lot of people online are pissed off and angry at Lenovo, people from both camps (those that are tech savvy and those that aren't). That's why it took me six months to make this video, I _really_ tried my absolute hardest to give a fair and objective verdict (hence the bajillion embedded comments in the video). The fact that you or me or some random dude didn't have any issue doesn't mean that those issues don't exist. And it's a hard thing to talk about cause we all use these devices differently, and our needs differ as well. But covering the bad stuff should be a must for any review (one that isn't paid off or sponsored, at least).
How does this performance compare to the older gtx laptops thinking if I should sell my gtx 1070 laptop to put money towards buying this.
Oof, well, it's roughly about as powerful as a GTX 1650. Not even that much, depending on the benchmark. But it's a hard thing to compare cause you're playing most games at 720/800/900p (even if the display is a higher res panel), and you're using things like Lossless Scaling or AMD's AFMF2 along with ample FSR/XeSS, so these devices _feel_ a lot more capable than they actually are. But no, it's not even close to a GTX1070. The handhelds we'll get in 2026 will get there though.
@CGD.Studio I have to limit the fps on the 1070 to 45fps on games like marvel midnight suns, outer worlds ,borderlands 3 and often don't use the laptop because of that and just use my desktop so would this be a no go then as the laptop was brought more for use going downstairs and using in the living room and I imagine I couldn't do that with this if the laptop is struggling. The laptop is a 1080p, 16gb ram, gtx 1070.
Huh, that's weird, I'm pretty sure you can hit 60FPS easily on a 1070 mobile. 🤔 What's the model?
I’ve never liked talking somebody about something so funny and intelligent, it was a pleasure to hear it. 😊
Keep up the good work, you deserve way more viewer and subs!
Thank you, friend, really appreciate the positive feedback! 🙌 Glad you liked the rambling. 😁
It's 450 right now... and now back to 472...
Both prices are great in my opinion. Or amazing, even! It's a lot easier to accept any potential flaws or shortcomings for that kind of price, which holds true for the Ally as well.
I just picked one up for $375 and it was basically new. It's a good replacement for my Ayaneo 2. It's a great device especially with lossless scaling.
That’s an insane deal, congrats! 🙌
I’ve just owned one of it for 2 weeks now. I’m an LCD Steam Deck player previously and It seems everything is working fine for now but I love the things that you’ve mentioned about the cons.
I will keep on monitoring my experience with it to see if it matches your info.
1 sub for you my friend 🎉
Thank you, friend, really appreciate it! I hope things go as smooth as butter for you. 😁 There's a lot to love with the Legion Go, that's for sure, especially for those willing to put in a bit of work and set everything up.
The only 2 complaints I have about the Legion are fan noise (its not annoying but i would love a few less decibels) and the battery, other than that Im glad that i sold my steam deck and got this, and in the future I will upgrade to the LeGO 2. Its a very good quality product overall!
My fan in my Legion Go isn’t working, got any tips? (Btw, it’s clean its on full speed and it’s inactive) 🎮
Is it a brand new unit? Did the fan work in the past?
@ It did but for some reason after the Legion Space update it wasn’t working I bought it in February I just don’t know what’s wrong 🤷♂️
Reinstall Legion Space, I'd start there. Check for any available updates too, both in Legion Space _and_ in Windows. If none of that helps, I'd reinstall Windows just to be sure it's not a software-related issue. If it's hardware-related, you can order a new fan straight from Lenovo if I'm not mistaken and do the replacement yourself, assuming it's an issue with the fan itself and not something more serious.
@@CGD.Studio Omg it worked thank you so very much for the help 😱
Glad you gotnit fixed! 🙌
Since lenovo announced we will get steamos support for older legion go, i guess we'll get a better experience. Let's hope we'll get it sooner rather than later
It’s definitely coming together! To their credit they listened to the community. Even the Go 2 will use drivers straight from AMD and the new controllers will be backwards compatible, so cool pro-consumer moves for sure. 🙌
this was a fantastic review. I used to tinker with things but I don't have thr time and id love to just have something that works but I love thr features and the screen on this. it's on black friday sale dor 474 is dollars new. would you get this or a steam deck if you had the choice and knowing what you know now?
Thank you JP, glad you liked it! 🙌 Oof, to be honest, that's a _very_ tough question. They're really hard to compare cause there's a fairly tangible performance difference between them. The Steam Deck is a _lot_ more polished, but if you need Windows or want to play some games with anti-cheat or need the extra performance (or Game Pass or whatever), then it's not really an option. Although you can still install Windows on a Steam Deck, it runs flawlessly with a few third-party tools (first-hand experience).
I'd personally still take the Legion cause of the price right now. And you can always install Bazzite on it if you have the energy and are willing to roll up your sleeves and have yourself a beefed-up "Steam Deck" with a much larger display, two USB4 ports, a built-in kickstand, and whatever else. Unless you plan on gaming on-the-go, in which case you should definitely go with the OLED Steam Deck.
Apologies for the long, rambling message, it's almost 6AM where I'm at. 😅 But it's complicated, in other words.
@CGD.Studio lol no need for apologies! I really appreciate you tsking the time to respond and I hope to help with building your channel with likes and such. I guess ill do a quick research on just how much of a pain it is to do what you said and to make it more polished by tinkering but that 474 and all the features are very tempting. then again just having something that just works like the steam deck is also appealing.
i really appreciate your review and your descriptive answer im very much leaning towards getting the legion go for the price... although supporting a company that has turned its back on thier customers is not good and also a factor hm...
@CGD.Studio hey so not sure what version you have. but i have decided to go with the legion go. but it's 474 usd on Amazon for the 512 gb or 550 usd for thr 1tb. woukd you say the extra price is worth it? I stopped paying attention to tech years ago and im going to jump start back up again. i didn't know which version you had. And the sale ends today haha
@@JP-hg5ru I had the 512GB version. 😁 I personally don't need more than 512GB of storage. I can't play _all_ the games, but that also depends on _what_ you plan on playing. If it's like 100GB AAA titles, then 512GB might be a bit limiting. I would _personally_ go with the base 512 model, you can always upgrade the storage later on. And who knows, maybe you won't even like it, in which case you'll be glad to have bought the cheaper version. I'm not saying you're _not_ gonna like it, but it's always an option with any kind of device. 😅
But the price is fair, that upsell. It's, what, $75 for a 1TB drive, that's totally fair, if not even cost-effective. I see that the Corsair MP600 1TB currently is on sale on Amazon for $84.99, so you'd be getting a larger SSD for less money, without having to put in any work yourself. It's a good deal. 😁 If you're into indies and emulation and AA games (which are mainly, what, 30-50GB in size), then 512GB will serve you fine. But if you wanna, you know, slap Red Dead Redemption 2 on it, Borderlands 3, stuff like that, then you'll run out of space relatively quickly. I personally don't mint focusing on just a few games, finishing them and then installing something else, I don't see the need to have them _all_ available at every possible moment.
@@JP-hg5ru Thank you friend, really appreciate it. :) On the plus side, if you want a relatively seamless and pain-free user experience, you can always install Bazzite on your Legion Go and turn it into a more powerful Steam Deck. Not a shabby option at all.
As for supporting the company, ah, they're all the same. I find it crazy when people defend any kind of device that was manufactured at a large scale. We're all just numbers to these OEMs, and none of them give a damn about anything other than their profits. We're always picking between multiple different "evils." But at least we get to choose. ASUS, for instance, didn't do a damn thing and wouldn't have done a damn thing is Gamers Nexus didn't go ballistic on them and kickstarted a ton of pushback.
The LeGo is on sale at Best Buy for Black Friday here in the states for just $550 for the 1TB model. I was thinking of picking one up, but now I'm not so sure.
I'd still buy it if I were you. Honestly. It's not perfect, but neither are its alternatives. It might not be the most fleshed out, but it's still a great device - so long as you're aware of the limitations and certain bugs and flaws you might encounter. And I'm saying this primarily because you can return it, right, within 14 days or something? If it's not good enough for you, you'd be able to get your money back in no time. 😁
$380 open box like new in store pickup only here in staten island
@@CGD.Studiobazzite?
@@CGD.StudioNovember purchases have a return date of Jan 31, 2025 in the US. Plenty of time to tinker around.
@@JayGamingTechTips Dude that's insane. That's like two whole months to tinker with it and see if it "fits." Sucks to be a European, that's for sure. 😁
Incredible video as always! I ended up returning mine because of the lack of updates, would love to get your opinion on the PlayStation portal?
Thank you friend, really appreciate you watching! 🙌 Oof, the PS Portal. 😁 Not sure, I'm personally not a big fan of it mainly because of the price. I snagged a used Logitech G Cloud with a case and screen protector for €200 and I feel like that was a good deal overall. It's a full-fledged Android device (albeit a weak one), and it runs most systems up to PPSSPP flawlessly (even 2X resolution, in some cases). Like, it's not a paperweight when I can't stream, I can still use it for other things. The PS Portal, to me personally, is just a bit too limiting, it's a one use-case device, which is obviously okay with more than half a million people who bought it, but I've yet to come across someone who's like "this thing is amazing, it totally changed things for me." I've seen people loving it, but it seems to me that they love the fact that they're _streaming_ their favorites games to a portable device, as opposed to loving the Portal itself.
I just don't feel like it offers anything unique. If it had an OLED panel, for instance, it would've been a pretty unique option.
But I totally get why people like them, it's the convenience of it all.
@ thanks for sharing your thoughts! Couldn’t agree more with The “loving the fact of streaming their games as opposed to loving the system it’s self”Looking forward to the Logitech G Cloud review!
This video has just convinced me to not buy legion go (which costs $730 in my country on blackfriday). It's frustrating that the only handheld pc with large screen has so many software issues, i'm not ready to fight with customer service or experience numerous bugs/crashes etc.
Indeed when you buy a device from an established brand you expect something less or more polished + frequent updates that should elevate the experience. But feels more like copmanies' primary principle is gathering small teams and putting little effort to not regret if a product fails later
Oh man what the hell, $730? That's insane. Not worth it at all, in my opinion. Have you checked the second-hand market? It was selling for a whopping €799 in Europe for months, which is dangerously close to the ROG Ally X. (€899) Right now it's around €599 cause it's on sale, but once Black Friday ends retailers will surely jack the price back up.
As you said, I should have waited for an Ally X :) I own my LeGO for a bit over a year. I use it as a desktop pc. I hooked up a usb-c hub, plugged in two monitors and I later added an usb fan to keep it cool. It is nice. The only thing I dont like is the janky-ness you described. Some windows programs constantly run into errors (HitFilm Express, etc. ) or are not supported at all, because of poor optimisation. Lately the Legion space stopped working for me, so I have trouble accessing some of the settings which s frustrating to say the least.
I decided on getting the LeGO because of 2 things other handhelds didnt have a year ago: 1. two usb ports, 2. optical mouse (hear me out :D I use my LeGO with Nexdock 360 when I am not at home and having a mouse built in for when I need it is convenient). BTW I had to open it up and clean the inside of the cooling fan like 4 months ago. I think I will have to do that again in 2 months or so. I should have waited for an Ally X and bought a mouse or saved up a bit more and I should have bought a laptop though :D I will never again buy anything Lenovo because of the software issues. Gaming is awesome tbh, the rest is meh.
Thank you for chiming in, some people really don't like hearing the bad stuff while they're in the honeymoon phase. 😅 But to say - as some did - that issues don't exist or that the Legion Go is equally as polished and consistent as, say, the ROG Ally is just a blatant lie.
Did you try sideloading the 780M drivers?
Wow, what an impressive video. Thank you!!! 🙏
Glad you liked it Ronnie! 🙌 Thanks for watching!
I do deep dive research on these types of things, mostly for myself. I was going to purchase one today, but after watching this I am now hesitant. Maybe I should wait to see if the LeGo 2 is better. Or maybe I just get an Asus RoG Ally X instead. I already have a Steam Deck OLED and a Switch OLED. Both do exactly what I want them to do, the SD needed a little bit of tweaking here and there, it does what it was built to do with a tragic battery life.
I will continue to research for a handheld that is supported by its creator. So far though for me Switch is leading the charge, shockingly.
I've owned the SD LCD and Switch OLED. Sold both for the Legion Go. Don't be hesitant based on this guys gibberish - watch more videos. The Legion Go will not disappoint. In terms of LG2? Nobody knows, but its looking promising. If you want to wait for it, do it. If not, Legion is the way to.....Go lol. Hope this helps, cuz I love mine and all the things I can do on it.
"Gibberish?" What would you have preferred, a video that 100% covers your and _only_ your experience and ignore thousands of other unsatisfied customers? Would that have been the better option? Come on brother. You can love the thing and still criticize it. No one's picking any sides, and none of these devices are perfect, but Lenovo should've still done better given how much they were charging for it. I'm gonna spitball here but I feel like, 10-15% of the video is my _personal_ opinion, and that's why it took me 6-7 months to make it. I was on Reddit each and every single day, gathering opinions, trying to focus on what _everyone_ feels as opposed to my personal stance which I don't care much about cause who am _I_ to give out a verdict. And I didn't even cover _all_ of the performance and charging bugs that I personally experience a lot cause the video would've been five hours long. And who wants that?
People need to understand that their individual experience matters very little with these devices cause the way we use them varies wildly. You'd be surprised by how many people use their LeGos just for game streaming and light emulation. Obviously they're not gonna run into any issues, but that doesn't tell the whole story. It's like those who say "just get a Steam Deck." Nah, man. It doesn't work that way. It's sadly never that simple, and anyone who says otherwise probably has something to sell you, a link, a percentage, a referral. And FOMO sells a lot better than objectivity.
As I said in the video, _these_ are the things you need to be aware of, and if you're okay with that, you're gonna love the LeGo cause it _can_ be glorious. But it's also messy, unfinished, behind the curve update-wise, and it's not as good pick for as many people as some other options. That doesn't invalidate it, far from it.
What are you looking for experience-wise when you already have a Steam Deck OLED and a Switch? 😁 An all-in-one device, a bigger display? More power?
@@CGD.Studio I am a gamer, having all options at my fingertips is just something I feel is necessary to judge what is best for what activity. I can't say if the machine is awful or not if I have never touched it.
I just got mine for black Friday, I was so surprised that it was cheaper than the ALLY with the 1tb. Also the screen is really vibrant and colorful, I had bought the PS portal but didn't like how leaving my home ok hotspot it never worked so I was like if I'm gonna get a portable let me get a good one and bam the GO just seemed like my type, I like the versatility, comes with a case, feels really good on the hand, and yess built like a tank and legit
May it serve you long and well! 🙌 Whoever bought it at its current price ($499 or less) definitely scored a phenomenal deal!
I paid 475 for the 512gig in November. I’ve done two graphic driver updates since then. I think the legion go is better than the ROG Ally regular. The screen is immersive.
Things have picked up with the updates for legion space (while still not great) works far better than it did when I first got it a few months ago. Driver updates could be more frequent but other than that I have had no complaints. Yes it took some research to get things to run correctly but in my experience, so did the steam deck.
The thing is, if they're making, like, 2 or 3 more devices (I think it might even be 3), it's obvious that they're in it for the long haul, and they're gonna use Legion Space for every forthcoming device as well. If they did't have that in the pipeline, I'm pretty sure we'd still have the original Legion Space.
It's a business, but come on, give the people who paid good money for your thing a bit of love, they're the ones who made the Legion Go 2 and Lite possible, in a way. :/
I'm a every day driver on the legion go. I love it. It's not perfect. But who is. Also I use the onexgpu with rokid max. This is the greatest hand held. It can do many tricks❤
New drivers came out yesterday btw. But yes, I agree with all your points.
Except for, when its windows, there will always be tweaking with the only exception if you're using top of the line specs. But since this is handheld, I fully understood there will be a lot of tweakings before i even purchased it.
But its fine. I feel like everything else still outshines the cons. Its a fantastic device, but it is expensive.
I'd still recommend sideloading the 780M drivers, sadly, as those latest ones are based on AMD drivers from July. :/ No AFMF2 and, in my testing, it's really been a gamechanger. Plus games like Path of Exile 2 run _much_ better, be it due to optimizations or because of AFMF2, either way it's a better and smoother experience.
this channel is going places for sure
Thank you, friend, really appreciate it! :) Lots planned!
@@CGD.Studio I recently ordered the 14inch legion slim 5, yours was the only actually good review on youtube that felt like a real user review and not a spec sheet comparison, thank you!
i got it with 16gb ram and rtx4050 for 999 euro (pretty fucking good i would say)
this is my 3rd time replying, all my replies get deleted wtf
Aw, thank you, that really means a lot. That's the whole point, the whole RUclips space is compromised. All just affiliate links and sponsorship deals. You really have to dig deep for an honest opinion. Disgusting, really.
I have more laptop reviews planned for 2025, but they're crazy expensive nowadays. 😂 Plus nothing really exciting at the moment, personally speaking.
Oof, €999 for a 4050? I'd buy that in a heartbeat!
Bro finally post another banger video with the review style that everyone should take a note of. Sometimes you should be totally brutal to these companies that treat customers like some shit. These devices cost arm and a leg to buy one and we don't even get proper treatment which still to this day Steam Deck stand likes a king compare to those shitty corporate whose only intention is to suck customers dry. Enough of my ranting:3 keep going mate and i don't mind hour long video of you shitting these companies.
Aw, thank you brother, really appreciate it. Seriously. :) 🙌Comments like these really make it worthwhile, sitting in a room and editing a video for like 50 hours or something. Oh if you like shitting on companies, do I have a video for you! 😂January/February!
I was thinking of getting the legion go instead of an ally simply because of the egpu support. Since I have to go back and forth between my mom and Dad and only at my mom's I have a PC, it would be a lot easier to just bring the legion go and an egpu on a plane instead of a whole PC. I was also already planning on installing chimeraos on it anyways so the software support isn't a big deal. Also on Amazon they are the same price.
Would it not make more sense to just buy a smaller 14" gaming laptop? :/ And I say this as someone who's been obsessed with eGPUs for, like, 6-7 years. The cost of it adds up a lot and you'd also lose out on performance.
@@CGD.Studio I was thinking the legion go because 1. It's 500 dollars on Amazon right now and it seems like a good handheld 2. I can upgrade later with the egpu, meaning I can get the thing and use it and upgrade later after I save up, and 3. I need better airflow than with a gaming laptop because I want to play some light VR games (after I get the egpu ofc) and I know bad airflow can be the death of laptops. I guess I could get a laptop with thunderbolt 4, but I want to be able to use it for gaming in the mean time and I'm getting like a 1060 or 8 gigs of ram for the same price.
That _does_ make sense. An unorthodox upgrade path, but an upgrade path nonetheless. 😁 Quick question though, which eGPU are you thinking of buying? 🤔 All of the mainstream ones are pretty huge and heavy, not exactly ideal for traveling (especially by plane). ASUS' proprietary XG Mobiles are definitely compact, but they're expensive AF and also jankier than regular TB eGPUs, based on what I've read. But if you can snag one for cheap that'd be a pretty ideal setup for traveling.
@@CGD.Studio I'm not sure yet, I was thinking I could get an enclosure and get an upgrade for my main rig, and just throw my 3050 in the enclosure. It runs games fine but I want more performance while I'm at home with my main setup. And addressing the issues with travelling, once I get it configured I may just mail the GPU and enclosure to my dad's and leave it there since I have a perfectly fine rig to play my games on and I don't need 2 rigs to play games on. Also it means I can just bring the legion and be good. But this also all depends on if I can find a good deal on other ones.
@@CGD.Studiowow you are really responsive and helpful, i really admire that in a RUclipsr. Plus I totally love your attitude. First time watcher and I’ll definitely be watching some more just for your dry humour and wit
My biggest complaint with the windows handhelds is when you buy them the first like 4 hours is just installing updates and drivers and stuff. Then once you do that and you download your games you have to go in and mess with the frame generation or the integer scaling or the Radeon super resolution and mess with all the different settings to get the game to run the way that you want it to run. So I do like how on the steam deck it has just a quick access menu that you pull out and can quickly adjust the settings and that's it super easy. Also I just got my legion Go for $400 at Best buy on sale and then returned it because after like 3 days the right bumper would just work sometimes. And it was super buggy and I had to detach the controllers and reattach them to get the game to recognize that I was trying to use a controller versus on the ally you can just hit the quick menu and toggle the gamepad but that's not a thing on the legion for some reason
Couldn't agree more. It's on the OEM to create a sensible and simple overlay and allow us to change as many settings as we need on the fly. And it needs to be easily accessible at all points. Lenovo's still not there yet although they've improved, but ASUS finally caught up with Valve. Armory Crate, in my experience, is absolutely amazing at this point. Sorry to hear about your unit. :/
@@CGD.Studio absolutely. Armory crate is much better. And Legion Space has improved and the quick access menu, but now it seems too...cheap..or cheesy if that's makes sense. Having that little spiny triangle over your settings, reminds me of playing on an N64 back in the day lol
The Legion Go is good. But I spent the first 2 days updating, manually searching for the latest drivers on websites, tweaking the bios setiings etc. Just to get it running decently.
The thing is, I love it. But I pretty much only use it for streaming on it from a desktop PC. Which you can do in super silent mode and have like 6 hours of battery. Else I use it native only for games like hades, which dont need that much power and can be played effective. So youre right. Its not for everyone, but its perfect for people who can use its strong points to the max.
As you should! There's a ton to love with the Legion Go. Criticizing certain parts of it - which are Lenovo's fault first and foremost - doesn't mean a device is bad or not worth buying. But if people aren't vocal about it, then there's absolutely no chance that things will ever change for the better and that the companies making these things will ever try harder.
But other than that, I've _loved_ my time with the Legion Go, and there's no device out there quite like it. Whoever can use its full potential will be blown away, and I'm glad you've found it useful in the ways you game. 🙌
The FPS mode chapter was killin me 😂
Three pineapples died for that one shot. 😅
thanks for doing a review i was planning to gamble for a prize for quite some time to see the lenovo legion go but now i feel like for me its best to wait for some updates and fixes on rebrand or not getting it.
This was an awesome video and the criticisms are valid! You're also hilarious dude hahaha. Very entertaining video 👍 As a Legion GO owner myself (which I bought an open box one from Best Buy for just $480 + tx USD! imagine that and still had 9 months warranty at that time), I overall love it but I understand all of the criticisms in this video perfectly. Indeed the driver support is abysmal... There is one new GPU driver every 6 months or so. Also, the sound quality of the speaker at default settings is a 6/10 I'd say but when you go in Realtek Audio Controller and change the preset from "Powerful" to "Club" (or you do Custom and boost the bass frequencies yourself) then the speaker sound goes to a 7.5 / 10 and becomes a good sounding device. Not great or amazing like ROG Ally or Steam Deck, but still good and clear on the Legion GO. The last main problem I have is with cardinal snapping on the thumbsticks... You can't make a perfect small circle in your game with the camera view - if you try doing a small tight circle with your view using the right thumbstick for example, it will snap the view slightly left, then down, then right, then up, etc. You have to make a wider circle to have a smooth circular motion with the sticks... This is the single worst thing about this device which I just discovered in the last 2 months.
With those main criticisms out of the way... I think overall it's a very useable device when it comes to Windows 11. In fact, I think it's the single best Windows handheld device when it comes to navigating Windows thanks to the trackpad, large screen, high resolution and good touchscreen. It's also fantastic for watching movies on it like a tablet (it's high 1600p resolution + 144 Hz refresh rate which divides evenly the 24 fps framerate of most movies making it really nice to watch stuff). As for gaming performance, it's solid and despite the drivers only being updated once per 6 months, everything pretty much works. The games probably don't work OPTIMALLY, especially new ones, but so far everything I've tried works and runs solidly. In my experience, now that I've set up everything in Windows to my liking, I rarely have weird bugs or glitches or performance issues or anything aside from some minor annoyances like sometimes having to press the touch screen with my finger for a game to once again let me control it using the built-in controller. Also, the right hand "quick" menu for settings like FPS counter etc. isn't really quick... It takes over 1 second to open after pressing and sometimes I have to press the button twice for it to open at first (then it starts opening and closing normally). Oh yeah, but I really like the detachable controllers cause that allows for ultimate comfort if you have a table in front of you to set the device on. The interface of Legion Space and the Quick Menu has also been significantly improved versus the launch version.
So I do recommend this device if a person can get it at a good price of $550 USD or less let's say. But... I totally understand why someone wouldn't want to get a Legion Go and feel like an orphan abandoned by Lenovo hahaha. 😂
Thank you, Cobra, glad you liked it! 😁 And thank you for chiming in. It's always nice having objective folks in the comment section. Some people get way too invested with the companies and devices they buy and side with, for whatever reason.
@@CGD.Studio I totally agree! People don't like feeling like they "made the wrong choice" so they'll do mental backflips to justify everything and ignore all the negatives 😅 In other news, I was shocked and pleased to see that a new GPU and Chipset driver were released on Dec. 13th 2024 for the Legion GO! So at least the LeGo is still getting better and supported... for now.
They can backflip all they want as far as I'm concerned, but when the toxicity leaks out, that's when it becomes a problem. 😅 The lengths to which some people are willing to go, it suddenly made sense why so few people on RUclips are willing to criticize anything at all. If you talk sh*t, no one's gonna click on your affiliate links and you're gonna get hated on by _some_ part of the community so it's a lose-lose.
It's good that we finally got _something_ but Lenovo's still way behind. That's what I take issue with. If I'm not mistaken, these latest drivers are based on those from 16th of July. So in December, we get drivers that are 5-6 months old? I mean come on. 😂 So Lenovo took however many months to release something and they're still 5-6 months behind. That wouldn't be such a big deal if AFMF2 wasn't such a game-changer, and it's still not present on the LeGo. And sure, we can all sideload 780M drivers, but it sucks that we _have_ to do that for a device that, up until Black Friday, retailed for €800, more or less. That might not be a dealbreaker, but it's definitely worth calling out.
@@CGD.Studio You're totally right! I get the impression that there is a massive amount of corporate red tape and "approvals" required at Lenovo. That's probably why it takes them months to put out updates and when they finally come, they're already months-old drivers (like this latest one). At least we have Lossless Scaling to the rescue, and at least even these drivers mostly seem to work well with most games. Maybe not optimized 100% but still stable in most games at least. New drivers often barely make a difference unless a game has massive problems or is broken at first with current drivers (then new drivers do make a huge difference of course). I gotta be honest, I was shocked that an assortment of Legion Go 2 handhelds is releasing imminently... Considering how hands off and slow Lenovo has been with the LeGo 1. But hey! Good sign that clearly they're in the game and not gonna abandon these devices anytime soon. 😝
Nice review... didnt realize that Lenova abandoned the Go... but I dont use their software, so never knew how bad it is. I just bought it a little while ago after having my first kid. Don't have time to be sitting in my office playing, but do like to pull out the Go when she's napping or I have a little free time. And the thing that sold me was Moonlight/Sunshine streaming. I have a ballin PC (4090 and 14700k) and it is not put to waste as I am able to stream everything on max to my Go. It is seriously badass that we have come so far that I am getting max quality AAA games on a freakin handheld. And yeah I did review all my options... the Oled deck is more optimized and the Ally X is more powerful and portable... but none of that applied for me. I had gaming PC and am 99% of the time playing at home streaming off moonlight... so the Go was a no brainer. If I had to nitpick... it takes some time setting up and I wish the panel was Oled... still a beautiful screen though. So yeah... I have no desire to downgrade my screen for my use case... and if the Go comes out with Oled... or the next steamdeck comes out with a bigger screen... or the Ally comes out with a bigger screen and Oled... that's when I'll retire the Go.
Did you give the Logitech G Cloud a look? I've bought one used a few months ago off eBay for $200 and, honestly, it's been incredible for Moonlight. 1080p, IPS (not OLED sadly, but a pretty good panel), incredible ergonomics, and the battery lasts, like, 10-12 hours. You get the "Battery is Low" message and then you have like 3 more hours of time before it's dead. 😁
Give it a look. It's light and incredibly thin. I'll hopefully get a review out by the end of January (but you obviously have tons of other reviews on RUclips).
@ sweet. Thanks for the suggestion. Won’t go to a smaller screen and less resolution.. Great price point for cloud gaming though.
Waiting for the next handheld with same size as lego or bigger with an oled screen… that will push me to upgrade.
I’m an average gamer who will use this maybe 1 to 2 hours a day at most playing GTA or RDR2 type games. Would this be perfect for the average gamer looking for decent performance? In Canada it’s the most affordable right now
I think that, if by "average" you think you're someone who's not super tech savvy and just wants things to work, I'd go with the ROG Ally, primarily because it has a native landscape display. Performance is decent across the board, but on the Ally, you're less prone to encounter display-related quirks. Plus it has a _much_ more user friendly and fleshed out overlay/sidebar so changing settings and things on the fly - which you'll be doing a lot depending on which games you're playing - is a lot easier. But that's not a knock on the Legion Go either, you _can_ handle all of its quirks and flaws, but if they show up, you have to be willing to tinker a bit and find other solutions. You get a more immersive display, but much worse speakers and a ton of fan noise, which are two areas I favor a lot and that's where the Ally shines.
@@CGD.Studiothanks for that great reply. I think I’ve settled on the Steam Deck OLED. a bit cheaper than the Ally and seems to be a stable unit for what it is. Thanks again! I’ll definitely subscribe
Oh for sure, just make sure to check out whether it's strong enough to run your games. It should be, but there's a sizable gap performance-wise between the Steam Deck and other Z1 Extreme alternatives. 🙌
@@CGD.Studioyea I think it will do well. I think the most intensive game I will play is probably GTA 4 lol probably some Halo, etc.
Sounds good! Just keep in mind that you can run most launchers through SteamOS but not Game Pass. 😁 That's the only problem, but depending on your needs it might not be.
l really want this switch like device as it's on sale for $499 right now but damn, the lack of support is really making me reconsider...
Ah, it's still a good device overall. I mean, you just need to know what you're getting yourself into, that's all. And you can always buy it, test it out for a week or whatever and if it's not for you, send it back and buy something else. That's always an option.
What about installing Bazzite?
It has grown a ton over the last few months. People have had quite a few issues (which was only natural) in the beginning, but the team behind it has put in the work (and then some). It generally solves many of the Windows-related issues and bugginess. And you can dual boot, too, so if you need Game Pass or a specific launcher or want to play a game that requires anti-cheat, that's always an option. Highly recommended by everyone basically.
Incredible review! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and saving me money!
Thank you, friend! Glad you like it! 🙌 It's still an incredible device, and it _is_ worth buying, it's just not as easy to recommend as one would expect given who's making it. 😁
I got my legion go two weeks ago and I love it. Haven’t had any problems with it at all
Fingers crossed it stays that way! Enjoy it, Jerome! 🙌
For me, i dont mind that I have to do some tweeking and tinkering, I can all most see it as a feature and gives me are more personal "relation" to the device, and it can also be quite fun.
For sure! But at a certain point, depending on what needs to be done and tweaked, you might find yourself fighting _against_ the device, that's all. Our preferences vary wildly. It's just important to note that the Legion Go isn't nearly as polished as some other options. For some, that's a barrier to entry. For others, that's not a problem at all.
@@CGD.Studio No. Thats like saying "i whis my Skoda was a F1 car" and none of the handheld is a F1 car, they are great, if you know what to expect. With a tiny bit of tweak, its possible to play Indiana Jones at 30 fps /medium to low settings on 9 inch display on a 30watt total. Thats amazing.
Oh I agree, but I spend an unhealthy amount of time online reading how people are feeling about all of these devices, what their hopes are and so on, and a _lot_ of them don't really know what to expect performance-wise cause they think these devices are about as powerful as, say, an RTX 4050 laptop running at 50W or something. They expect them to just work, to be fully supported, they don't expect to be dealing with (potentially) a native portrait display, lack of VRR, AFMF2 or Lossless Scaling, and so on. That's why I take that approach to reviewing, there's a lot of people out there who think of these things as if they were a Switch. They're incredibly powerful, but some of them need a bit more finessing than others.
I got recently new firmware updates and it’s a GREAT FANTASTIC machine. I have a base to connect to the TV and sometimes I play with my Xbox remote. If I want, I plug in my eGPU and play with it 😊
Serious question, 600 Euros Legion Go 512GB or 550 Euros ROG Ally X ? Both units are new.
550 for an ROG Ally X? Dude, don't even think twice about it. 😁 You'll get double the battery life, an M.2 2280 slot as opposed to a 2242, much better speakers, and VRR which, even if you don't need it all that much, can definitely come in handy. Plus, up-to-date drivers, AFMF2, and a launcher/overlay that's miles better than Legion Space. Oh and much, _much_ less fan noise and lower temps as well.
The 1.5 update to Armory Crate made it incredibly quick and snappy, it's actually a joy to use. And I say that as someone who made an equally critical review about ASUS about 10 months or so. They knocked it out of the park with the Ally X, that's for sure. All of the big RUclipsrs are using it, which says a lot. If they have access to everything, and they pick _that_ one, there must be a reason for it. (other than a sack of cash from ASUS)
Had the Legion Go since launch, a year after and I am still pissing around with tweaking settings to try and run games smoothly. Every time I update a new AMD driver, it crashes my Legion Space and have to go through a complete reinstall again. The removable controllers are fixed with black loom bands from ebay to prevent wobble. Software and driver support from Legion website has totally dried out, so you're stuck into researching RUclips videos on how to implement improvements for a more flawless console experience by performing various updates manually. Overall the hardware (minus the controllers) is great but the lack of support makes it an incomplete gaming product. Waiting on the new Z2 Extreme handhelds and will go for the next gen Ally.
Thank you for taking the time to type this out, it could be very useful for other people. Shitty overall experience, sad to hear it.
Well I can confirm bazzite solved the drivers bs for me.
I have a LCD Steam Deck, and a Legion Go. I am thinking though of selling my deck and getting a reg Ally if I can find one for like 300 bucks open box. I kept the Deck cause the Go was only good in certain instances. I love the Legion Go screen. It's tough to go back to 7inches after experiencing it, but it's just so uncomfortable to use. It's so heavy. You really hit the nail on the head that it's not really a portable device. It's like it's own thing. You can't just crawl up in bed with it. Is the regular Ally much lighter? I heard it was. Or should I just wait for the Ally 2? How far away is that? I hope it at least has an 8inch screen.
It is a lot lighter, had no issues weight-wise with the Ally. It's about 250 grams lighter than the Legion Go, so quite a significant amount. I personally wouldn't wait if you can find a good deal on the original Ally! 🙌 You can find one used for less than $400, or even open box if you have a Best Buy near you. And it's on sale now, too, for about $499 if I'm not mistaken (Black Friday).
Thanks to all early adopters to burn in the fire.
This First Generation is about setting up trust. The longterm support of these devices sets expectations for the successors. That's where I would jump in. Asus customer support scandal and MSI half-baked attempt are pretty much a continuation of their past. Valves continuing adding features and improvements on top of selling repair parts on ifixit gives confidence.
I was looking forward to the Legion Go 2 and expecting more refinements while looking back at their drivers and software support.
Couldn't agree more. Although, to me, personally, it's how a company behaves within that first year. ASUS has had its fair share of scandals, but Armory Crate - the latest 1.5 update - really made it incredibly fast and snappy. It's a joy to use, to be honest. And they're constantly shipping out updates, adding new features, and trying their hardest. Sure, they break something from time to time but it's a process, and whoever bought the Ally back on day one now has a much more feature-rich and complete product than anyone could have hoped for. Valve is also in a league of their own. We're spoiled for choice, and these things are now selling for way less money than what was originally the case, so the bar has been raised. If a company isn't willing to invest the time and effort into its products and really flesh it out and deliver what people want (a sizable, vocal part of it, at least), then that needs to be talked about.
I'm not surprised about this. I bought a Lenovo tablet. It got one update & was then abandoned. The OS has bugs that were never addressed & conflicts with apps like Google Docs (unlike my Samsung tablet). Never again buying anything from Lenovo.
To be fair, Lenovo has some kick-ass products too. It really depends on who's working on it and what their priorities are. I remember reading somewhere "there are no good or bad companies. Only good or bad products." :/
@CGD.Studio Yeah, but i genuinely think the Steam Deck has been the big success in this market due to their promised (& delivered support). There is just no trust built up by Lenovo. I actually hope they send you a Legion Go 2 review unit, to show how they've been working on all the criticisms that you & other reviewers have repeatedly highlighted 👍. That would make for an interesting video. Thank you for this video. Your honesty was excellent 👍👍
For sure, + a reasonable price point, lots of support, and a fair level of performance. A review unit? Oh man, that's beyond optimistic! 😂 But I really appreciate the sentiment. I doubt I'll _ever_ get a review unit. I'm not gonna sell my soul so there's no reason for any company to risk an _objective_ video. But if my budget allows it, I'll buy it for sure (and then sell it after making the video as has been the case so far). Thank you for the kind words brother, glad you approve! 🙌
I bought LeLeGo since it launch.
the reasons for owning over many handheld PCs are. 1-I like pocket PCs but they are hard to find with good specs and thus the LeLeGo is a choice although it is a big for average pocket clothes. 2-I m gaming at work while in a break time. so, the phenomena of detached gamepad makes a PC like an ordnary so, manager and staff are not laughing when I use LeLeGo on a desk for office tasks.3- detach gamepad has a thumb pad witch is nice to use it as a wifi presenter. so, using LeLeGo for presentation is easy and no need for buying extra part.
The only major flaw that usually Lenovo previousely made is there are no option for Larger RAM. 16GB with deducted 2.9GB for Vram is not a future proof against upcomming AAA games or testing unoptimised AAA games. also, as Im using it for big data analysis, it processesnvery fast but due it eats a whole ram, it switched to Virtual RAM that slows down the entire system.
so, no point for playing with 2K 144Hz screen when you cant use it in future. and no point for using for heavy workload due to limited RAM
Fortunately it seems that the whole spave is shifting towards 24-32GB of RAM as a standard. First the ROG Ally X, and now both MSI Claws (Lunar Lake). So that’s definitely a plus. Lenovo would be crazy not to offer the same next year.
No wonder a brand new legion go on sale is cheaper then steam oled here in Australia. It's straight up abandoned. Thanks for heads up. I had my share with RMA Lenovo office laptops
Supposedly Lenovo's been pretty good with Legion Go RMA's and warranties, so at least they have that going for them. Then again, it surely varies from one region to another. But yeah... I'm pretty sure any update they push out nowadays is solely because there's a LeGo 2 and Go Lite coming out.
LMAO Upvote for your haircut @ 9:00
I have to agree for the most part. Ive taken the time to 3d print a back plate to allow for an ssd upgrade and better cooling. If had to learn about loading unofficial software and drivers to get AFMF running. Its been a pain in the ass for things that should have come out of the box or been officially supported. With all that said after putting the time into it , setup properly the hardware is really amazing and quite a bit better than the competitors. The screen is just a show stopper when you're hitting good frame rates and makes you forget about so much of the BS it took to get there. I find the screens of the other devices for me are too small, a difference of 5 FPS performance when the screen is straining your eyes is useless.
Perhaps an unpopular opinion but I hated the nintendo switch more than i ever had an issue with the legion go because of the screen. I found it unusable due to low rez and size. It was a Yamaguchi watch to me and thought it was a joke console.
Fortunately, Lenovo finally shipped out an update with AFMF2. :) So something's happening at least. And yeah, that display really spoils you.
Eh, the Switch targets a different audience. I know it's on the smaller size but I still think it's an amazing device, especially for lighter titles and indies. Small, light, portable, no fan noise, respectable battery life, relatively cheap. Not a lot to complain about if you have your expectations in check. 😁
Agree on all points: sold my Legion Go once the Asus ROG Ally X was announced this summer and even though I miss the awesome larger screen, built in kickstand and nice build quality, the uncomfortable grips, no VRR, gimmicky detachable controllers (it's no Switch) and the horrible speakers were not worth keeping. Lenovo's Legion Space was okay and the last update which broke my AMD Adrenaline software and lack of support for their handheld was enough to go to Asus. Been loving my ROG Ally X (VRR, 2280 SSD, quieter, cooler, more comfy, better speakers and Armoury Crate is just head and shoulders better than what Lenovo did with their first handheld).
Yeah, at a certain point you can't help but say "alright, enough's enough." Glad you've found what you like in the ROG Ally X though! Lenovo's loss is ASUS' gain. 😁
I want an ally x but already own an ally z1e and SteamDeck IDK if I could justify the upgrade unless my kid decides he want a PC and decides to take interest in my Ally. I wish the steam deck had the z1 extreme or the rog Ally x had track pads lol that would make me upgrade both devices no questions asked
On the flip side just picked up a Go brand new for £450 in the UK as a small portable, upgraded it with an 2tb SSD, even if it's just used as a tablet with light gaming, I'm happy with it.
As for Asus, just make sure you get a good one because their CS and RMA are dreadful, my laptop screen died after 3 years, 1 week out of warranty after an armourtly crate update, it literally deleted the screens firmware, ASUS quoted £530 to replace it, 8tsalso a common problem "ASUS black screen" I'll never touch an ASUS product again.
L
No need to get the Ally X if you already have the OG Ally and a Steam Deck, in my opinion. Like, no reason whatsoever. 😂 I mean, sure, it could replace both of them (best of both worlds, in a way), but you're set for your portable gaming needs. $799 + tax (or €899 in Europe) is just insane in my opinion. You can get an RTX 4050 laptop for that kind of money. That being said, it sure is the best Windows-based option out there.
That's a great deal for sure! Is it from Curry? Saw a bunch of people on the LeGo subreddit getting it from there.
This was an amazingly great video lol i absolutely love the amount of cursing and idk you just get the point across. Btw im planning on buying the legion go, ive always dealt with insane jankyness ever since someone managed to put linux on the switch.
Thank you Manuel! 😁 Oh I totally get that, the LeGo is absolutely amazing, I just to spread the word that it's not as polished as most RUclipsrs want people to believe, and that if it's ever gonna get any better, it's gonna come through the community, _not_ Lenovo. If you're okay with doing the heavy lifting (if the need arises), you'll love this thing, it's mind-blowing. (but I'd hunt for a good deal if I were you, in which case the negatives become a lot easier to swallow).
I bought this a little over a week ago And since then I have not been able to play more than 5 minutes of a game without it crashing and I’m returning it tomorrow
Oof, that sounds terrible. Did you update all drivers both through Windows and Legion Space? That should definitely not be happening.
I own both a ROG ALLY and Legion Go, and as a device I would say that Legion Go is much better as a replacement PC, imo. Also, the FPS mode is great as a vertical mouse, and makes FOPS games much more enjoyable than using a tiny bluetooth mouse of the built-in analogs. As a portable device, yeah the Ally is better, though, but only because it has b better software support from ASUS.
Personally, I use the Go for FPG games, adventure games, graphical fidelity games (due to the bigger screen), point and click, RTS, RPGs and JRPGs. I use the ALLy for driving, fighting and action games because of the lighter weight.
I appreciate your thoughts here.
I have an LCD Deck, and have been considering getting a LeGO but it just seems a bit janky.
Well, I mean, if you can find it on a sale, and if you're already accustomed to SteamOS - and are okay with, say, dual booting - it might still be the right device for you. As I said in the video, I have nothing but praise for the LeGo, and nothing but hate for Lenovo, but the strengths and benefits that the Legion Go has are not only undeniable but also unique.
@ Fun fact- I actually use Bazzite on my SD and dual boot Windows//Bazzite on my work desktop. I would definitely install Bazzite on the LeGO, but…
One principle that we all have to consider is voting with our wallets. If a company treats their customers well and provides support to their already sold products, I am more included to support that company by buying their products. I’m not sure if the Legion GO passes that test, even if I do not require their support. Could just get one used.
Either way, I really enjoyed your video and can’t wait to hear more from you.
Mate this video was a blast. Really funny and engaging. Shame the legion go hasn’t achieved what it deserved. I’ve owned an Og steam deck and a ROG Ally. Now owning only an OLED Steam deck since it is the only one providing a real handled experience without worrying about the battery life. Always looked at the LGO since I have a Legion 7 Pro and I know Lenovo gaming laptops can be great. Shame I will never buy a LGO because the lack of support has already almost killed it.
Thank you shattia, glad you liked it! 🙌 More to come. 😁 Yeah, I think once you acclimate to the convenience of the Steam Deck - or even the ROG Ally, ASUS fixed nearly all of its previous issues in my testing - it's really hard to go back. Lenovo has the manpower and the money to iron everything out, but why it's been taking so long is anyone's guess. Maybe sales, maybe improper management, who knows. That being said, all of this might change in a year or two's time, so I'm not writing them off just yet.
@ the ROG Ally had some serious work being done and the software has been improved a lot during time. The ally X is interesting but it’s way too expensive considering it has a Z1E and not a newer chip (and its power efficiency is a joke, let’s be honest). The only thing I miss about the Ally is the ability to play game pass games.. but ehi you can always stream with moonlight. Btw I subbed so I’m looking forward for your next videos
Did you try running Windows on your Steam Deck? I used it for like a year and a half, it worked flawlessly, only because of Game Pass. Valve’s drivers are amazing, even sleep/resume worked incredibly well. Literally no drawbacks. 😁
It’s now on 50% sale on amazon, should i buy it to play AAA games?
That's a great price, and it's well worth buying! As for the whole AAA part, it really depends on which games you want to play. If they're really demanding, a native landscape panel on the ROG Ally along with variable refresh rate and AMD's fluid motion frames out of box will net you better performance and a smoother gaming experience. Plus you might have to tinker a fair bit and Armory Crate is much more practical in that sense compared to Legion Space (the overlay especially). Lower temps and fan noise at max load, too. The battery life is pretty awful on both devices though.
Also, make sure to do a bit of digging on RUclips for the _specific_ games you want to play. These devices are incredibly capable, but they're still limited in what they can do. Some games can run incredibly well, whereas others can't. And there's a sizable number of them that _can_ but require either a lot of tweaking or, as a worst case scenario, look like garbage when upscaled and all settings turned down to low.
What are your thoughts on a legion go 2? Or a similar device to the legion with a big display. I really want a device like the legion go, its on sale for like 440 dollars, after hearing the issues, i might as well just wait for new models in the market
Ah, honestly, I was a _lot_ more excited about the Legion Go 2 and ROG Ally 2 before seeing just how expensive Strix Point laptops are. Like, it's insane. Sure the chip is great, more efficient, 15-20% more capable, but supposedly it also costs twice as much as the 8840U, and even more than that when compared to the Z1 Extreme. I think they're all gonna cost $999. Plus if the upcoming Trump-related tariffs come into play, they're gonna cost even more for US buyers and, most likely, EU ones as well.
I personally wouldn't wait. These things are so rationally priced these days that it's literally the best time to make the investment. $440? That's an amazing deal. I'd definitely get that, to be honest, if you want a large display, that is. At that price point, it's a lot easier to accept any potential flaws or quirks the device might have.
The MSI Claw 8 with Lunar Lake is supposedly coming out in December, but it'll retail for $899 or something and, other than a beefy 80Wh battery, and a landscape VRR display, it won't be all that much better (if at all) than the Legion Go. So I'd say go for it. Personally I would with the ROG Ally as it's a lot more fleshed out software-wise and is much more well-rounded, but the gaming experience is definitely a lot more immersive on the Legion Go, that's undeniable. It's so good that you're kind of willing to put up with the negatives, and they might not be that pronounced either depending on what you're doing, which games you play, and how hard you're pushing it.
I sold the rog ally x for buy the legion Go and I love it.
Interesting! What made you switch, the display and versatility? Cause you sacrificed twice the battery life, less fan noise, and better driver support + a portrait display. 😁 I personally gravitate more towards the Legion as well because of the size and screen, but the Ally X sure does stand out (even though the price is, in my opinion, awful).
Hey Man I like your review and I agree on criticism about the device. It's really great and has alot of potential if you do some tinkering, unfortunately not all are techsavy nor had a time to do so, Lenovo is not doing well on the software support which is the main problem of the device.
Thank you Jon, glad you like the video! 🙌 It wouldn't be _as_ big of a problem if we didn't have as many choices as we have right now. 😅 And things are only gonna get more chaotic with Acer's new handheld, the MSI Claw 8, potentially a new Steam Deck, the Zotac Zone, and whatever else.
I own a Legion go and everything you said is true. I feel like Lenovo sold me a prototype with poor speakers and a portrait screen that Lenovo are struggling to get updated gpu drivers working with. I personally will not be buying legion go 2.......... As they say in the UK "once bitten, twice shy"
Bro there's a ghostly hand behind you holding the Legion Go. I don't know if you noticed it when you review your video before posting it.
Strange things happen in the void. 😂
I got my legion go a couple of weeks ago traded in my rog ally cause if the screen size.I haven't had that many issues out of the box i just use it in handheld haven't used fps mode yet but i do agree with you i loved armory crate legion space is not good with detecting certain games from GOG Epic and Ubisoft but other than that i love legon go
Yeah, that huge display really makes it stand out. Nothing quite like it. Glad you're enjoying it! 🙌 (for the most part, at least)
Bought the legion go and ended up selling it for the following reasons :
It’s bulky, it’s heavy, the battery life is really bad and you need to buy a power bank to get the true “handheld experience”. Otherwise you will get about 45 minutes on a single charge when playing steam games. I used it mostly for emulator games and I got 2.5 - 3 hours of play time. Unlike steam deck, you can’t put it on a sleep mode and resume playing so you have to shutdown windows and power it back up every time.
At this point I decided to play steam games on my gaming pc and emulator games on my Samsung tablet with an Xbox controller instead
The things that I liked about the legion go was, the screen resolution, the screen size, the 1tb storage + SD card slot, and the removable controllers. It’s still the best handheld device when it comes to specs but the cons outweigh the pros unfortunately which defeats its purpose in my experience.
Thank you for chiming in! I hope those reading the comment section will find this helpful. 🙌 I tried to not go too hard on it cause it really does have some huge strengths and benefits, but yeah, it's a bit too janky and uneven for most people.
17:57 this lol. It’s like legion is for android users (customizable/complication) while iPhone users for rog/steam deck (for simplicity)
None sense ..iphone users only believes in Mac...
@ i have iphone but i dont use mac. I like windows more than mac.
If the controllers didn't detach i would have considered i had the first ally, now I just got the msi claw yesterday and I love it
What made you go with the Claw as opposed to the Ally or Legion Go? 😁 I've seen that people are quite happy with it (mostly on Reddit), especially now that it's selling for around $400, more or less.
I've owned them all, Legion Go is the only device I still have. In fact, it's really the only electronic I use other than my phone and work macbook. I hate legion space as well, I installed playnite which is working alright. I really like this device, using it right now as a desktop to watch this video.
Totally get that. If I had to choose just one, it would definitely be the Legion Go cause it fits every use-case seamlessly. Still, I think it's important for new (potential) buyers to be aware of the whole picture. I've spent the last six months lurking on Reddit and many of my thoughts are shared with a bajillion different people. If so many people share the same emotions - and they're not readily available on RUclips for whatever reason - then that has to change.
May your LeGo serve you long and well, Frank! Thanks for taking the time to comment. 🙌
Subscribed... Great video.
🙌 Thanks brother!
You hit the nail on the head! Great hardware, some weird gimmicks (FPS mode), and lackluster software. The Software is quite buggy, albeit laid out fairly well. If it just worked, that’d be great! The other big omissions are FreeSync and 24GB of RAM. 16GB is just not much on a Windows device with CPU/GPU sharing. I picked one up on a special deal for about $430, and installed a 4TB NVMe 2280. So for what it is and what I paid, I’m pretty happy with it. But the joysticks took some adjustment to make them good for me. But I am a tweaker, a PC gamer and former support tech. The average person should NOT buy this.
Lenovo, PLEASE! Stabilize the software we already have and give us regular driver updates. I’d happily get a Legion Go 2 if it has FreeSync, 24GB of RAM, while not losing the great qualities of the first generation. And improved software support is a MUST!
Thank you, James, for chiming in! 🙌 This was your opportunity to label me as an "ROG snob" or a "Steam Deck faithful" but, alas, you chose the rational route. 😁 And yeah, for that kind of price, there's very little complain about, insane bang for the buck. Funnily enough, I wasn't planning on releasing this video during the Black Friday mania, if I knew it'd go for less than $500 I would've probably been a bit more lenient.
I'd rather think of handhelds as primarily a desktop pc but you can use it as a handheld which means for me it needs about 50% more power to look nice on a monitor.
For sure, but they're not really marketed that way. That's what I'm trying to say in any of these videos. They're all amazing and mind-blowing in their own right, but they can also be a pain in the ass depending on how comfortable one is with tinkering. A lot of people just aren't all that tech savvy, so they should know what they'd be getting themselves into - regardless if it's the Legion Go, ROG Ally, MSI Claw, or something else entirely.
But yeah. They're basically just Windows PCs in a different form factor, couldn't agree more!
bruh, mine is getting delivered today and this is the first time im hearing about a bunch of these issues noooooooo, so I can expect dust buildup in a few months?
My opinion: don't worry about it! Give it a shot first, go into it blind. They might not be a problem for you personally, you might be totally okay with everything. It's important to know that these issues exist, but they don't show up for everyone. And, fortunately, the people using the Legion Go have figured out most alternatives and solutions anyway (it took a while, sadly) so for any problem you might face, you'll be able to find a solution.
As for the dust, there are no guarantees. A dust filter was obviously necessary, but the issue isn't universal, although it _has_ affected a lot more people than it should. Fortunately, the Legion Go is pretty easy to open up and you can just clean the fan (you can find many tutorials online if you've never done it before). And you won't have to check either, cause your temperatures will slowly but surely start rising should the dust start building up. 😁
Loved the go. Returned it. BTW they are toys.
Great review, thanks for the warning!
Can you review next the Anal Intruder™ 3000?
The Anal Intruder 3000 would definitely be atop my list of anal intruders. Slightly more refined than the previous model, but still capable and penetrating in both its design _and_ function.
I never had any issues setting up the Legion Go
I have an z1 extreme ally but I am hyped fir this
The use of GeForce now I feel gonna be perfect for this
I've heard leaks about SteamOS 3 containing references to Asus ROG button. I wonder if resources have been pulled by Lenovo because leGO will be moving to that as well.
Oh I think Valve flat-out confirmed that SteamOS will be supporting the ROG Ally, and other handhelds as well. 😁 So that's a plus for sure. Although, to be honest, not sure what the benefits will be over running something like Bazzite which is already available.
As for Lenovo, I doubt it. I think they're just slow, that's all. Too few people working on it, based on what Ben said on the official forums. They were shifted to a different project a while ago, stuff like that. A big company, too many cooks in the kitchen I guess.
I don't think any of these companies will _ship_ their devices with SteamOS though. Users will have the option to pick and choose what they install. They'll still run Windows out of the box, that's why most people love them (despite the Windows-related bugginess).
Such a refreshing review, thanks!
Glad you like it, Luke! 🙌 Thanks for watching!
You’re welcome, what would you suggest to buy for max performance and graphics or should i wait for next gen?
Oof, well, I mean, the ROG Ally X would be your best choice at this point. It's the only mainstream option with 24GBs of RAM, but it's also twice the price of a used ROG Ally (the original model). I think that's by far the best purchase at this point from a price-to-performance standpoint. Next-gen handhelds (with Strix Point) are gonna be a lot more expensive and they're gonna be, like, 15ish percent better, depending on the title, maybe a bit more, maybe less.
The Ally X retails for €899 which is just insane in my opinion. You can buy a used PS5 and a used ROG Ally and still maybe have some money left over for ice cream. It's a glorious device, no doubt about it, but still.
So, personally, I'd go with the original Ally (used or open box) and then save the money later on for an upgrade. Unless you want to mess around with an eGPU, in which case the Legion Go would definitely be your best choice (cost/performance/flexibility).
Thanks for this precise review
Thank you watching and taking the time to comment! 🙌
Bought 1tb model last week for 570euros from lenovo I'm happy enough with it but agree its not for the inexperienced I've set it up with emudeck which works really great so far been playing bo6 and remote playing xbox as well
Be careful with CoD multiplayer though, people have been getting banned on both the LeGo _and_ the ROG Ally. It seems to be random, but don't use any overlay in-game and don't change the TPD while you're playing, otherwise the anti-cheat might pick it up (cause it's broken) and send out a shadow if not even a permanent ban. :/
My question is can this beat a 500 dollar gaming laptop in performance as i am getting the legion go at 500 dollars here.
That really depends on the laptop. I'm pretty sure you can get a laptop with an RTX 3050 for around $500/600 when it's on sale, and it's going to outperform _all_ of these handhelds devices (an understatement). Even the RTX 2050 will deliver better performance. But the laptops are not gonna be as well built, they'll probably be louder, and they'll have much worse displays (lower contrast, not as saturated, subpar color accuracy, 250-300 nits of brightness maximum). So you get some you lose some. 😁