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 UA-cam 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 UA-cam 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, UA-cam 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
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. 😁
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.
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*!
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...
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. 😁
@@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 UA-cam 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!
I’m happy that the video didn’t come across as overly negative. 😅 There’s a lot to love for sure, but we should still criticize when companies stop giving a damn so soon. I’m glad your enjoying it! I sure do miss mine. :/ That display, oof!
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.
There is a third party puck with pin covers (similar to the Switch) by Jsaux. They also magnetize together to create a controller. But their main function is to make FPS mode more ergonomic and reliable.
Oh, I saw the ad, didn't realize that they made a puck as well. That's nice! Thanks for mentioning it! It _has_ to be better than the included puck, the bar is _that_ low. 😁
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. :/
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 UA-cam 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.
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. :)
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).
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 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 UA-camr. Plus I totally love your attitude. First time watcher and I’ll definitely be watching some more just for your dry humour and wit
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
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.
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 UA-cam. Selling it like it can actually replace any kind of mouse, like it actually makes sense. The "expectations vs. reality" kind of situation.
I work 12 hours and I work at night I’m usually super bored and by myself I just sit around and watch movies i just want something that will keep me occupied and be able to enjoy my time at work and I just want to be able to play games so put the negatives aside which should I get a rog ally, Lenovo legion go, or steam deck? The games I want to play are just Skyrim,assassins creed ,Witcher, ark games like that
None of these handhelds are perfect. I am in the same boat as you. It depends what you want. Legion go has great performance but low mobility. (Mainly if you do not have a gaming PC) OLED Steam deck has decent performance but good mobility. ROG ally is the best of both but does not have a trackpad. Honestly its up to you and what fits you currently unless someone makes something that creates a ripple in the handheld market.
Oof, I mean, I'd recommend either the Legion Go or the original ROG Ally. The LeGo has a built-in kickstand, I can see you using that all night long and loving it, frankly. The Ally's a lot lighter (like, 25% or something), so it's more portable. The LeGo would also allow you to connect a bluetooth keyboard and mouse and game more comfortably as well. It sounds to me also that you'd benefit from a large display, so you kind of have just one option. 😁 But if you're in a more comfortable position and not hunched over a desk, the ROG Ally would be my choice for sure.
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.
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!
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 $200 and, honestly, it's been incredible for Moonlight. 1080p, IPS (not OLED sadly, but a pretty good panel), incredible ergonomics, and the battery lasts, like, 10-12 hours. You get the "Battery is Low" message and then you have like 3 more hours of time before it's dead. 😁 Give it a look. It's light and incredibly thin. I'll hopefully get a review out by the end of January (but you obviously have tons of other reviews on UA-cam).
@ sweet. Thanks for the suggestion. Won’t go to a smaller screen and less resolution.. Great price point for cloud gaming though. Waiting for the next handheld with same size as lego or bigger with an oled screen… that will push me to upgrade.
Well, I mean, if you can find it on a sale, and if you're already accustomed to SteamOS - and are okay with, say, dual booting - it might still be the right device for you. As I said in the video, I have nothing but praise for the LeGo, and nothing but hate for Lenovo, but the strengths and benefits that the Legion Go has are not only undeniable but also unique.
@ Fun fact- I actually use Bazzite on my SD and dual boot Windows//Bazzite on my work desktop. I would definitely install Bazzite on the LeGO, but… One principle that we all have to consider is voting with our wallets. If a company treats their customers well and provides support to their already sold products, I am more included to support that company by buying their products. I’m not sure if the Legion GO passes that test, even if I do not require their support. Could just get one used. Either way, I really enjoyed your video and can’t wait to hear more from you.
It was because of legion space sh$tting the bed and forcing outdated drivers and effectively making it a small pc.....just wiped windows and went bazzite. Its been about 2 weeks and made my go way better to go. Especially the wake from sleep. Playing yakuza 0 and this helped alot Tip if your installing bazzite. Make a windows restoration key from Lenovo's webpage. In case u mess up or want to transfer to a larger ssd with a frash install for duel booting. Likewise if you have an ssd less than 500gb version like i have. Don't bother trying to duel boot....Lenovo/MS caps partition shrinkage to less thsn 12gb.....and this is despite factory reseting. So you won't have enough space for a separate bazzite partition.
But hibernate isn't, you know, _ideal_. Sure it works great and is reliable, but when I was using it on my Ally (which, for the record, was even jankier with sleep/resume than the Legion Go for whatever reason), I had to wait between like 10-15 seconds for the device to come back to life. So even with Hibernation turned on it doesn't function like the Steam Deck, or any other device of that kind. Funnily enough, my Steam Deck had a perfectly functional sleep state when I was running Windows on it (no need for hibernation), so it's most likely a driver/firmware thing that Valve figured out that ASUS and Lenovo still haven't. Just a guess on my part.
i'm hesitating if i should buy rog ally or lenovo legion go, i want to play ow2, rdr2, indie, and other cozy or triple a games on my bed or outside sometimes
Honestly either option would deliver what you're after. If you want to game in bed or outside, the ROG Ally would be the better option. It's, like, 200 grams lighter and much more portable. It's also more polished software-wise and has grown a ton over the last year and a half. I mean, a Steam Deck OLED would also deliver when it comes to indies and even RDR2, but it's not as powerful, so your mileage will vary depending on the title.
@CGD.Studio I appreciate the reply a lot, i have now got over my lenovo legion go fixation. There's a lot of content reviews around if that puts it on a pedestal and is very vague with it's overall capabilities. Unlike your video, it was very informative and unbiased to all the handhelds and subscribed before I even commented, love the work and the sequences.
Well, as sad as it sounds, most folks just want to praise things as that generates the most views. They put their faces on thumbnails, open their mouths, use neon colors, and do whatever they can to lure viewers in. Ad revenue is laughably small, but if you put out a bazillion videos a month, it can definitely add up to something usable. None of the big tech UA-camrs use their Legion Gos, unless they want to make a video about it. That says a lot. That doesn't mean it's a bad device, but if they're all on their Steam Decks and ROG Allys, there must be a reason. I think they're all amazing in their own right, with their unique flaws and drawbacks. Nothing's perfect, but if we praise everything and criticize nothing we're gonna get shafted by these companies on every corner. If it weren't for Gamers Nexus who knows what ASUS would've done with their RMA procedures and whatever else (probably nothing). Thank you friend, appreciate the kind words! 🙌
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.
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.
Don't really see the problem. Only actual issue is old GPU drivers, but it can be easily work around by installing drivers for 7840U. Legion software does everything I need it to otherwise.
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).
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 UA-camr 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 UA-cam 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! 🙌
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.
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. 😁
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.
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).
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. 😁
Watching this vid on my Legion GO lol :D Anyway, I totally agree, especially the dusty fan part, I was like wtf when I opened it after 5 months of usage. Thanks for the video
Great video absolutely spot on if rog did a 8.8inch screen I'd get rid of the legion go in a heartbeat I loved my steam deck and rog ally but the screen on legion go is a deal breaker
If you have the cash, I'd go with the ROG Ally X every day of the week. Double the battery life, a portrait-based display with VRR, also two USB4 ports, smaller, noticeably lighter, more portable, and 50% more RAM. Like, I'm not a fan of the price _at all_ but it's undeniably the best and most complete Windows-based option. It's a smaller display but even if you end up disliking it you'll sell it easily.
I have it and I'm very much considering at least dual booting a Bazzite on it to get rid of the Windows experience on it except for the few games that don't work on Linux... At least then the graphics drivers are updated whenever AMD does it and not when Lenovo can be arsed to...
That said I am quite happy with it. It is awesome as a play in bed device and for travelling. To me the main selling point is its relatively large screen. I've bought a cheap mechanical bluetooth keyboard and a bluetooth mouse. So whenever I'm away somewhere I just pop off the controllers, place the tablet on the table and use the mouse and keyboard as I normally would. I have a very old, very underpowered HP laptop. And that has been completely retired since the Legion Go is about as easy to use but runs everything so much quicker than the dual core celeron and the 4 GB of RAM on my old laptop.
Yeah, it's really amazing as an all-around device. Not enough people are talking about it, frankly. It's a tablet, it's a 2-in-1 with a bluetooth keyboard, it's a mini PC, it can really do it all with really amazing performance. Give Bazzite a try, people have really praised it a ton. It's supposedly not as polished (everyone's experiences seem to be slightly different), but when if set up correctly it should definitely elevate the whole experience. 🙌
I can only agree completely. What wasn't mentioned was the lousy speaker and the fact that you still can't adjust the fan manually. I have the Ally, an Ally X and a GPD Win 4, and the Lenovo is clearly in 4th place. But it's not worth selling because you don't want to do this thing to a friend and you can hardly get reasonable money for it anyway. Never ever again a Lenovo here!
Sold my OG steamdeck for 300 and got the LEGO 512gb for 500usd four days ago. The nice big screen got me. The lack of support from lenovo sucks compared to valve's. The steam deck is highly rated because of the constant support valve provides. If lenovo wants to be at the top of the pc handheld race....they need to pour money into device support. Currently waiting for the steam deck 2....hopefully they make the oled screen bigger
That screen got everyone. 😁 $500 is a sweet deal. Makes the negatives a bit easier to swallow. As I said in the video, if you know what you're getting yourself into and if you're okay with doing the work, it can be an amazing device, that's a fact. Far more versatile than everything else on the market. I'm just sad that Lenovo dropped the ball so hard, especially compared to Valve and even ASUS who's done an amazing job with Armory Crate. Heck, the latest 1.5 update made things even better and smoother than before, and if I'm not mistaken, Lenovo dwarfs ASUS when it comes to the amount of people they employ, the amount of money they have and everything else. So it's not that they _can't_ do it, they obviously don't have a big enough incentive. Edit: Oh, I just realized you paid +200 to go from a SD to a LeGo, that's amazing! lol An amazing deal.
Hey man you are a born comedian! i Love your videos. You've got a sub from Iran. Keep up my serbian friend. By the way, your english is absolutely mind-blowing as a serb. From belgrade to Silicon valley, that's your future in a nutshell. 💐
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 UA-camrs 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).
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.
Interesting. I have a video on the ROG Ally, I don't think it's a complete product by any stretch of the imagination, but I've had far less issues with it compared to the Legion Go, and I think the general consensus online is the same. That's why it took me so much time to make this video, I was just gathering information from other people all the time. 😅 But I'm glad you've had a slightly better experience.
I eas such a fan of the switch that when i heard about the legion go i wanted on but ended up picking up a rog Ally for a good price then a stean deck and over all the legion go detachable controllers started to seem more like a gimike to me the a bomd ass feature. I use the rog ally for gaming as well as music and video production so the legion seem like a good fit cuz the screen and ability to mount it to a mirrorless camera but the software looked janky and the vents seemed like id break it out in the field
You want to use it as an external monitor? Huh, interesting. It _is_ heavy, though, like 600 grams or something without the controllers. Plus the battery life is pretty _meh_, so a small Feelworld 7" or something for five times less money would probably be a better choice. 😅 If you already have an ROG Ally you're good, no actual need to upgrade. It's not perfect either but it sure is a well engineered device (and is constantly being updated, too).
What the, $1080? Which country is that, if you don't mind me asking? Whenever something's expensive in my region (which is almost always the case), I sit on a bus and go to a different country and buy it there. 😅 Make a roadtrip of it. Like, I'm not Hungarian, but I've bought a ton of used tech and devices from their local "eBay."
I’m a deck user track pad lover dual sticks hater….need the power of the legion go also need the track pad I challenge you to make the track pad as accurate as possible in fps games…..now don’t be shy ☺️
I'll try to get my hands on the Zotac Zone, that one combines the best of everything (with probably shitty battery life). 😁 Dual track pads, AMOLED, 8840U. Lots of potential!
@ hold up just make video please 🙏 I’m sure if you really wanted to use the track pad in fps shooters you could the trackpad size does not matter to me
Hey, I totally get that. :) I'm just sad that, for me, there's just wasn't a connection. 😂 But its benefits and strengths are undeniable, that's a fact.
First off the right bicep comment hahaha that had me rolling... I love my Legion Go and I have no issues with until FF16 came out and I couldn't play the game without work arounds. Lenovo has dropped the ball so hard on updates which drive me nuts. At the very least just AMD do the updates and I would be happy cause then we wouldn't need Lenovo as much. I have been at the point that I might go out and support Asus and I hate Asus lol.
Hey, my Armory Crate never shifted to Chinese on its own, you gotta give it _some_ credit. 😁 I hear that the latest 1.5 is actually blazing fast compared to what was before, so they're making progress.
And the worst part to me, personally, is that I've seen way too many dudes going "we're the PC gang, we should know how to do these things." It's like, brother, you shouldn't _have_ to do much, if anything, if the OEM gave a damn. It's a point of pride, just ego. But I guess people love building their personalities around the brands they align with, for whatever reason.
Ouch, sad to hear it. 😅 Why, though? I still loved using the device despite all the problems. You have other toys to play around with, is that why it collected dust?
@CGD.Studio I travel for work with my gaming laptop and sometimes my ps5. I bought it to use while my co-worker would drive, but it's just me now haha. I wanted something other than my switch oled and returned the ps portal, felt the legion go was the next best option, but haven't had much time to mess with it.
Hopefully they won't go too crazy with pricing. Strix Point laptops are crazy expensive. 😅 But even if that ends up being the case, these OG devices will at least start selling for even less money, so it's a win for us consumers.
I mean, if you can get it for a lower price (and it's currently on sale), the negatives become a lot easier to swallow. And if you're okay with doing Lenovo's job - which a fair few people are - then it might be the right choice for you. Fortunately there's Bazzite as well and it'll only get better with time. Plus, if you're in the US, you might have that lenient 14-day return window (or in Europe as well if you order online, consumer protection laws, etc). The point of this video isn't to dissuade people from buying it - cause it's an absolutely amazing piece of hardware - but to hopefully spread the word that it's not as polished as most UA-camrs want people to believe, and that it requires a fair bit of work.
I was playing final fantasy 7 intergrade on it last night. I was so impressed it was crazy. I just got mine last night on sale for 549 a 1tb version from best buy . It truly is a beast. It hardly struggled.
$549 is a great deal, and a 1TB, too? Sheesh. I mean, if that were its standard price it'd be a lot easier to swallow any potential drawbacks and negatives. 😁 Congrats, may it serve you long and well! 🙌 Look into Lossless Scaling on Steam as well, it's like $7 and is well worth the money!
Why the negative tone, friend? I guess embedding evidence and comments and mentioning well-known faults and flaws and bugs isn't enough? :/ And this is the sentiment that a very large part of the community has, it's not just me. You can still love it and _your_ stuff can still work fine, both things can be true at the same time.
Then again, the Ally X is, what, $800+tax or €899 in most European countries. 😁 You could buy a used PS5 _and_ the original Ally (used/open box) for that kind of money.
I had the legion go since launch and he's right updates are slow , the speakers out of the box are bad . I had mines tweaked to the max but i sold mines because i wanted more battery life and more 3rd party options and more consistent updates so i went with the white oled steam deck and will get a power pc since I'm converting from PS5 to PC.
I tried one at Best Buy. The huge size, bad software, and world's worst D-Pad killed it for me instantly. These PC companies really should have spent more time testing and refining their products instead of hastily throwing them together to try and get a piece of the post-Steam Deck pie.
I like that you mentioned the d-pad. No one talks about how bad it is and it baffles me. And yeah, it's a race to the bottom with some of these companies, Acer even outsourced their upcoming handheld (according to ETA Prime), slapped their logo and called it a day. Minimum effort. Valve and ASUS have a hold over the market and I don't see it changing any time soon, for better or worse.
@ Right? Gotta have a good D-Pad for those retro games. And yeah, it just feels like minimum effort from these companies. But, not everyone can be Valve.
Brooo you ducked me hard with this review haha I hated Rog Ally due to ergonomics that made my hands go numb after 20 mins and I cant see jack shaait on a 7"incher even my PP is bigger like wtf... I just want to play RPG's in peace as a 35 year old dad.... Cant I do this with Legion go? Maybe wait for Msi claw with 80w battery and 8 "screen... but intel has like ridiculously bad driver update history altough Lunar Lake looks promising. Great video but duck you hahaha
Sure you can! It's still a glorious device. I loved my time with the Legion Go, despite its flaws and bugs and quirkiness. And with something like Bazzite, you'd essentially solve most of the Windows- and Legion Space-related bugginess. It just depends how demanding you are as a user/gamer and how much you're willing to finesse it once something goes wrong. Yeah, the new Claw looks pretty good, but it's probably gonna cost an arm and a leg. 😅 Also, I didn't duck you, you were ducked by 90% of the UA-cam tech scene that praises every single device they get in for review. 😂 They use it for a week and then move on to something else. I think you'd still enjoy it, especially now that it's come down in price. And if you want a big ass display, the Legion Go is basically your only choice right now. If you're not too demanding I might also go with the Steam Deck OLED, it has a 7.4" panel and is _much_ lighter than the LeGo. Either way, if you don't like it, you can always sell it and buy something different.
I was literally planning on buying one, but now im going to stay away! Im interested in the ROG, maybe? I mostly just play retro games: NES-N64... occasionally I'll play more modern games, but theyre usually remakes or things like Octopath. So, I'm not sure I really need more than the Odin 2 already have. Great review, and thanks for the 50+ hours of worm! I get it. And I appreciate you doing it, too. I hope you have an amazing day/week/month/year/life!
Thank you Mikeal! Really appreciate it! 🙌 Honestly, if you're mainly playing _those_ games and indies, I would personally just go with a Steam Deck OLED. It has the best display of them all (somewhat arguably, but it's a 90Hz OLED panel, nothing to complain about), and truly respectable battery life. And even that might be unnecessary if you have that Odin 2 which is a killer device! If you're into emulation I might look into the Retroid Pocket 5 or, say, the upcoming AYN Odin 2 Portal. Or, you know, get a Steam Deck OLED and have the best of both worlds. 😁 Thanks again, and I wish you all the best as well!
@CGD.Studio I've figured the Steam Deck would've been overkill, but you're probably right. After all, it seems that in this world of retro handhelds and such that overkill is just the best way to go.
If you're spending the money, you might as well have a bit of performance headroom. :) Who knows, you might want to dabble a bit with PS3 emulation as well, in which case you'll be glad to have the extra oomph that a Steam Deck can provide. 😁 And for long commutes and whatnot, you'll always have an Odin 2 with the spectacular battery life.
I love the Legion Go but seriously Lenovo has more time making TikTok videos promoting the Legion Go than making constant updates to it. But even though the drivers are still from last year, latest games still run smooth on this beast of a device. What more if the drivers are officially updated, for sure it will be more powerful.
Are they really making TikTok videos about the LeGo or was that a joke? 😂 Nothing would surprise me at this point. But yeah, it's an amazing device. If Legion Space worked well and if they put a little bit more effort into it, it would wipe the floor with everything else.
bazzite.gg/ A lot of people are running it. :) Essentially like SteamOS, with a few quality of life improvements over Windows. You can check out videos from Retro Games Corps, ETA Prime, and Wulff Den and a lot of others if you're interested in learning more about it. 🙌
Why, friend? It’s not for everyone’s taste, but I’m being honest, I’ve worked on this video for over five months and the frustration is real, not fabricated. I am genuinely pissed off at companies doing so little and abandoning their customers, me included. Swearing won’t get me likes, it won’t make me seem cool, and it won’t make the video perform any better, so there’s no agenda behind it. If a swear word comes to me organically, I like to leave it in, cause that’s the authentic me, for better or worse.
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 UA-cam 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 UA-cam 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, UA-cam 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
Yeah, you really have to do two things.
Instal Handheld Companion
Manually update the Graphics Driver
But then, it works...
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
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.
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.
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. 😁
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...
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. 😁
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 UA-cam 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!
i have a legion go and love it but 👏👏👏👏👏to all you say
I’m happy that the video didn’t come across as overly negative. 😅 There’s a lot to love for sure, but we should still criticize when companies stop giving a damn so soon. I’m glad your enjoying it! I sure do miss mine. :/ That display, oof!
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.
There is a third party puck with pin covers (similar to the Switch) by Jsaux. They also magnetize together to create a controller. But their main function is to make FPS mode more ergonomic and reliable.
Oh, I saw the ad, didn't realize that they made a puck as well. That's nice! Thanks for mentioning it! It _has_ to be better than the included puck, the bar is _that_ low. 😁
Currently using this set up and game changer it is indeed 👍🏼
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. :/
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 UA-cam 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.
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. :)
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).
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. :) 🙌
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 UA-camr. Plus I totally love your attitude. First time watcher and I’ll definitely be watching some more just for your dry humour and wit
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)
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.
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 UA-cam. Selling it like it can actually replace any kind of mouse, like it actually makes sense. The "expectations vs. reality" kind of situation.
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 work 12 hours and I work at night I’m usually super bored and by myself I just sit around and watch movies i just want something that will keep me occupied and be able to enjoy my time at work and I just want to be able to play games so put the negatives aside which should I get a rog ally, Lenovo legion go, or steam deck? The games I want to play are just Skyrim,assassins creed ,Witcher, ark games like that
None of these handhelds are perfect. I am in the same boat as you. It depends what you want.
Legion go has great performance but low mobility. (Mainly if you do not have a gaming PC)
OLED Steam deck has decent performance but good mobility.
ROG ally is the best of both but does not have a trackpad.
Honestly its up to you and what fits you currently unless someone makes something that creates a ripple in the handheld market.
Oof, I mean, I'd recommend either the Legion Go or the original ROG Ally. The LeGo has a built-in kickstand, I can see you using that all night long and loving it, frankly. The Ally's a lot lighter (like, 25% or something), so it's more portable. The LeGo would also allow you to connect a bluetooth keyboard and mouse and game more comfortably as well. It sounds to me also that you'd benefit from a large display, so you kind of have just one option. 😁
But if you're in a more comfortable position and not hunched over a desk, the ROG Ally would be my choice for sure.
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.
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!
The FPS mode chapter was killin me 😂
Three pineapples died for that one shot. 😅
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 $200 and, honestly, it's been incredible for Moonlight. 1080p, IPS (not OLED sadly, but a pretty good panel), incredible ergonomics, and the battery lasts, like, 10-12 hours. You get the "Battery is Low" message and then you have like 3 more hours of time before it's dead. 😁
Give it a look. It's light and incredibly thin. I'll hopefully get a review out by the end of January (but you obviously have tons of other reviews on UA-cam).
@ sweet. Thanks for the suggestion. Won’t go to a smaller screen and less resolution.. Great price point for cloud gaming though.
Waiting for the next handheld with same size as lego or bigger with an oled screen… that will push me to upgrade.
I appreciate your thoughts here.
I have an LCD Deck, and have been considering getting a LeGO but it just seems a bit janky.
Well, I mean, if you can find it on a sale, and if you're already accustomed to SteamOS - and are okay with, say, dual booting - it might still be the right device for you. As I said in the video, I have nothing but praise for the LeGo, and nothing but hate for Lenovo, but the strengths and benefits that the Legion Go has are not only undeniable but also unique.
@ Fun fact- I actually use Bazzite on my SD and dual boot Windows//Bazzite on my work desktop. I would definitely install Bazzite on the LeGO, but…
One principle that we all have to consider is voting with our wallets. If a company treats their customers well and provides support to their already sold products, I am more included to support that company by buying their products. I’m not sure if the Legion GO passes that test, even if I do not require their support. Could just get one used.
Either way, I really enjoyed your video and can’t wait to hear more from you.
I got my legion go two weeks ago and I love it. Haven’t had any problems with it at all
Fingers crossed it stays that way! Enjoy it, Jerome! 🙌
It was because of legion space sh$tting the bed and forcing outdated drivers and effectively making it a small pc.....just wiped windows and went bazzite. Its been about 2 weeks and made my go way better to go. Especially the wake from sleep. Playing yakuza 0 and this helped alot
Tip if your installing bazzite.
Make a windows restoration key from Lenovo's webpage.
In case u mess up or want to transfer to a larger ssd with a frash install for duel booting.
Likewise if you have an ssd less than 500gb version like i have. Don't bother trying to duel boot....Lenovo/MS caps partition shrinkage to less thsn 12gb.....and this is despite factory reseting. So you won't have enough space for a separate bazzite partition.
wake from sleep works perfectly you just have to change it to hibernate in the setting and the power button works just like the deck
But hibernate isn't, you know, _ideal_. Sure it works great and is reliable, but when I was using it on my Ally (which, for the record, was even jankier with sleep/resume than the Legion Go for whatever reason), I had to wait between like 10-15 seconds for the device to come back to life. So even with Hibernation turned on it doesn't function like the Steam Deck, or any other device of that kind.
Funnily enough, my Steam Deck had a perfectly functional sleep state when I was running Windows on it (no need for hibernation), so it's most likely a driver/firmware thing that Valve figured out that ASUS and Lenovo still haven't. Just a guess on my part.
i'm hesitating if i should buy rog ally or lenovo legion go, i want to play ow2, rdr2, indie, and other cozy or triple a games on my bed or outside sometimes
Honestly either option would deliver what you're after. If you want to game in bed or outside, the ROG Ally would be the better option. It's, like, 200 grams lighter and much more portable. It's also more polished software-wise and has grown a ton over the last year and a half. I mean, a Steam Deck OLED would also deliver when it comes to indies and even RDR2, but it's not as powerful, so your mileage will vary depending on the title.
@CGD.Studio I appreciate the reply a lot, i have now got over my lenovo legion go fixation. There's a lot of content reviews around if that puts it on a pedestal and is very vague with it's overall capabilities. Unlike your video, it was very informative and unbiased to all the handhelds and subscribed before I even commented, love the work and the sequences.
Well, as sad as it sounds, most folks just want to praise things as that generates the most views. They put their faces on thumbnails, open their mouths, use neon colors, and do whatever they can to lure viewers in. Ad revenue is laughably small, but if you put out a bazillion videos a month, it can definitely add up to something usable.
None of the big tech UA-camrs use their Legion Gos, unless they want to make a video about it. That says a lot. That doesn't mean it's a bad device, but if they're all on their Steam Decks and ROG Allys, there must be a reason.
I think they're all amazing in their own right, with their unique flaws and drawbacks. Nothing's perfect, but if we praise everything and criticize nothing we're gonna get shafted by these companies on every corner. If it weren't for Gamers Nexus who knows what ASUS would've done with their RMA procedures and whatever else (probably nothing).
Thank you friend, appreciate the kind words! 🙌
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.
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.
Don't really see the problem. Only actual issue is old GPU drivers, but it can be easily work around by installing drivers for 7840U. Legion software does everything I need it to otherwise.
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).
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 UA-camr 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 UA-cam 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.
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.
Also… how could they not do cloud recovery like ROG do. When you want to change SSD you have to jump through hoops
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. 😁
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.
Wow, what an impressive video. Thank you!!! 🙏
Glad you liked it Ronnie! 🙌 Thanks for watching!
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).
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. 😁
Watching this vid on my Legion GO lol :D Anyway, I totally agree, especially the dusty fan part, I was like wtf when I opened it after 5 months of usage. Thanks for the video
Thank you for watching! 🙌 Glad you liked it!
Great video absolutely spot on if rog did a 8.8inch screen I'd get rid of the legion go in a heartbeat I loved my steam deck and rog ally but the screen on legion go is a deal breaker
This is the only reason why I am considering the Legion Go over the Ally X... but is it that buggy ?
If you have the cash, I'd go with the ROG Ally X every day of the week. Double the battery life, a portrait-based display with VRR, also two USB4 ports, smaller, noticeably lighter, more portable, and 50% more RAM. Like, I'm not a fan of the price _at all_ but it's undeniably the best and most complete Windows-based option. It's a smaller display but even if you end up disliking it you'll sell it easily.
I have it and I'm very much considering at least dual booting a Bazzite on it to get rid of the Windows experience on it except for the few games that don't work on Linux... At least then the graphics drivers are updated whenever AMD does it and not when Lenovo can be arsed to...
That said I am quite happy with it. It is awesome as a play in bed device and for travelling. To me the main selling point is its relatively large screen. I've bought a cheap mechanical bluetooth keyboard and a bluetooth mouse. So whenever I'm away somewhere I just pop off the controllers, place the tablet on the table and use the mouse and keyboard as I normally would. I have a very old, very underpowered HP laptop. And that has been completely retired since the Legion Go is about as easy to use but runs everything so much quicker than the dual core celeron and the 4 GB of RAM on my old laptop.
Yeah, it's really amazing as an all-around device. Not enough people are talking about it, frankly. It's a tablet, it's a 2-in-1 with a bluetooth keyboard, it's a mini PC, it can really do it all with really amazing performance.
Give Bazzite a try, people have really praised it a ton. It's supposedly not as polished (everyone's experiences seem to be slightly different), but when if set up correctly it should definitely elevate the whole experience. 🙌
I can only agree completely. What wasn't mentioned was the lousy speaker and the fact that you still can't adjust the fan manually.
I have the Ally, an Ally X and a GPD Win 4, and the Lenovo is clearly in 4th place. But it's not worth selling because you don't want to do this thing to a friend and you can hardly get reasonable money for it anyway. Never ever again a Lenovo here!
Who will give top 3 spots
You have yourself quite an arsenal of handhelds. 😁 Nice!
ive had it for a while and ive enjoyed it but it is true it needs more love and it can be the best hand held system out there
Sold my OG steamdeck for 300 and got the LEGO 512gb for 500usd four days ago. The nice big screen got me. The lack of support from lenovo sucks compared to valve's. The steam deck is highly rated because of the constant support valve provides. If lenovo wants to be at the top of the pc handheld race....they need to pour money into device support. Currently waiting for the steam deck 2....hopefully they make the oled screen bigger
That screen got everyone. 😁 $500 is a sweet deal. Makes the negatives a bit easier to swallow. As I said in the video, if you know what you're getting yourself into and if you're okay with doing the work, it can be an amazing device, that's a fact. Far more versatile than everything else on the market.
I'm just sad that Lenovo dropped the ball so hard, especially compared to Valve and even ASUS who's done an amazing job with Armory Crate. Heck, the latest 1.5 update made things even better and smoother than before, and if I'm not mistaken, Lenovo dwarfs ASUS when it comes to the amount of people they employ, the amount of money they have and everything else. So it's not that they _can't_ do it, they obviously don't have a big enough incentive.
Edit: Oh, I just realized you paid +200 to go from a SD to a LeGo, that's amazing! lol An amazing deal.
This video is pretty much 100% accurate from my experience.
I never had any issues setting up the Legion Go
Hey man you are a born comedian! i Love your videos. You've got a sub from Iran. Keep up my serbian friend. By the way, your english is absolutely mind-blowing as a serb. From belgrade to Silicon valley, that's your future in a nutshell. 💐
Oh wow, thank you brother, this was an unexpectedly positive message. :) Like, wow. Really appreciate 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 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 UA-camrs 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).
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 have no issues with mine and side loading just the graphics drivers takes 2 mins
Subscribed... Great video.
🙌 Thanks brother!
Own both the Legion Go and Rog Ally and I've had far more bugs with the Rog.
Interesting. I have a video on the ROG Ally, I don't think it's a complete product by any stretch of the imagination, but I've had far less issues with it compared to the Legion Go, and I think the general consensus online is the same. That's why it took me so much time to make this video, I was just gathering information from other people all the time. 😅 But I'm glad you've had a slightly better experience.
I eas such a fan of the switch that when i heard about the legion go i wanted on but ended up picking up a rog Ally for a good price then a stean deck and over all the legion go detachable controllers started to seem more like a gimike to me the a bomd ass feature. I use the rog ally for gaming as well as music and video production so the legion seem like a good fit cuz the screen and ability to mount it to a mirrorless camera but the software looked janky and the vents seemed like id break it out in the field
You want to use it as an external monitor? Huh, interesting. It _is_ heavy, though, like 600 grams or something without the controllers. Plus the battery life is pretty _meh_, so a small Feelworld 7" or something for five times less money would probably be a better choice. 😅
If you already have an ROG Ally you're good, no actual need to upgrade. It's not perfect either but it sure is a well engineered device (and is constantly being updated, too).
I want to buy it so bad but in my country its $1080 and i really cant justify it at that price😢
What the, $1080? Which country is that, if you don't mind me asking? Whenever something's expensive in my region (which is almost always the case), I sit on a bus and go to a different country and buy it there. 😅 Make a roadtrip of it. Like, I'm not Hungarian, but I've bought a ton of used tech and devices from their local "eBay."
I’m a deck user track pad lover dual sticks hater….need the power of the legion go also need the track pad I challenge you to make the track pad as accurate as possible in fps games…..now don’t be shy ☺️
I'll try to get my hands on the Zotac Zone, that one combines the best of everything (with probably shitty battery life). 😁 Dual track pads, AMOLED, 8840U. Lots of potential!
@ hold up just make video please 🙏 I’m sure if you really wanted to use the track pad in fps shooters you could the trackpad size does not matter to me
Awesome review. But she's still the one for me
Hey, I totally get that. :) I'm just sad that, for me, there's just wasn't a connection. 😂 But its benefits and strengths are undeniable, that's a fact.
As a legion go owner If you aren't a tech guy or like tinkering with electronics or plan on buying an EGPU then buy a PC/Laptop
First off the right bicep comment hahaha that had me rolling... I love my Legion Go and I have no issues with until FF16 came out and I couldn't play the game without work arounds. Lenovo has dropped the ball so hard on updates which drive me nuts. At the very least just AMD do the updates and I would be happy cause then we wouldn't need Lenovo as much.
I have been at the point that I might go out and support Asus and I hate Asus lol.
No one _really_ likes ASUS, I feel, but they sure can make a sexy device. 😁 That's for sure. Thank you for watching, glad you like it! 🙌
Great video, heres a comment to feed the algorithm
Thank you Rick! 🙌 Everything helps, you can even call me ugly, the algorithm doesn't discriminate. 😂
To praise the buggy mess that is armory crate did get a good chuckle out of me. Awesome review though.
Hey, my Armory Crate never shifted to Chinese on its own, you gotta give it _some_ credit. 😁 I hear that the latest 1.5 is actually blazing fast compared to what was before, so they're making progress.
U right about everything about the legion go it’s gonna be my last legion go buy no support nothing, they let us do the job 😅
And the worst part to me, personally, is that I've seen way too many dudes going "we're the PC gang, we should know how to do these things." It's like, brother, you shouldn't _have_ to do much, if anything, if the OEM gave a damn. It's a point of pride, just ego. But I guess people love building their personalities around the brands they align with, for whatever reason.
It's crazy how bad I wanted a legion go, bought one, and completely forgot about it.
Ouch, sad to hear it. 😅 Why, though? I still loved using the device despite all the problems. You have other toys to play around with, is that why it collected dust?
@CGD.Studio I travel for work with my gaming laptop and sometimes my ps5. I bought it to use while my co-worker would drive, but it's just me now haha. I wanted something other than my switch oled and returned the ps portal, felt the legion go was the next best option, but haven't had much time to mess with it.
Give it a shot, it might not be the most polished device out there, but its screen and build quality sure do even things out. 😁 More or less.
And some how you are right 👍 and i also think that they like who will do that much work to fix .. let's just don't do that..😅
LMAO Upvote for your haircut @ 9:00
I'm waiting next year... amd ryzen z2 extreme is coming out!
Hopefully they won't go too crazy with pricing. Strix Point laptops are crazy expensive. 😅 But even if that ends up being the case, these OG devices will at least start selling for even less money, so it's a win for us consumers.
The native portrait screen doesn't play well with some of the games I play, so I've used my Legion Go mostly for school since I got it.
Which games? Haven’t had too many issues myself, but yeah, it can be a pain for sure. :/
Much thanks for your detailed, in-depth review after long term use. I was tilting toward the Legion but now doubt I'll go down that route .
I mean, if you can get it for a lower price (and it's currently on sale), the negatives become a lot easier to swallow. And if you're okay with doing Lenovo's job - which a fair few people are - then it might be the right choice for you.
Fortunately there's Bazzite as well and it'll only get better with time. Plus, if you're in the US, you might have that lenient 14-day return window (or in Europe as well if you order online, consumer protection laws, etc). The point of this video isn't to dissuade people from buying it - cause it's an absolutely amazing piece of hardware - but to hopefully spread the word that it's not as polished as most UA-camrs want people to believe, and that it requires a fair bit of work.
I was playing final fantasy 7 intergrade on it last night. I was so impressed it was crazy. I just got mine last night on sale for 549 a 1tb version from best buy . It truly is a beast. It hardly struggled.
$549 is a great deal, and a 1TB, too? Sheesh. I mean, if that were its standard price it'd be a lot easier to swallow any potential drawbacks and negatives. 😁 Congrats, may it serve you long and well! 🙌 Look into Lossless Scaling on Steam as well, it's like $7 and is well worth the money!
I enjoy the go, my stuff works fine not sure what this guy is talking about. Is this satire?
Why the negative tone, friend? I guess embedding evidence and comments and mentioning well-known faults and flaws and bugs isn't enough? :/ And this is the sentiment that a very large part of the community has, it's not just me.
You can still love it and _your_ stuff can still work fine, both things can be true at the same time.
Battery is soooooo bar. Buy an ally x
Then again, the Ally X is, what, $800+tax or €899 in most European countries. 😁 You could buy a used PS5 _and_ the original Ally (used/open box) for that kind of money.
I had the legion go since launch and he's right updates are slow , the speakers out of the box are bad . I had mines tweaked to the max but i sold mines because i wanted more battery life and more 3rd party options and more consistent updates so i went with the white oled steam deck and will get a power pc since I'm converting from PS5 to PC.
Oof that white Steam Deck! 🙌 🔥
I tried one at Best Buy. The huge size, bad software, and world's worst D-Pad killed it for me instantly. These PC companies really should have spent more time testing and refining their products instead of hastily throwing them together to try and get a piece of the post-Steam Deck pie.
I like that you mentioned the d-pad. No one talks about how bad it is and it baffles me. And yeah, it's a race to the bottom with some of these companies, Acer even outsourced their upcoming handheld (according to ETA Prime), slapped their logo and called it a day. Minimum effort. Valve and ASUS have a hold over the market and I don't see it changing any time soon, for better or worse.
@ Right? Gotta have a good D-Pad for those retro games. And yeah, it just feels like minimum effort from these companies. But, not everyone can be Valve.
I have a legion go for like a month now. It is a blast. So glad that I chose this over any other handheld :)
Glad you like it! There's definitely a lot to love. :)
Brooo you ducked me hard with this review haha I hated Rog Ally due to ergonomics that made my hands go numb after 20 mins and I cant see jack shaait on a 7"incher even my PP is bigger like wtf... I just want to play RPG's in peace as a 35 year old dad.... Cant I do this with Legion go? Maybe wait for Msi claw with 80w battery and 8 "screen... but intel has like ridiculously bad driver update history altough Lunar Lake looks promising. Great video but duck you hahaha
Sure you can! It's still a glorious device. I loved my time with the Legion Go, despite its flaws and bugs and quirkiness. And with something like Bazzite, you'd essentially solve most of the Windows- and Legion Space-related bugginess. It just depends how demanding you are as a user/gamer and how much you're willing to finesse it once something goes wrong.
Yeah, the new Claw looks pretty good, but it's probably gonna cost an arm and a leg. 😅
Also, I didn't duck you, you were ducked by 90% of the UA-cam tech scene that praises every single device they get in for review. 😂 They use it for a week and then move on to something else.
I think you'd still enjoy it, especially now that it's come down in price. And if you want a big ass display, the Legion Go is basically your only choice right now. If you're not too demanding I might also go with the Steam Deck OLED, it has a 7.4" panel and is _much_ lighter than the LeGo. Either way, if you don't like it, you can always sell it and buy something different.
I was literally planning on buying one, but now im going to stay away! Im interested in the ROG, maybe?
I mostly just play retro games: NES-N64... occasionally I'll play more modern games, but theyre usually remakes or things like Octopath. So, I'm not sure I really need more than the Odin 2 already have.
Great review, and thanks for the 50+ hours of worm! I get it. And I appreciate you doing it, too. I hope you have an amazing day/week/month/year/life!
Thank you Mikeal! Really appreciate it! 🙌
Honestly, if you're mainly playing _those_ games and indies, I would personally just go with a Steam Deck OLED. It has the best display of them all (somewhat arguably, but it's a 90Hz OLED panel, nothing to complain about), and truly respectable battery life. And even that might be unnecessary if you have that Odin 2 which is a killer device! If you're into emulation I might look into the Retroid Pocket 5 or, say, the upcoming AYN Odin 2 Portal. Or, you know, get a Steam Deck OLED and have the best of both worlds. 😁
Thanks again, and I wish you all the best as well!
@CGD.Studio I've figured the Steam Deck would've been overkill, but you're probably right. After all, it seems that in this world of retro handhelds and such that overkill is just the best way to go.
If you're spending the money, you might as well have a bit of performance headroom. :) Who knows, you might want to dabble a bit with PS3 emulation as well, in which case you'll be glad to have the extra oomph that a Steam Deck can provide. 😁 And for long commutes and whatnot, you'll always have an Odin 2 with the spectacular battery life.
I love the Legion Go but seriously Lenovo has more time making TikTok videos promoting the Legion Go than making constant updates to it.
But even though the drivers are still from last year, latest games still run smooth on this beast of a device. What more if the drivers are officially updated, for sure it will be more powerful.
Are they really making TikTok videos about the LeGo or was that a joke? 😂 Nothing would surprise me at this point.
But yeah, it's an amazing device. If Legion Space worked well and if they put a little bit more effort into it, it would wipe the floor with everything else.
Best review I’ve ever seen holy damn I love it and subed
Thanks man, really appreciate it! 🙌 Lots more to come!
He definitely right about the legion go good and bad 😂
make a vid of psvita
Oh man I’d love to but I’m still not sure what I’d like to say about it. 😅 Love the Vita, what a shame Sony bailed on it.
Bazzite??
bazzite.gg/
A lot of people are running it. :) Essentially like SteamOS, with a few quality of life improvements over Windows. You can check out videos from Retro Games Corps, ETA Prime, and Wulff Den and a lot of others if you're interested in learning more about it. 🙌
Stop biip ffs🤬
Apologies, I get that it's annoying, but it's still better than - potentially - getting flagged by UA-cam for whatever. :/ Thanks for watching anyway!
Just stop swearing.
Why, friend? It’s not for everyone’s taste, but I’m being honest, I’ve worked on this video for over five months and the frustration is real, not fabricated. I am genuinely pissed off at companies doing so little and abandoning their customers, me included.
Swearing won’t get me likes, it won’t make me seem cool, and it won’t make the video perform any better, so there’s no agenda behind it. If a swear word comes to me organically, I like to leave it in, cause that’s the authentic me, for better or worse.
@CGD.Studio i am impressed with the overall video. Well done
Ah, so you liked it but didn't approve of the swearing, okay, that makes sense. 😁 I'll try to tone it down in the future. Thank you for the feedback!
Funny 😂😂😂