Lenovo Legion Go 2 review: this gaming handheld is worth it for the screen alone

Introduction

Judged purely on the length of its feature list, the Legion Go 2 would be the best gaming handheld by a country mile. Lenovo has thrown everything but the kitchen sink at its second generation effort, from detachable controllers that can pull double duty as a gaming mouse to the biggest screen you’ll find on a Windows-powered portable from a major manufacturer.

A lot of that was also true of the original Legion Go, but Lenovo has learned some ergonomic lessons from the smaller Legion Go S, added more powerful AMD internals, and finally stepped up to OLED display tech – something you won’t find on the similarly potent Xbox ROG Ally X.

However, all that high-end hardware has had a significant effect on pricing. While the original model landed at $699/£699 back in 2025, you’ll now need to shell out $1,099/£899 for the base model, or a whopping $1349/£1100 for the version I tested. That’s almost twice as much as a Steam Deck OLED, which doesn’t have to deal with the pitfalls of Windows 11 on the small screen. Here’s why that could be a problem for all but the most well-heeled handheld fans.

Design & build: land of the giants

The original Legion Go was a colossus, but the Go 2 is even bigger – if only by a few millimetres in each direction. It makes a Nintendo Switch 2 seem titchy and eclipses a Steam Deck OLED. At 920g with the controllers docked either side of the screen it’s also heavier than any Windows-powered gaming handheld I’ve tried. You’d definitely feel it if you dropped it on your face while gaming in bed.

It’s surprisingly comfortable to hold, though. Lenovo has re-shaped the controller edges to better match the Legion Go S, with fewer straight edges and a more sculpted feel. Almost all of the inputs sit within easy reach, with only one of the four rear buttons needing especially dextrous thumbs to hit without changing your grip.

Fighting game fans will appreciate the D-pad switching from a mushy four-way to a more precise eight-way one here, and two extra shortcut keys finally put Start and Select in a sensible place, while still letting you jump into Lenovo’s Legion Space software and open the on-screen overlay. The triggers are suitably springy, and neither the face buttons or bumper buttons feel at all mushy. I did miss the Xbox ROG Ally X’s Impulse Trigger haptics here, though.

The right controller keeps its compact touchpad, just beneath the analogue stick. It can be a lifesaver for interacting with Windows 11’s tiny UI elements, though I wish Lenovo had added a second touchpad on the left side in place of the desktop and alt+tab buttons (which I rarely used). The Steam Deck proved that twin touch surfaces can be great for gaming as well as mouse controls a while back now.

Connectivity hasn’t changed, but the locations have shuffled a bit; the microSD card slot is now found on the bottom of the unit, sandwiched between the 3.5mm headphone port and one of the USB Type-Cs. A second USB-C lives up top next to the volume keys. The power button now doubles as a fingerprint reader too; skipping the Windows lock screen is now as easy as it is on an Asus Xbox ROG Ally X. RGB illumination around the button’s edge makes it easy to find in the dark.

The analogue sticks also get the glowy LED treatment, and use Hall Effect tech to eliminate the chance of stick drift even after years of use. The way they slide off the main unit hasn’t changed, needing you to hold in a small button while pulling down; I found them a little fiddly to get back on though. At least I had no complaints about how firmly the display-wide kickstand at the rear holds the Legion Go in place for Nintendo Switch-style tabletop play. Pogo pins keep the pair charged while docked to the main unit.

Lenovo actually beat Nintendo to the punch with mouse controls with the first Legion Go, and has brought them back unchanged for the sequel. Flicking a switch on the bottom of the right controller and sliding it into an included stand turns it into a vertical mouse. Even with extra buttons built into the grip, though, I found it awkward to use. The Switch 2 does a more convincing impression of a traditional computer mouse, and doesn’t ask anything more than turning the Joy-Con on its side. I was rarely sat at a desk while playing so tended to stick with joypad controls, but it’s handy to have all the same.

Screen & sound: the new Windows standard

OLED screens haven’t become the gaming handheld norm quite yet, at least in the Windows world – giving Valve’s Steam Deck OLED yet another string in its bow. The Legion Go 2 finally changes that, with a massive 8.8in screen that’s simply gorgeous in motion.

True, the 1920×1200 panel might be a step down in pixel count from the first-gen Legion Go’s IPS LCD display, but it’s far better suited to the Ryzen Z2 Extreme chipset’s gaming abilities. You’ll be able to play more titles here at the Go 2’s native resolution, and only reach for FSR upscaling in newer, more demanding releases.

Brightness isn’t quite as high as before, and if you lower the slider it becomes harder to ignore how reflective the screen is. But crank it up and this isn’t too far removed from the smaller Steam Deck OLED, which still shines brightest of all.

It’s an upgrade in every other respect. The speedy 144Hz refresh rate now supports VRR, cutting down on screen tearing and stuttering when gaming at lower frame rates, while staying wonderfully smooth in games that don’t tax the hardware quite as heavily.

Switching to OLED has brought much deeper blacks, vibrant colours, and outstanding contrast. Colour space coverage is excellent, besting every other Windows gaming handheld I’ve tested to date, and games absolutely leap off the screen. The multiple stages of hell in cartoony roguelite Hades were a treat for my retinas, with vivid hues and dark shadows. HDR support then gives compatible titles even more impact. It’s the most compelling argument for spending more on a Legion Go 2 over the Asus Xbox ROG Ally X.

Things aren’t so standout on the sound front, with the two 2W speakers firing upwards from the top of the system rather than being directed towards you. The detachable controllers forced Lenovo’s hand here, and it’s not like they skimp on volume, but there’s little in the way of bass presence and the rest of the frequency range lacks a bit of the bite you’ll get from rivals with forward-facing speakers. Headphones are a must for games that force the cooling fans to their maximum speeds, too.

Software: deep space fine

Microsoft might’ve started taking handheld gaming a bit more seriously of late, but its full-screen Xbox interface – and optimised version of Windows – isn’t on the Legion Go 2 by default. Unless you want to fiddle with registry keys or third-party tools (or Microsoft and Lenovo roll it out officially by the time you read this) the first thing you see when booting the handheld will be Windows desktop.

That’s great if you’ve got games that insist on Windows anti-cheat software, or are happy to rely on Lenovo’s Legion Space software to herd all your various games and launchers into one location, but means you can often expect to be interrupted by Windows security prompts and battle with small interface elements. The Steam Deck remains the benchmark for user-friendly PC-based handheld gaming, even if fewer games officially play well with its Linux-based OS.

You can have Legion Space boot up automatically at launch, or skip it altogether and load up Steam’s big picture mode instead if most of your game library lives on Valve’s platform.

I thought Legion Space had come on a great deal since the first Legion Go. All the major performance settings like resolution, refresh rate and power modes applied correctly, and controller inputs no longer registered in-game while the quick settings sidebar was open. Input customisation is clear, and it integrates well with the Xbox Game Bar. I give it the edge over Asus’ Armory Crate.

Performance: Let’s get extreme

The Legion Go 2 is technically the first handheld I’ve tried with AMD’s Ryzen Z2 Extreme chipset. The Xbox ROG Ally X uses a different variant with extra AI abilities, which will eventually let it support Microsoft’s Automatic Super Resolution upscaling. Lenovo seems confident enough in AMD’s own FSR tech not to bother going down the same route. Core counts, clock speeds and power limits are otherwise the same.

That translates to modest yet welcome desktop performance gains over the original Legion Go and it’s Z1 Extreme silicon. Windows 11 feels perfectly responsive and apps open quickly enough. Single- and multi-core grunt is roughly 5-10% higher than before, putting it on par with the Asus for use outside of gaming.

It’s on the gaming front where the Legion needs to put in a stronger shift. For the most part it does, helped in part by Lenovo fitting a healthy 32GB of RAM. That guarantees the GPU has enough memory to cope with high resolution textures – something the original Go and its 16GB allocation struggled with. 1TB of built-in storage is also enough for a fair few AAA releases, which is useful as replacing the SSD with a bigger one requires some minor internal surgery.

As long as I avoided ray traced lighting effects (which are very GPU-intensive) the Go 2 could play most games at its native resolution while staying smooth, though some titles were borderline. Shadow of the Tomb Raider‘s 29fps suggested Ultra details were asking too much of the chipset, even if the variable refresh display managed to keep stuttering to a minimum. Some tweaking around the medium preset resulted in something much more playable.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle defaulted to low details but ran very well. Visually, Hogwarts Legacy doesn’t hold up quite so well at similarly basic settings, but the frame rate was consistent. The less demanding Pacific Drive and older Division 2 felt right at home as well. Indie puzzler Blue Prince was all but flawless.

The Go 2 has to work harder than the Asus Xbox ROG Ally X, which has a 1080p resolution display. There’s not a huge visual difference between Full HD and 1920×1200, so in some respects Lenovo has made a rod for its own back here. However, there’s nothing playable on the Asus that can’t also run well here, and the Legion’s screen is just plain prettier to look at, which accounts for a lot.

FSR upscaling brings a big boost to frame rates, though it also comes with a shimmer and aliased edges that Nvidia’s DLSS does a better job of eliminating. Still, it made Cyberpunk 2077 playable at graphics settings that looked rather spectacular on the Legion Go 2’s OLED display.

Lenovo will eventually launch version of this handheld running native SteamOS rather than Windows 11. Owners willing to get their hands dirty with pre-release software have reported healthy performance gains when running Valve’s Linux back-end instead of Microsoft’s, though I’ve not had the chance to test it.

Battery life: new normal

It might’ve made room for a considerably bigger 74Whr battery, but the Legion Go 2’s stamina still depends entirely on what you’re playing on it. An especially demanding game like Cyberpunk 2077 can see the percentage tank as quickly as a point every few minutes, meaning you’ll be staring at a black screen in about two hours. That’s a little better than the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X, which has an even bigger cell – thank the more efficient OLED display.

Typically I got between two and a four hours per charge when playing 3D action and adventure games, largely in the Balanced power preset, and with brightness around the 60% mark. Lowering the detail settings, dropping the screen resolution and limiting the frame rate to 60fps can all help eke out a little more time per charge.

The lowest power profile is best suited to 2D and indie fare, but here you can really stretch things out; six hours is doable at a real push, though with flight mode enabled and the screen at its dimmest, it’s not the best experience in anything but a totally dark room.

Online reports suggest the Legion Go 2 is even more efficient when running SteamOS, though Lenovo and Valve have yet to release an official version of the operating system. It’s already among the most efficient gaming handhelds around, so those wanting to maximise time away from the mains might want to investigate dual-booting.

Charge times are nice and fast, the 65W power adaptor (which is no bigger than a smartphone charger) delivering a 50% top-up in half an hour. A complete refuel takes an hour and a half.

Lenovo Legion Go 2 verdict

The Legion Go 2 improves on the original in a few crucial ways. That screen is a real step up, helping it rival the Steam Deck OLED for visual punch. The controls are that much more comfortable now, and performance has also been boosted – if not by as much as some might’ve hoped.

It’s still an exercise in excess, though; you’re paying a premium for features you might not even use, like the pop-off controllers and FPS mode. They’re also one of the reasons this one of the biggest, heaviest handhelds around. Then there’s Windows 11, which is more awkward than it needs to be on a small screen while the Legion misses out on improvements Microsoft made for its Asus-badged rival (at the time of writing, at least). SteamOS is just better suited to the small screen.

If you can stomach the spend and want the best screen on a Windows-powered handheld, the Legion Go 2 is your best choice. Otherwise the Xbox ROG Ally X is more affordable and delivers very similar performance – albeit at a lower resolution on an LCD screen – while the Steam Deck OLED remains the best value.

Lenovo Legion Go 2 technical specifications