Lenovo Legion Go | A Casual Gamer's Review

The Legion Go has everything it takes to be the most immersive handheld gaming PC, but is Windows worth the effort?

The Case for That Big, Beautiful Screen

There’s a reason to come to the Legion Go later than the early adopters. Lenovo have shipped several updates that make the device considerably more manageable, and the community has been quietly building out setup guides, optimisation tips, and workarounds on Reddit and elsewhere. The hard work has largely been done for you — if you know where to look.

But before getting into all of that, it’s worth understanding why the Legion Go is worth the effort in the first place. The 8.8-inch display running at 2560×1600 is genuinely spectacular. It isn’t OLED, but it doesn’t need to be — the resolution and size combine to create something that takes up a meaningful portion of your field of view without having to hold the device close to your face. Walking around the worlds of No Man’s Sky or dropping into a first-person shooter feels closer to sitting in front of a proper monitor than playing on a handheld. Everything looks saturated and vivid, and it’s hard to argue that anything else on the market matches it for sheer immersion.

One clever trick worth knowing about: if a demanding game is struggling with the full resolution, you can run it at 1280×800 and use AMD’s integer scaling to fill the screen. The result is a crisp, vivid image that doesn’t hammer performance. It sounds like a workaround, and it is, but it works beautifully.

A Handheld for the Busy Gamer

Part of what draws me to devices like the Legion Go is having a busy life. Since becoming a dad, I’ve gravitated towards turn-based tactical RPGs and strategy games — titles like Valkyria Chronicles and Twilight Struggle — precisely because I can put them down at a moment’s notice. The Legion Go’s larger screen is an ideal fit for this kind of game. Maps are readable, tactical decisions don’t feel cramped, and the ability to detach the controllers and use the touchscreen makes navigating these games feel genuinely natural.

That touchscreen is one of the underrated strengths of the device in general. Windows has some notoriously small touch targets, but being able to tap directly on the UI, or fall back to the trackpad on the controller when things get fiddly, means you can get around the operating system without constantly reaching for a mouse. It’s not as fluid as SteamOS, but it’s more manageable than you might expect.

The Windows Reality

Let’s be honest about Windows. Coming from a console background, SteamOS on the Steam Deck is going to feel more natural and far less frustrating. Windows ships with bloatware — Microsoft Office trials, LinkedIn prompts, Dropbox ads — all of which want clearing out before you even start gaming. Background tasks can quietly chew through RAM and cause crashes in games that have nothing to do with whatever’s running underneath. I had No Man’s Sky crash on me more than once because of exactly this. And if you minimise rather than close a game, it keeps running — which means it’s entirely possible to end up with multiple games open at once, slowly grinding the system to a halt.

That said, the platform advantages are real. The Legion Go is compatible with launchers beyond Steam, including the Epic Games Store, which opens up a broader library. You can install Disney Plus and use it as a proper entertainment tablet. The flexibility is genuine — I can genuinely imagine taking this on holiday instead of both an iPad and a laptop.

Getting the most out of it does require an upfront investment of time, though. Budget three to four hours when you first set the device up. You’ll want to update drivers, flash the BIOS, and set the VRAM to 6GB rather than the default 3GB, which makes a meaningful difference to performance. A few other things worth knowing from the start: the power button defaults to sleep rather than hibernate, which you’ll want to change if you want to resume mid-game; integer scaling needs to be enabled in the AMD Adrenaline control panel; and the default audio EQ is genuinely poor and needs adjusting manually or via a third-party app.

Living With the Legion Go

Day to day, the Legion Go is a mixed bag of genuinely clever ideas and rough edges. The detachable controllers — the device’s headline party trick — allow you to use the right controller as a mouse in FPS mode, essentially turning it into a PC gaming peripheral. In theory this is great for shooters; in practice, adapting to an entirely new input method mid-game is harder than it sounds, even if you’re only in your mid-thirties. I’ve found it more useful for navigating strategy game maps than for actual FPS play.

Comfort is a genuine point of contention. The controllers have sharper edges than I’d like, and the overall size makes it feel unwieldy during longer sessions. Nothing touches the Steam Deck OLED with a Dbrand Kill Switch case for pure hand feel — that combination just feels right in a way the Legion Go doesn’t quite manage. There are 3D printed grip options out there, but if you’re in the UK, Etsy postage often costs more than the grips themselves, so I’ve been getting on without them.

The kickstand is a small but genuinely appreciated detail, particularly for turn-based games where you’re regularly waiting for the AI to take its go. Battery life is the other thing to manage carefully: on demanding settings, you can drain the device in under two hours. The dual USB-C ports — one on the top, one on the bottom — help here, since the bottom-facing port is much more comfortable when playing lying down or on the sofa.

I’ve also been running EmuDeck for retro emulation, which has been a pleasure on a screen this size. Playing old God of War PSP titles on an 8.8-inch display is a genuinely different experience from any other handheld. One ROM crashed near the end of the game, which was frustrating, but the journey was worth it.

Final Thoughts

The Legion Go rewards patience and a willingness to tinker. If you’re not comfortable digging into settings, updating drivers, and occasionally troubleshooting Windows quirks, the Steam Deck is the more sensible starting point — and I’d recommend it to the majority of people. But if you know you need Windows game compatibility, or if a larger, more immersive display is a priority, the Legion Go delivers in a way nothing else currently does.

My recommendation: For the right kind of gamer — one who enjoys the setup process as much as the gaming itself — the Legion Go is a genuinely compelling machine. Just go in with realistic expectations about Windows, and give yourself a proper afternoon to set it up properly.