Thanks to 2022’s Steam Deck, the world of portable PC gaming has exploded. What was once a niche with a $1,200 barrier of entry became a mass market item thanks to a low price point and a high amount of power for the dollar. The Deck’s popularity was expected to be a hit when it had its early access launch and was, only growing with the full release that wasn’t time-limited and has expanded even more with the release of refurbished units. Valve’s refurbished units enable you to get into PC gaming for under $350 and now even GameStop’s getting into the hunt with their own refurbished units.
A few months ago, we had the release of the ROG Ally and this has been something of a mixed blessing for the portable PC gaming space because of how the device was built and its overall build quality compared to the Deck. Having been an early bird on both, I had to rebuild my Deck’s OS after going into sleep mode with updates pending in desktop mode on day one and that actually took three days to do with weird charging and display issues, but the device has been trouble-free since then. The micro SD card having to be formatted for that device is a pain too since you can’t just grab an existing card and move a directory of games over to it willy-nilly.
In theory, the ROG Ally should be an easier Windows experience to work with, but at least when trying to use a 512 GB Samsung micro SD, I had to reformat it a few times to get it work with the Ally and never could get it to read with my Windows 10 PC – so that meant I had to rebuild everything via OneDrive downloads, which is at least a workaround that will function for all devices. The feel in the hands for both devices are totally different too with the Ally being much smaller and feeling cheaper overall. I love the 8-way d-pad, but it’s the only part that feels premium as every other button feels like a third-party controller from 1999 and the triggers have little pull to them when compared to the Deck’s premium feel for everything.
Lenovo has now announced the LenovoLegionon their site and it looks impressive. It has an 8.8 inch, 1600p screen versus the Deck’s 800p and the Ally’s 1080p screen and it should look stunning. It supports higher refresh rates than either device, with 144Hz on the Go versus 60 on the Deck and 120 on the Ally. The Z1 Extreme processor is in theory the same one on the Ally, so performance-wise, it will probably be largely the same overall. Both the Ally and Go have a 512GB SSD and support up to 2TB micro-SD cards.
The big thing that separates the Go from the other devices is being able to detach the left and right controller areas and enable what they’re calling FPS mode where you can bring up a pointer with the right controller and shoot with an integrated trigger button. There will also be Legion Go Glasses for AR display and built-in speakers. This is cool stuff and we’ll see just how everything shakes out when the release date for it is announced alongside the price point – the rumor is it will get a $700 price tag, but we’ll see. The feel in the hand and user experience will be the keys to success, because in theory, this trounces the Ally overall and having the keyboard and mouse-esque controller setup with the pointer can be a total game-changer for console fans playing PC games.
