So let's talk thermals and acoustics. At our preferred 15 Watt level, the Legion Go's fan is definitely present, but it's not overly loud. It never quite stops spinning as long as the system is powered on, so the Legion Go is never fully silent. However, at idle we measured around 35 dBA at 8 inches directly from the output vent on top of the system. In a game, this was quite a bit louder, registering at 40-44 dBA, as the fan would spin up and down. We're measuring so close because this is a handheld system. On a laptop the user sits farther away and the same readings are quite a bit lower as noise is dissipated into the air. On the Legion Go you're right up on top of the system because you're holding it in hand.
When we use the Legion Go at the maximum 27 Watt TDP, the fan doesn't spin all the way up but it is quite a bit louder. We registered 47-52 dBA most of the time while playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider, a game that will take as much performance as the Legion Go can muster. According to the Legion Go performance monitor, internal temperatures are under control, staying below 80 degrees Celsius. The air coming out of the top vent is also rather warm, coming out between 45 and 48 Celsius (which is still below 120 degrees Fahrenheit). Fortunately, the parts of the system you come in contact with most - namely the controllers - stay nice and cool. The display is just slightly warm to the touch as well.
When we crank the Legion Go's fan to the maximum, we eclipse 60 dBA at our 8-inch distance, which is admittedly rather loud for a handheld system. The temperatures drop down to around 75 degrees Celsius, though the air coming out of the vent is not any warmer. So while it does help temperatures, running the fans at max is a slight annoyance, and also not necessary. Playing games over time doesn't result in slowdowns or a degraded experience, so we'll stick to automatic fan control with this device for sure.
Overall, while the Legion Go gets warm, it's never uncomfortable play games on for extended periods. At the highest performance settings, temperatures are in check and thermal performance is fine, considering how much heat it's dealing with.
Lenovo Legion Glasses Pair Nicely With Legion Go
Along with the Legion Go, Lenovo sent over the Legion glasses for us to try out. This headset puts a 1,920 x 1,080 display directly into your eyes. It's not a VR headset, at least in part because there is no head tracking, but it's an immersive experience for playing games on a big screen format and in private. Pair it with a decent pair of headphones and you can definitely get lost in games pretty easily. Despite the name, Legion Glasses are also compatible with just about anything.
Plugging in the Legion Glasses and keeping the system on wall power at the same time does require using both USB-C ports. As you can see below, the system necessarily rests on one of these ports. You're probably better off getting a dock with two USB-C ports and DisplayPort passthrough, so that you can stick to just using one port on the handheld.
The usual caveats with head-mounted displays apply, including for those who (like me) where prescription glasses rather than contact lenses. Fortunately, Lenovo includes a template in the box. I took that template to my local optometrist and they produced a pair of perfect-fitting lenses with my prescription that snap right into the headset. The Legion Glasses are also rather light (3.39 ounces), but don't quite fit correctly on my bigger-than-average noggin.
I tried, but the Legion Glasses are just not meant for my head
On the other hand, other folks in my household with normal-sized cabezas had no problem wearing the Legion Glasses. There are speakers built into the earpieces, but they're not the best. You're much better off fitting yourself with a pair of decent headphones to get the most immersive experience possible. The earpieces have buttons to control the volume as well, but you'll need to use the headphone jack on the Legion Go itself.
The Legion Glasses have a USB-C connector and will plug in to just about anything; they're completely OS-agnostic and require no special drivers. It's seen by Windows and macOS as just another 1080p 60 Hz display. I had a good time just playing games with the headset. Just make sure to set the headset as the primary display in Legion Space or within your operating system, or at least duplicate the displays within the OS so folks can watch along on the tablet display. At $329, the Legion Glasses are a little pricey given their relatively limited utility, but you can buy eleven of them for the cost of an Apple Vision Pro.
Lenovo Legion Go Review Key Take-Aways And Conclusion
Right now, the Legion Go has some unique advantages compared to the competition. The display has a nice 16:10 aspect ratio where all the competitors are 16:9, and the display is bigger than that of the Steam Deck OLED, ASUS ROG Ally, and even the MSI Claw. It also beats out all the Indiegogo darlings from the likes of Ayaneo and AYNTec. It's big, it's colorful, and the 144Hz refresh rate is faster than the rest. In addition, the removable controllers are a big plus, allowing gamers to set the system on a table and use those detachable controllers as a keyboard and mouse. No other handheld does anything quite like that.
There are some downsides to the Legion Go, however. For starters, the experience on Windows is not great. This is something that even Microsoft itself admits needs to be better, and we hope the company is serious about improving the experience. Lenovo did all it could with Legion Space and its unified UI for game libraries, settings, and storefronts, but the Steam Deck just flat-out gets it right. ChimeraOS, which is a community-supported distribution of the Steam Deck's OS, has recently added support for the Legion Go, and you can bet we'll be trying it out after this extended time we've had on Windows. We had some quibbles with the Legion Go's somewhat flat, unresponsive D-pad and the current state of button remapping, but neither of those are dealbreakers. As Lenovo improves the Legion Space app, we suspect the remapping thing will eventually work itself out.
Gaming performance with the Legion Go is about as solid as it gets with a mobile chipset that employs integrated graphics. The AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme is a good performer, and as you add thermal headroom with its configurable TDP, it makes the most of its resources. Pricing is competitive with other Z1 Extreme handhelds but it is a fair amount more expensive than the Steam Deck with the same RAM and storage, but with better CPU and GPU performance. The 16 GB Legion Go model with a 512 GB SSD is $699 right now, but we recommend popping up to the 1 TB model for $749, unless you plan on changing out the SSD on your own. $50 to double the storage is a pretty good deal. It's less than the cost of buying a 1 TB SSD yourself. That's about the same price as the ROG Ally normally (although it's occasionally on sale for $599), but the display is bigger and the controllers are unique, giving Lenovo an advantage in our estimation.
The Legion Go is a solid desktop in its own right
Overall, the Legion Go is the best Windows-based handheld we've tried out yet. Windows handheld systems are still kind of in their infancy, but this one gets a whole lot right. Its unique features, high performance, and huge display are stand-out to be sure. If you're in the market for the best Windows handheld PC gaming experience currently, look no farther than the Lenovo Legion Go. That's why it's HotHardware Recommended.
