Chiggs
Gold Member
Back in December of last year, I made a thread that was highly critical of the ROG Ally, which is a piece of rushed-to-market shit with numerous flaws, including a dealbreaker SD card thermal issue which kills both the reader and the card itself. After spending a week with the platform, and suffering through its awful setup process, I decided to return it for a Steam Deck OLED, which is, of course, not as powerful, but functions near-flawlessly and provides a fantastic user experience.
At the same time, however, I also ordered the Lenovo Legion Go, knowing that I could just return it to Best Buy if I didn't like it. After spending a day with it, I definitely decided that I didn't like it. Like the ROG Ally, it also had a terrible setup process and getting shit to work was more trouble than it was worth. I was constantly having to fiddle with things to the point where it was becoming ridiculous. It's also gi-fucking-normous.
Anyway, this past Saturday, I spotted an open box 1TB Legion Go at Best Buy for $599.99; the reason for the markdown was that it was missing the charger.
Being a sucker for handhelds and marveling at a $150.00 discount for a missing charger, I scooped it up and went home to give it a second chance.
I'm not going to issue a bunch of flowery hyperbole that makes you wonder if this post is being sponsored by Lenovo, but I'll say definitively that what I experienced back in December is a far cry from where the device is now. It's stable, battery life is better, Legion Space performs adequately, and that system shortcut menu with all the necessary tweaks and configs is SOOOOOO much better than it used to be. Whereas the ROG Ally is only getting worse, Lenovo's machine seems to be improving because of a dedicated development team that listens to the community.
It's not entirely perfect...the speakers still suck, you'll occasionally run into bullshit like this, and it's still running Windows 11, but I can't deny the fact that things have improved substantially since I last used the device.
Do I think you should get one of these over a Steam Deck? No, probably not. The Steam Deck OLED is a fantastic machine that does so much right and has better ergonomics, but if you want a handheld that has more OOOMPH, doesn't have any real restrictions as to what can be installed, and has less hoops to jump through for emulation, then the Legion Go might just be what you're looking for.
At the same time, however, I also ordered the Lenovo Legion Go, knowing that I could just return it to Best Buy if I didn't like it. After spending a day with it, I definitely decided that I didn't like it. Like the ROG Ally, it also had a terrible setup process and getting shit to work was more trouble than it was worth. I was constantly having to fiddle with things to the point where it was becoming ridiculous. It's also gi-fucking-normous.
Anyway, this past Saturday, I spotted an open box 1TB Legion Go at Best Buy for $599.99; the reason for the markdown was that it was missing the charger.
Being a sucker for handhelds and marveling at a $150.00 discount for a missing charger, I scooped it up and went home to give it a second chance.I'm not going to issue a bunch of flowery hyperbole that makes you wonder if this post is being sponsored by Lenovo, but I'll say definitively that what I experienced back in December is a far cry from where the device is now. It's stable, battery life is better, Legion Space performs adequately, and that system shortcut menu with all the necessary tweaks and configs is SOOOOOO much better than it used to be. Whereas the ROG Ally is only getting worse, Lenovo's machine seems to be improving because of a dedicated development team that listens to the community.
It's not entirely perfect...the speakers still suck, you'll occasionally run into bullshit like this, and it's still running Windows 11, but I can't deny the fact that things have improved substantially since I last used the device.
Do I think you should get one of these over a Steam Deck? No, probably not. The Steam Deck OLED is a fantastic machine that does so much right and has better ergonomics, but if you want a handheld that has more OOOMPH, doesn't have any real restrictions as to what can be installed, and has less hoops to jump through for emulation, then the Legion Go might just be what you're looking for.
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