The 8.8-inch Lenovo Legion Go will receive a sibling in the form of the Lenovo Legion Go Lite, according to sources cited by Windows Central. The precise details of what differentiates a Legion Go from a Legion Go Lite are not yet clear, but we expect the Lite handheld to be at least smaller and lighter, and perhaps significantly cheaper. This move seems to have been spurred by the recent unveiling of the ROG Ally X by Asus, which pushes the high-end PC handheld market slightly higher.
Unfortunately, any specific details beyond the name are currently not available. However, considering our existing coverage of Steam Deck alternatives and the wide gamut of gaming handhelds, including the Legion Go, we're confident we can establish some reasonable expectations for what a Legion Go Lite may actually look like.
So, the first thing we expect to see from a Lenovo Legion Go Lite would be a downsizing towards the 7-inch screen diagonal screen size offered by major competitors like the Steam Deck, Switch OLED, and ROG Ally. It's pretty much in the name.
Though the standard Nintendo Switch is only 6.2 inches, and the Switch Lite is 5.5 inches, so that "Lite" moniker could mean sizing closer to pre-OLED Switch than Legion Go's existing contemporaries. That may be the ideal gambit — do we really need another 7-inch Radeon 780M handheld on the market? Probably not. Additionally, a smaller screen size will likely result in a more reasonable final resolution.
Truthfully, I'm of the opinion that current-gen handhelds going above 720p/800p are doing so purely to inflate specifications, especially where 3D gaming is concerned. The 1600p resolution of the Legion Go is simply too much for any modern game to reasonably be pushed at on this hardware — Deck OLED adhering to 800p at 7.4 inches is still a clean 203 PPI. For your reference, that's higher than the pixel density of a 27-inch 4K monitor.
Besides the large screen size, the main boons of the Lenovo Legion Go compared to its competitors are its detachable controllers and a set of top and bottom USB-C 4.0 connectors. This makes charging and docking alike a breeze, and Switch gamers already understand the joy of playing with detached controllers in either hand, slouched back on a couch, or a comfy chair.
Hopefully, the Lite keeps these features — if it manages to do so in a form factor closer to the original Switch or the Switch Lite, it'll be meaningfully setting itself apart from other Z1 Extreme / 7840U-class handhelds.
In terms of internal specs, it's hard to know what to expect just yet. If Lenovo is also hoping to make more significant price cuts, going down to the AMD Ryzen Z1 non-Extreme could be an option, though considering the compromised performance that would provide compared to Deck and the now-boosted gulf present between Go and Ally X, that might be unwise.
