I first got to see the Lenovo Legion Go back in September of 2023, and then got to review the final Legion Go in November of 2023 (also see: Lenovo Legion Go Review: A PC Gamer’s Dream Portable). Now, a year later, I’ve used the Legion Go for a lot of games. It’s been really pretty great especially for laying in bed to take on a little gaming entertainment while relaxing. So let’s take a look at how it has held up.
Lots of bug fixes.
When I first reviewed the Legion Go, there were some problems with the newest games like Starfield. Originally, launching Starfield showed an “outdated graphics card” error and crashed all the time. Shortly after that criticism was published, some new GPU driver software arrived and suddenly Starfield was beautifully playable, albeit on lower graphics settings of course.
New Launcher
The original custom “Legion Space” launcher was designed to auto-start with Windows. So after Windows booted, you would get a big long graphic animation and then it would load this more-controller-friendly interface for launching games. It was very slow. Today, the auto-start of the Legion launcher has been disabled, so that when you turn on the Legion Go, it just goes straight into Windows 11 with the normal taskbar and start menu.
In 2024, the Legion Go game launcher has received an extensive overhaul, too. It’s completely redesigned with much better graphics now. Game cover art still doesn’t always load correctly, but at least it’s not loading incorrect game art like the previous version did.
Improved sidebar controls
The in-game Legion sidebar has an improved design as well. This is assigned to a button on the controller so that you can bring up performance settings, keyboard shortcut buttons, and more right while you’re playing a game. It’s still kind of slow to load while playing a game though. It may take a second to show up after pressing the button.
No More Android Games
Originally, because the Legion Go runs Windows 11, Android games were part of the launcher as you could install an Android subsystem for Windows and then install the Amazon app store and install Android games (or other apps) in order to use them on Windows 11. Microsoft has since removed that capability from Windows 11 for some reason and so Android games are no longer available.
Controller improvements
The controllers have periodically gotten multiple firmware updates over the year and these have nicely improved the responsiveness.
Conclusion
There are rumors of Lenovo releasing new updated versions of the Legion Go portable game console going around, but with the number of updates the original 2023 Legion Go has received. This Windows 11 based mobile PC gaming system is still pretty great, especially with the holiday sales going on right about now.
I’ve been purchasing PC games from GG.deals and downloading free PC game deals throughout the year for the Legion Go, and it has been pretty fantastic. While Microsoft turned me into an Xbox gamer with their Windows Phone 7 Xbox games and Xbox Kinect, it looks like Lenovo has turned me into a PC gamer with their Legion Go.