Which handheld gaming PC is best for you?

• 

  Lenovo Legion Go

  Thrilling potential

  The Lenovo Legion Go may be one of the vital fascinating gaming handhelds but, boasting a large 8.8-inch show with a 16:10 side ratio. It additionally has removable controllers, together with one which has a trackpad that you should use as a mouse.

  Professionals

  • Has removable controllers
  • Has quicker RAM
  • Has a greater display and refresh charge

  Cons

  • Not but on the market
  • Greater, higher-resolution display may very well be dangerous for battery life

• 

  ASUS ROG Ally

  Strong Home windows handheld

  The Asus ROG Ally is a handheld gaming PC that is in search of to be a serious rival to Valve’s Steam Deck. It runs on Home windows, and comes with AMD Ryzen Z1 processors. It additionally has a pointy Full HD show and a 120Hz refresh charge.

  Professionals

  • Barely extra moveable
  • Highly effective because of the Ryzen Z1 CPUs
  • Gaming-centric design

  Cons

  • Home windows has its quirks
  • Show is not as sharp because the Legion Go

Key Takeaways

• The Lenovo Legion Go and Asus ROG Ally are two new handheld gaming PCs that provide options to the favored Steam Deck.
• The Legion Go has removable controllers and further options like a mouse possibility, whereas the ROG Ally is extra compact and moveable.
• The Legion Go has a bigger, higher-resolution show and quicker RAM, making it a extra versatile and immersive gaming expertise. Nevertheless, the ROG Ally continues to be a terrific selection for individuals who want a extra moveable possibility.

Nowadays, handheld gaming PCs are all the fashion. The Steam Deck is arguably the one which kicked off this development, however there have since been loads of Steam Deck options. Two of the latest that you just may need to take into account are the Lenovo Legion Go and the Asus ROG Ally. The Legion Go brings new options like removable controllers and the choice to make use of the controllers as a mouse. That stated, the Asus ROG Ally is a powerful competitor to the Steam Deck since it is a bit extra moveable and highly effective. However which one do you have to get? We’re right here so that you can dig deeper into all of the variations between these two Home windows handheld programs.

Lenovo Legion Go vs Asus ROG Ally: Pricing and availability

Now we have some tough information within the availability division. When you can exit and purchase the Asus ROG Ally proper now, the Lenovo Legion Go will not be but accessible on the market.

The Asus ROG Ally is on the market at Finest Purchase within the U.S. for $700. This would be the high-end mannequin with the AMD Ryzen Z1 Excessive chip and 512GB of SSD storage. Asus introduced a lower-end mannequin with the common Ryzen Z1 and 256GB of storage, which begins at $600, but it surely’s not on the market but.

In the meantime, the Lenovo Legion Go is ready to begin at $700. Lenovo did not element the configurations for the lower-end mannequin, however we assume it’s going to be with a Ryzen Z1 CPU, 16GB RAM, and 256GB of storage. In fact, higher-end fashions might price extra whenever you issue within the Ryzen Z1 Excessive and the extra storage choices of 512GB or 1TB.

• 	ASUS ROG Ally	Lenovo Legion Go
  Dimensions	11.02 x 4.37 x 0.83-1.28 inches (280 x 111 x 21.2-32.4mm)	Beginning at 8.27 x 5.15 x 0.79 inches (210.05 x 130.81 x 20.06mm)
  Weight	1.34 kilos (608 grams)	Beginning at 1.41 kilos (640 grams)
  Chipset	As much as AMD Ryzen Z1 Excessive (8 cores, 16 threads)	As much as AMD Ryzen Z1 Excessive (8 cores, 16 threads, as much as 5.1GHz, 16MB L3 cache)
  RAM	16GB LPDDR5	16GB LPDDR5x 7500Mhz
  Storage	As much as 512GB SSD	256GB, 512GB, 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 2242 SSD
  Show	7-inch IPS, 1920×1080, 120Hz refresh charge, contact	8.8-inch IPS, 16:10 side ratio, Quad HD+ (2560×1600), 144Hz refresh charge, 97% DCI-P3, 500 nits, contact
  Graphics	AMD RDNA 3-based graphics, 4 or 12 CUs	AMD RDNA 3 Graphics (as much as 12 cores)
  Ports	1x USB-C, 1x ROG Xg Cellular interface, 3.5mm headphone jack	2x USB4 (one on high, one on the backside) 3.5mm headphone jack microSD card reader

Design

In terms of the design, the Lenovo Legion Go and Asus ROG Ally are on totally different pages. The latter is a single unit with built-in controllers, whereas the Legion Go has removable controllers. Simply press a button behind the controller to launch them, after which pull out the kickstand on the rear, much like the Nintendo Swap.

Bodily talking, the Legion Go can be a a lot beefier system that may be uncomfortable to carry for some individuals. With controllers connected, it measures 11.8 inches in size and about 1.61 inches thick. It weighs about 1.88 kilos with the controllers connected. The bottom module with out the controllers is about 8.27 inches in size, 0.79 inches thick, and 1.41 kilos. This Lenovo handheld additionally is available in a glossy Shadow Black shade.

Alternatively, the Asus ROG Ally is extra compact. You possibly can’t detach the controllers on this unit, but it surely measures 11.02 inches in size, 0.83 inches thick, and weighs about 1.34 kilos. As for the colour, the Asus ROG Ally is available in white.

In terms of the design, the Lenovo Legion Go and Asus ROG Ally are on totally different pages.

The SSDs contained in the items are additionally totally different. The Lenovo Legion Go makes use of the M.2 2242 SSD dimension, which is ar comparatively new kind issue in comparison with the M.2 2230 SSD within the Asus ROG Ally. This implies upgrading your gadget down the road will probably be trickier on the Legion Go.

Total, we’re leaning in direction of the Legion Go in the case of the design right here because it has additional options. Nevertheless, the Asus ROG Ally will probably be nice for individuals who want a system that is extra moveable.

Controllers

As we have already talked about, the Lenovo Legion Go has removable controllers, whereas the Asus ROG Ally doesn’t. Nevertheless, each programs have the Xbox-style ABXY format and a devoted D-pad, which is what’s often most popular for PC gaming.

The Legion Go’s controllers may be fairly much like those with the Nintendo Swap, however there is not any method to be part of the controllers collectively when indifferent. You can even use the suitable controller on the Legion Go in FPS mode because it has an optical sensor on the underside. Simply slot it into the included holster, flip the swap on the underside, and you’ll use it for FPS video games extra simply. Extra notably, there is a touchpad on the facet of the suitable controller and a mouse wheel on the again to assist make navigating Home windows 11 simpler. Lastly, the thumbstick on the controller makes use of Corridor sensors, which is a magnetic sensor, to keep away from stick drift. That thumbstick additionally has RGB lighting you could customise in software program.

The Lenovo Legion Go controllers are a bit much like what you will get on the Nintendo Swap

The Asus ROG Ally controls are rather less spectacular. Clearly, you possibly can’t detach the controller. which, as we famous in our overview, means the controller may be susceptible to wreck and {hardware} results. There’s additionally no touchpad on the ROG Ally, so you will have to make use of the thumbstick or the touchscreen for navigation. There’s RGB, although, which is all however needed for such a cool gaming system.

Show

The variations between these gadgets proceed with the show. The Legion Go sports activities an even bigger, higher-resolution show than the one on the ROG Ally. In fact, you may find yourself tuning its settings all the way down to get higher frames in video games, but it surely’s nonetheless a proven fact that the Legion Go has the most effective show in a mainstream handheld Home windows-powered gaming PC proper now.

The Legion Go options an 8.8-inch IPS contact show tuned to the 16:10 side ratio. It has a 2560×1600 decision and a 144Hz refresh charge that will get as much as 500 nits of brightness. Such a giant display is for positive going to be extra immersive, providing you with extra room to see what’s taking place in your favourite video games. The 144Hz refresh charge is sweet, too, since it will make your video games look clean. If you happen to’re the technical kind, Lenovo claims the panel can hit 97% of the DCI-P3 shade gamut.

The Legion Go has the most effective show in a mainstream handheld Home windows-powered gaming PC proper now.

The ROG Ally, nevertheless, has a smaller show: a 7-inch IPS contact show turned to a a lot decrease 1920×1080 decision and a slower 120Hz refresh charge. Your video games won’t find yourself wanting fairly as crisp right here, however the decrease decision is good for taking part in video games at higher settings. It additionally helps make the gadget a bit extra manageable in your fingers. Shade accuracy on the Asus ROG Ally is rated at 80% of DCI-P3, which nonetheless is not pretty much as good as what you’d get on the Legion Go however will probably be strong for many video games.

Efficiency

It is price noting on the high of this part that each run on Home windows 11. This may sound nice at first since which means you possibly can run video games from nearly any PC-gaming platform, together with Steam, Xbox Sport Move, and the Epic Video games Retailer. Nevertheless, Home windows is not optimized for touchscreens simply but, so navigating the interface will be tough.

Moreover the Lenovo Legion Go utilizing barely extra battery-efficient, data-efficient, and better bandwidth LPDDR5x RAM, there should not be too many efficiency variations between the ROG Ally and the Legion Go. Each of those programs share the identical two AMD Ryzen Z1 sequence processors. As highly effective as they’re, although, that is nonetheless a cell CPU, so you will must preserve expectations in test. You are not going to get gaming laptop-level efficiency, and you may want to show settings to medium to low and alter scaling and side ratios.

We’ve not gotten our fingers on the Legion Go but, however as we famous in our ROG Ally overview, efficiency needs to be on par with a laptop computer with an Intel i7-10750H paired with a GTX 1650. Titles like Grand Theft Auto V, Hadesand Outer Wilds all ought to run wonderful on both system when settings are tuned all the way down to 720p and even 1080p.

I would select the Lenovo Legion Go

We do not know a lot about when it’s going to go on sale but aside from an October launch, however the Lenovo Legion Go is unquestionably shaping as much as be higher than the Asus ROG Ally. It is much more versatile because it has removable controllers. It additionally has quicker RAM, which ought to make a small distinction in efficiency and battery life. Lastly, it has an even bigger, higher display.

However in case you want a handheld gaming PC that is extra moveable, then the Asus ROG Ally will nonetheless do the trick. It is compact and nonetheless has nice efficiency. And, because of the facility of Home windows 11, you possibly can just about play any sport you may think.