As a long-time on-the-go gamer who started with the original Nintendo Gameboy (now a full-time Nintendo Switch user), mobile gaming was always something that I enjoyed. But would a "gaming phone" such as this Lenovo Legion Phone Duel be able to quench my thirst to game and use it as a communication device at the same time?
In short, yes. But there are few trade-offs since this Lenovo Legion Phone Duel is an amalgamation of a gaming console and a fast mobile phone. There are things that Lenovo did perfectly such as create a phone that can run the most demanding games (Genshin Impact) at maximum settings, two extra touch-sensitive buttons at the phone's top left and right corners for extra customisable inputs, a huge 5,000mAh battery (two 2,500mAh batteries on each side) that can be charged with two charging ports at twice the speed, and no notches or holes on the front screen to obscure your gaming experience. However, you have to deal with a 1080p screen (despite having an extremely smooth 144Hz refresh rate) and the phone's body is thick and heavy and it does not have a top-tier camera.
Design-wise, this is the most extreme and bizarre phone compared to the slew of usual slab designs we have become used to in past few years, but it is a genuinely nice change if you want something different. The glossy blue-back with plenty of embossed stripes, RGB lights and a pop-up frontal camera are things that I am sure that you have rarely seen on phones. This design unapologetically screams "gamer".
The chunkiness, glittering colours, strips and lights are not for the faint of heart nor for businessmen or women due to a lack of subtleness. I, on the other hand, loved it.
The phone has an extra smooth 144Hz screen refresh rate making the experience of moving around the user interface buttery smooth that can be adjusted in four steps -- 144, 120, 90 or 60Hz to fit your needs (and to save some battery at the lower refresh rates).
With the phone's extraordinary loud and bassy frontal stereo speakers, it can easily substitute a loudspeaker. In fact, the volume can rival most Bluetooth speakers with ease and it is so loud that, in most cases, you will only want to pump the volume at around 65% or risk being told off by your significant other.
The phone has two charging ports -- on the bottom and on the side -- that can refill the batteries at 65W and charge from 0-100% in half-an-hour. The side charging port is a godsend for gamers since it is unobtrusive when charging while gaming. For normal phones with a charging port at the bottom, the line will be where you need to grab the phone from the side, making it a little hard to handle properly. Moreover, the phone only becomes hot and toasty in the middle of the back part where your hands don't reach, which is very good design for serious gaming as it prevents players from cooking their hands.
Lenovo placed the phone's front camera under the power button and it only pops up when called upon. While the phone's main wide and ultra-wide cameras are placed around the mid-section of the backplate, all three cameras produce vibrant photos and videos and are very snappy. There are very few gimmicks or extra modes to choose from but they are decent for general use and social media. Videos and photos taken in low-light situations come out a little grainy though. The cameras are okay but sub-par compared to the other 20,000 baht-plus phones I have tried. I noticed that the front pop-up camera produced better results than the back wide and ultra-wide ones in terms of sharpness.
Since the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus chipset, it is very responsive and is on par with any phone released in 2021. It also supports both standalone and non-standalone 5G signals which future-proofs the phone for faster internet speed.
The phone runs Android 10 with Lenovo's slight tweaks giving more control to users to block notifications and calls during gaming sessions, letting you overclock the CPU for even smoother gameplay (at the cost of heat and battery usage). If you want to stream what is onscreen together with your face using the pop-up camera on Twitch or YouTube, this can be done from the phone's notification shade which you can pull down from the top at any time during gameplay. Everything else is basically stock Android through and through. But unfortunately, I did experience occasional graphic glitches (like screens stuck in horizontal mode or text zoomed-in that would not zoom out) and hangs a few times a week, which was way more than my use of Samsung and Apple devices (glitches happened once or twice a year only). But this is something that can easily be resolved by restarting the phone.
With the size and bulkiness of the phone, I thought Lenovo would be able to fit a 3.5mm headphone jack in. But, no, they did not. It has become clear now that a pair of Bluetooth earphones is pretty much required for most phones because very few have this traditional port. What a bummer.
The Legion is noticeably heavier than any phone I previously had. I gave it to my daughter to use for a week due to her old one breaking down and she was happy with it, but did complain about the weight regularly. Since she games only a little, she did not tap into the potential of what the phone can do. I ended up getting a mid-range phone for her instead.
This review may come a little late since the latest Lenovo Legion Duel, called the Legion 2, has already been announced. But since that phone is not on shelves yet, this phone has 2020's best chipset, an unmatched charging speed, probably more RAM than your PC, and is extremely viable for people who focus on mobile gaming. The current market price is hard to beat at 16,000 baht.
SPECS
- CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus 5G Mobile Platform
- Screen: AMOLED FHD+ 6.65-inch (2340 by 1080 pixels)
- RAM: LPDDR5 12GB
- Storage: 256GB (UFS 3.1)
- Battery: 5,000mAh
- Camera: 20MP (frontal), 64MP wide + 16MP ultra-wide (back)
- OS: Android 10 with Lenovo's ZUI 12 on top
- Weight: 239g
- Other: Dual frontal speakers, 2 USB-C charging ports, Wi-Fi 6, NFC, Bluetooth 5, on-screen fingerprint scanner
- Price: 15,990 baht (on Lazada at bit.ly/3tDRfh7)
