The Pretty Screen on Lenovo’s Legion Go 2 Will Almost Make You Forget About Its Price

Why change what works? In the case of Lenovo’s Legion Go 2, the question morphs into “Why change what makes you distinct?” Lenovo’s upcoming sequel to its Legion Go handheld gaming PC is more powerful, has grips made for human hands, and sports a prettier screen. Its blood is flowing with the same DNA as Lenovo’s odd handheld, but now it comes with a price tag designed to make your wallet weep.

Here’s the kicker. At IFA 2025, Lenovo declared the Legion Go 2 will start at $1,050. For comparison, the next most expensive handheld from one of the big laptop OEMs, the MSI Claw 8 AI+, currently demands $1,000 after tariff-impacted price hikes. The Legion Go 2 handheld comes out sometime in October, though Lenovo let me play a few rounds of Balatro to get a feel for its layout and bask in front of its bright OLED display. This is an organic light-emitting diode display without a separate backlight, meaning it generates much better contrast and deep “inky” blacks compared to your average LCD. The screen is still a massive 8.8 inches with a 1,920 x 1,200 resolution, but now it supports variable refresh rate, or VRR, between 30Hz and 144Hz. This could help the Legion Go 2 show your games in the best light, whether they’re running at a minimum of 30 fps or well over 100 fps.

The Legion Go 2 has beefy specs for its price

Specs-wise, the Legion Go 2 uses AMD’s latest high-end handheld-centric chip, the Ryzen Z2 Extreme, and sports up to 32GB of high-speed RAM. Lenovo also upgraded the battery to 74Wh, twice as much as the first Legion Go. It’s not as high as the Asus ROG Ally X, but hopefully it should support longer battery life than the previous device, which would often conk out after under two hours of gaming. The two USB 4 ports on the top and bottom both support up to 65W charging and video output up to DisplayPort 2.0.

Lenovo’s Legion Go was the odd duckling of the 2023 nascent handheld PC market. Fans who appreciated the large screen life turned the device into a swan of their own design. They crafted grips to make the handheld’s sharp sides feel more ergonomic. Some went as far as to replace Windows 11 with either Bazzite—an operating system developed in Linux made to resemble Valve’s gaming ecosystem—or Valve’s SteamOS itself. The new Legion Go 2 is still stuck using Windows along with the Legion Space app to control the device’s power settings and quick-access games. The device should eventually gain access to the handheld-specific version of Windows 11, but that won’t be around until after Xbox helps launch the Asus ROG Xbox Ally.

The Legion Go 2 feels like an extension of its predecessor, rather than a makeover. The TrueStrike grips have been remodeled to fit more comfortably in adult-sized hands. They can still detach from the main body of the device, à la the Switch 2. Unlike Nintendo’s new handheld, which uses magnetic attachment points, the Legion Go 2 still uses the same pin-based connection that uncouples from the handheld by pulling up and away from the main unit. The controllers are still compatible with accessories like the Charging Connector first introduced in 2024.

An ‘FPS Mode’ that’s still weirder than Switch 2’s mouse mode

The right-hand TrueStrike controller still includes an “FPS Mode,” though it hasn’t changed much from the first Legion Go. Unlike the Switch 2’s mouse mode, you still need to toggle a button underneath the right-hand controller to use the built-in mouse sensor. I didn’t get to try out this mode playing any kind of shooter in my brief time using it. I found the pins still dug into my palm as I tried to to wrap my digits around to hit the two side buttons, which become your mouse clicks. There is a small cover to stick over the connection mount and make the device feel a little better in hand, but your mileage will vary.

Just like the first-gen Legion Go and the more recent $600 Legion Go S with SteamOS, the new Legion Go 2 has Hall effect joysticks that should avoid stick drift issues. What’s stranger still is how everything still feels the same, from the relatively thin joysticks to the flat face buttons. There’s a part of me that was hoping for more changes, especially considering the price bump well above the Legion Go’s $750. Beyond the screen, overall performance will tell us if it’s worth the upgrade and the extra $300.