Gaming phones continue to be on the rise, with Lenovo expected to unveil its Legion gaming phone – that’s the working title for now – in the near future.
The company has been teasing the device piece by piece in China for some time, but has now given the nod that a July reveal event will take place. Here’s what we know so far.
Release date and price
- July 2020 reveal
- TBC on-sale date
- Price unknown
Lenovo posted to Weibo – the Chinese social site – an official communication for the launch date, saying “July”. No more than that: we don’t yet know which day, or what time.
As this is a Lenovo phone we don’t expect to see it outside of China (and perhaps some limited other territories in Asia). So expect the promotional materials to be very weighted towards that audience, not the West.
Price-wise it’s also a no-go right now. That’ll take the launch event to tell us how many ¥ you’d need to part with.
Design
- Illuminating “Y” Legion logo to rear
- Additional controller accessories
- In-screen fingerprint scanner
For us one of the most interesting things about this device is the full visualisation of accessories. That’s what makes it a gaming phone for all manner of titles. There’s a clip-on case that looks to provide left and right controllers, complete with buttons, joysticks and illumination.
The phone itself, however, looks very gamer-focused. It’s large, has gaming laptop-style chiselled features, a Legion “Y” logo to the rear that looks as though it lights up. It’s a gaming phone through and through.
Display
- 6.67-inch OLED panel
- 144Hz refresh rate
- 270ms response
When it comes to gaming phones fast refresh is king. And the Legion device is said to havea 144Hz refresh rate, matching the likes of the Red Magic 5G. That ekes just beyond the current swathe of 90-120Hz panels that are entering the market. It’s what gamers expect.
There’s an expectation that the panel used will be a 6.67-inch OLED, giving large scale and those rich blacks and colours. No word on the resolution just yet, though, and whether that will be ultra-high or a more middle-high density for the sake of battery life – after all, not many games run at extreme resolutions.
Cameras
- Side-positioned pop-up selfie camera
- Dual rear cameras: 64MP & 16MP
Rather than going overboard with four or five rear cameras, the Legion gaming phone sticks to two on the rear: thought to be a 64MP main unit (which, no doubt, will use four pixels in one for 16MP default output), alongside a 16MP second – which we would think is a wide-angle unit.
But what’s really out-there was revealed in the second phase of leaks: yep, a pop-up selfie camera positioned on the side of the phone (see picture above). Why would you want that? So when you’re holding the handset with both hands, mid-game, you can chat face-to-face with your gaming buddies. Likely useful for picture-in-picture streaming – which isn’t really a thing on mobile yet (this Legion could be the device to change it!).
Hardware and specs
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 865+ rumoured
- Qualcomm SD865 more likely
- 3D cooling tower structure
- Dual heat pipe partitions
- 5,000mAh battery
- 90W fast-charge
We’ve long been told that this device will feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 chipset, the top standard that we’ll likely see in 2020. That brings a lot of power, ideal for top-end performance.
However, some rumours suggest an SD865+ could feature – that’s the next-up predicted arrival, designed for gaming devices – but with that not even announced by Qualcomm, we doubt that’s likely.
Whichever comes true, asking a lot of the top processor can cause a lot of heat. That’s why the Legion gaming phone is said to have a “cooling tower” internal structure with “dual heat pipe partitions” to lure heat away from the processor, disperse it, cool it best as possible, and allow for top-end speeds to be maintained.
Elsewhere, expect a large battery capacity (5,000mAh) with fast-charging at 90W – faster than originally predicted. That could even be powerful enough to keep the phone charging during gaming sessions.
Lenovo Legion phone rumours: What’s happened so far?
18 March: First Weibo leak
Showing off the phone plus all its accessories, the first image made the Legion gaming phone a more concrete prospect.