You can check out the video version of our first impressions below but we will break down the major points here in the artcle as well.
1 - Display
I have to say I really enjoyed the display here this is an 8. 8 in display and as you can see it pops out really well the colors pop out and is really sharp it reminds me of the ROG Ally but something I like about this device is just is bigger than the Ally when it comes to screen.
You get bigger screen real estate when you playing games and it immerses you in the gaming experience and you'll see just how much immersive the screen is compared to something like the ROG Ally or the Steam Deck which is a 7in display.
Comfort
Something that really shocked me is how comfortable this device is, as big as it is it's not that heavy to hold and I think they did a good job at the back of the device with giving you just something to grip onto. I was playing Cyberpunk 2077 for about 2 hours and my hands did not get tired at all so if you were concerned that this device is going too be heavy while you gaming, just know that it's actually really comfortable to hold and it's not as heavy as you might think. After having the Steam Deck I would have to say Legion Go comes pretty close to feeling as comfortable as the Steam Deck, it definitely feels more comfortable than the ROG Ally.
Trackpad
A welcome feature here is the trackpad being able to use this to navigate windows it's a godsend, something I'm always envious about when it comes to the Steam Deck is the trackpad that it has, as you know Windows is not the most friendly UI when it comes to these handheld form PCs, but having a trackpad makes navigation really easy and smooth so it's a welcome feature
Controllers
Something to note that you are probably aware of already, is the controllers detach. I would have to say detaching the controllers is kind of a headache. you have to definitely practice with it to get used to it and i'm still struggling.
My concern with this is how durable is this going to be when you do this multiple times and if the connectors inside start to wear and what happens if they do.
Once you detach the controllers you get this big display and I would go as far as to call this a tablet more than a handheld PC because as you can see it looks huge but yes I'm a big fan of the design.
Software
This is using something called Legion space so you hit the top right buttonand you have access to Legion space Quick settings now I was concerned I've made some concerns videos as you guys aware about about just how sluggish this is I have to say the final unit this is actually quite Snappy.
Something that I don't like about Legion space quick panels is just how you have to push it multiple times just to get to what you want, for instance to get to the recent play games etc you have to push that that top right button 2-3 times.
I wish it was just a dedicated button that gets you right into this but again I hope it's something that they can fix when it comes to Legion space though my thing with this is that I hope as time progresses that they add more to this as you can see with the resolution you only have 800p 1080P and 2560 and with the refresh rate you only have 60 and 144 Hz
Something to note is that the software is still kind of sluggish, for instance if I push the top left button to access the Full Legion Space nothing is happening, I've had this happen multiple times to where I'm trying to get into Legion Space and nothing seems to be happening , this also happens sometimes with the quick settings button as well. I think this is a new software and hopefully with updates right that can be fixed.
Quick Settings here you have access to your brightness volume you have access to your resolution refresh rate and under Performance you have access to your battery for everything, your console battery, your left and right controllers and it gives you your performance monitor here and frame monitor so with the frame monitor you have different options as you can see here you can go to simple to where it just has FPS you can go to normal to where it just have battery FPS CPU and then you can go to all that just gives you more here or you can turn it off completely.
Thermal modes you have quiet, balanced, performance and then you can customize your thermals but I normally play in performance when I'm playing AAA games that seems to work pretty well.
With cloud gaming you can put GeForce now or Xbox cloud gaming to get that to work you have access to game store and I think this is pretty cool you have Game Planet where you can access the Steam Store as well as Xbox and Epic so it's pretty cool to just have all these in one place.
Main Settings you have Performance, Network, Bluetooth, Display, Voice controller and customize space, Screenshots and Download.
Android games I have to say is a huge disappointment because this is not using the Google Play Store, it's only using the Amazon app store and it doesn't have as many apps as the Google Play Store. When it comes to games top grossing these are old games you probably don't want to play and not known games like PUBG or Call of Duty mobile or Fortnite
Games
Well I'm actually really impressed by the performance of this.
God of War about 45 FPS running at 800p which looks incredible on this device running medium settings.
Let's change the resolution to 1080p you're going to notice an FPS drop and God of War is no at 1080p and now 30-40 FPS, but mostly mid-low 30s.
God of War is definitely playable at 1080p medium settings but when you compare this to 800p it doesn't look that much better so they did a fantastic job with 800p.
Let's push it to 2K and the performance definitely takes a hit, we're at 20 - 30 FPS and it gets kind of sluggish, but it is playable and to see this game actually push in 2K is it's pretty pretty impressive at medium settings, now if we turn this to low you probably get a higher FPS.
FPS Mode
This device killer feautre is the FPS mode, its a little fiddly to setup but I think where this device actually shines is you can use this to play flying games, of course you can use this to play driving games and so that honestly is what I'm more interested in than just playing FPS games so be sure to check out Ace Combat 7 with this FPS mode.
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