What? Intrusive? This is a work of art if you ask me =P
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You say you understand the choice to choose a portable solution, but then write a small essay on why a desktop is better…
The truth is, that desktop you suggested is not portable.
And you didn’t factor in a a decent gaming display (which pretty much doubles the lack of portability).
It’s not just for portability outside of home that appeals. It’s having one system that has everything you need to play games on that doesn’t even need to be plugged in, and when it does, it’s one cable. So; you can play while the other half watches TV, in the kitchen watching dinner, in the garden, in bed, the kids can play, and most importantly while on the porcelain throne.
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I don’t think that is what I said. Certainly not what I meant.
My meaning was only to show that there is a tradeoff in performance to be made for that portability. Whether or not that trade-off is worth it or not is a personal decision.
I was just curious about how the “other half” arrived at their decisions. Maybe I’m fishing for rationalizations I haven’t thought of to buy some more tech? I dunno. I just like to hear how other people see things. Thanks for your input.
I dunno about you guys, but this is the reason I have always come to TPCR.
To indulge in those rationalizations—then enjoy the dstraussing, troubleshooting, rants, and pining for the next unicorn that ensues. 
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I feel like I am dstraussing here but honestly I am glad to not have to worry about a micro SD card reader that I cannot safely use without it very likely dying.
The Girl Genius video game was just released:
https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20230906
I was a backer (on behalf of my daughter who is a fan — look for her name on one of the statues) and have been playing it from GOG:
It seems to be a lot of fun, though unfortunately, it needs a keyboard (or game controller?) — I don’t think it could be played w/ a stylus, which is a shame.
Still waiting on the Switch copy to ship.
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This is exactly what our Best Buy contacts believe is behind the significant jump in all in one desktop sales in the last year. eg. they want a bigger “workspace” than even a 15 inch laptop, but find a traditional desktop bulky and complicated with multiple wires and connections.
PS: BB advice to all in one OEM makers is don’t expect to sell many unless the package includes a wireless keyboard/mouse.
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Update: MPP/pen support is a no go for the Legion Go.
Lenovo Product Team AMA Final Post
Hi Everyone!
As promised a week ago, I am back with the final batch of answers.
Quick links to my previous answers (which you also can easily see if you just go to my profile):
- Day 1
- Day 2
- Day 3
- Day 4
- Day 5
- Screen portrait mode
- No VRR (again)
So let’s go into it!
Pre-release review samples:
- Kind reminder, that none of the people that got their hands on Legion Go units, encountered final units.
- All the samples available up to next week are engineering samples of varying level of earliness.
- This means you may see very different finish on the controllers (glossy simple plastic for really early samples, and matte finish for more late version), connection issues with controllers (software and mechanical), different finish on the domes of sticks.
- The software is affected by this in a special way, having or missing menus/options (like TDP settings an whatnot). Moreover - we only plan to deliver final software release via on the air update closer to the sales embargo dates, so the first people getting the devices (including reviewers) will be advised to update BIOS and Legion Space software right out of the box.
- Yes, there will be reviews on the final hardware and release version software closer to the sales embargo date (moroe on that later).
- The global sales embargo date is 31st of Oct. There is no embargo date on placing preorders. Means, anyone can preorder at any time, but the actual devices will not be given into user’s hands until the 31st of Oct. Reviews may come before that.
Controllers holders:
- Our controllers are bigger than people may think, and they are designed to be ergonomic on their own, without at holder. I understand that people with other (smaller) devices experience may want to get a holder, but with our controllers it was not planned, and those who held them mostly agree with us.
- However, for those who think they need it, and since the community asked, we are delivering: we will develop one such holder (light plastic connector). Moreover, we are currently planning to release it’s 3D-printing file out in public so enthusiasts are able to do one themselves easily.
- We can not promise when exactly the holder will be done, and if we are going to include it with the device by default (as I said - the ergonomics are actually pretty good as it is)
- FPS mode: yes we took into the account that the hand will interfere with controller contacts in the FPS mode. We do not expect any issues there.
Controllers accessories:
- We also plan to develop the powerbank-controller-holder for longer sessions
- We also discuss ability to develop the attachable and/or connectable keyboard middle part
- The controllers “as is” are not able to connect to any device other than Go (using custom bluetooth controllers/protocol), but we plan to change that in future updates
Screen details:
- Glass used: Gorilla Glass (will be added to specs on release, and no, it is not a last minute change - the components take months to source)
- Oleophobic and anti-reflection coating: there is some, but have no specifics
- Color Bit depth: 8-bit color. This is mainly the limitation of the connection cable, that would require more bandwidth and energy to switch to 10-bit at 144Hz at QHD+ resolution. Kind reminder that 97% DCI-P3 coverage still stands and is not affected by bit depth - the bit depth defines how many grades of the color you can see between the opposite sides of color range, but the color range itself is pretty wide, so the picture and color quality will be amazing.
- Windows pen protocol support: no
- Ability to fit refresh rates other than 60 and 144: currently it is a panel limitation, but we will test the panel’s ability to do extra rates, and if positive - will implement. To be clear, the only benefit we can potentially see is the battery life improvement. If you are after fluid frames, then there is no need to care about other refresh rates other than 144 as explained here. But even for battery life please consider that this screen at 144Hz and 150 nits of brightness consumes around 1-1.5W , so with the 49 WHr battery the battery affection on whether you do lower frame rates will not be really affected much (not a zero, but not a too sizable influence as well).
Haptics:
- Linear Mass Actuator.
MicroSD:
- Up to 2TB supported
- UHS-2 compliant
TDP and VRAM:
- VRAM can be customized as 3GB/4GB/8GB (3GB by default)
- TDP is a subject to change, but here is what we have confirmed today (battery/plugged)
Quiet mode: 8W/8W
Balanced mode: 15W/15W
Performance mode: 20W/25W
Custom mode range: 5W-25W on battery / 5W-30W plugged
Hinge mechanism and attach mechanisms:
- Currently in five-digit numbers count and going up, both for hinge and for controllers disattach mechanisms.
- For perspective: if you attach/disattach controllers 5 times a day, every day, that is minimum of 5.5 years of happy attaching/disattaching. Minimum , not average.
- Hinge - even more cycles than that.
Legion Space features (FPS limiter, RIS, FPS counter and so on):
- Legion Space will have simple FPS counter overlay
- Radeon Super Resolution is already implemented as a quick meny option
- Radeon Integer Scaling will be implemented as a quick menu option if AMD driver will allow it
- Fast retrampion downscale to 800p is already implemented in Legion Space, which, given the physical nature of the panel resolution of 1600p should align to a pixel-perfect and no-interpolation needed resolution scaling.
- Cores parking and RAM clockdown will be implemented if AMD BIOS will allow it
- FPS limiter via AMD driver already was in our plans to implement, but no guarantees on release date. Together wit hthe TDP limiter that will be the feature that will allow you to let system hit the FPS you want unless it is higher than the TDP limit you put there.
- Overall the software improvement is a continuous process and there is never truly a “final” state, and we have a quite extensive roadmap on new features going well into 2024. Not all of the feature we are ready to announce now, and they will be released when they are ready.
SSD replacement:
- Firstly I will make a simpler-sounding statement, but then I will follow up with couple of specifically worded legal ones for absolute clarity.
- The answer comes from our global warranty/service department, and is confirmed by EMEA service/warranty department. To be truly cautious from legal perspective I will say that what said below is valid for EMEA (both for Go and Legion/LOQ/Ideapad Gaming laptops). While in theory it is also applies to other parts of the world (since it was a WW answer), I can not claim so for other regions (outside EMEA).
- EMEA in Lenovo is considered as any/every country in Europe, Middle East, Africa.
Simple wording:
You can change the SSD on Go, and it will not affect your warranty, unless you personally, or the drive you install, damage something.
Legal-sounding wording:
- Lenovo is only covering factory defects as a warranty, meaning the warranty can not cover any damage that is inflicted by user or by the drive that the user installed.
1a. However we have a special “accidental damage protection” paid service extention in EMEA as an option for “Premium Care” (NA users may look for “Ultimate Support”) - The warranty for the 3rd party drive user installs is not covered by Lenovo. Lenovo also does not guarantee that 3rd party SSD will work.
2a. Simple example - some SSDs may require quite a bit of extra power. The power lines on Go may not be ready for that request (same is valid for any laptop). The amount of power needed oftenly scales with the SSD size - therefore, having 2TB MicroSD is a guaranteed safe option there to extend your space. - If some kind of issue happens with the device, user has to revert it to the original state before giving the device to the repair. Meaning, you need to put the original SSD back if you give the device back to Lenovo (refund/RMA/repair/etc).
3a. There is a special paid warranty extention called “keep your drive” which does exactly that - you can keep the SSD that came with the system, and do not have to give it back for repair process.
SSD specs:
- PCIE 4 (not PCIE 3 simply because industry is beyond that, but PCIE 3 drives should work)
- No NGFF (which is basically SATA, which requires different and more complex wiring to attach to the slot, which we wanted to avoid).
What’s next?
- We truly appreciate the warm (and sometimes eve heated) interest to Legion Go. The development team was really glad to see such an attention to details, and we are considering all the responses/questions.
- I understand the wish to know every detail of the device, but let’s be real - it is 1.5 months away from being on shelf, and, as I told above, software development is a continious path.
- There are literally (software) features that the team works on, will continue to work to get them before embargo date, and then we have the whole roadmap for 2024. Let the egineers work on what can be done before sales date, and then some as well.
- Both in software and in accessories there is always a choice on what to focus on, which means that the focus can not be on everything. Both in software and in accessories we will consider what comes first and what comes after that, step by step, one foot in front of the other. And we hope you Go with us.
- Thanks to those who already asked their questions and shared their suggestions. We hope the answers the dev team gave were to your liking, and we hope to see you among our customers and community.
- This concludes the AMA - any other questions will have to be answered as they usually are - by real reviews at the sales dates, 1.5 months from today.
- Both Lenovo dev team and I personally hope you liked this AMA experiment of talking to the community directly - please let us know what do you think of it below!
Thanks! And see you around!
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Sigh. Looks like I’m still stuck with Apple for my portable sketchbook.
It really is a bummer. They were even using a panel in a pre-release unit that had (even if not hooked up or interfaced) MPP capabilities in it. I am guessing the only reason is silly segmentation. They don’t want businesses getting wise to it and arming their fleets with $700 gaming tablets when Lenovo would much rather have them buy a $1500 tablet complete with business warranty and support packages.
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Every time I see Elite Dangerous VR available for $7.50 I can’t help but post it. That’s a lot of game for under $10. Not everyone’s cup of tea though, it requires practive and a lot of patience. Deal valid until Sept 26, but honestly likely to return to this price fairly regularly. $30 without the discount.
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If anyone is looking to add Hall Effect sticks to their Ally, the mod is actually pretty simple:
The sticks themselves are a little pricey (but they do offer free shipping if you add custom caps):
Also these also are reportedly compatible with the GPD Win 4 (which backpedaled on the promised Hall Effect upgrade kit).
Must…resist…buying the Oculink-ready GPD Win 4. Finger has hovered over that dam buy button every time I think about handhelds.
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