The mobile gaming scene is heating up with a bigger selection of titles and 5G smartphones which enables super-fast download speeds. Lenovo is set to capitalise on this trend with the smartphone they believe will enhance the mobile gaming experience - the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel.

The company notes it is created specifically for on-the-go gamers passionate about high performance and who prefer the comfort and convenience of playing entirely in horizontal mode, with sub-6 5G for better coverage and tested speeds up to 2.52 Gb/s.

To start you have six specially customised layout themes to choose from, each with distinctive design details, colours, and icons that resonate with gamers. Plus, home mode allows you to cast to or play on a connected external monitor/TV while using either a wireless keyboard and mouse, or your preferred wired accessories via a dock. Its virtual joystick and dual ultrasonic trigger buttons are embedded, and dual vibration engines provide life-like feedback for deeper gameplay immersion.

Lenovo notes it is amongst the first to feature the next-level, flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus 5G Mobile Platform that delivers revved-up performance across the board for speedy Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite Gaming, plus global 5G support. 

The Lenovo Legion can also configure up to 16 GB LPDDR5 high capacity RAM or the optional 12 GB configuration, and ample storage up to 512 GB UFS 3.1. This is supported by dual 2500 mAh batteries, making sure your gaming can last into nighttime.

The phone has been designed for blur-free animations via a 6.65” Full HD (2340 x 1080) AMOLED glass touchscreen display with 144 Hz refresh rate, which should help with videos and gaming images new light. Lenovo believes the ultra-responsive Lenovo Legion Phone Duel’s 240Hz touch sampling rate will also make you wonder how you ever put up with time lags before.

High capacity 5000mAh battery life thanks to dual 2500mAh batteries placed in gamer’s grip areas on either side of the central logic board.

A SHARED MISSION

Gaming on a smartphone can be very resource intensive. With this in mind, the Lenovo Legion mobile gaming engineers and designers worked with the gaming community to prioritise their most valued product attributes.

It turns out, many mobile gamers agree with PC players on the must-have features, such as, balanced performance, reliable stamina, and immersive features that get your heart racing. The trick with packing as much performance and power as you can into a smartphone that fits in the palm of your hand, is that those internals are going to heat up. The question was how to keep everything cooler for the gamer. Having already met the challenge of employing smarter thermals, incredible performance and more in the lineup of Lenovo Legion PCs earlier this year, the Lenovo Legion team was well positioned to deliver on mobile and PC gamers’ shared needs.

CHARGED UP, COOL AND CLEAR

By inventing advanced methods to better dissipate heat with dual liquid-cooling and copper tubes, plus moving the dual 2500 mAh batteries off to the sides where gamers’ hands would rest (vs. forcing them to touch the warm logic board encasing the processor), Lenovo made the handset easier to hold while also extending gameplay without the fear of overheating.

A convenient center charging port means your cord won’t get in the way while catching a battery boost when gaming in landscape mode. Full 90 W Turbo Power Charging takes both charging cords (from center and side ports) to power up both batteries for a combined total of 5000 mAh. Lenovo notes charging speed from zero to up to 50% power in only 10 minutes, with a full charge taking 30 minutes.

As far as audio is concerned, clearer situational battle cues in-game is made possible with dual front-facing stereo speakers with large 1.4cc acoustics chambers for far-reaching sound quality.

Pair that with the virtual gamepad controls for touch and move simulations thanks to the Lenovo Legion Assistant. Here the company provides near instant, dynamic and surrounding vibration from specialised engines to simulate the feel of in-game hits.

A built-in gyroscope sensor detects motion and complex orientation changes, like while watching a 360-degree video, or when your screen view autorotates whenever you rotate your phone on its horizontal axis. Although many Android smartphones have one embedded now, the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel leverages its gyro to optimize the gaming experience for the user, for example, its virtual joystick feature works by moving your thumb around on the screen while playing a game, either to aim or to move players in a new direction.

These in-screen touch signals are mapped to gyro sensors which are continually sending data to the display driver resulting in the smooth rotations and execution of commands in-game. Simply tilt and angle your phone to aim or use it as your steering wheel in your favorite racing title. Further enhancing a more tactile gaming experience are the Audio to Vibration (A2V) features, this tool analyses audio directional signals for in-game cues to trigger associated stimulations, allowing you to hear and feel sound and vibration from the right if your racecar was hit on that side.

LIGHTS, CAMERA — CAPTURE

Designed to offer gamers better grip, the phone feels solid at 239 grams (8.43 ounces) and is 9.9 mm (0.38 in) at its thickest point. In line with other gaming rigs, you can choose a high-octane red or cool blue with programmable RGB lighting effects for Lenovo Legion’s recognizable “Y” icon and the back of its pop-up selfie camera. Lights can also be programmed to dynamically change depending on in-game effects for a more immersive experience.

Just one use of the mobile broadcasting features will have YouTube and Twitch channel streamers ditching their cumbersome home recording studios for good. Four noise-cancelling microphones record audio from all around to allow live streamers to easily record themselves at eSports events and other busy environments.

With the phone’s customised software dashboard called Lenovo Legion Realm, wherever gamers are, they can tweak hardware performance settings, scroll through the latest downloadable titles in Google Play, and select the enabled network that gives you the best quality and/or least traffic in that moment, i.e. WLAN, 5G, or Wi-Fi 6, to help reduce video and in-game latency.

Capture general HD 1080p footage and record in 4K at up to 30 FPS (frames per second) for remarkable clarity with a high-powered 20 MP front camera that stays tucked inside bezel when not live streaming for a clean look, also features auto-retract drop protection. Plus, a high resolution 64 MP rear camera for 64 MP resolution photos, which also has a quad pixel sensor for shooting high-quality, 16 MP resolution photos in dark and bright conditions.

To self-record your voice and reactions as you play, simply wake the built-in front camera while gaming to simultaneously record and overlay your image on-screen. This feature is compatible with popular streaming apps. With a multiple video lens, anyone can host a streaming channel. You can remove the background and use AI to auto-enhance your image via our selfie editor featuring several unique retouching filters and correction options for adding a sense of style. At launch, users can auto-enhance images with our programmed adjustments for a more balanced appearance, and later via a phone update, this feature will also allow users to adjust filter settings to their liking (up to 100 levels of varying intensity), before sharing stylised clips.

With the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel, as soon as a gamer ends a session, you can review all the gaming highlights on-the-fly via a preview screen, so all you need do is select, then merge recorded clips together if desired, before easily sharing with others.

And if you’ve just knocked out a tough enemy in a game but forgot to hit record— fear not, just use a finger to slide your right ultrasonic trigger key to the left to go back in time to relive hero moments and instantly reversely-record what just happened to share proof of your victory with battle mates, fans and friends.

As far as availability is concerned, the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel is expected to be available starting July in China with other markets to follow. An official launch date or price for South Africa is not available yet.