Prototypes of a Lenovo handheld gaming console, reportedly known as the Legion Play, went on a seemingly unauthorized sale in China, in response to studies from Lilliputing and YouTuber Taki Udon. The latter bought one and posted a YouTube video with a fairly deep hands-on.
Taki Udon wrote that he bought the mannequin for “round $160,” and mentioned within the video that after being proven pictures, he obtained it within the mail shrouded in bubble wrap. That worth is probably going far decrease than what the machine would have bought for if it was ever formally launched.
Fortunately, an enormous sticker on the again of Udon’s machine lists among the specs, suggesting this machine was codenamed “Zelda.” Again in 2021, Liliputing famous that there have been some hidden references to the Legion Play on Lenovo’s web site round Cellular World Congress 2021, which steered a 7-inch, 16:9 show, HDR10, twin audio system, vibration, and a 7,000 mAh battery. Udon’s mannequin, which is available in blue, does seem to satisfy these specs. In Udon’s video, you’ll be able to see that the system got here with 64GB of storage.
In Aida64, Udon discovered that the Legion is operating a Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G processor (the identical chip within the Logitech G Cloud) and 4GB of RAM. It seems to be operating Android 11, one other similarity to the G Cloud. The primary distinction is that this prototype helps show out over USB Sort-C, which the G Cloud doesn’t.
Elements of the UI appear like inventory Android, however it’s fairly closely custom-made and in some methods appears to be influenced by the Nintendo Swap’s minimalistic UI. There’s additionally an utility from Tencent that seems to be extraordinarily comparable one on the Logitech G Cloud. For some sport demos, together with emulation, it is best to take a look at the total video.
Udon appeared to largely just like the bodily machine, although he mentioned he wish to have seen higher rubber on the D-Pad and taller A/B/X/Y buttons.
It is unclear why Lenovo by no means launched the Legion Play. As each Udon and Liliputing level out, this prototype seems to be from 2021, and if the corporate was ready to launch at Cellular World Congress that 12 months, it will have been earlier than Valve’s Steam Deck was ever introduced (that x86-based gaming machine in July 2021). Since then, Logitech has launched the G Cloud, and at CES Razer launched the Razer Edge. Each of these gadgets run on Android and are cloud-focused for gaming on Xbox Sport Go and Nvidia GeForce Now.
As for a way a batch of those Lenovo prototypes went on sale in China, we might by no means know. However those that had been within the know as these gadgets went on sale now have a bizarre piece of Lenovo’s historical past.