Game phones are weird. They make sense to a certain extent on paper. As we know, everyone is a player these days, and most or most of it takes place on mobile devices. Why isn’t it more popular to use game phones? It is not for lack of attempts.
Lenovo is the latest company to throw its hat in this highly specific ring. You can do something like this if you are the size of Lenovo and can experiment with such things. Gaming phones are a kind of go-big or go-home offering, and the company mostly does the former with the Legion Phone Duel, a mobile addition to the company’s Legion gaming PCs.
For starters, the handset was briefly mentioned in the recent announcement by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 Plus – and now belongs to a very small club of phones with a chip. From my place, the most interesting thing about this category, however, is how it gives manufacturers the opportunity to experiment with ideas in a way you don’t see often on flagships. In fact, some interesting things definitely happen here.
For one, it has two batteries – something that you don’t really see outside of leaflets. Of course, they wear them for the very pragmatic reason that the phone batteries don’t work. Here, however, the batteries are disconnected to avoid overheating, which causes the company to split the extremely healthy capacity of 5,000 mAh into two parts. You need this type of battery for a game-centered 5G handset.
Also to be highlighted is the horizontal pop-up selfie camera – the most notable feature of early leaks. The idea, of course, is that serious mobile games take place in the landscape configuration. Therefore, the design makes sense so that video recordings can be streamed to services such as Twitch and YouTube. It’s a very specific case application, of course, but this is a very specific phone. And of course, your results may vary when you take selfie videos on the mobile device you use to play.
Speaking of unique functional positions: There are also two separate USB-C charging ports – one in the standard position at the bottom and one at the side. Again, it’s about making it as easy as possible to stay in landscape mode. If you’ve ever tried charging your phone while playing a game, you know how painful it can be.
In addition to the Snapdragon chip mentioned above, you will also find up to 16 GB RAM and up to 512 GB storage. The display is 6.65 inches at 2340 × 1080 with a refresh rate of 144 Hz. The phone does not currently appear to be coming to the US, but will be available in China this month (where it is called the Legion Phone Pro), followed by the Asia Pacific region, Europe / Middle East / Africa and Latin America.
The prices are TBD.
