Gaming

Lenovo Legion Phone Duel review: Raw gaming power

Everything you expect from a gaming smartphone

Published

October 17, 2020

One look at the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel and you know right away that it’s made for people who hardcore want to play. But smartphones are for more than just gaming and that balancing act is what Lenovo tried to achieve.

The company has an interesting messaging on why it’s named “Duel”. It’s mostly on how it was built, but it’s also about striking a balance between work and play. Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s first unbox the phone.

The box looks fantastic and is easier to figure out than its primary competition.

Opening it up reveals the Legion Phone Duel. A mechanical door opening sound effect plays every time you open the box.

Cheated a little bit here. The phone will be wrapped with the usual plastic protection when you first open it up.

Digging deeper into the box you’ll find the massive power brick with two USB-C ports for dual charging. More on that later.

Elsewhere inside the box is USB-C to 3.5mm audio jack, a sim tray ejector tool, and the user guide.

It also comes with a plastic case for “some” protection. It snaps on the phone any which way as part of the dual, symmetrical design.

Taking a closer look at the phone, at the back you’ll find Legion’s slogan: Stylish outside. Savage inside.

How well does it play?

Let’s jump right into the gameplay. To launch games you have installed, the phone has the Legion Realm. It’s the gaming hub where you can customize how much of its combination of specs — Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus and up to 16GB RAM — will be used for your gameplay session.

Funny thing is, it doesn’t seem to know exactly which apps are games or not. Upon firing it up the first time, it incorrectly identified Skype, Guitar Tuna and VSCO as gaming apps. You can, of course, manually take out and add apps, but this is a software kink that has to be fixed in an update.

Speaking of software kink, the Legion Phone Duel is built to go on landscape mode even on the home screen. But every time I try to enable auto-rotate, the screen kind of glitches for a second. It’s not that big of a deal but is worth mentioning.

Alright. Let’s jump in for real.

Call of Duty: Mobile

This is the game that I spend the most time with. On any given day, I would fire up a quick match when I need to step away from work for a while. I got pretty much the exact same sensations when I first played Call of Duty: Mobile on the ROG Phone 2.

The 144Hz screen refresh rate is smooth AF. It almost feels like you have an edge over the other players. Moving around and aiming the crosshair at my targets was easier.

This being a first-person shooter also really takes advantage of everything the phone has to offer. The shoulder buttons feel amazing and responsive. With this, you’ll be racking up kills in no time.

Genshin Impact

This is the game that I wish I could spend more time on. I typically don’t enjoy playing Action-RPG types on smartphones, but the combination of the phone’s raw power and stunning display along with the game’s design and gorgeous visuals made this such a fantastical experience.

Would like to note, though, that this is also the title where I experienced the most level of heating. It was nothing alarming, though and it mostly happened during days when it was also unbearably humid.

League of Legends: Wild Rift

Honesty hour again. For this game, I only really played the tutorial part — which I thought it handles better than Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. I personally get no kick playing these types of games, but if this is your jam, know that it looks great and plays really well on the Legion Phone Duel.

Asphalt 9

This is the standard game for testing/playing racing games. The last time I played this though was on a budget tablet and I was pleasantly surprised at how good the game looks and plays on a high-end device. Again, same satisfying experience all throughout.

Injustice 2

This is my go-to for trying fighting games, but like Action-RPG titles, I prefer to play fighting games on devices where I can button mash. That said, this game had the most noticeable graphical jump for me. I just don’t remember it looking this good on the other devices where I played it.

Delivers on gaming

As a gaming smartphone, the Legion Phone Duel impresses. All the design decisions that went into making this a truly satisfying gaming experience hits all the right spots.

The Dual Shoulder Controls with Dual Haptics feel great. The Legion assistant app is easy to access in-game and doesn’t feel intrusive. And it has just the right width and heft that won’t wear you out during extended gaming sessions.

The Dual front-firing speakers are okay. They’re great on a phone but since I regularly use HiFi audio accessories, it was easy to detect that it’s not able to register certain higher frequencies.

Fret not though, the Legion Phone Duel supports all kinds of HiFi audio format. If you have the gear for it, you’ll enjoy this even more.

Accessories?

Lenovo says the Legion Phone Duel was built only as a phone in mind. With that, it doesn’t come with any special Legion-branded accessories at launch,

However, it is compatible with other more universal accessories. And if you have a keyboard and more, or another controller lying around, you should be able to connect the phone with the right kind of dock.

Weak point: Cameras

The hardware is present: 64MP main camera and 16MP wide angle.

Even the design and camera position is thoughtful for what it’s trying to be. But the results are… well, they need improvement.

Some photos look like they have some sort of filter.

But every so often you will get a few good shots.

Be careful about shooting vertically, though as you might end up with something like this.

It’s decent indoors with a fair amount of lighting.

But it really struggles at night.

Occasionally, you’ll get something decent.

Up front is a 20MP Pop-up camera.

It’s steady. Selfies are about as hit and miss as the rear cameras. You also get this nifty dual shot feature.

But I used it more on a few video calls. It’s wide angle and captures a lot. Quality-wise, it’s decent. Better than any webcam on a laptop.

Dual Charging

Another dual aspect is charging. Instead of a single power cell, the Legion Phone Duel has two 2,500mAh situated on the sides of the phone as you hold it horizontally.

It also has two USB-C ports that you can use at the same time when juicing the phone up.

The results I got are as follows:

Started “dual” charging at 10%
Got to 100% in 1:12:25

Started single charting at 43%
Got to 100% in 49:34

Battery life is around what you expect. On a regular day where you’re doing work and are just browsing and playing during breaks, you won’t need to top-up overnight.

But on days where you do nothing but play, expect to run it dry twice as fast than on a regular day.

Dual looks, other things of note

Like any other Android phone, you can customize the Lenovo Phone Duel depending on your preferences. For its part, Lenovo has a selection of default wallpapers that look hardcore gamer and casual user.

As a media device, this phone is also fantastic. The 6.65” FHD+ AMOLED Display is such a treat to the eyes. That’s true whether you’re watching K-Pop videos on Youtube.

Or perhaps catching up on your favorite Netflix series.

The display is also great even when you’re just casually browsing on social media.

Doubling down on its “dual” approach, the phone (In the Philippines at least), is available in only two variants.

Blazing Blue — 12GB+256GB
Vengeance Red — 16GB+512GB

(Editor’s Note: This was previously written as Blazing Blue (16GB+512GB) and Vengeance Red (12GB+256GB) as initially shared by Lenovo. This has now been corrected).

Asked why this was the case, Lenovo channeled their inner Yes or Yes Mina saying it’s to make the choice more simple for the buyers. It will be available in all authorized resellers by November 1, 2020.

Is Legion Phone Duel your GadgetMatch?

Lenovo has a few things to fix on the software end. The hardware, though, is fantastic. As a gaming smartphone, the Legion Phone Duel won’t leave you wanting.

It has the raw power to play just about any mobile game. The display is gorgeous with a speedy response time. The front-firing speakers are good on their own but paired with HiFi audio accessories, and you’re in for quite an immersive treat.

It has the natural shortcomings of a first generation gaming phone — the photos just aren’t there yet. However, it has more to do with Lenovo’s software processing more than anything. With a few software updates, I don’t see how this can’t improve.

As far as expectations for a gaming phone goes, the Legion Phone Duel is part for the course. It made some truly interesting design choices that it would probably take someone heavily invested on mobile gaming to make this their main smartphone.

Gaming

Nintendo’s latest toy is Super Mario Wonder’s Talking Flower

It tells the time and jokes around randomly throughout the day.

Published

January 23, 2026

Luigi Leonardo

Late in 2024, Nintendo announced the Alarmo, the quirkiest alarm clock we would’ve grabbed immediately if alarm clocks were still a big thing. Today, the company has announced its next clock-like toy: the Talking Flower from Super Mario Wonder.

To me, the Talking Flower was a welcome addition to the franchise’s burgeoning cast of characters. The occasionally appearing character delivered timely quips that broke the monotony of the level’s music or provided meaningful tips.

However, there is a good number of players who find the flower irritating and mute the character altogether. If you’re part of this group, then Nintendo’s latest clock isn’t for you.

The new Talking Flower doesn’t have its own clock display. It only has a speaker, but it can announce the hour “mostly accurately,” according to Nintendo.

It’s an odd product. The brand wants the flower to be glitchy. Besides being “mostly accurate” with the time, it can also randomly blurt out alerts in one of its handful of available languages, outside of what the user set.

Further, it can comment on the weather and play music. It can also say “words of encouragement and silly quips” randomly throughout the day. The Talking Flower certainly has the spirit of the character it’s modeled after.

As for input buttons, it only has a single button. One press makes it say something outside of its scheduled prompts. Holding the button for two seconds silences the thing.

The Talking Flower will ship out on March 12. It will sell for US$ 34.99.

Gaming

You can now race as teams in Mario Kart World’s Knockout Tour

The free update is rolling out now.

Published

January 23, 2026

Luigi Leonardo

Mario Kart World needs little to no improvements. The latest entry in the legendary racing franchise introduced players to the open-world format. Taking advantage of that new format, the game also has a unique new mode called the Knockout Tour. Today, Mario Kart World is getting a surprising-but-welcome update which adds a team option to the survival mode.

In stark contrast to Mario Kart’s usual gameplay, Knockout Tour introduces a battle royale element to the game. The mode strings together a series of races seamlessly leading from on to the next via the open-world format. Players are eliminated for placing at or near the bottom after every leg, eventually leading to a three-way race to finish first.

Prior to today’s announcement, players race for themselves. But now, via a free update, players can now compete in two teams of twelve, three teams of eight, or four teams of six. They must still survive individually, but points are now collated based on teams.

The number of points derives from finishing position. Finishing in P1, for example, will bag the player a total of 50 points for that leg. Meanwhile, eliminated players get only a single point. At the end of the entire tour, everyone’s points are tallied up, and the win is awarded to the team with the most points.

The new mode can be raced locally or online. If the pool lacks players to round out the teams, the game will provide AI opponents.

The update is rolling out now and is for free.

Gaming

Now playing: Final Fantasy VII Remake INTERGRADE on Switch 2

Final Fantasy VII Remake, handheld again

Published

January 23, 2026

Rodneil Quiteles

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade | Nintendo Switch 2

There are two ways I ended up playing Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade on the Switch 2: handheld, and docked. And in many ways, that split mirrors what this release is really about—flexibility, familiarity, and a little bit of re-learning.

Relearning muscle memory

Let’s get the small friction point out of the way first. Button prompts. Even after all this time, my brain still defaults to PlayStation glyphs. Triangle means something very specific to me in Final Fantasy VII Remake, and retraining that muscle memory on a Nintendo layout took a bit longer than expected. That’s not the game’s fault—it’s just the reality of revisiting something you’ve deeply internalized on another platform. And honestly, it’s something I’ll just have to get used to as more of these previously PlayStation-first titles land elsewhere.

Once that adjustment period passed, the bigger surprise came quickly—especially in handheld.

Midgar in the palm of your hand

Without even stacking it up against the PS4 or PS5 versions, the Switch 2 version already looks impressive on its own. In fact, it looks really good. There’s a moment of quiet disbelief when you realize you’re holding Midgar in your hands, running locally, and still retaining that sense of scale and atmosphere the remake is known for.

I’ve played Final Fantasy VII Rebirth on devices like the ROG Ally and Legion Go, and the feeling here is similar. Not in raw power comparisons, but in that same sense of admiration—Square Enix managing to package something this dense, cinematic, and emotionally loaded into a handheld experience without it feeling compromised at first glance. That same awe of seeing this classic reimagined is still intact, even on a smaller screen.

Living with 30fps

Performance-wise, the most noticeable limitation is the 30fps cap. It’s there, and anyone coming from a 60fps playthrough will notice it immediately. That said, it never felt like a dealbreaker to me.

Command inputs still land cleanly, combat remains responsive, and nothing about the experience felt sluggish. If you’re sensitive to frame rate shifts, this might take some adjustment. But in motion, and especially in handheld, it rarely pulls focus away from the game itself.

Streamlined progression, real relief

One feature that quietly made a big difference for me is the new Streamlined Progression option. Being able to start with maxed-out stats, unlimited resources, and reduced friction is a genuine quality-of-life win—especially for players who’ve already finished the game once and don’t necessarily want to grind their way through Midgar again.

It turns Intergrade into a smoother re-experience, letting you focus on the story beats and combat flow rather than progression systems you already know by heart.

The storage reality check

The less glamorous reality check comes with storage. At roughly 90GB, this is a heavy install, particularly if—like me—you lean heavily toward digital purchases. I had to delete three games just to make room.

If you have the option to go physical on Switch 2, that might be the more practical route, especially as more large-scale ports make their way onto the platform.

A familiar journey, made portable

Contextually, this release matters beyond just another port. Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade arriving on Switch 2 is part of Square Enix’s broader push to bring the entire remake trilogy to more platforms, with the final entry already in development.

It also reinforces Intergrade as the most accessible entry point into the series—bundling the main campaign with the Yuffie-led EPISODE INTERmission, and now offering features that lower the barrier for newcomers while respecting returning players’ time.

At US$39.99, it lands at a price that feels fair. Whether you’re completely new to Final Fantasy VII Remake or just want a portable version of a game you already love, this is an easy recommendation—storage caveats aside.

Overall, this is an impressive Switch 2 port. Not perfect, not trying to outmuscle the PS5 version, but confident in what it is. Seeing Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade run this well, this comfortably, on a handheld still feels a little surreal—and that alone makes it worth playing again.

If you’re looking for deeper technical breakdowns and direct comparisons with the PS4 and PS5 versions, Digital Foundry continues to do excellent work on that front. But as a lived-in experience, this one already earns its place on the Switch 2.