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Gaming handhelds are in a bit of a rough spot right now. The Nintendo Switch 2 costs significantly more than its predecessor, the Steam Deck is out of stock in most regions, and the Xbox handheld is prone to bugs. Plus, they’re all huge.
Lenovo has been one of the better companies in this space of late, releasing two of my favorite gaming handhelds running, but the company apparently isn’t done with handhelds yet. At Mobile World Congress, Lenovo showed off its newest concept, the modular Legion Go Fold handheld, a device that tries to solve pretty much every problem in gaming handhelds through one neat trick: It’s also a foldable tablet.
Various ways to use the Lenovo Legion Go Fold Concept
Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt
The device is essentially a tablet with an 11.6-inch OLED screen that can fold in half, but it comes with two controller halves that can attach to it in a number of ways. While you can use the full screen horizontally if you like, with one controller half on either side, you can also orient the tablet vertically for a “dual-screen” experience. Or, fold that vertical orientation over itself for a more compact 7.7-inch screen. There’s also a stand and Bluetooth keyboard you can use to turn the tablet into a pseudo laptop, and you can even connect the controller halves to a connector piece to turn it into a standalone controller that doesn’t need to be attached to the tablet. I tried all of these configurations, and they mostly felt comfortable, although I’ll admit the “dual-screen” mode did feel a little top heavy on the early prototype I tested.
Lenovo’s “FPS Mode” even makes a return, so you can take the right-hand controller piece and slot it into a special dock to use it like a mouse. Essentially, this thing can play in pretty much any orientation or form factor you can think of, meaning you won’t need to buy multiple handhelds for different use cases anymore. The tablet is Windows-based, too, promising more app compatibility than Android. And one of the controller halves even has its own tiny OLED screen, for keeping an eye on important performance stats.
The catch? Like a lot of Lenovo’s more interesting devices, the Legion Go Fold is just a concept for now. If you want to see it come to fruition, you’ll have to make your voice heard with an email or social post—Lenovo has a history of making good on its concepts, so you never know if the company is just testing the waters to gauge interest.
Unfortunately, because it’s a concept, there’s no word on what the Legion Go Fold might cost, although I do know the prototype I saw was decked out with an Intel Core Ultra 7 CPU, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage. Based on Lenovo’s other gaming handhelds, I’d have to guess this would start for at least $600, and could go as high as $1,100, which is obviously pricier than the Switch 2 or Steam Deck, but might be worth it for all this device can do.
Lenovo also showed off a Framework competitor
ThinkPad Modular AI PC Concept
Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt
The Legion Go Fold is the clear standout among Lenovo’s MWC lineup, but there are a few other noteworthy devices worth calling out.
Alongside iterations on existing laptops and consumer tablets that will be making their way to market later this year, Lenovo also showed off the ThinkBook Modular AI PC concept, which reads like the company’s approach to the Framework Laptop. This device seems like a normal laptop at first, but you can swap out the keyboard for a second display if you’d like. You can then use that display for touch input, or continue to use the keyboard you just removed wirelessly. There’s also an integrated kickstand, so you can prop up the second display to become an external monitor instead, and slot the second display into the laptop lid to use the device like a tablet while it’s closed.
What do you think so far?
So far, none of that is especially Framework-y, but the kicker is that this concept’s ports are modular, so you can mix and match how many USB or ethernet connections you have. That’s something we haven’t really seen from any company other than Framework, so it looked like Lenovo decided to see that laptop’s bet and then raise it.
Concepts for Lenovo AI Workmate (left), Lenovo AI Work Companion (center), Yoga Wireless Webcam (right)
Credit: Lenovo
The Lenovo Workmate is an odd AI device
In the enterprise space, there’s the Lenovo AI Workmate, a concept that basically attaches an AI chatbot to an animated touchscreen and puts it on an articulating robot arm. It’s supposed to be able to do regular computer things, like scan documents or even create PowerPoints, but looking at the thing, I think the idea is to make you greet your new robot overlords with a smile.
Also, while I didn’t get to see them, Lenovo also showed off concepts for the AI Work Companion, which focuses more on scheduling and look like a retro alarm clock, and the Yoga Wireless Webcam, which can stream 4K video to your computer from a distance.
Lenovo Yoga Book Pro 3D Concept
Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt
Finally, the company showed off a glasses-free 3D laptop concept, called the Yoga Book Pro 3D. Devices like these have become common among creatives in the past few years, but what sets this one apart is that it comes with magnetic pucks you can place on it to summon certain tools in your editing programs.
Again, these concepts aren’t guaranteed to come to market, but they certainly bring some much-needed oddball energy to the table at a time when other big companies are sticking with tried-and-true designs. Here’s hoping the RAM crisis doesn’t keep them in the lab longer than necessary.
