The first Lenovo Legion Phone Duel was a bold move, and with the Legion Phone Duel 2, the company is doubling down on its unconventional gaming phone direction. First time around, the Lenovo’s gaming brand ditched tradition in favour of landscape orientation mobile, adding a pop-up selfie camera in the center of the phone, and positioning the rear cameras slap bang in the middle portion of the back panel. This was awful for portrait-orientation photography, but anyone who’s bent on taking landscape photos would have felt vindicated with Lenovo’s decision. This time around, Lenovo is updating the internals, upgrading the selfie camera from 20MP to 44MP, and adding even more RGB lighting to the mix.
Taking on the likes of the Asus ROG Phone 5, which we were confident in calling the world’s best gaming phone when we tested it, Lenovo’s new [on-screen] button basher of a flagship has stiff competition. That said, the Lenovo Phone Duel 2 packs a few aces up its sleeve that the ROG Phone 5 doesn’t, most notably, its entire architecture is designed for horizontal use, with its large passive cooling vapor chamber and active Twin Turbo-Fan system.
The phone’s eight on-body triggers, and dual-haptic feedback delivers a console controller-like experience according to Lenovo, while it’s hefty size gives it gravitas. Why’s it so big? A huge 6.92-inch screen occupies the front, combining AMOLED tech with a 2460 x 1080 resolution. It isn’t especially sharp, but with HDR 10+ support, a 144Hz refresh rate and 720Hz touch sampling rate, its quality shines in other respects.
The main camera is a dual-module setup, and combines a 64MP OmniVision (OV64A )image sensor with an f/1.9 aperture, seven element lens. Alongside it, the Legion Phone Duel 2 has an ultra-wide 16MP camera with an f/2.2 aperture and a 123-degree field of view. More than just megapixels, when the Legion Phone Duel 2 is held horizontally, the 44MP, f/2 selfie camera pops up and offers fun tools like background removal. Streamers can also enjoy four noise canceling mics too.
Just like the original Legion Phone Duel, the Duel 2 delivers ridiculously fast charging. The two-cell 5,500mAh battery is 10 percent larger, so the nippy 90W charging (made possible by connecting not one, but two USB-C charging connectors) can power the phone up fully in around 30 minutes.
As for power, a flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset brings the line up to speed, and just like the best from Asus, the Legion Phone Duel 2 packs up to 18GB RAM and 512GB fast UFS 3.1 storage.
Available in Europe in May 2021, the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2 (16GB/512GB) will cost £899, while the lower-capacity version (12GB/256GB) will start at £699. US availability is yet to be confirmed.
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