One of the oddly enduring trends of the last few years is “gaming phones,” designs that have been tweaked (sometimes dramatically) for mobile gaming performance. Lenovo made one with its Legion gaming brand last year, and according to a leak posted to Antutu’s Weibo account, it’s back with another design. This one’s outlandish, even for a gaming phone.
The first Legion phone wasn’t exactly subtle, with splashy rear styling, a center-mounted camera module (so your hands don’t cover it when you’re gaming), and a pop-up selfie cam mounted on the side. The leaked photos of a second-gen version appear to be even more bombastic: the entire center module is raised with separated panels on both sides, giving it grips vaguely reminiscent of a Game Boy Advance. Unless my eyes deceive me, that center panel also has a tiny, built-in cooling fan, something that other gaming phones reserve for an add-on accessory.
The distinctive pop-up selfie camera isn’t visible from the rear, but there’s definitely something there on the side of the phone, as seen in the shot above. It appears to be a cosmetic change, since there’s definitely no hole for a forward-facing camera anywhere on the screen itself. The stereo speakers seem to be intact, and it looks like the “ultrasonic trigger buttons” are still in place, as is the side-mounted USB-C port. Again, for the gaming.
The original Legion phone used a top-of-the-line processor, massive dual-chambered batteries that recharged at 90 watts, and a 144Hz screen with a 240Hz touch sampling rate. Assuming that these leaks are genuine and the phone comes to market, you can expect at least that much, with perhaps some more new tricks.
