After multiple leaks and teases, Lenovo officially unveiled its second gaming phone: the Legion Phone Duel 2. The latest gaming phone from Lenovo follows the same philosophy as its predecessor. It delivers a design optimized for landscape use and packs some of the most powerful hardware we have seen on a smartphone so far.
The AMOLED display has grown to 6.92-inches while keeping the 144Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ support of its predecessor. Resolution is still capped at FHD+ (2460 x 1080) to be more precise. The panel now supports a peak brightness of 1,300 nits, packs symmetrical bezels as there is no need for a selfie camera cutout and is flanked by stereo speakers. Powering the phone from the inside is Qualcomm’s latest and greatest Snapdragon 888 chipset, paired with up to 18GB LPDDR5 RAM and up to 512GB UFS 3.1 storage.
The standout features here come in pairs – dual charging ports, dual cooling fans, two linear motors for haptics and two pairs of ultrasonic shoulder triggers.
For photography, the Legion Phone Duel 2 has a dual-camera setup comprised of a 64MP OmniVision OV64A primary shooter and a 16MP wide-angle camera. The side-mounted pop-up selfie camera is here again but with a 44MP Samsung sensor this time around.
The back design is also unique with its two squares design interrupted by a glass island housing the cameras, cooling fans and the RGB Legion logo. The camera setup is identical to last year’s model with a 64MP main shooter and a 16MP ultrawide snapper.
The two fans work in tandem with the bottom one intaking hot air and passing it through the copper heat sink while the top fan serves as an exhaust. Lenovo boasts a 30% improvement in thermal efficiency compared to the first Legion Phone.
The Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2 features four ultrasonic shoulder keys (R1, R2, L2, L1) on the right frame and two capacitive keys (L3 and R3) on the back, allowing gamers to perform multiple in-game actions and maneuvers simultaneously. Once again, Lenovo has partnered with the firm Sentons on these ultrasonic keys. For heat dissipation, Lenovo is using two active cooling fans along with four graphite thermal pads and a vapor chamber, which Lenovo claims is the largest on a smartphone. Similar to what we have seen on Red Magic 6 and Realme GT, the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2 can also be hooked to an external display over HDMI and supports keyboard and gamepad input.
The battery comes in at 5,500 mAh and is split between two 2,750 mAh cells. The charging supports up to 90W fast charging (charger sold separately) for rapid charging. Like the ASUS ROG Phone 5, the Legion Phone Duel 2 comes with dual USB Type C ports, and both can be used simultaneously to charge the device in just 30 minutes. Charging through one port brings 65W speeds while an optional adapter bumps the combined speed to 90W and can deliver a 100% charge in 30 minutes. Lenovo’s battery protection system monitors heat and charging speeds for optimum power delivery and long-term battery preservation.
Lenovo says a full charge should give you “up to 8 hours” of “intermittent gameplay.”
The software front is covered by Lenovo’s ZUI 12.5 which is based on Android 11. The phone comes in Ultimate Black and Titanium White colors.
Other highlights include 5G, WiFi 6 support, an in-display fingerprint reader, dual front-firing speakers, and four noise-canceling microphones.
The Duel 2 comes with 5G connectivity, in this case with support for both sub-6GHz and mmWave spectrum, theoretically in service of faster video and game streaming, and supports dual-SIM for two connections at once. To recreate some of the experience of using a controller while you play, the Duel 2 also features four “shoulder” buttons enabled through haptic feedback and ultrasonic sensors on the sides of the phone, two capacitive touch points on the back, and two force touch points in the display. (Haptics are provided by a pair of linear motors, another place where Lenovo decided one was insufficient.)
There are even more specs to pour over, so if you’d like the full picture we’d recommend digging into Lenovo’s spec sheet:
Pricing & Availability
The Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2 starts at €799 for the base 12GB + 256GB model and goes up to €999 for the 16GB + 256GB variant. The top variant with 18GB RAM and 512GB storage is priced at €1099 with a bundled charging dock.. The phone will go on sale in China this month and will arrive in Europe later in May.
