#Lenovo’s Legion Phone Duel 2 is a Gaming, Streaming, Dual-Charging Monster – Review Geek

When does a smartphone stop being a smartphone and become a mobile console? That might be the question for Lenovo’s new Legion Phone Duel 2. The new smartphone comes with two USB-C ports for 90-watt charging, eight virtual keys, and a pop-out selfie cam that makes Twitch streaming possible.

Any gaming phone needs high-end specs, and the Legion Phone Duel 2 (we’ll just Legion for the rest of this article) doesn’t disappoint. It packs a top-of-the-line Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G processor, up to 18 GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and up to 512 GB of UFS3.1 storage. The screen is a 6.92 inch, 2460 x 1080, 144 Hz, AMOLED, HDR gaming display with a 720 Hz touch sampling rate. That high sampling rate should help with twitch-movement games like Fortnite.

Speaking of gaming, the Lenovo packs plenty of features for gamers. It has eight “Octa-Trigger” virtual buttons you can map to different controls, two fans to keep the phone cool, dual haptic motors, and software tweaks to let you customize your gameplay.

Look at the back of the phone, and you’ll notice a strange setup. Lenovo delegated most of the heat-generating components to the middle of the phone and the fans mentioned above. That’s presumably to keep the phone cool, but it also let Lenovo split the 5500mAh total battery in two and move them to the sides.

Not only does that setup give you a natural place to put your hands in a horizontal position, but it also let Lenovo throw in its charging trick. The Legion has two USB-C ports instead of the usual one. On top of that, it comes with a 90 Watt brick with two USB-C ports. Connect two cables from brick to phone, and it charges at an astounding 90 Watts, topping even OnePlus, which manages 65 watts.

It does that by charging “both batteries” in parallel (at the same time). If you only use one cord, you’ll still charge the entire battery, but “only” at 45 Watts. When you’re ready to stream to Twitch or other services, the Legion can help with that too.

It has a pop-out 44 MP selfie cam hidden beneath the power button. When you turn on streaming and enable the camera, the phone will send off your game stream and your video, giving you a full streaming setup out of the box. It’s not a gaming device without RGB, and the Legion is no exception. You’ll find RGB lighting you can customize on the back and in the main fan.

When you want to use the Legion as a plain-old phone, it can manage that too. It runs Android 11 and has two rear cameras, a 64 MP main lens, and a 16 MP ultra-wide. Unfortunately, the one thing Lenovo isn’t promising yet is U.S. availability and pricing.

Lenovo plans to launch the Legion first in China this month, followed by a potential May launch in Europe. In Europe, the phone will include a charging dock and start at €999.00.