Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2 smartphone launched with top-of-the-line-hardware and a bevy of gaming features

Lenovo's newest gaming smartphone is finally here after weeks of it being teased. However, it will arrive in global markets under a different name tag- the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2. Gaming smartphones are often well-known for their misshapen form factors, and the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2 is no exception. It also takes cues from competitors such as the Asus ROG Phone 5 and Nubia Red Magic 6.

Key Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2 specifications include a colossal 6.9-inch FHD+ 8-bit HDR AMOLED screen clocked at 144Hz. It has a touch sampling rate of 720Hz, 800 nits brightness (1,300 nits peak) HDR10+ certification, sub-0.5 Delta-e values, 1115 DCI-P3 colour gamut coverage, and a dedicated Pixelworks i6 chip- the same one we've seen in other gaming smartphones. These specs put the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2 on par with its competition.

Moving on to the hardware, the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2 packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset, coupled with up to 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage and 18GB of LPDDR5 RAM. Lenovo has employed two tiny, high-speed fans to keep the processor chilly during extended gaming binges, one of which is displayed prominently on the phone's back. The fans work in tandem with graphite layers and vapour chambers to help minimize the effect of thermal throttling.

Given its gaming smartphone status, the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2 is meant to be used in landscape mode. Lenovo has thrown in a total of eight additional points of input on the smartphone; of which two are capacitive, four are ultrasonic and two are embedded under the phone's display. Gamers can remap these to in-game actions to gain an 'edge' over the competition. The smartphone also comes with two USB Type-C ports- one on the bottom, and the other on the side.

One of the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2's unique features is its camera placement. instead of cordoning off a part of the phone's top half, Lenovo has decided to pack all of its cameras at the centre of the back panel in a (very) visible bump, which also happens to house the aforementioned cooling fan. Lenovo has chosen to keep the rear camera simple with one 64MP OmniVision OV64A image sensor (f/1.9 aperture) and a 16MP (f/2.20 ultra-wide-angle lens. Things get even more interesting with the pop-up Samsung GH1 sensor (f/2.0). The Lenovo Legion Phone Duel can record HDR10+ video at 4K 30 FPS and regular video at up to 8K 24 FPS,

Lastly, the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2's 5,500mAh battery consists of two 2,700mAh cells in a dual-cell configuration. It supports fast charging at up to 90W via a proprietary charging dock. Otherwise, it is restricted to 65W. The smartphone runs Android 11 based ZUI 12.5 and comes with dual front-facing speakers.

Price and availability

The entry-level Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2 with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage is slated to cost EUR 799. Bumping that up to 16GB and 512GB will set you back by EUR 999. However, the latter also comes with Lenovo's proprietary Turbo Charger. The smartphone will start hitting shelves in some Asian and European markets in May 2021. North America may have to wait a bit longer, with no launch date set for the region just yet.