Lenovo confirms termination of Legion gaming phone business

Rumors have been floating around that Lenovo was ending its line of Legion gaming phones. Those rumors have now been confirmed via a statement received by Android Authority. 

Per Android Authority, a Lenovo spokesperson has confirmed:

Lenovo is discontinuing its Android-based Legion mobile gaming phones as part of a wider business transformation and gaming portfolio consolidation. As a leader in gaming devices and solutions, Lenovo is committed to advancing the gaming category across form factors, as well as focusing on where it can bring the most value to the global gaming community.

This news is not surprising considering Lenovo's fairly low marketshare in the smartphone industry. Gaming phones are particularly expensive to manufacture, as they have to have the latest and greatest hardware to appeal to an audience that demands the best from their smartphones. On top of that, gaming phones usually have unique features to set them apart, such as RGB lighting or cooling fans. 

All of this is usually packaged in a high-quality chassis and sold to a narrow market, namely smartphone gamers. Additionally, gaming smartphones (particularly those from China) are sold with razor-thin profit margins to capture more of that market. 

The overall business is difficult to manage, and considering there's likely little money to be made compared to traditional smartphone sales, it's not unreasonable for Lenovo to exit the business. 

There are sparse few companies still producing gaming smartphones. The leader in this submarket is undoubtedly Asus, whose ROG Phone 7 is set to be released on April 13. Other options include Xiaomi, though the company's Black Shark line of gaming phones seems to be hitting hurdles of its own. 

Buy the Asus ROG Phone 6 at Amazon.