Lenovo revives its Legion gaming smartphone series with the Y70 (2026)

After four years, Lenovo has brought back the Legion series of gaming smartphones. The new model is called the Legion Y70, just like the version released in 2022. However, for the sake of clarity, it will be referred to as the Legion Y70 (2026).

The Legion Y70 (2026) has a design that seems to have been borrowed from the current crop of Motorola smartphones. It isn't a 1:1 replica, but the similarities such as the squircle camera island and the flat sides are hard to miss. The Legion Y70 (2026) is available in Ice Soul White and Carbon Black.

The Legion Y70 (2026) has a 6.8-inch LTPO AMOLED (BOE Q10) display with a 144Hz refresh rate, an impressive 510 PPI, and a peak brightness of 7,000 nits. It also has Dolby Vision, DC dimming, and SGS eye protection. Powering the phone is Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 processor paired with up to 16GB of LPPDRX5 RAM and up to 1TB UFS 4.1 storage.

The Y70 (2026) draws juice from a massive 8,000mAh battery that charges at up to 90W. Lenovo claims the battery is good for up to 1200 cycles and it should last more than two days with moderate use. There's also support for bypass charging.

For its cameras, the Legion Y70 (2026) has a 32MP f/2.2 camera in front while the back is home to a 50MP f/1.8 Sony LYT-710 sensor with OIS and PDAF as the primary camera and an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide angle camera. The other two circles house an anti-flicker sensor and the LED flash.

This wouldn't be a gaming smartphone without some gaming features. For starters, Lenovo says the antennas have been arranged in such a way that connectivity isn't affected regardless of how you are holding the phone or when on the subway. The phone also has a gyroscope with a 500Hz sampling rate for precise aiming when playing shooting games.

In addition, when connected to a Legion PC via Legion Zone, owners of the Legion Y70 (2026) will be able to take advantage of the PC's own graphics performance to play AAA PC games. Lenovo claims that this feature doesn't require an emulator. There is also an AI game assistant that preloads games, so waiting times are reduced. The AI assistant also automatically records up to 30 seconds of key moments during gameplay, and ensures that your game keeps running in the background even when you switch between apps.

The Legion Y70 (2026) might not have the looks of a rugged smartphone, but it can survive some rough handling. It has a triple IP rating (IP66 + IP68 + IP69) and it can survive extreme temperatures (-20°C to 60°C). It can also survive drops from a height of up to 1.8 meters. Other features of the Legion Y70 (2026) are support for dual SIM including eSIM, stereo speakers, and VC cooling.

Pricing for the Legion Y70 (2026) starts at ¥3099 (~$456/€393) for the base model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. It goes up to ¥3699 (~$544/€469) for the 12GB RAM + 512GB version and jumps to ¥4099 (~$603/€519) for the 16GB RAM + 512GB version. The highest configuration has 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage and costs ¥4899 (~$720/€621).