Lenovo has a history of launching some truly stunning products. From the ThinkBook aimed at business users to the YogaBook which is synonymous with convertible laptops, the brand has a legacy of marrying innovation with utility. Lenovo has also dipped its toes in the handheld gaming space with the Legion Go. However, today we are here to talk about Lenovo’s Legion gaming laptop lineup. I was in Bangkok last week to experience some of Lenovo’s latest innovations and while AI was the theme of the day, the showstoppers were Lenovo’s Legion gaming laptops with Legion Coldfront: Hyperchamber a technology that helps you keep your gaming laptop cool while squeezing out every ounce of framerate and performance possible.
The engineering marvel of the Legion Coldfront: Hyperchamber has to be seen to be believed. We saw a 2023 Lenovo LOQ next to a 2024 Lenovo LOQ – both sporting identical hardware. The latter had the Legion Coldfront: Hyperchamber and not only was it much quieter, but its performance was slightly better thanks to the better thermal management. During the event, I had a chance to sit with Clifford Chong, Category Manager (Gaming), Consumer Business, PCs and Smart Devices, Lenovo Asia Pacific and he shared some interesting insights about Lenovo’s gaming laptops!
Q: Can you shed light on the Indian market especially when it comes to gaming laptops as a category? The laptop market post-COVID shot up considerably and now as per IDC’s report we are seeing a downward curve. How does Lenovo perceive the Indian gaming laptop market?
A: I think the Indian gaming market is booming! Even post-COVID, India remains one of the key growth areas for gaming. A lot of college students instead of purchasing a generic laptop are turning towards gaming laptops. They are aware of the benefits gaming laptops provide, be it productivity or gaming. So, yes, India remains a critical gaming market. India is also one of the first markets for us to launch the Lenovo LOQ laptops.
Q: NVIDIA has been doing AI for the past few generations of their GPU starting with the RTS 2000 series. We’ve also seen the new AI chips from Intel, new technologies from Microsoft and of course the game developers. So when the chip makers come to you and show you the new chip, how do you as an OEM support them when they showcase their new laptop chips? How do you ensure optimal performance in the thermal envelope and form factor you want to achieve?
A: As you can see from our events there truly is a lot of great collaboration between our partners and this is key. It’s not just about picking the latest chips from Intel and NVIDIA and putting them in the system. There is a lot of collaboration going on in the background. It is a collaboration of teams working together and how much resources we dedicate to the collaboration.
I spoke a lot about Hyper Chamber earlier, which was a collaboration between Lenovo and the Intel engineers. It’s not easy to enable things like Advance Optimus together with HDR and G-SYNC. Enabling 1 is ok, but enabling them together is the tricky part and this can be done because we see the chips at an early stage and us (OEM and chip makers) working together, allotting resources, and R&D teams talking to each other. So when we launch our products, all these technologies work seamlessly. There is a lot that goes in the background which is the collaboration between the companies.
Q: Can you shed light on how you implement feedback from the community? A great example you gave is that in some future products, you will not have the exhaust vents on either side as the heat causes discomfort to gamers’ hands. Can you shed light on how the community feedback is implemented on the Legion gaming machines?
A: I think it’s about having conversations. It starts with you. You are the ones that review our products and I try to read all the reviews of our products. We often have community gatherings as well. Being engaged with our community is how we gather feedback. There isn’t an exact science to this. We try to implement as much as we can. Everyone wants a 4080 in a thin and light form factor and wants it to run cool. There are engineering limitations to such expectations, but we try to work on the feedback as much as we can from the community.
In addition to feedback, we also do quite a bit of user testing. One great example of this is that our laptops come with a dedicated number pad. While some users say that they don’t want the number pad, our user testing tells us that most want it.
Q: Can you shed light on the refresh cycle for gaming laptops? A few years ago, you’d need to upgrade more frequently, but now the hardware is so powerful, that a gaming laptop can last you upto 5 years. What are your thoughts on this?
A: This is quite an interesting question. I still have people coming up to me and saying that they are still using the Lenovo Legion Y520. That’s almost 8 years! I wouldn’t say it’s exactly true that laptops last longer. It depends on your usage or the kind of games you play. If you play Counter-Strike for example, then even a few years older machine can give you more than a hundred FPS but the newest machines can go over 300 FPS. But for today’s games, developers now are utilising a lot more advanced technologies to make things look nice. So it’s all about expectations and the type of games you play. There are some great AI implementations that have been showcased and if you are a gamer that wants to experience them, then you will have to get a new machine. So like I said, it’s all about the expectations of the player and the kind of games they play.
Q: What is your favourite Legion product and what are you playing on it?
A: I’m a very slow gamer. I will play my games very, very slowly. I am currently between a Legion 16-inch and the 14-inch OLED Legion Series 5. I switch between these two laptops. I am trying to get my daughter interested in gaming so, we are playing Human Resource. For those unaware Human Resource “is a puzzle game for nerds. In each level, your boss gives you a job. Automate it by programming your little office worker. If you succeed, you’ll be promoted up to the next level for another year of work in the vast office building”
But myself, I am a slow gamer. I haven’t completed my first round of Death Stranding. I am slowly going through the game. But Kojima games are a classic.
Q: Did you play video games when you were young?
A: As a boy when I was in Singapore, my parents were like “Study when you are young. Don’t waste time. When you are older, you can play all the games you want.” But then I started working and realised I don’t have time for games now. But I have been playing games on and off. It has been a part of me for the course of my life.
Q: What’s your favourite gaming memory?
A: I started gaming when I was very young. Have you heard of Alley Cat? The MS-DOS game? I remember playing that. I think we are the first generation that experienced graphical games. 2D, but still graphical. Before that, there were text-based games for computers. Then I remember when we made the leap to Wolfenstein 3D, then Doom, then Dune 2 – the RTS game, so those years have fond memories.
