Lenovo, the Beijing based computer company, has officially announced the shutdown of its Legion gaming smartphone business. Earlier, there were rumors regarding the termination of the business and now, it has been confirmed by Lenovo spokesperson who stated that it is a part of a broader business transformation and game portfolio consolidation.
As the leader in gaming devices and solutions, Lenovo is committed to advancing the gaming category across all form factors, and focusing on areas that can provide the greatest value to the global gaming community. In the year 2020, Lenovo entered the gaming smartphone segment with its first Legion Pro. Later in 2021, the company launched Legion Phone Duel 2 and Legion Y70 which was introduced in August 2022.
These smartphones offered innovative features such as the side-mounted pop-up selfie camera, specialized cooling fans, and dual-charging ports. However, according to reports, Lenovo has laid off some of its employees while others have been relocated to the Lenovo tablet division.
With the exit of Lenovo Legion, the gaming smartphone industry is now dominated by the likes of ASUS ROG Phone, Nubia Red Magic series, and Xiaomi’s Black Shark. Even Black Shark seems to be struggling, but ASUS is stepping up with the release of ROG Phone 7 which is set to launch globally on April 13th, 2023.
The gap between specialized gaming smartphones and mainstream flagship devices is getting narrower when it comes to hardware performance. However, gaming smartphones still offer features such as dedicated trigger buttons, heat dissipation systems, and more. The closure of Legion gaming smartphone business by Lenovo is a significant development in the gaming smartphone industry that has been growing in popularity in recent years.
