Lenovo’s Legion Phone Duel 2 has not one but two cooling fans

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Lenovo’s next gaming phone leaked earlier this week, but now the company is officially sharing details about the new device, dubbed the Legion Phone Duel 2. It’s a beast in every way – with a 6.92-inch screen, this is a giant phone that two batteries, two USB-C ports and two real spinning fans, as well as a camera bump that we kind of regret using the “that’s not a moon; it’s a space station ”joke on the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra.

Some of the features include transfers from Lenovo’s original Android gaming phone, the Legion Phone Duel, including the dual USB-C ports and a pop-up selfie camera designed for streamers. Like the original Duel, Lenovo also maintains the unusual choice of centering the phone’s other two cameras around the back, but now that raised camera bump houses a prominent intake fan and hidden exhaust fan, each with their own vents. Lenovo says the split design keeps heat out of your hands.

Those fans, in addition to a vapor chamber, help the Duel 2 cool air to and from the new Snapdragon 888 processor, up to 18 GB LPDDR5 RAM, and up to 512 GB UFS3.1 storage. It runs on Lenovo’s ZUI 12.5, which the company says is based on Android 11.

The new, fan-centered design of the Legion Phone Duel 2 in black.
Image: Lenovo

The shock from the camera / fan is certainly noticeable.
Image: Lenovo

The Duel 2 comes in “Titanium White” or “Ultimate Black,” but it’s really the camera bump, the Legion logo, and the vent hole that make the Duel 2 look like nothing else on the market – except maybe the Asus ROG Phone. 5 Ultimate with its unusual rear screen and optional fan mount. Lenovo doesn’t mention in its announcement whether the Dual 2’s colorful rear design will be illuminated with a customizable light, but even without the glow, it seems ready to take up space on anyone’s desk next to an RGB-lit gaming PC.

On the front, the Duel 2 has a high refresh rate 2,460 x 1,080 144Hz OLED display with 800 nits of brightness (up to 1300 nits), which should be more than bright enough for playing outside. It’s also physically bigger than its predecessor at 6.92 inches, compared to a 6.65-inch screen. When viewing the screen in landscape, the Duel 2’s pop-up 44-megapixel selfie camera (starting at 20-megapixels) can be used for live streaming or video chats, just like the original Duel, with background removal. There is still a 64-megapixel main camera on the back, as well as a 16-megapixel ultra-wide.

The Dual’s two USB-C ports – one on the long side of the phone and one on the bottom – can be used for 90W fast charging if you buy an optional adapter, and Lenovo claims that if you use them at the same time , the two separate 2,750 mAh of the phone can be filled. batteries in 30 minutes. Using two cables to charge a phone at once is a bit of a funny picture, but those kinds of considerations disappear out the window when you buy a Legion Phone Duel 2.

There is nothing unusual about this.
Image: Lenovo

Lenovo says a full charge should give you “up to 8 hours” of “intermittent gameplay.”

The Duel 2 comes with 5G connectivity, in this case with support for both sub-6GHz and mmWave spectrum, theoretically serving faster video and game streaming, and supporting dual-SIM for two connections at the same time. To recreate some of the experience of using a controller while playing, the Duel 2 also features four ‘shoulder’ buttons enabled through haptic feedback and ultrasonic sensors on the sides of the phone, two capacitive touch points on the back and two force touch points in the display. (Haptics are provided by a pair of linear motors, another place where Lenovo decided there was a fail.)

There are even more specs to pour over, so if you want a full picture, we recommend checking Lenovo’s spec sheet:

As a whole, the Duel 2 shares more than a few similarities with its competitors. The Asus ROG 5 Ultimate also has multiple USB-C ports, a unique method of simulating additional button inputs, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 processor, and an optional click-on cooling fan. The Xiaomi Black Shark 4 Pro has even more beautiful, magnetically canceling physical buttons and an optional fan accessory. And some gaming phones have built-in fans in the past: look no further than the Nubia Red Magic 3 for a device with extra cooling from the ground up.

As with many gaming phones, the important question may be availability. Currently, Lenovo plans to release the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2 in China this month, and it should come to Europe later in May. The European model will retail for € 999 (about $ 1,186) with 16 GB of RAM, 512 GB of storage and a bundled charging dock, or € 799 (about $ 948) as a standalone phone with 12 GB and 256 GB respectively.

Lenovo has not yet announced whether Duel 2 is coming to the US.

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