Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2 Review - Gaming Beast through and through!

Here, we are sharing our experience with the gaming phone, Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2. How did it fare after extensive testing? Well, read on!

Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2 Review

Announced for the Philippines back in June, the Legion Phone Duel 2 arrived in the Philippines with a PHP 39,995 price tag. It features a 6.92-inch 144Hz AMOLED screen, Snapdragon 888, Adreno 660, up to 16GB RAM, up to 512GB storage, a 5,500mAh battery, a 64MP dual-camera system, 44MP pop-up selfie camera, and a lot of gaming features. 

Now, let's jump right into it!

Unboxing/Accessories

The unboxing itself felt premium with different compartments

The unboxing experience with Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2 is a sight to behold. It comes with a matte black box with the Legion logo on the cover and Legion branding on the side. When you open it, you get two pull tabs for each flap. Under it, you are greeted by the phone. There are two smaller boxes inside with "Stylish Outside" and "Savage Inside" printed on them.

What's in the box?

Inside, you get a hard plastic protective case, two USB-C charging cables, a USB-C to 3.5mm audio dongle, the huge 90W charging brick, a SIM eject tool, and a quick start guide. Overall, the packaging is as premium as it gets making the unboxing a very enjoyable experience.

Build Quality/Design

The back of the device

The Legion Phone Duel 2 is gorgeous out of the box. It does appeal to our gamer side a lot with its design choices. We got to point out that it retains the more landscape-oriented design language. It has the same side-mounted pop-up selfie setup, the centered dual-camera setup, the octa-triggers, the Twin Turbo-Fan cooling system, and two charging ports.

The signature Legion Phone Duel 2 central camera bump

At the back, it has a middle-hump for the cameras,  the twin Turbo Fan cooling system, and the RGB Lenovo Legion logos. The fan vent also has RGB lights. There are two capacitive buttons as well as the back. We got the Ultimate Black color with a glass-like finish. Upfront, there's no punch-hole or notch due to the pop-up selfie camera at the side.

Top of the device

Bottom side

At the top, there are antenna lines and a microphone. At the bottom, you also get antenna lines, a USB-C port, and a SIM card tray.

Left side

Right side

At the right, you get the shoulder triggers, pop-up selfie camera, power button, and a speaker grille. At the left, there's the other USB-C port and the volume controls.

The Legion Phone Duel 2 measures 176 x 78.5 x 9.9 mm while it weighs 259 g. It is also worth noting that it has the 5,500 battery broken into two that gives the phone a balanced heft in the hand. However, 259 g can still fatigue your hands during extended usage. That is 1/4 kg.

There's no mention of any water or dust resistance here though.

Multimedia Experience

This is a tall AMOLED screen with a high refresh rate

The Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2 has a 6.92-inch AMOLED screen with 2,460 x 1,080 FHD+ resolution, 144Hz refresh rate, 720Hz touch sampling rate, and 388 ppi pixel density. It also features HDR10+ and Pixelworks i6 AI tuning. It also has two in-display force touchpoints.

The colors come out vibrant with great contrast and blacks due to the AMOLED panel

The display itself is huge. For gaming, it provides ample real estate for controls and immersion. The viewing angles are great as well due to it being an AMOLED panel. The HDR10+ supports allow for great dynamic range both in gaming and multimedia. It gets pretty bright as well and is very usable even outdoors. The high refresh rate with a 720Hz touch sampling rate provides for responsive and snappy control and navigation.

Viewing angles and brightness are also great

For audio, it features a 7-magnet stereo speaker. It also has Dolby Atmos and Dirac HD sound. For input, it has 4x microphones with noise reduction as well. The audio for both speakers and headphones is great. You can listen through Bluetooth headphones or wired with the USB-C-to-3.5mm headphone dongle. We tried the latter and we can say that we were impressed as it was able to drive our JBL Quantum 600 reliably. 

The Bluetooth audio with TWS earbuds is also reliable for games as there is little to no latency. We still prefer the traditional wired option so the dongle is a big plus.

The stereo speaker provides superb gaming and multimedia immersion. It gets pretty loud at just 60 percent volume. Communicating for video calls and voice chat in-game is also clear due to the quad-mic setup.

Overall, the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2's gaming and multimedia experience are top-notch.

Cameras

It retains the central camera orientation from previous versions

For photography, the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2 is equipped with a dual-camera setup at the back with 64MP f/1.9 OV64A sensor + 16MP f/2.2 123-degree ultra-wide-angle + LED flash. For selfies, it has a 44MP f/2.0 GH sensor in a side-mounted pop-up mechanism.

The stock camera app

The camera app has comprehensive features as well with HD Photo mode, Normal photo mode, Portrait Mode, Dual Capture mode, Macro Mode, Pro mode with RAW, HDR10+ mode, Video, Slow Motion, Panorama, DIrector Mode, and Timelapse mode. 

The Pro mode allows for manual control for ISO, Shutter Speed, White Balance, Exposure, and Focus. It also has 10X digital zoom however there is no dedicated telephoto lens here. It can also capture 8K videos at 24 fps or 4K at 60 fps. 

Rear Camera Samples

Daylight, Normal mode

Daylight, Ultra-wide-angle shot

As you can see, both the main camera and ultra-wide sensors performed very well in daylight. Even during the gloomy rainy day, it was able to breathe life into the picture with vibrant colors and good details.

Closer shot, Normal Mode

Closer to a subject, we experienced fast autofocus with good bokeh and separation. We did notice that the color can sometimes come out duller than what you expect.

Indoors, Portrait Mode

Using the Portrait mode on our dog, Douglas, it was able to detect the edges for proper depth of field. However, the colors came out dull again. It is easy to point and shoot though as it was able to capture a very boisterous dog.

Indoor shot, Macro mode

Indoors, low light, Macro Mode

Indoors with ample Daylight, Macro Mode

Indoors with ample Daylight, Pro Mode

The Macro shots we took were impressive as well since the details of our subjects were retained like the strands of fur from our cat Nono. It was also to retain details of the PHP 20 coin as well as our Logitech F310 controller even in less ideal lighting.

Low light, Normal Mode

Low light, Night Mode

Using the normal mode to capture the lowlight shot of my desk, we were impressed with how good the photo came out. It has good colors and a dynamic range. Night mode did provide a brighter shot but the image looked like there was a fade filter on top of it. A landscape shot of our house at night gave us an interesting result.

Outdoors, Normal Mode

Outdoors, Night Mode

With our handheld shot without Night Mode, the camera app showed that the image was already captured therefore we moved. However, checking the image, it registered shakiness. There seems to be a delay in capturing the image at low light or night conditions compared to what you see on the screen. This may be an isolated case but we thought its worth noting.

With the Night Mode on, it was really able to capture the image almost immediately. The image came out sharp with good exposure, colors, and contrast. However, we also want to point out that it seems too sharp at times as well.

The 44MP pop-up, side-mounted selfie camera

For selfies, it has a 44MP f/2.0 GH1 sensor in a side-mounted pop-up mechanism. The camera app can use the Photo, Video, Portrait, and Dual Capture mode with this sensor. The 44MP selfie camera has an 84-degree lens as it is touted to be Live stream ready.

Selfie Camera Samples

Daylight selfie, Normal Mode

Indoors selfie with the normal room lighting, Normal Mode

Indoors with photography lighting, Normal Mode

Same shot and setting, Normal Mode

Low light selfie

Portrait Mode with room lighting only

The selfie camera performed well when there is good lighting. There is some inconsistency in terms of colors but they are far in between. In low light and night conditions, noise is noticeable as the image becomes grainy. Portrait mode provides great bokeh with decent edge detection. Overall, the selfie camera is ok but not its strongest asset.

Performance

AnTuTu and GeekBench benchmark results

The Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2 features the 2.84GHz 5nm Snapdragon 888 octa-core processor, Adreno 660 GPU, up to 16GB LPDDR5 RAM, up to 512GB UFS 3.1 expandable storage, and a 5,500mAh battery with 65W to 90W Turbo Power Charging. It was able to score 725,789 points in our AnTuTu benchmark, 1127 Single-Core, and 3,647 Multi-Core scores via Geekbench.

It has a dedicated Twin Turbo fan + Vapor Chamber liquid cooling for thermal management as well to avoid performance throttling. You can also use the Rampage mode to overclock the Legion Phone Duel 2 when gaming. It did get warm when OC'd but not to the point of throttling and uncomfortable usage.

Maxed out in all the games we played at high FPS settings

We were able to max out the games we played that included COD: Mobile, Mobile Legends, League of Legends: Wild Rift, and Genshin Impact. We were able to maintain high FPS with all the graphics cranked out to Ultra or Very High. We experienced the warmest temp change on Genshin Impact but it was able to maintain 60 fps.

The shoulder buttons for gaming

We enjoyed using the 4x Ultrasonic shoulder keys especially in COD: Mobile. Killing enemies became easier because the shooting was more natural with the shoulder buttons. This is what you usually use if you game on consoles. There are also 2x rear capacitive buttons and 2x in-display, force touchpoints. You can remap these for more functions in-game if you want.

All of the remappings, overclocking, and other gaming settings can be configured via the Legion gaming app or dropdown menu. It becomes active once you open up a game. It's very intuitive and easy to understand. The dual HaptiX Vibration Motors are also great and can definitely mimic the controllers we use with consoles.

PCMark Work 3.0 battery life test result

In terms of battery life, it was able to get 7 hours and 14 minutes with our PCMark Work 3.0 battery life benchmark. It was underwhelming at first because we expected more in the benchmark. However, in normal daily usage, we were able to get around 10 to 12 hours of battery life.

When overclocked, it did drop to around 6 hours of continuous gaming. It did get pretty warm here but it was expected since we did overclock it. Without the cooling system it has, the Legion Phone Duel 2 may have crashed. But, we would like to praise how well Lenovo made the thermal management.

90W Dual Turbo Power Charging

One more impressive thing is how fast it charges when you use the 90W Dual Turbo Power Charging. From 10 to 100 percent, we were able to recharge the device in around 45 to 50 mins. Using the 65W Turbo Power Charging, it was able to charge fully in around 1 hour and 25 minutes. Lenovo assured us that it is using every precaution available to make sure that charging this fast is safe. It has the Phalanx Battery Protection system with three layers of protection. Did we mention how big the charger was? It has two USB-A ports for the two USB-C charging cords you need to utilize the 90W option.

It has Bypass charging that allows the phone to be powered directly by the charger without passing power through the battery, It has Slow Charging mode when it detects that fast charging is not needed. And lastly, it has overcharge protection.

ZUI 12.5 is closer to stock Android than gaming themed one

For the UI, it uses Android 11 with ZUI 12.5 on top. Surprisingly, this is one of the less gamer-part of the device. It is pretty straightforward with a Home screen with the apps and a clock widget. It also has normal-looking toggles and a notification panel. None of it screams gaming phone. We can definitely give credit to Lenovo for not overdoing it here.

The UI is snappy and easy to navigate. It has an In-Display fingerprint sensor and faces unlock which are both pretty snappy. The In-Display fingerprint sensor is more accurate than the face unlock solution though so we opted to use that combined with a PIN. There is a pre-installed Legion gaming app with shortcuts to your game and gaming settings you can personalize. Overall, ZUI 12.5 is closer to a stock Android experience than a dedicated Gaming UI which is a plus in our books.

Other features like the WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, and dual-band GPS worked very well. We were not able to test 5G because our area does not have it just yet.

Pros - Great design with gamer aesthetics like RGB lighting, 144Hz AMOLED screen, Beast performance, big battery with SUPER FAST charging, good thermal management, stereo speakers, extra buttons and inputs for gaming, Good UI, Decent main cameras, 5G-ready

Cons - Selfie camera can be improved, Battery life can be improved, a bit on the heavy side, no IPXX rating for water and dust resistance

Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2 Specs

Display: 6.92-inch 2.5D curved Gorilla Glass 5 protected AMOLED screen w/ 144Hz refresh rate, 720Hz touch sampling rate, HDR10+, Pixelworks i6 AI tunning, FHD+ 2460 x 1080 resolution at 388 ppi

CPU: 2.84GHz 5nm Snapdragon 888 octa-core processor

GPU: Adreno 660

RAM: 12GB/16GB LPDDR5

ROM: 256GB/512GB UFS 3.1

Back Camera: 64MP f/1.9 OV64A sensor + 16MP f/2.2 123-degree ultra-wide-angle + LED flash

Selfie Camera: 44MP f/2.0 GH1

Battery: 5,500mAh battery w/ 65W to 90W Turbo Power Charging

OS: Android 11 w/ ZUI 12.5

Connectivity: WiFi 6, 5G, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.2,  NFC, GPS (L1 + L5 dual-band), GLONASS, BDS, QZSS, Galileo, dual SIM

dual SIM

Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic, ultrasonic

Others: In-Display fingerprint sensor, face unlock, 7-magnet stereo speaker, dual Smart PA, 48kHz/16-bit HiFi, Dolby Atmos, Dirac HD Sound, 4x microphones w/ noise reduction, Virtual Octa-Trigger (Quad Ultrasonic Shoulder keys, Dual Capacitance keys input, Dual Force Touch sensor), ATA 2.0 (Advanced Technology Architecture), Customizable RGB lighting, Twin Turbo-Fan Cooling System, Passive cooling components, and Vapor Chamber liquid cooling, 2x USB-C (USB 2.0, 3.1), Colors: Ultimate Black, Titanium White

Dimensions: 176 x 78.5 x 9.9 mm (12.56 mm mid)

Weight: 259 g

Price: PHP 39,995 (12GB/256GB), PHP 49,995 (16GB/512GB)

Verdict

So, is the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2 worthy?

For the price, the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2 is a beast. It has a great design even if it's on the heavy side. It has a great main camera system, great specs for gaming and daily usage, good thermal management, amazing 144Hz AMOLED screen, loud and clear stereo speakers, UBER fast charging, and a lot of gaming features like the extra inputs.

It is not perfect though. The selfie camera even though a big sensor can be improved. The battery life is also a bit underwhelming as well. For a premium device, the lack of dust and water protection is a pain point needed to be addressed as well.

Overall, it is a great gaming phone for the price it is asking.

What do you guys think?

Build/Design - 4.25

Multimedia Experience - 4.75

Cameras - 4

Performance - 4.75

Average - 4.44/5