Lenovo Legion Go prices have jumped by up to $650 in six months
Summary created by Smart Answers AI
In summary:
- PCWorld reports that the price of Lenovo’s Legion Go 2 portable gaming PC has jumped $650 in less than six months, from $1,349.99 to $1,999.99.
- Other Legion Go S models also saw price hikes ranging from $50 to $150, while competitor Asus ROG Ally’s prices remained stable at $1,000 for the top-of-the-line model.
- Component shortages appear to be behind these significant price increases, particularly affecting high-end models equipped with Ryzen Z Extreme processors in the portable gaming market.
If you’re tired of hearing how expensive PC components are becoming because of AI’s lack of RAM, imagine how tired I am of writing about this. But it looks like this won’t lead to anything anytime soon. Also climbing up there is Lenovo’s Legion Go series of handhelds, which range from nominally affordable on the Legion Go S to quite expensive for the Go 2.
The high-end Legion Go 2 launched at $1,349.99 late last year. According to the Best Buy listing, this package with a Ryzen Z2 Extreme processor, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage now costs $1,999.99. That’s an increase of $650 in less than six months, as VideoCardz.com notes (although this particular model is currently out of stock).
This made me curious, so I used the Internet Archive to compare the current prices of all Legion Go S configurations on Best Buy to their original launch prices. Excluding used and reconditioned packages, I found five variants:
Obviously, prices tend to go up, and the more premium the plan, the more Ryzen Z Extreme. But as VideoCardz points out, similar handhelds like the Asus ROG Xbox Ally haven’t seen the same price increase. The Xbox Ally X with the Z2 Extreme processor costs the same $1,000 at Best Buy as it did at launch. The least powerful non-X variant costs $600, even currently on sale for $540. Either no one is buying Asus machines, or Lenovo’s attempts to stockpile RAM have failed spectacularly. (Or, perhaps, these integrated RAM modules come from AMD with Ryzen processors.)
It’s worth pointing out that the Steam Deck, which remains the most popular PC gaming handheld even years after its launch, was out of stock six weeks ago and still is today (at least on Valve’s product page). Other portable gaming PCs are being discounted or even canceled due to dwindling component inventories and high prices.
The best time to buy a handheld was six months ago. The worst time to buy might be six months from now, assuming that’s even possible.
