PC gaming handhelds weren’t cheap to begin with and the most powerful ones keep getting more expensive. The ROG Xbox Ally X gave console players sticker shock when it arrived last fall at $1,000. It now looks like a bargain compared to the top-end Legion Go 2, which just hit $2,000.
The Legion Go 2 came out last fall as a successor to Lenovo’s existing line of PC gaming handhelds. It has a big screen, beefy specs, and a price tag to match. The cheaper AMD Ryzen Z2 16GB RAM started at $1,100. The Ryzen Z2 Extreme 32GB version was $1,350. Well, on Friday, both of those numbers jumped up dramatically.
As spotted by Videocardz, retailers like Best Buy now list the less powerful Legion Go 2 at $1,500 and the more powerful version with double the RAM at $2,000. That’s a 48-percent price increase in one fell swoop. PC gaming handhelds have always been targeted at enthusiasts, but this move seems likely to kill any remaining momentum the product category had. The AI-fueled RAM crisis racks up another kill.
I already called the Legion Go 2 ridiculously expensive back when it was revealed to be launching at up to twice the price of its predecessor last fall. Still, reviewers have generally praised what comes with the overall package, including what might be the best screen of any of the current high-end gaming handhelds available. At $2,000, all of that goes out the window unless you’re Scrooge McDuck.
Chinese handheld maker Ayaneo recently canceled its upcoming top-of-the-line, no compromises model because the RAM shortage would have forced it to double the price from $2,000 to $4,000. Even the PS5 is getting stupidly expensive, with the Switch 2 probably not far behind. No wonder Valve is still hiding from announcing the price and ship date of its upcoming Steam Machine, let alone the eventual Steam Deck 2.