Two phones, one chip: Lenovo Legion Phone Duel and ASUS ROG Phone 3 bring gamers the power of Snapdragon 865 Plus

Two new gaming phones were announced on the same day, with Lenovo launching the Legion Phone Duel and ASUS unveiling the ROG Phone 3. Both models are powered by Qualcomm’s brand Snapdragon 865 Plus chipset.

Lenovo Legion Phone Duel

The Legion Phone Duel is designed so much for landscape gaming, that it sports a pop-up camera on the side for video streaming on YouTube or Twitch – each benefitting from 5G speeds. Lenovo has even tested the phone for real-world speeds of up to 2.52Gbps.

It sports programmable LED lighting effects for Lenovo’s Legion ‘Y’ icon, a 6.65-inch notch-free Full HD+ (2340 x 1080 pixels) AMOLED display with 144Hz refresh rate, and 240Hz touch sampling rate.

The Snapdragon 865 Plus chip offers a faster clocked GPU, and the phone also comes with fifth-generation LPDDR5 RAM of up to 16GB, as well as UFS 3.1 storage up to 512GB.

The Legion Phone Duel comes with a 5,000mAh battery split into two separate batteries, and Lenovo has packed in 90W fast-charging that can get from 0% to 50% in 10 minutes, or a full charge in just 30 minutes.

Heavy gaming also brings heat, but Lenovo has developed dual liquid-cooling and copper tubes, and those split batteries are positioned away from where gamers’ hands will rest – reducing the feeling of heat in the hand.

With great graphics comes great sound, with large 1.4cc accoustic chambers for up to six decibels of loudness. Haptic feedback is also heavily tuned.

Finally, while gaming is the primary purpose for this device, the phone comes with a 64-megapixel and 16-megapixel rear camera setup for wide and ultra-wide angle photos. The pop-up camera is 20-megapixels and stays tucked inside the phone when not in use.

Game streamers can even see themselves on-screen when broadcasting. Alternatively, after the gaming ends, you can review gaming highlights on-the-fly via a preview screen, before editing and sharing to friends.

More information: Lenovo Legion

Pricing and Availability

The Lenovo Legion Phone Duel will be available in the UK in 12GB and 16GB variants. An exact release date and price is still to be confirmed.

ASUS ROG Phone 3

The new Republic of Gamers phone from Asus is the most powerful ROG phone ever, again sporting Qualcomm’s latest and greatest chipset that will power the fastest smartphone releases before its next-gen chip is launched in 2021.

With its 6.59-inch AMOLED display (2340 x 1080 pixels) with 144Hz refresh rate and 270Hz touch sensitivity. The display also supports HDR10+, while the stereo audio performance is tuned by audio specialist Dirac, with DxOMark awarding the phone a score of 75 for audio performance.

Instead of a 5,000mAh battery like the Lenovo, the ROG Phone 3 comes with a 6,000mAh battery but only 30W charging. It also comes with the option of up to 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage.

The GameCool 3 cooling system has a completely redesigned 3D vapour chamber, plus a large graphite film behind the screen to maximise heat transfer and enlarged heat sink to eliminate hotspots.

Asus claims the cooling system to be the most effective thermal management solution on any mobile device.

For the best connectivity (either with 5G or Wi-Fi 6), the ROG HyperFusion technology combines multiple antennas and the ability to have simultaneous Wi-Fi and mobile data connectivity, directing focus towards whichever has the best signal.

Asus is also partnering with Google Stadia and Unity Technologies to establish an excellent integrated gaming ecosystem.

Dual-screen play can be achieved with the TwinView Dock 3, while the Mobile Desktop Dock allows gamers to connect a full desktop keyboard and mouse while enjoying games on a TV or monitor.

Finally, on the camera side the ROG Phone 3 comes with a front-facing 24-megapixel camera, and a 64-megapixel Sony IMX686 camera on the rear alongside a 13-megapixel ultra-wide angle and 5-megapixel macro camera.

More information: ROG

Pricing and Availability

The Asus ROG Phone 3 will initially be released in North America in September. Details of a European launch will be posted later.