The phone with the fastest charging is official with a side-mounted selfie camera
Lenovo may be more popular with its Motorola brand as far as phones are concerned, but that doesn't prevent it from trying its luck in the market every now and then. The gaming phone market, that is, as the budding niche is now teeming with traditional phone makers, newcomers, and dedicated game brands that are trying to offer the perfect handset for gamers.
We just reviewed the Asus ROG 3, and came away impressed by its specs sheet and performance. It's the first phone with a 144 Hz refresh rate display abilities and the newest Qualcomm Snapdragon flagship chipset, the Snapdragon 865+, after all.
Lenovo Legion Duel specs, prices, and release date
Enter Lenovo with the Duel phone in its Legion series. A 144 Hz refresh rate display? Check. Snapdragon 865+? Check. A 90W charger? Check. Wait, what?
That's right, all of a sudden Lenovo comes out of left field with its 90W charging speed, all the while the lesser brands max out at 65W. We kid, but 90W is indeed very impressive, as only in teasers and promises have we seen higher Watt count so far - for a 100W charger by Xiaomi, and a 125W from Oppo which is also the bearer of the current record-holder, the 65W brick of the Find X2 Pro.
How fast do 90W charge the 5000mAh battery of the Duel? Try measly 30 minutes. Whaat? Yep, from empty to a hundred in half an hour. That's a new record, as the fastest charging phone we've tested so far, the Oppo Find X2 Pro, tops its pack off for 38 minutes on a smaller battery.
Well, to achieve said 0-100% in 30 minutes, Lenovo distributed the 5000mAh collective capacity in two modules, and equipped each pack with a separate charging port that need to be plugged simultaneously with the other, but who's counting, a record's a record.
Needless to say, the Snapdragon 865+ processor will ensure blazing fast performance, as we already attested on the ROG 3 which climbed to the top of our benchmark chart. Up to 16GB RAM and 512GB storage take care of the memory morals, and there is an elaborate cooling system, as on any self-respecting gaming phone.
What we are mainly interested in, however, is the 144Hz display, as the ROG 3 leaves something to be desired in the color and brightness categories, if not in refresh rate. Lenovo equipped the Duel with a 6.65" FHD+ OLED screen, and put side-mounted triggers that are pressure-sensitive, so that gamers don't cover the screen with their fat digits while playing.
That's not the only side-mounted thing that the Lenovo Legion Duel offers, though, as the other one is... the selfie camera. That's right, the 20MP shooter can pop out from the top of the phone when you are playing so that you can stream, and shout, and stream, and shout... when in landscape mode. Of course, this would make taking selfies the traditional way with the phone upright a bit awkward but we are sure owners will get the knack of it pretty quickly.
The main camera set is more orthodox but by no means less impressive, as it sports a 64MP sensor with pixel-binned 16MP photos, and a 16MP ultrawide angle camera. Sorry, no telephoto kit here, you'd have to literally be stepping a few steps forward if you want to magnify the scene.
Lenovo Legion Duel starts from $560 up to $860 for the top 16GB/512GB model on pre-order today, but, once it gets our of China, and makes it to Europe and Asia, that price will invariably be 20-30% higher, depending on the country. The 90W charger is also country-dependent, tips Lenovo, as not all SKUs will get the record-fast brick, some and some units will ship with "just" a 65W charger which, however, can also charge the batteries in a dual-port mode. Any takers?
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