Finding the best gaming phones is about to get a whole lot simpler. A new report says that the rumours we've been hearing for weeks now are true: Lenovo is indeed dumping its Legion gaming phone brand. This isn’t the only tech firm cutting back in its gaming division. Xiaomi’s Black Shark gaming brand has laid off nearly 80% of its workforce too; according to the South China Morning Post it told employees that it was experiencing “tremendous operational difficulties”.
The rumours about Lenovo began earlier this month when a person who appeared to be a Lenovo employee posted on social media that the entire Legion gaming business was shutting down. Android Authority got on the case, put in a call to Lenovo and was told that yes, the story was true.
What does Lenovo say about the reports?
Here’s what the Lenovo spokesperson said.
Lenovo is discontinuing its Android-based Legion mobile gaming phones as part of a wider business transformation and gaming portfolio consolidation. As a leader in gaming devices and solutions, Lenovo is committed to advancing the gaming category across form factors, as well as focusing on where it can bring the most value to the global gaming community.
Not all firms are cutting back or shutting down. ASUS will launch its latest ROG Phone, the ROG Phone 7, this April, and Nubia’s Redmagic 7 is the current top of our best-phone chart.
But times are clearly tough in the gaming phone business, and brands such as Legion have been struggling to make significant headway outside China. There isn’t a Legion phone among our tips for the best gaming phone, and it’s entirely likely that the first time many people heard of Legion phones was the news that Lenovo was going to stop making them.
Upgrade to smarter living
Get the latest news, reviews, deals and buying guides on gorgeous tech, home and active products straight to your inbox.
Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).