Lenovo has officially announced the shutting down of its Legion smartphone business. This was made official indeed official as a Lenovo spokesperson has confirmed the development in a statement to Android Authority.
The company is shutting down its Legion gaming phone business as a part of a wider business transformation and gaming portfolio consolidation.
The Lenovo spokesperson said in a statement ‘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.’
Lenovo entered the gaming smartphone segment way back in 2020 with the first Legion Pro. The company launched the Legion Phone Duel 2 in 2021 and the Legion Y70 was introduced in August last year. The smartphones packed some innovative features including side-mounted pop-up selfie cameras, dedicated cooling fans, and dual charge ports. As per reports, Lenovo has laid off some workers at its facility while others have been transferred to business lines such as Lenovo’s tablet division.
With the departure of Lenovo’s Legion phones, the gaming smartphone industry is left with the ASUS ROG Phone series, Nubia Red Magic series, and Xiaomi’s Black Shark phones. Even Black Shark seems to be struggling but ASUS is going strong as it is gearing up for the launch of ROG Phone 7 globally on April 13th.
The bridge between specialized gaming smartphones and mainstream flagship phones is getting narrower in terms of hardware firepower. However, gaming phones still pack features like dedicated trigger buttons, a heat dissipation system, and more.