Lenovo, Legion is serious! The goal is the top of the gaming market

On the occasion of the last Milan Games Week we had the opportunity to exchange a few words with John Miedema, Head of Gaming at Lenovo and therefore, essentially, the man at the head of the brand legion and of the division of the brand that looks to the world of Gaming. Those spent in John’s company were pleasant minutes, in which interesting considerations arose regarding the company’s vision and its objectives, truly ambitious and certainly stimulating.

Lenovo Legion is a brand we have heard of for the first time in 2017, on the occasion of CES in Las Vegas, embodied in only two notebooks: Legion Y520 and Y720. A little less than 6 years have passed but, as we well know, in the world of technology 6 years are an infinity and the path taken by the Legion brand in these years has certainly been exemplary.

At a time when gaming notebooks were really very flashy, the Legion brand started with a slightly different idea. Products that are more refined and aesthetically pleasing but which maintain that wild soul, especially under the body, typical of solutions for gamers. Over the years, incremental changes have been made to this idea without ever distorting it. An evolutionary design that has never denied the basic idea, according to a concept of coherence and consistency which for the company is the basis of the success of a product line.

To then consolidate the image of Legion as a Gaming brand, Lenovo has decided to expand the offer; we started with notebooks but the line-up now also includes peripherals, desktop PCs, monitors and accessories. All these products allow you to retain users and create countless points of contact with them. If you own a Legion notebook and you’re satisfied you can now have access to a whole series of other solutions created according to the same gamer-centric philosophy, without having to turn to other brands.

The ultimate goal is obviously that to become the leader of the gaming market in Europe and surprisingly, the summit isn’t that far away. Legion is currently in second place but the intent is to reach the finish line with a consolidated proposal. Yes, because it’s easy to climb these rankings by lowering prices and accepting that it is simply the cheapest brand in the company; but it is decidedly less so if you want to maintain a good balance between price and quality.

We wanna be the number one in the gaming market, but to reach that goal we don’t want to lower price. It’s simple to raise the market share by being the cheapest of the block. We’re working to find the right balance between quality and price, to make sure that, in every tier of a products, we have the best offer

Currently, Lenovo’s gaming lineup includes products with an attractive price point (IdeaPad Gaming), but also certainly superior solutions such as the Legion 5 Pro and top-of-the-range proposals which are represented by Legion 7. This segmentation ensures that the user can always buy the best possible product within the corresponding price range. Summarizing and simplifying: it doesn’t matter how much money you have in your pocket, if you choose Legion you will have the best possible solution for that amount; this is the goal to achieve.

Given these concepts, a consideration should be made. We are in a market where the devices are very similar to each other, at least if we look at them from the outside. Reducing everything to a minimum we always talk about a display, a keyboard and a body, more or less sprinkled with LEDs. Exactly for this reason Lenovo has understood that to differentiate yourself it is not enough to throw a CPU and a GPU inside a chassis but it is essential to work so that the components can perform at their best in all situations.

The focus therefore fell on the cooling system, with technology Legion Coldfront and the Legion Ai Engine. The intelligence constantly monitors the system and provides instructions to adapt the load on the components so that thermal stress is never excessive. Thanks to artificial intelligence it is then possible to improve system performance in a targeted manner in the presence of some specific titles. When the notebook is playing one of the compatible games, the artificial intelligence acts by applying customized settings allowing us to gain up to 10-15% of performance.

Don’t optimize your hardware it’s like putting a basic engine inside a luxury car, this is still a great looking car but it doesn’t perform

This is what a gamer is looking for, and it’s also why an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 inside a Legion 5 Pro often outperforms an RTX 3070 Ti or even a 3080 inside competing notebooks. A result that is the result of the combination of CPU and GPU, but above all of cooling and power that the system can handle.

The fruit of this work then materializes in the choices of the users who, focusing on our country, are basically of two types. The former are those who don’t have budget problems, only look at performance and are looking for a product that doesn’t have to compromise, even by paying significant sums. These are the users who turn to high-end solutions like Legion 7 and, going down a notch, Legion 5 Pro.

Legion 5 Pro which, moreover, is one of the best-selling gaming notebooks in Italy and not only. A device that immediately found the consensus of all, insiders and non-experts, and which since its launch is constantly among the top of the rankings of the best gaming laptops. With Legion 5 Pro, as perhaps with no other product, the balance I was talking about a moment ago has been found, combining performance, price, design and solidity.

The second category of users is the one who wants to play yes, but not necessarily at the highest levels, and who perhaps wants to use the notebook also for other purposes: study, work, content creation, stream. These are the users turning to lighter and more compact alternatives like the Legion Slim 7 and Legion 5.

In general, however, whatever type of user is interested in purchasing, in Italy there is always great attention to the economic aspect. Buyers inform themselves a lot and always try to spend their budget in the best possible way, and the fact that Legion solutions are so sought after is therefore further evidence of the work done by the company in this sense.

Also because Lenovo has always been very close to its buyers and immediately tried to establish a dialogue with them. To do this, she created the Legion Community which today has over 150,000 active users and that it is fundamental to the brand strategy. The community is in fact the meeting place between the company and the fans, the square within which solutions are discussed and how these can be improved.

John says that many of the interventions and improvements that are made to the products every year are the result of feedback received from those who are part of the community. This direct relationship with users is fundamental for Lenovo to reach and maintain the top of the gaming notebook market. The judgments obtained are the thermometer that allows us to understand if the strategy is correct and if the direction taken is good or if it is necessary to consider other paths.

The feedback requested from users ranges greatly in terms of type and importance. They range from the trivial choice of color to use for the body of a notebook to much more technical considerations. All while always keeping in mind the vision of the company and the message it wants to convey: stylish on the outside and wild on the inside. Concrete products, designed by those who play for those who want to play.

With this mantra firmly fixed in mind, Lenovo then develops its strategy which unfolds, also and inevitably, between an increasingly numerous and important series of partnerships. We have already had the opportunity, in the past, to talk about the ongoing collaborations with some e-sport teams, but since then the company’s horizons have broadened further and have also embraced the competitions themselves, of which Legion is increasingly a partner technician. An example? The next final of the Intel Extreme Masterswhich will be held as always in Katowice in Poland, will see Legion engaged as a major sponsor.

All these collaborations are very important, almost fundamental. Through these marketing operations, in fact, there is no direct and immediate economic return, but the value of the brand within the sector increases considerably. Indirectly, this growth in brand recognition then leads to greater trust on the part of buyers and, as a natural consequence, more sales and more revenues.

And the future? Looking at the past period, with the pandemic playing a fundamental role in the PC market, it is now known that there has been a real explosion in requests, which has also led to various shortage periods. Here, having returned to a state of almost normality, combined with the fact that those who have purchased a notebook or desktop over the past 2 or 3 years will hardly change it in the short term, leads us to think of an inevitable slowdown in sales.

Despite this, even without starting numbers, prospects are good and consolidation is being sought which, in the gaming sector, may be easier to achieve precisely for the reference target. Those who invest in this type of product are in fact generally looking for the maximum performance obtainable with the available budget and, in the face of significant technological innovations, are more inclined to invest again to update their equipment.

In addition to this, Legion’s strategy also goes through a extension of the offer that increasingly looks beyond just notebooks. Once you have gained a prominent place in users’ preferences, it will be easier to offer them other products as well. Peripherals, desktops, monitors, are all categories in which Legion has just started investing, but which still have a very high potential.

Appointment then for 2023, with the hope of being able to have a chat with John again and find out if Legion will be able to conquer the top of the gaming market in Italy.