Lenovo Legion Go 2 suddenly costs $650 more as RAMageddon lays waste to gaming hardware

Remember when we thought the Legion Go 2 was expensive at $1,099 and up? Those were the days — Best Buy is now listing Lenovo’s handheld for $1,499 with a Ryzen Z2 or $1,999 with a Z2 Extreme. The latter originally cost $1,349, so that’s a $650 jump in just six months.

And yes, that means Lenovo’s flagship may now cost twice as much as a $999 Microsoft/Asus Xbox Ally X with the same AMD chip, as much as a far more powerful GPD Win 5 with AMD Strix Halo cost last year. But the way things are going, it’s probably only a matter of time till Microsoft hikes its handheld Xbox price too. (For now, Asus rep Anthony Spence tells me there’s “no price increase on the horizon, so far as I can tell,” at least in the US.)

The Legion Go 2 has other things going for it besides the chip, including detachable controllers and a stellar screen, but $2K? Get outta here.

RAMageddon is coming for everything you care about, and gaming hardware in particular has taken a hit. Sony just hiked the price of the PS5 by $100 to $150, and speaking of Strix Halo, Ayaneo has canceled its $1,999-and-up Next 2 because storage prices made it “unsustainable.” (GPD has hiked its Strix Halo handheld prices some, but still sells the Win 5 with 32GB of RAM, 2TB storage, and an AI Max Plus 395 chip for $2,500, for now.)

Retroid has also discontinued the 12GB model of the Retroid Pocket 6 handheld due to RAM prices.

And, of course, Valve delayed its Steam Machine and Steam Frame and will rethink pricing due to RAM, though it’s still planning to ship them this year. Rumor has it the Switch 2 and PS6 may be affected too.

I miss the days when handhelds simply got a $100 price bump. Oh wait, that was just last year. PCWorld’s Michael Crider shows other Lenovo handhelds have crept up in price, too.

Will the SteamOS version of the Lenovo Legion Go 2 even manage to hit its suggested $1,199 price? I’m guessing not, now. Lenovo didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.