Winners and Losers: Lenovo takes on Steam Deck, and Google removes key Wear OS feature

OPINION: We’re currently experiencing the quiet before the storm in the tech world, with a number of major events on the horizon. 

These include the Gamescom and IFA trade shows which will be showcasing all-new hardware, while Microsoft and Apple are expected to host launch events in September. It’s going to be a busy few weeks at Trusted Reviews HQ.

But this week has been relatively quiet, with tech companies seemingly holding their cards close to their chest. That hasn’t stopped us determining the biggest winners and losers from the past seven days. Without further ado, here are our winners and losers:

Winner: Lenovo’s Steam Deck rival leaks

Lenovo probably isn’t too happy this week, with Windows Report leaking the very first images of a new gaming handheld device called the Lenovo Legion Go. It’s likely that Lenovo would have wanted to wait until IFA 2023 to announce its exciting new portable.

However, we’ve still decided to include Lenovo as the winner as we’re seriously impressed with the first details of the Legion Go. It looks to be yet another Steam Deck rival, joining the likes of the Asus ROG Ally and Ayaneo 2S in delivering on-the-go PC gaming. 

Lenovo has gone one step further though, offering a Nintendo Switch-like experience with detachable controllers and a kickstand, allowing for play in tabletop mode. It’s also been reported that the Legion Go could be powered by AMD’s new Phoenix processors. We’ve already tested a couple laptops with these chips, including the Alienware M16, and have been very encouraged by the speedy performance. 

We’re still yet to hear important details such as pricing, but this early look at the Lenovo Legion Go is very promising, and we can wait to hear more in IFA 2023 later this month. 

Loser: Google Assistant removed from old WearOS watches

It’s incredibly frustrating to lose a major feature that was present on a device when you first paid for it. Yet Google has decided to remove Google Assistant – the brand’s voice assistant – from any watch running Wear OS 2. Google has confirmed that Google Assistant will stop functioning on these old watches from August 31, 2023.

The good news is that if you’ve purchased a new wearable device in the past couple of years, this likely won’t affect you. But if you’ve been using a Wear OS watch for a long time, it’s possible that you’ll be forced to upgrade to a new wearable if you want to keep using Google’s voice assistant. 

Is this a dastardly plot to convince existing customers to upgrade to a new watch? Not quite, as Google actually has a pretty good reason. As 9to5Google reports, Google wants to streamline the voice assistant feature to a single Google Assistant app, which is currently only available on Wear OS 3 and above watches. Anything prior uses an older version of Google Assistant, of which Google has been responsible for maintaining and updating. 

Rather than committing to updating the old iteration of Google Assistant, Google has instead decided to scrap it and reallocate resources elsewhere. It makes sense from a business perspective, yet remains a bitter pill to swallow for those who are still using an old WearOS watch and didn’t plan on upgrading anytime soon.