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| The Lenovo Legion C700 is exclusive to China. |
Lenovo quietly launched a new handheld in late August, and it’s one of the more unusual gaming devices to come out of China this year. Called the Lenovo Legion C700, the handheld is currently exclusive to China and was developed in partnership with Tencent. Its main purpose is streaming games from Tencent’s Start cloud gaming service, rather than acting as a full-blown local gaming PC.
So far, there’s been no official word about an international release. But the Legion C700 has already made its way into the hands of YouTube creator ETA Prime, and his hands-on video uncovered a detail that few people saw coming: Ayaneo may have had a hand in building it.
That’s a surprising twist, because Lenovo is no stranger to the handheld market. The company already has the Legion Go, the Legion Go S, and the Legion Go 2. The Legion Go S, for example, is currently available on Amazon for $695.16 if you want to check it out. But according to ETA Prime’s findings, the Legion C700 may not be a purely Lenovo and Tencent creation.
If you want to see the full breakdown for yourself, you can watch ETA Prime’s full hands-on video here. His investigation points to several clues that Ayaneo, a well-known Chinese handheld manufacturer, was involved behind the scenes.
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| The Lenovo Legion C700's FPS Thunder feature is also available on Ayaneo handhelds. |
The first piece of evidence is a feature called FPS Thunder. On the Legion C700, FPS Thunder can be accessed through the performance menu. It’s an overlay tool that displays real-time information while you’re gaming, and it’s not exactly a common piece of software. Ayaneo devices already use an overlay with the same name and the same basic functionality.
The second clue appeared during the installation of Streamhost, the software needed for low-latency game streaming from a computer to the Legion C700. While the program is installing, the Command Prompt installer shows where the software is being downloaded from. According to ETA Prime, the URL points to an Ayaneo server. That’s a pretty strong hint that Ayaneo’s software stack is present on the device.
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| The Lenovo Legion C700's Streamhost software for low-latency gaming downloads from an Ayaneo server. |
The software evidence alone is interesting, but there are also hardware clues. If you look closely at the Lenovo Legion C700, it shares some design traits with Ayaneo handhelds like the Ayaneo Kun and Ayaneo Next 2.
First, the button arrangement on the Legion C700 is very similar to those Ayaneo Windows handhelds. The main difference is that the Legion C700 doesn’t have circular touchpads. Second, the floating 8-way D-pad on the Legion C700 looks like it was borrowed directly from Ayaneo’s design language. These aren’t massive changes, but they’re the kind of details that tend to stand out when you compare the devices side by side.
For anyone shopping around for a more widely available Lenovo handheld, the Legion Go S is listed on Amazon for $695.16, and it remains a more traditional gaming handheld compared to the China-only Legion C700.
What This Means for the Legion C700
Put together, the evidence suggests Ayaneo played a key role in the development of the Lenovo Legion C700. That doesn’t mean Lenovo simply slapped its logo on an Ayaneo device, but it does suggest the company leaned on Ayaneo’s experience with handheld hardware and software.
Of course, don’t expect Lenovo or Ayaneo to openly confirm this anytime soon. Companies rarely reveal the full extent of their manufacturing and development partnerships, especially when a device is exclusive to one region and tied to a specific ecosystem like Tencent’s Start cloud gaming service.
Still, it’s a fascinating detail. The Lenovo Legion C700 may look like a straightforward Tencent-focused streaming handheld, but underneath the surface, it seems to carry more Ayaneo DNA than anyone expected. For handheld gaming fans, that’s a plot twist worth paying attention to.
