No, AMD isn't abandoning Ryzen Z1 chip series: Lenovo says it's working with AMD on handheld gaming PC updates until 2029
As much as I like the sound of bedtime gaming, I haven't yet committed to a handheld gaming PC of my own. Part of that is down to pricing, but a not insignificant part of it is also to do with the question of long-term hardware support.
Lenovo, for one, is saying it's in the handheld arena for the long haul. Specifically, the company said it planned to support its original AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme-based handheld, the Lenovo Legion Go, until at least 2029.
"Support for the Lenovo Legion Go (8.8”, 1) has not been discontinued," The company wrote in an official statement issued to PCWorld, "Lenovo is actively continuing to support the Legion Go (8.8”, 1) with necessary driver and BIOS updates and will continue to do so through October 2029. Lenovo is working in concert with AMD on driver update cadence, and new updates will be released once they have passed Lenovo’s rigorous review protocols."
Concerns around long-term support for the Legion Go first arose after a machine translation of a Lenovo Korea customer service response suggested that there were no plans for the original handheld to receive any further driver updates. At the time, the Lenovo Legion Go hadn't received a GPU driver update since last September.
Last week, our Nick investigated another similarly AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme-based handheld, the Asus ROG Ally. The handheld's attempt to run Resident Evil Requiem left much to be desired, especially compared to the older Steam Deck.
A driver update arrived for the ROG Ally the same week as Nick's story, though it did not substantially improve the handheld's in-game performance. The entire episode did not seem to disprove the rumour that AMD had abandoned driver support for its Ryzen Z1 chips.
Lenovo's latest statement is highly specific and declarative, instead suggesting a continuing support commitment to the Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip from AMD. That's just as well, as the original Lenovo Legion Go is barely two years old and can still go for a premium price even second-hand. However, it's interesting to note that to date we've not heard anything quite as confident from Asus ROG about support for the Ally.