Gaming phones are back: new Xiaomi and Lenovo models are on the way

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But there's a catch

The Xiaomi Redmi K90 Max
The Xiaomi Redmi K90 Max (Image credit: Xiaomi)
  • Xiaomi and Lenovo have both teased upcoming gaming phones
  • In Lenovo's case, this will be its first gaming phone in years
  • However, there's a high chance they'll only be sold in China

Gaming phones have always been slightly niche, but there used to be a decent number of them being made each year. Now, many brands have either stopped making them entirely or pulled out of certain markets. Lenovo was one such case, having officially stopped making gaming phones back in 2023, but now it has reversed course.

Over on Chinese site Weibo (via Android Authority), the company has announced that it will be launching a Lenovo Legion Y70 New Generation.

This will be Lenovo's first Legion gaming phone since 2022, and the post suggests it will be out as soon as May, though no concrete details have been shared just yet. That said, a leaked photo shared by Innogyan shows what appears to be a Legion phone with three cameras on the back, so it’s likely this is the upcoming handset.

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A leaked photo of what might be the Lenovo Legion Y70 New Generation

A leaked photo of what might be the Lenovo Legion Y70 New Generation (Image credit: Innogyan)

It's not alone

And this isn’t the only upcoming gaming phone, as Xiaomi (via NotebookCheck) has also shared details of its upcoming Redmi K90 Max — a phone that you can see at the top of this article, and that’s set to launch on April 21.

This is already confirmed to have a high-end Dimensity 9500 chipset, and a 6.83-inch 165Hz screen, which can apparently maintain a 144Hz refresh rate and ‘ultra HD’ resolution for four hours when playing Honor of Kings.

So, this is very much a gaming-focused phone too, but there’s a catch with both of these devices, as so far they’ve only been confirmed for China, so they may well not get a global launch.

Still, the fact that they’re arriving at all suggests that there’s a renewed appetite for gaming phones, so hopefully it will only be a matter of time before new models do start launching globally.

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James Rogerson

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.

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