When I heard that Asus was dropping out of the Android gaming phone market, I felt like it could be the beginning of the end for the hardware niche, but it looks like I was wrong. In the last couple of days, both Lenovo and Xiaomi have confirmed upcoming launches for gaming-oriented phones, meaning that the most notable gaming flagship of the last few months, the REDMAGIC 11 Pro, might have some real competition on the way.
The new Lenovo Legion phone is the most surprising reveal, given that the brand has spent the last few years concentrating on gaming tablets and PC handhelds. According to a Weibo post, the Legion Y70 Series is returning in May. That's all we've really got, in the way of confirmed details. There's currently no confirmed information surrounding specs, but if it wants to compete with the rest of the best gaming phones, we'd expect it to launch with a top-end chipset, potentially the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, and at least a 120Hz refresh rate display.
As for Xiaomi, the brand has shared new details on the Redmi K90 Max. It packs a Dimensity 9500 chipset, MediaTek's answer to the Snapdragon's flagship chip. According to Xiaomi's own information, the phone is capable of running Honor of Kings at 144fps, so it should take other demanding titles from our guide to the best mobile games, such as Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail, in its stride. It also packs a 6.83-inch display, which is what you expect from a gaming phone, giving you plenty of screen real estate.
There could, however, be a caveat to the launch of both the upcoming Lenovo Legion Y70 and Dimensity 9500. At the time of writing, neither brand has confirmed whether these phones are getting a global launch. It seems slightly more likely that the Legion phone could come to the US and Europe, as the brand has already confirmed its upcoming gaming tablet, the Legion Tab Gen 5, is going to, but it would still mark a change from the last couple of Legion phone launches. Xiaomi never releases in the US, so we might never get to see the K90 Max in action here, but it's much more active in Europe, so that's a possibility.
Of course, we'll be keeping a close eye on both the Lenovo and Xiaomi social media channels going forward, especially given that the Redmi K90 Max is anticipated to launch in China next week. If either of the devices launches in the US or even Europe, we'll be keen to get hands-on to see how they compare with the likes of the REDMAGIC 11 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra.