If you head over to AliExpress and type in the keywords “Lenovo G02”, you won’t see the brand’s Legion Go 2. Instead, you’re redirected to a page promoting a Lenovo-branded retro gaming handheld, loaded with a collection of ROMs of many classic Nintendo games.
The product is most certainly real. But the real kicker to this story? That is actually a legitimate Lenovo product.
Here’s the breakdown: through an inquiry by online portal Retro Dodo, the Lenovo G02 was officially licensed under the company’s branding, but as a white-label product. Basically, white-label products are goods or services produced by one company (in this case, a third-party Chinese company), and then rebranded by other companies to make it appear as if they made it. In this case, that “other” company is Lenovo.
It’s a fairly standard and common practice in the tech industry. One example of a company that does this is the memory brand Biwin. While the brand does have its own lineup of products – desktop and laptop memory, along with storage products – it offers its goods in a white-label capacity to other brands like Acer.
Getting back on point, the Lenovo G02 handheld was officially licensed by the brand to the Chinese manufacturer, with the partnership reportedly confirmed by Lenovo’s PR representatives. Specs-wise, the G02 runs on a Cortex-A35 ARM processor, running on a 1.5GHz quad-core RK3326 CPU, and a Mali-G31 MP2 GPU. Other specifications include 4,000mAh battery, as well as a 4.5-inch IPS HD display with a 1,024 x 768 resolution. Oh, and it comes with a 64GB TF Card and supposedly runs both 2D and 3D Nintendo games via emulation “smoothly”.
On paper, the Lenovo G02 doesn’t just come preloaded with Nintendo ROMs, but also titles from the Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP), PS One, and Sega Dreamcast. It’s clear that Lenovo is traversing a grey area when it comes to licensing out its name on a white-label basis, but it’s the actions of the manufacturer that open it up to potential legal action from Nintendo, and we all know what kind of animal the owner of the Super Mario Bros. IP is. Just ask the owners of the now-defunct Yuzu and hacker Bowser.
(Source: AliExpress, Techspot, Retro Dodo)
