On a dry but chilly evening at the outset of March, my son (Alex) and I were very lucky enough to be able to head inside the cosy Purity Bar & Kitchen to attend the Lenovo Legion launch event, courtesy of Box Limited of Minworth, Sutton Coldfield. On arrival we received a warm welcome from our hosts Laura and Emma (Assistant Product manager for Box), and were also given some gratefully received drinks vouchers, which we quickly set about spending, along with a goodie bag.
Our thirsts suitably sated by two of the excellent Purity beverages on offer, we moved on to the main event, and the exhibition of Lenovo Legion tech which was on display over two rooms. We were very impressed with the standard of equipment available, all of which looked to be of very high quality. The graphics and processing speeds we saw across every device looked to be perfect for gaming (so Alex told me anyway!), and more than adequate for any other applications Lenovo customers might want to use. I have to confess here to a bit of bias too – Nick from Grapevine runs a Lenovo laptop and has always been very impressed with it.
Once we had had a good look around the various tech, we headed over to the incredible virtual racing set up which Box had created to showcase the new Lenovo Legion desktop. With a curved screen and proper racing rig, this really did look to be the closest you can get to borrowing Lewis Hamilton’s company car, and boy did it get some use! Alex started the competition, being first to race, but was very quickly challenged by a plethora of other keen gamers who had evidently spent a lot of spare time racing round tracks from the comfort of their own homes, not least Jon Bentley from The Gadget Show who demonstrated an impressive mastery of the rig.
The racing continued in earnest all evening, with the powerful Legion desktop ably handling the high-powered demands of this amazingly realistic game, and Box staff on hand to help and advise on anything from their range of products, to how to get the best from ‘the car’, to making sure we were looked after with drinks. Emma in particular demonstrated an impressive knowledge of Lenovo products and we made a note to visit what sounds like an Aladdin’s cave of a store at Box’s premises on First Avenue in Minworth as soon as we can.
All too soon, the evening drew to a close, and the results of the leaderboard were analysed, with Alex coming a very respectable 4th. The winner was presented with his prize, a selection of Lenovo tech, and we managed to have a chat with thoroughly nice (and very interesting) chap Jon Bentley before leaving for our train home.
Where did Jon come on the leaderboard? It would be unfair to share, but let’s just say Alex was pleased….
Finally – if you’re sad to have missed this superb event, don’t worry. There are further similar events planned throughout this month at Solihull, the University of Birmingham, and at their store. See here for details: https://www.box.co.uk/legion-launch
Words by Ken Byng for Grapevine Birmingham