It took 3 years, but it finally happened: a handheld gaming PC has been designed that’s more comfortable than Valve’s Steam Deck. A computer designed to be held in our hands for hours shouldn’t compromise on comfort, so this matters immensely. It’s why despite the onslaught of more powerful competitors hitting the market, I keep falling back into the cozy embrace of my Steam Deck. Lenovo’s new Legion Go S, however, is poised to finally change my handheld allegiance.
But, maybe not this version of the Legion Go S.
Legion Go S: Noteworthy Improvements
The Legion Go S enters the handheld gaming space in a bizarre position. I can’t remember the last time a device launched that was less powerful than its predecessor, but still introduced so many meaningful improvements.
To begin with, Lenovo’s latest has vastly better speakers than the original Legion Go, which emitted sound so tinny and hallow that wearing headphones was essential. These new front-facing speakers have richer sound with more clarity, and they sit somewhere in between the Switch and the Steam Deck in terms of overall quality.
There are welcome refinements to the controls too. The Legion Go S ditches the detachable extravagance of the TrueStrike controllers to focus on quality and simplicity. The new hall effect sticks are a big improvement, providing more satisfying movement than the overly loose sticks of the Legion Go. The d-pad makes diagonals easier to pull off, making everything from Contra to the Street Fighter series more enjoyable. And the new triggers have independent toggles to restrict or lengthen their travel.
By far the most dramatic improvements come in the form of aesthetics and comfort. This is truly the most pleasing handheld I’ve ever gazed at, with its simple white-on-black appearance and the gentle curves along its edges. And I’ll double down on my claim that it’s the most comfortable handheld I’ve ever used, despite being about 100 grams heavier than the Steam Deck.
The generous screen-to-body ratio makes the 8″ WUXGA (1920×1200) IPS screen really pop, and not enough can be said about how beautiful it makes your games look, despite not being an OLED panel. Throw in added perks like 500 nits brightness, VRR, and a max refresh rate of 120Hz, and it’s a serious highlight.
Oh, and you’ll love emulation on this display!
Rounding out the improvements: it’s lighter than the original Legion Go and packs in a slightly larger 55Whr battery. That being said, my battery tests showed the Legion Go S dying a few minutes before the Legion Go in PCMark’s battery rundown test.
Don’t Call It The Legion Go “Lite”
All of the above is meant to illustrate how Lenovo has made meaningful design improvements compared to the original Legion Go. They highlight the lessons the company has learned, and show it’s listening to vital community feedback.
But the Legion Go S is not meant to be an upgrade over the Legion Go. The proper follow-up, the Legion Go 2, is still scheduled to arrive sometime this year and will ship with AMD’s Ryzen Z2 Extreme processor. You see, despite the many awesome changes I mentioned, the new 2025 Legion Go S is less powerful than the 2023 Legion Go (and the ROG Ally X).
The unit I’m reviewing ships with Windows 11, 1TB of storage, and 32GB of memory. It’s powered by AMD’s 4-core Ryzen Z2 Go processor, which was developed exclusively for Lenovo, and uses an older graphics architecture than the Legion Go’s 8-core Ryzen Z1 Extreme.
Later this year, Lenovo will release additional Legion Go S variants: one with the more powerful Ryzen Z1 Extreme, and one that ditches Windows and is powered by SteamOS.
That makes the value proposition of this Legion Go S unclear. It’s not a “lite” version, because although it’s less powerful, it ships with double the memory and storage of the base Legion Go, and is more expensive. This Legion Go S retails for $729 while the Legion Go is $699.
If you’re confused by any of this, you now understand the problem Lenovo is facing.
Who is this device for, then? Let’s start answering that by looking at how gaming performance compares to the original Legion Go and the Steam Deck OLED.
Legion Go S Benchmarks
An important testing note: The maximum TDP I tested at was 25W (15W for Steam Deck), which is the default performance profile used by the Legion Go S, ROG Ally, and Legion Go while running on battery. This is meant to reflect the typical gaming scenario for more demanding titles when people are away from an outlet. Nominal FPS gains can be achieved when boosting these devices beyond 25W, but it’s almost never worth the added noise and accelerated battery drain.
We’ll kick it off with 3DMark’s Time Spy, which measures pure DirectX 12 performance. It’s a useful synthetic benchmark that helps gauge the performance differences to expect between systems. Here, we’re just looking at the benchmark’s graphics score. (Steam Deck isn’t included since the 3DMark suite doesn’t run on SteamOS, but it would score lower than these results.)
In Time Spy, the Legion Go S is 24% slower than the Legion Go, and 15% slower than my ROG Ally Z1. So that’s our baseline; now let’s see how actual games run, and let’s add Steam Deck to the party.
In these charts you’ll see a game’s average FPS in blue, and minimum FPS in orange.
With Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the Legion Go S lands right in the middle. 13% faster than the Steam Deck OLED and 14% slower than Legion Go. But let’s see what happens when level the playing field and run the benchmark at 15W across all systems:
Fascinating. Steam Deck’s aging Aerith APU still holds its own, demonstrating just how well Steam Deck is optimized. Here, the Legion Go S is dead last, although it does turn in a higher minimum framerate than Steam Deck.
OK, let’s dismiss the Steam Deck for a minute and see how things fare under the native 1920×1200 resolution of the Legion Go S.
In the review guide Lenovo sent, the recommendation was to run most games at 1280×800, and you can see why. Less demanding titles like 2D side-scrollers and indies will run like a dream at 1920×1200, but modern 3D games with complex graphics engines need a processor that’s slightly beefier. The takeaway here, however, is the minimum FPS result for the Legion Go S.
Next, let’s look at Cyberpunk 2077, a game that’s much newer and better optimized for handhelds.
I triple-checked this one, running the benchmark multiple times because I was shocked to see the Steam Deck outperforming the Legion Go S by such a wide margin. This result mostly scales when running all the systems at a lower TDP, except that the Steam Deck once again flexes its 15W muscle, which never fails to impress me:
Let’s finish the gaming benchmarks by looking at Forza Horizon 5, which shows a performance pattern emerging.
I ran the Forza Horizon 5 test on its medium graphics preset, but with all upscaling disabled. The Legion Go S fares better here when compared to the ROG Ally, but the Legion Go blows past it, turning in a 24% higher average framerate. The Steam Deck lags behind by only 16%, which is similar to the Shadow of the Tomb Raider results.
What we’re consistently seeing, then, is the Legion Go S performance profile sitting right between the Steam Deck and Legion Go.
Legion Space and The Windows 11 Problem
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I’ll make this part brief. SteamOS – or operating systems that attempt to replicate the Steam Deck style UI such as Bazzite – are far more elegant, user-friendly experiences on a handheld. There’s a reason Lenovo is launching a version of this device in May that’s powered by SteamOS. It’s simply better. And I’ll argue it will sell better too.
Software overlays like Lenovo’s Legion Space go a great distance toward compensating for Windows’ shortcomings, but it isn’t without its own weirdness.
When I tried to download Steam from the “Game Platforms” tab of Legion Space, nothing happened. I clicked the Download button, the UI shows a down arrow indicating that something is being downloaded – at 0 bytes per second – and then the Download button appears again. Bafflingly, this problem has persisted since 2023.
In other Steam-related shenanigans, I tried to launch it from the same Legion Space area after I’d manually installed it alongside Epic Games and GOG. It alerted me that “other games/apps are running” and suggested that to improve performance, I should “close other games and start new games.” So I clicked that suggestion, and it opened the uninstaller for Steam.
I wish I was making this up, because I didn’t realize what was happening until I’d absentmindedly hit “next” and watched as Steam and roughly 700GB of games were removed. So be careful out there!
Gripes aside, Legion Space has improved exponentially, and makes adjusting performance profiles, fan curves, lighting, and other power user tweaks a breeze. Simply put, it makes Windows tolerable and Lenovo deserves a lot of credit for smoothing over the rough edges.
Who Should Buy The Legion Go S?
It’s a difficult question to answer.
The most expensive Steam Deck OLED is the 1TB model for $649, compared to the Legion Go S price tag of $729, and the Legion Go currently sitting at $699.
If you’re shopping for your first handheld and don’t mind the clunky experience of Windows 11, I genuinely believe the Legion Go S is an outstanding choice. But that recommendation comes with caveats.
If the Legion Go S had SteamOS instead of Windows, I would recommend it over the Steam Deck solely on the merits of its large, beautiful 8″ screen and how comfortable it feels in the hands. If the Legion Go S was priced at $650 or below, I would recommend it regardless of the operating system it shipped with.
Right now, it’s a confusing value proposition. I don’t think anyone needs 1TB of storage when you can greatly expand the storage with a cheap microSD card. Nor do I think this device needs 32GB of memory for the vast majority of things you’ll do on it. If this launch SKU of the Legion Go S was pared down to 512GB and 16GB of memory and sold for $599, I would scream its praises to every Steam Deck and ROG Ally fan on the planet.
Unfortunately, we need to wait for those more affordable configurations. So, as the headline of this review implies, what Lenovo has built is a blueprint for handheld perfect – and I think that perfection will be achieved when the Legion Go S Powered by SteamOS launches. I am incredibly optimistic about that particular model. The model in my hands right now represents the promise of what’s ahead.
