The Lenovo Legion Go S is the first third-party SteamOS handheld
The Lenovo Legion Go is sort of identical to the SUV of gaming handhelds. It’s large, beefy, comes with quite a lot of further gear like detachable controllers and it helps vertical mouse efficiency that lets it adapt to all forms of circumstances. All of that versatility is good, nonetheless it makes the machine kind of cumbersome. Nevertheless for CES 2025, Lenovo is saying a barely further moveable mannequin known as the Legion Go S with assist for not one nonetheless two fully totally different OSes: House home windows 11 and SteamOS.
That talked about, the specs on every variants are virtually related. They attribute each an AMD Ryzen Z2 Go chip or the Z1 Extreme APU Lenovo used on the sooner model, with as a lot as 32GB of RAM, 1TB SSD and a 55.5Wh battery. You moreover get a microSD card slot for expandable storage, two USB 4 ports and a 3.5mm audio jack. The precept distinction is their shade (and launch date, nonetheless further on that later) as a result of the House home windows 11 Legion Go S is accessible in white whereas the SteamOS model is likely to be accessible in black.
Compared with the distinctive Legion Go, the S encompasses a smaller nonetheless nonetheless large 8-inch 120 Hz OLED present (down from 8.8 inches) with a 1,920 x 1,200 resolution and VRR in its place of two,560 x 1,600 144Hz panel like on the distinctive. It moreover doesn’t have detachable controllers or a kickstand. The advantage of that’s that all the system feels loads sturdier, which must make you feel larger about tossing it in a bag sooner than your subsequent journey. It’s moreover noticeably lighter at 1.6 kilos versus 1.9 for its older sibling.
Notably, you proceed to get analog sticks with Hall Impression sensors, which you don’t get on rivals like ASUS’ pricey ROG Ally X. Lenovo moreover moved to a model new pivot-style D-pad, though I’m uncertain that counts as an actual enhance as I are more likely to need the fundamental cross-style ones. One different good bonus for tinkerers is that on the inside, the Go S comes with a shorter 2242 SSD module although it’d accommodate desktop-size 2280 sticks.
Initially, I obtained a chance to try the House home windows 11 mannequin, whose effectivity felt pretty snappy due to the drop in resolution to 1,920 x 1,200, which seems like a further acceptable match for its components. Lenovo has moreover made some enhancements to its Legion Home app, so it capabilities considerably higher as a standard recreation launch and a spot to tweak effectivity and settings. I moreover acknowledge little touches like how although it’s a lot smaller, the Legion Go S nonetheless has a touchpad in entrance, which is such an infinite help once you would possibly wish to exit Legion Home and navigate spherical in House home windows. I’d even say that no matter its dimension, the pad on the Go S is further responsive, as a result of it feels further like a trackball than a tiny touchpad. And spherical once more, there’s a small toggle for adjusting how far you might pull the shoulder buttons.
As for the Legion Go S powered by SteamOS, I found it distinctive how associated it felt to the Steam Deck no matter not being made by Valve. The UI is sort of related, the one variations are some refined tweaks Lenovo added to assist points just like the hand-held’s RGB lighting and higher 30-watt TDP. In particular person, the SteamOS fashions’ casing appears to be further like a darkish purple than pure black, which is a nice refined contact. Nonetheless my largest takeaways is that Valve’s OS felt barely further responsive that it does on the Steam Deck, which I’m attributing to the Legion’s newer APU.
The small hiccup is {{that a}} higher-end mannequin of Legion Go S working House home windows 11 is anticipated to go on sale first sometime later this month starting at $730 with an AMD Z2 Go processor, 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. Sadly, which suggests anyone who wants considered one of many further cheap fashions with 16GB of RAM or working SteamOS ought to wait a bit longer, as these variants gained’t be accessible until May. On the sensible side, the Legion Go S powered by SteamOS can have a lower starting value of $499 compared with an equal House home windows model which may start at $599.
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