When even Microsoft themselves begin promising a model of Home windows 11 that may launch with half its capabilities turned off, it’s time to simply accept that such a heaving desktop OS is an uncomfortable match for handheld gaming PCs. Lenovo have already got, launching a brand new model of their Legion Go S that swaps Home windows 11 for the extra naturally portable-minded, as-seen-on-Steam-Deck SteamOS, and immediately turns into a greater handheld for it.
Higher doesn’t imply glorious – the Steam Deck OLED is quieter, longer-lasting, and usually simpler to deal with. However between its wiser selection of working system and comparatively inexpensive pricing, the Legion Go S SteamOS is a minimum of a refreshing change from the succession of fiddly, costly gadgets that seemingly each non-Valve producer has been siccing on one another. If this can be a signal of a sea change, by all means, ring my knell.
Purely {hardware} smart, that is concurrently an improve, paring-back, and continuation of 2023’s unique Legion Go. Gone are the removable controllers, with the mouse functionality that I’m like 75% Nintendo nicked for the Change 2, and the IPS show has shrunk from 8.8in to a spherical 8in, dropping the decision from 2560×1440 to 1920×1200. Although that’s the sort of spec discount one can get on board with, because the Legion Go’s sheer density of pixels was an excessive amount of for its AMD Ryzen Z1 Excessive to deal with in all however the easiest of video games.
The Legion Go S’ 1200p display is a a lot better match, particularly as this SteamOS model provides a selection of the Z1 Excessive or the cheaper Ryzen Z2 Go, the latter of which is powering my take a look at unit. Regardless of “Larger quantity = extra gooder” conference, the Z2 Go makes use of an older Zen core structure (in addition to a decrease 4/8 core/thread depend and slower clock speeds), although it’s ostensibly extra power-efficient as properly.
We’ll see about that, however I’ll say that for as a lot the Legion Go S provides up from the unique, it does sit extra pleasantly within the palms. It’s rounder, softer, lighter – much less conceptually formidable, maybe, however nicer to grip as an precise handheld. That 8in display continues to be large enough to provide it some distinction from the Asus ROG Ally Xs and Zotac Zones on the market, and you continue to get some premium prospers, just like the responsive Corridor Impact joysticks and adjustable set off depth.
For delivering a usability enhance, although, nothing tops the addition of SteamOS. Home windows 11 can precisely declare a wider collection of appropriate video games and launchers, however even getting them arrange on this cramped desktop OS with joystick and touchscreen controls can really feel like untangling Christmas lights whereas being trapped inside a automotive boot. The hand held-optimised SteamOS interface is positively flowing by comparability, to say nothing or its larger moment-to-moment reliability and extra keenly games-focused function set. Which, by the way in which, grants the Legion Go S a number of the Steam Deck’s greatest tips, from a totally working Fast Resume to per-game customized energy profiles. Desktop Mode is right here too, unlocking SteamOS’ capability so as to add non-Steam launchers that stretch its compatibility to nearly something in need of your Recreation Cross picks. And you’ll stream these anyway.
I’m cautious of carelessly suggesting that SteamOS is the solely means ahead for handheld PCs; it is perhaps a secure place the place Copilot can’t harm you proper now, however a monopoly could possibly be as pernicious for Valve because it has been for Microsoft. Nonetheless, of the Legion Go S’ two accessible flavours, SteamOS is way freer of friction – and relying on the sport, it might even run quicker too.
Sure, Ars scooped everybody on this, however my very own testing additionally factors in the direction of video games performing higher on SteamOS than on Home windows 11; a comparability that’s been troublesome to pretty make utilizing earlier handhelds, because the Legion Go S is the very first to get pleasure from full driver help on each working programs. Right here’s what my Z2 Go-powered Legion Go S managed throughout a gaggle of ten recreation benchmarks, all working at native 1920×1200:
For the file, a great half of those don’t present a tangible distinction between SteamOS and Home windows efficiency, so it’s too simplistic to say that one is just quicker than the opposite. However noticeable framerate variations do happen, and each single time, it’s within the favour of SteamOS. Particularly that Forza Horizon 5 consequence, bloody hell. I used to be certain I’d fumbled a setting or one thing to get such a excessive common on SteamOS, however it saved pulling similar or related scores after a number of checks, re-runs, and reboots. I feel it truly is simply that a lot faster, a minimum of on this particular handheld. Had been I blessed with infinite time (and a stronger tolerance for getting into our Steam press account’s miserably overlong password), I’d run many extra of those assessments, although I imagine even a pattern measurement like that is sufficient to attract some conclusions. Conclusions like “Don’t purchase the Home windows model of the Legion Go S.”
As for the way it performs in opposition to handhelds which aren’t itself, the selection of a lower-powered Z2 Go chip doesn’t initially look like a poor one. Subsequent to rival gadgets working at their respective native rezzes, it has that outstanding Forza consequence nonetheless going for it, and equals fellow 1200p-er the MSI Claw 8 AI+ in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The Claw does batter it mindless in Cyberpunk 2077, however then you definately’d anticipate as a lot when MSI’s handheld prices practically twice as a lot.
With resolutions semi-standardised to both 1280×800 or 1280×720, the Z2 Go doesn’t look fairly as peppy, although it does repeatedly outpace the unique Legion Go – which suggests the older mannequin isn’t taking full benefit of its Z1 Excessive chip. It additionally simply beats the Steam Deck, the Legion Go S’ solely actual competitors within the sub-£600 weight class, in all 4 of those video games.
That would seem a significant victory, given Lenovo’s handheld additionally provides a sharper show. Nonetheless, additional investigation revealed the Z2 Go’s efficiency to be extra inconsistent than indefatigable. Take Elden Ring: in idea this could carry out properly, contemplating that the Steam Deck can simply do 30fps on a mixture of Low and Medium settings at 800p. On the Legion’s native 1200p, although, it struggled to even keep above 20fps. Dropping to 1280×800 raised framerates to the purpose of playability, roughly, however it nonetheless wasn’t noticeably quicker than the Steam Deck, and 800p on that taller, wider display made every part look unhappily fuzzy.
Regardless of greater scores elsewhere, the Legion Go S additionally usually struggles with the identical video games that the Steam Deck does. Oblivion Remastered is simply able to hitting 30fps-plus on the Legion when it’s set to make use of its ugliest Low World Illumination setting, plus FSR upscaling on Efficiency mode. In Horizon Forbidden West, in the meantime,it dead-on matches the Deck in dropping to the low twenties within the hardest areas, regardless of stooping to the Extremely Low preset and FSR on Extremely Efficiency. And Dune: Awakening often dips under 30fps on minimal settings and Extremely Efficiency FSR, even with its fidelity-killing Low Finish Laptop computer mode engaged.
The Legion Go S does have extra pixels to gasoline, however as with the 1440p Legion Go of yesteryear, it sucks to pay for a crisper decision solely to need to manually decrease it in pursuit of acceptable video games efficiency. Presumably probably the most egregious instance of this occasional lack of energy – once more, regardless of excessive speeds in different video games – was that FBC: Firebreak’s Handheld preset wouldn’t produce a dependable 30fps at native 1200p, even with the addition of but extra Extremely Efficiency upscaling. It’s actually known as “Handheld”! For handhelds! And this can be a model new one!
It is a lot happier working mild stuff like Hades II, Haste, and Rematch (the latter doing a tidy 60fps on Low), however then so is the cheaper-still Steam Deck. As is the Steam Deck OLED, the upgraded display of which additionally occurs to beat the Legion Go S show in non-resolution metrics. The Deck OLED can, for example, blast out HDR video games at a brightness of as much as 984cd/m2, burning the eyebrows off the Legion Go S and its middlingly luminous 486cd/m2 panel. Distinction is not any contest both, as though I measured a decent 1495:1 ratio on the Legion Go S, the Deck OLED can produce technically infinite distinction by switching off black-showing pixels fully.
The Legion Go S can show a wider array of colors than the Steam Deck OLED, overlaying 99.2% (versus 93.8%) of the sRGB color gamut, however in apply the latter’s brightness and distinction benefit simply make it extra vibrant, with higher visibility in darkish scenes. Valve choosing an anti-glare end helps there too – the Legion Go S display is shiny and reflective.
It’s these quality-of-life bonuses which have saved each Steam Deck variants resonating for years, and whereas the Legion Go S does have some good {hardware}, I’m not satisfied it shares that focus to element with its SteamOS frenemies. The trackpad is an effective instance: it’s higher than having no trackpad in any respect, however not like the Deck’s twin pads, it’s too small to make use of as a thumbstick different in video games, and I’ve seen it produce some severely finnickly cursor motion in each Desktop Mode and video games like Complete Battle: Warhammer III. If you happen to did find yourself shopping for this, you’d fancy including a mouse and a docking station with solely barely much less urgency than for those who’d gone for a padless ROG Ally.
Much more offputting is the fan noise, which is loud sufficient that the Legion Go S’ personal audio system can’t fully drown it out. And to easily make that effort within the first place, you’d should be enjoying a recreation, however the cooling system likes to do its greatest jet engine impression upon such innocuous duties as downloading a software program replace. The chassis stays cool, to make certain, however I’d be mendacity if prolonged periods with this didn’t make me miss the mild whispering of my Steam Deck OLED.
Nicely, I say prolonged, however one other massive Legion Go S weak point is its battery life. Its least worst consequence, 1h 28m in Elden Ring – and that’s with each display brightness and speaker quantity at 50% – is only some minutes shy of the unique, LCD Steam Deck, however its 1h 49m in Portal 2 reveals that even with SteamOS, the {hardware} is nowhere close to the identical stage on stretching out energy reserves in low-demand video games. Its 1h 24m in Forza Horizon 5 was underwhelming, too.
As with framerate efficiency, there are variances and tradeoffs to think about, particularly the larger, higher-rez show. And, apparently, a fan system designed by Pete Townshend. However a transportable PC does should be, above all else, moveable, and minimising the necessity to cease and recharge is a big a part of that. Put it this fashion: for those who had trio of Legion Go S items and a single Steam Deck OLED, Portal 2 would bleed dry all three Legions one after the other earlier than the Deck ran out of juice.
So, yeah, it’s going to take greater than magnetic joysticks and a (very, very certified) efficiency bump to make the Steam Deck household cease feeling so particular amongst handheld PCs. And but, in a single particular means, they aren’t particular anymore, as a result of SteamOS is totally out within the wild now – and the Legion Go S proves that it’s higher than the slower, fatter, data-obsessed different that non-Valve portables have inherited from desktops. Perhaps this gadget isn’t the very best of its sort, however it is a crucial torchbearer, and general is respectable sufficient a minimum of keep away from undermining the second.
This overview is predicated on a retail unit offered by the producer.
