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 wonderful – the Steam Deck OLED is quieter, longer-lasting, and customarily simpler to deal with. However between its wiser selection of working system and comparatively inexpensive pricing, the Legion Go S SteamOS is at the very least a refreshing change from the succession of fiddly, costly units 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} sensible, that is concurrently an improve, paring-back, and continuation of 2023’s authentic 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 screen is a significantly better match, particularly as this SteamOS model gives a selection of the Z1 Excessive or the cheaper Ryzen Z2 Go, the latter of which is powering my check 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 rely 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 offers 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 screen remains to be sufficiently big to offer it some distinction from the Asus ROG Ally Xs and Zotac Zones on the market, and you continue to get some premium thrives, just like the responsive Corridor Impact joysticks and adjustable set off depth.
For delivering a usability increase, although, nothing tops the addition of SteamOS. Home windows 11 can precisely declare a wider choice of suitable 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 automobile boot. The hand held-optimised SteamOS interface is positively flowing by comparability, to say nothing or its higher moment-to-moment reliability and extra keenly games-focused function set. Which, by the best way, grants the Legion Go S among the Steam Deck’s greatest methods, from a completely working Fast Resume to per-game customized energy profiles. Desktop Mode is right here too, unlocking SteamOS’ potential so as to add non-Steam launchers that stretch its compatibility to virtually something wanting your Sport Cross picks. And you’ll stream these anyway.
I’m cautious of carelessly suggesting that SteamOS is the solely method ahead for handheld PCs; it is likely to be a protected place the place Copilot can’t harm you proper now, however a monopoly may very well be as pernicious for Valve because it has been for Microsoft. Nonetheless, of the Legion Go S’ two obtainable flavours, SteamOS is far 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 direction of video games performing higher on SteamOS than on Home windows 11; a comparability that’s been tough 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 methods. Right here’s what my Z2 Go-powered Legion Go S managed throughout a gaggle of ten sport 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 end result, bloody hell. I used to be certain I’d fumbled a setting or one thing to get such a excessive common on SteamOS, but it surely saved pulling an identical or comparable scores after a number of checks, re-runs, and reboots. I feel it truly is simply that a lot faster, at the very least on this particular handheld. Have been I blessed with infinite time (and a stronger tolerance for coming into our Steam press account’s miserably overlong password), I’d run many extra of those assessments, although I consider even a pattern dimension 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 units working at their respective native rezzes, it has that outstanding Forza end result 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 almost 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 gives 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, but it surely nonetheless wasn’t noticeably quicker than the Steam Deck, and 800p on that taller, wider display screen made the whole lot look unhappily fuzzy.
Regardless of increased scores elsewhere, the Legion Go S additionally typically struggles with the identical video games that the Steam Deck does. Oblivion Remastered is just 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 beneath 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 gas, 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. Probably essentially 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 screen 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 good 1495:1 ratio on the Legion Go S, the Deck OLED can produce technically infinite distinction by switching off black-showing pixels solely.
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 screen 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 efficient instance: it’s higher than having no trackpad in any respect, however in contrast to the Deck’s twin pads, it’s too small to make use of as a thumbstick various in video games, and I’ve seen it produce some severely finnickly cursor motion in each Desktop Mode and video games like Complete Warfare: 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 in the event you’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 solely drown it out. And to easily make that effort within the first place, you’d should be taking part in a sport, 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 sure, however I’d be mendacity if prolonged periods with this didn’t make me miss the mild whispering of my Steam Deck OLED.
Effectively, I say prolonged, however one other large Legion Go S weak point is its battery life. Its least worst end result, 1h 28m in Elden Ring – and that’s with each display screen brightness and speaker quantity at 50% – is only some minutes shy of the unique, LCD Steam Deck, however its 1h 49m in Portal 2 exhibits that even with SteamOS, the {hardware} is nowhere close to the identical degree 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 contemplate, particularly the larger, higher-rez show. And, apparently, a fan system designed by Pete Townshend. However a conveyable 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 manner: in the event you had trio of Legion Go S models 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 method, they aren’t particular anymore, as a result of SteamOS is absolutely out within the wild now – and the Legion Go S proves that it’s higher than the slower, fatter, data-obsessed various that non-Valve portables have inherited from desktops. Possibly this system isn’t the very best of its type, but it surely is a crucial torchbearer, and general is respectable sufficient at the very least keep away from undermining the second.
This evaluate relies on a retail unit offered by the producer.
