the Lenovo Legion Go It’s a bit like an SUV for handheld gaming devices. It’s big and beefy and comes with a lot of extra equipment like detachable controllers and supports a vertical mouse function that allows it to adapt to all kinds of situations. All this versatility is great, but it does make the device somewhat bulky. But for Consumer Electronics Show 2025Lenovo announces a slightly more portable version called Legion Go S with support for not one but two different operating systems: Windows 11 and SteamOS.
However, the specifications on both versions are almost identical. It features either the AMD Ryzen Z2 Go chipset or the Z1 Extreme APU Lenovo used in the previous model, with up to 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a 55.5Wh battery. You also get a microSD card slot for expandable storage, two USB 4 ports, and a 3.5mm audio jack. The main difference is the color (and release date, but more on that later) with the Windows 11 Legion Go S coming in white while the SteamOS model will be available in black.
Compared to the original Legion Go, the S features a smaller but still large 8-inch, 120Hz OLED display (down from 8.8 inches) with a 1920 x 1200 resolution and VRR instead of a 2560 x 1600, 144Hz panel as on the original. It also doesn’t have detachable controllers or a kickstand. The benefit of this is that the whole system feels sturdier, which will make you feel better about throwing it in the bag before your next trip. It’s also noticeably lighter at 1.6 pounds versus 1.9 for its bigger brother.
Notably, you still get analog sticks with Hall Effect sensors, which you don’t get on competitors like the more expensive ASUS ROG Ally X. Lenovo has also moved to a new pivot-style D-pad, although I’m not sure this counts as a real upgrade as I tend to prefer the classic cross-style models. Another great feature for tinkerers is that on the inside, the Go S comes with a shorter 2242 SSD although it can accommodate 2280 desktop-sized sticks.
First, I had the chance to check out the Windows 11 version, whose performance seemed very fast thanks to the resolution being dropped to 1920 x 1200, which seems like a more suitable match for its hardware. Lenovo has also made some improvements to its Legion Space app, so it works much better as a general game launcher and a place to tweak performance and settings. I also appreciate the little touches like how even though it’s much smaller, the Legion Go S still has a touchpad on the front, which is a big help when you need to exit Legion Space and navigate Windows. I would even say that despite its size, the pad on the Go S is more responsive, because it feels more like a trackball than a small touchpad. On the back, there’s a small toggle switch to adjust how far you can pull the shoulder buttons.
As for the SteamOS-powered Legion Go S, I found it striking how similar it was to the Steam Deck despite not being made by Valve. The UI is almost identical, the only differences being some subtle tweaks that Lenovo added to support things like handheld RGB lighting and a higher 30W TDP. In person, the housing of the SteamOS models looks closer to dark purple than pure black, which is a nice, nice touch. However, my biggest takeaway was that Valve’s OS was slightly more responsive than it is on the Steam Deck, which I attribute to Legion’s newer APU.
The little catch is that a higher-end version of the Legion Go S running Windows 11 is expected to go on sale first later this month starting at $730 with an AMD Z2 Go processor, 32GB of RAM and 1GB of storage. terabyte. Unfortunately, this means that anyone who wants one of the more affordable models with 16GB of RAM or running SteamOS will have to wait a little longer, as those variants won’t be available until May. On the bright side, the SteamOS-powered Legion Go S will start at $499 compared to the equivalent Windows model which will start at $599.
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