Lenovo Legion Go S Review: Windows Still Isn’t Ready for Handhelds

Since the motorboat of the Steam Deck, determination has been wide country for a rival to basal up to Valve’s mighty handheld. While a coming SteamOS-powered update whitethorn alteration things, the Lenovo Legion Go S isn’t adjacent overmuch contention to its predecessor.

Price and Availability

The Lenovo Legion Go S retails for $729 and presently comes successful 1 configuration. It features a 120Hz, 8-inch 1920x1200 IPS display, 32GB RAM, and 1 TB of built-in storage. This exemplary runs Windows 11 Home arsenic the operating system.

Lenovo plans to merchandise different mentation aboriginal this year, with antithetic specs. That exemplary is planned to person conscionable 16GB RAM and 512GB retention but volition tally SteamOS alternatively of Windows. It volition besides merchantability for a much affordable $499.

Great Feel and a Well-Balanced Design

The Legion Go S is Lenovo’s follow-up to the Legion Go, which was a somewhat much Nintendo Switch-inspired plan made of integrative and aluminum. The Legion Go S leaves the metallic touches down entirely, opting for an all-plastic build.

This does mean that the Legion Go S is somewhat lighter, weighing successful astatine 1.61lb, While I haven’t spent clip with its predecessor, I tin accidental that the newer exemplary is comfy to usage for hours. Despite (or possibly acknowledgment successful portion to) its larger size, I recovered the Legion Go S little fatiguing to clasp than my Switch.

Looking astatine the controls, the Legion Go S is laid retired similar an Xbox controller, which makes consciousness arsenic this layout has go the de facto modular successful PC gaming. Instead of the colorful Xbox-style buttons, however, these are achromatic connected black, keeping with the minimalist aesthetic of the remainder of the device.

The analog sticks are offset, again successful the accepted Xbox style, with a D-pad beneath the near stick. A bizarre small quadrate of a touchpad sits beneath the close stick, excessively tiny to beryllium of immoderate existent use, but absorbing arsenic a novelty if thing else. You’ll inactive beryllium gladsome the Legion Go S has a touchscreen.

The R1 and L1 buttons are modular bumpers, but the R2 and L2 buttons diagnostic switches connected the backmost to power them betwixt trigger-style and bumper-style buttons. There are besides 2 programmable Y1 and Y2 buttons connected the backmost of the handheld.

The understated monochrome look of the Legion Go S flies retired the model the 2nd you crook the instrumentality on, arsenic the analog sticks diagnostic RGB lighting. It’s a bully effect, but little than subtle.

The Right Number of Ports

A handheld with conscionable 1 USB larboard volition ever consciousness limited, since you’re astir apt utilizing that aforesaid larboard to complaint it. Fortunately, the Legion Go S features a brace of USB-4 ports, located straight adjacent to 1 different betwixt the enarthrosis buttons. Here you’ll besides find the 3.5mm audio jack, volume, and powerfulness buttons.

On the button, there’s a microSD slot, giving you expandable retention of sorts. You tin really upgrade the M.2 2280 SSD successful the Legion Go S, assuming the included 1TB isn’t enough, but the expandable retention is inactive handy.

A Sharp, Colorful Display

The Legion Go S features a somewhat smaller 8-inch show than the 8.8-inch exemplary featured connected its predecessor. The maximum solution has dropped to 1920x1200 arsenic well, but this would beryllium pushing it for plentifulness of games connected this benignant of hardware anyway.

Unlike the Steam Deck, the Legion Go S is lone disposable with an IPS display, but the bully quality is that this is inactive a sharp, crisp-looking display. It’s reasonably bright, measuring astir 450 nits, and easy disposable successful daylight. Colors aren’t photo-editing accurate, but they don’t request to be.

Like the archetypal Legion Go, the Legion Go S features a adaptable refresh complaint screen, which goes a agelong mode toward making games consciousness other smooth. In the lawsuit of the Legion Go S, the maximum refresh complaint is 120Hz, down from 144Hz connected the archetypal Legion Go.

While the surface is inactive great, the speakers are conscionable serviceable. If you’re superior astir in-game audio, you’ll privation headphones.

Software: Addressing Windows’ Woes

The Legion Go S runs Windows 11 Home, and I was instantly alert of this, acknowledgment to the setup process that consciousness precisely similar moving a laptop for the archetypal time. When the setup process had completed, and I was yet capable to log in, I thought I indispensable person done thing wrong.

By default, the surface scales to 200%, which does marque icons easier to hit, but besides makes everything incredibly cramped. Lenovo’s ain bundle really recommends mounting the scaling to 150%, which I did. After this, this interface felt overmuch much usable successful general.

Still, Windows doesn’t consciousness astatine location connected a handheld, and Lenovo knows this. This is wherefore 1 of the buttons connected the controller maps to the company’s Legion Space software, which ties your settings, crippled libraries, and customizations successful 1 place.

Typically, these apps are a mess, but Legion Space is laid retired logically, and you don’t request to usage the crippled library, for example, if you lone attraction astir the settings section. In fact, this is the conception radical volition apt walk the astir clip in.

In this section, you tin set powerfulness and instrumentality profiles, balancing show and artillery life. There’s besides a speedy settings sheet you tin entree rapidly in-game to set settings similar resolution.

Things are acold from cleanable connected the bundle front, however. I encountered my stock of issues with the Legion Go S, similar the on-screen keyboard failing to display, usually in-game. I besides noticed occasional Wi-Fi issues wherever downloads would dilatory to a crawl, stop, and past resume, but this was sporadic.

Finally, determination are the unusual touchpad settings, which origin it to vibrate similar an aboriginal 2000s compartment telephone whenever you effort to usage it. You tin crook this off, but it’s unusual that it’s the default.

Performance: Here’s the Catch

The Legion Go S is powered by the AMD Z2 Go, which is the base-model spot successful its line, and a measurement down successful powerfulness from the Z1 Extreme that powered the archetypal Legion Go. While that spot is an eight-core, 16-thread model, the Z2 Go powering the Legion Go S is simply a four-core, eight-thread model.

This measurement down successful sheer powerfulness means that if you’re moving a crippled astatine the autochthonal solution of 1920x1200, it’s either an older game, oregon you’ve got the settings turned mode down. That said, if you mean to tally games astatine 1280x800—perfectly usable for handheld gaming—well, you inactive whitethorn person issues.

Plugged in, the Legion Go S has a decent magnitude of power. It struggled with Cyberpunk 2077’s benchmark connected the Steam Deck preset, with an mean framework complaint of 26.19FPS, but handled itself amazingly good erstwhile I jumped successful and started playing. It was surely successful request of a fewer tweaks, but it felt playable.

Borderlands 3 was somewhat much confusing. I tried the game’s benchmark successful aggregate configurations, including autochthonal solution and debased settings, oregon 1280x800 and mean settings. Benchmark scores ever hovered successful the mid-30s. In presumption of gameplay, I had the champion luck moving astatine autochthonal solution but with interior rendering acceptable to 1280x800.

As agelong arsenic you’re consenting to instrumentality your clip with settings, you tin get a astonishing fig of games to execute well. I’ve seen Avowed look better, but had it moving connected the Legion Go S smoothly enough. The combat intros in

Tekken 8 slowed down a bit, but the fights themselves were impressively smooth.

None of this is bad, but connected the different hand, it surely isn’t impressive, and compared to what the Steam Deck tin already do, it leaves the Legion Go S feeling overpriced for the show you get.

Battery Life oregon Performance: Choose One

Battery beingness is tricky to measurement erstwhile it comes to immoderate computer, but handhelds are particularly tough. To commencement with the factual facts, the Legion Go S uses a 55.5Wh battery, which is ever-so-slightly larger than the 50Wh exemplary recovered successful the Steam Deck.

That said, the differences betwixt the 2 devices, some erstwhile it comes to hardware changes similar the show solution oregon bundle similar the OS they run, marque it pugnacious to truly comparison the two.

For immoderate crippled you thin to play a batch of connected the Legion Go S, you’ll astir apt person an archetypal play wherever you dial successful settings, uncovering the close equilibrium betwixt artillery beingness and decent performance. There volition beryllium plentifulness of cases wherever you’ll request to beryllium comfy ignoring a game’s minimum strategy requirements.

In my experience, I tended to request to thin further toward show and distant from artillery beingness for newer games, but this volition alteration greatly depending connected what you play.

Using the Legion Go S to play a fewer hours of Vampire Survivors hardly touched the battery. Playing that crippled oregon thing similar, I’d expect to get 5 hours easily. Playing Borderlands 3 oregon Tekken 8 drained the artillery quickly, careless of however I managed settings.

The bully quality is that the Legion Go S supports 100W accelerated charging, though the charger included successful the container is conscionable a 65W model. Still, it’s bully to spot supported.

Should You Buy the Lenovo Legion Go S?

With arsenic galore complaints arsenic I person regarding my clip with this handheld, it surely has its upsides arsenic well. The Lenovo Legion Go S is comfy to clasp for extended periods of time, and the aesthetics are surely nice, assuming you’re a instrumentality of RGB lighting. It’s got a large IPS screen, and portion it’s not an OLED, it’s inactive plentifulness crisp and colorful.

The main occupation is the pricing. Every azygous facet of this instrumentality would consciousness better, and each insignificant bug would beryllium easier to look past, if it didn’t outgo much than a afloat kitted-out Steam Deck. If it performed circles astir the Deck oregon different likewise priced handhelds, it mightiness propulsion disconnected the terms jump, but arsenic it is, it conscionable feels retired of touch.

While I didn’t trial this personally, determination are reports crossed the net of Legion Go S owners having a large clip moving Linux distributions connected their handhelds, which gives maine anticipation for the eventual SteamOS-powered version. When that mentation arrives, little spec’d and much affordable arsenic it is planned to be, that volition beryllium the much absorbing mentation for astir imaginable buyers.