In a universe where all other competing products don’t exist, including Lenovo’s own Legion Go, I’d likely be marveling at how theLegion Go Sis able to bring fully fledged PC games to the palms of our hands. I’d have nothing to compare it to, so I’d be blown away by the performance, the battery life, the price point – all of it. But we don’t live in that universe. Lenovo’s own first entry into this product category exists. The ASUS ROG Ally and Ally X exist.The Steam Deck exists.
In some ways, it’s exactly what I want. It travels roads I wish the original 2023 Legion Go had traveled. It packs in features other PC handheld makers should take note of. There are parts of this machine that bring me legitimate joy. In others, the Legion Go S is deeply disappointing. It makes some bizarre choices, particularly in regard to its power and its positioning in the market, that make mestruggle to see how it might fit into my life.
The Legion Go S finds itself in a crowded PC handheld space.Unfortunately, it doesn’t do nearly enough to stand out.So we’re all on the same page, here are the specifications for the Legion Go S variant this review is taking a look at:
32GB 6400MHz LPDDR5X
8" WUXGA (1920 x 1200)
16:10
55.5WHr
The Legion Go S Is One Of The Best-Designed, Best-Feeling Handhelds On The Market
A Triumph In Design
I’m not the biggest fan of the original Lenovo Legion Go. Performance-wise, it certainly gets the job done. It can handle the task of running most games fairly well. But to this day, I can’t get past what I consider to be its numerous design flaws, most of which are the result of the “gimmicks” Lenovo chose to include in the device.
The Legion Go S, almost as though it read a checklist of complaints about its older sibling, addresses every single one of them in satisfying fashion. To give you an idea of how high I am on this design, I’ll say this:the Legion Go S doesn’t just leapfrog the Legion Go – it’s making a case for “best-designed PC handheld,” period.
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Its weight (1.61 lbs) is very evenly distributed throughout the device. This is a larger handheld, but it doesn’t feel like one.You can one-hand the Legion Go S to take a quick sip or to check your phone with relative ease.It doesn’t feel unwieldy in the slightest.
The ergonomics are a huge step up from the OG Legion Go. Regardless of how you grip around the fairly substantial handles on this device, you’ll find curvy, textured comfort; not a sharp, hostile edge in sight. This, combined with the spot-on weight distribution, helpsthe Legion Go S sink effortlessly into your hands and lets you focus more on your gamesinstead of on the giant slab of tech you’re holding.
The 8-inch IPS display is dazzling.No, it’s not OLED, but it does its job quite well all the same.Colors look nice and vibrant. The backlight can go reasonably bright for daytime play or extremely dim for those late-night gaming sessions. VRR (variable refresh rate) helps maintain fluidity by matching the display’s refresh rate to your game’s frame rate, so the visuals look smooth even if performance jumps around. Inconsistent performance tends to happen on handhelds, so I’m quite thrilled about VRR making it into the Legion Go S.
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I believe that an 8-inch display, especially at a 16:10 aspect ratio, is the sweet spot for PC handhelds. It’s not too small and it’s not too big. I’m a little more iffy on this one needing to be 1920x1200, but it’s easy enough to set a lower base resolution within the Legion Space software if you want to eke out more performance. If anyone at Lenovo is listening, though: 800p is okay!
Button and joystick placement both feel natural. The sticks have good tension to them. The buttons have an appropriate amount of travel. I’ve come to prefer this “saucer” type of d-pad, so I’m glad the Legion Go S has one.The shoulder buttons are some of the best I’ve used on any device.The triggers feel a little bit shallow, but in referencing my other portables, this is more the rule than the exception (everyone has some room to improve here).
The trigger locks are a very welcome addition, and something other manufacturers could stand to add on their own handhelds. The ability to go from the full analog range to hair-trigger firing is genuinely useful, and is made possible by the fact that there are no detachable controllers on this machine (hint-hint, Lenovo).
The mini trackpad won’t be of much use in games, but,because this is a Windows device, you’ll inevitably need to interact with that underlying operating system at some point.A trackpad makes that easier to do.Products like the ROG Allyand Ally X would be a little bit better with the inclusion of one, so I’m glad Lenovo is sticking to its guns on this feature.
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Finally, a round of applause is due for the Legion Go S’s front-firing speakers. I’m no audio engineer, but I do have ears. The sound on the Legion Go S is head and shoulders above the original Legion Go, and I can’t help but feel like shooting that soundtowardthe person listening might have something to do with it.
All in all,where design is concerned, the Legion Go S is fantastic.I can’t help but find myself wishing that this was Lenovo’s flagship form factor; that the company was putting the newest, most powerful chips and the biggest batteries into this exact size and shape. That probably won’t be the case for 2025 – there’s a Legion Go 2 on the way – but I’ll be crossing my fingers for next year.
Software Is Still A Subpar Experience
(That Isn’t Really Lenovo’s Fault)
On the software side, there are two elements we’re going to cover.One is Legion Space,which is Lenovo’s own homegrown app for launching games and managing your Legion Go S device.The other is Windows,the annoying, extremely bloated desktop operating system that Legion Space tries desperately to hide.
Let’s talk about Legion Space first.
When the original Legion Go launched in October 2023, Legion Space was in a rough state. It lacked many of the features found in competing software suites. There were also a host of glitches present that not only hampered the user experience, but hampered the performance of the Legion Go itself.
Fast forward to the present day, andLegion Space is in a much better place now.I can’t say absolutely every hole has been plugged, but most of them have. There are still some things I’d love to see from it (game-specific settings, for example). I’m still not hot on the store as the first landing spot when you open the app. But where launching your installed games, mapping controls, creating custom power profiles and keeping your device updated go, Legion Space does its job well. Everything works as you’d expect it to.
I don’t think you’ll find a lot to complain about with Legion Space.
Windows, however…
I don’t want to repeat what’s already been said thousands of times around the internet, but I’m going to:Windows is not a good operating system for handheld PCs.Very little about the Windows experience is handheld-friendly. Windows does nothing to tailor itself based on who is using it and what device it’s running on. Everyone gets everything, which means a gamer setting up a Legion Go S is doomed to get little ads for Microsoft 365, pop-ups for OneDrive, and a stream of never-ending updates and reboots.
Perhaps the worst part about Windows as the underlying OS is the way it handles hibernation and sleep. It doesn’t – at least not reliably. Put your Legion Go S to sleep and you might return to find its battery completely dead. Or you might find it’s inexplicably come back to life and has been cooking inside your bag for the past 30 minutes. That this is still an issue in 2025 is unacceptable.
To be clear: none of this is on Lenovo, which did nothing but put the world’s most popular PC gaming OS on a device type that, at this point, is several years old.Microsoft has moved at a snail’s pace to properly support Windows on handheld PCs, introducing piecemealupdates to its Xboxand Game Bar apps while not doing a whole lot else. These updatesdidadd good functionality, but haven’t done much to address the larger issues that accompany full-fat Windows on a portable.
I’m not sure what version of chess gives your opponent five moves to your one, but that seems to be the type Microsoft is playing with regard to this burgeoning market. That Lenovo is hedging its bets by releasing a SteamOS-powered version of the Legion Go S (due out this Spring) should have the alarms sounding in Redmond.
Performance On The Legion Go S Leaves A Lot To Be Desired
Room For Improvement
The Legion Go S is the first handheld to feature an AMD Z2 chip. The one found in this device is the Z2 Go. Going by the name alone, you might believe the Go S – with this chip on board – brings with it some next-generation performance. You might believe it’s capable of outclassing some of the handhelds currently on the market.
You’d be wrong. That’s not to say the Legion Go S is a terrible performer.There’s just not really a place where it excels.
Let’s think about handheld PC performance using two buckets: low power and high power. Low power will include anything at or below 15 watts. High power will include anything above 15 watts.
In my comparison testing, which put the Legion Go S up against the Steam Deck OLED and the ROG Ally X, the Legion Go S consistently failed to beat the Steam Deck OLED on the lower end and the ROG Ally X on the higher end.
800p
24
36
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55
64
146
28
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82
159
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107
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258
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227
To make matters worse for the Legion Go S, due to differing max power levels between the two devices (both unplugged and plugged in), I ran comparisons using lower TDPs on the Ally X. It still beat the Go S handily in every matchup.
In all fairness, Lenovo is not marketing the Legion Go S asan ROG Ally X killer. The Z2 Go chip it uses is not the highest-end chip in its family. That distinction belongs to the as-yet-unseen Z2 Extreme. For that reason, it’s not practical to expect the Legion Go S to stand toe to toe with one of the more powerful PC handhelds from the past year.
That still leaves us with the Steam Deck OLED, though, which is eating the Legion Go S’s lunch at both 10 watts and 15 watts. These are the power levels for the Go S’s Silent Mode and Balanced Mode, respectively. If the Legion Go S is also losing here, requiring more juice to achieve the same levels of performance as Valve’s handheld, then what exactly is it trying to achieve? What is its reason for being?
How The ROG ALLY Handheld Compares To Valve’s Steam Deck
The ASUS ROG Ally is a handheld gaming device positioned to compete with Valve’s Steam Deck. These two systems compare in interesting ways.
All of this plays a major role in battery life. Lenovo’s decision to include a 55.5Whr battery isn’t an issue in itself – that’s a pretty middle-of-the-road battery size when compared to other handhelds on the market (the Steam Deck OLED packs a 50Whr battery, for example).
But the Legion Go S needs more wattage to hit reasonable frame rates. If you can swing 15W (Balanced) in your game of choice, you’re looking at around 2 to 2.5 hours of battery life. If you’re forced to go to 30W (Performance), however, that becomes 1 to 1.5 hours.
The Deck, meanwhile, can go to 10W or below in more titles, pushing its runtime in those games up to 3 hours and beyond. The Ally X, running at 25W, can lean on its massive 80Whr battery to squeeze out 2 to 2.5 hours.With all of this laid out, it’s just really hard to find a place where, performance-wise, the Legion Go S competes.
The Legion Go S Price Tag Is Shocking
Not A Budget-Friendly Option
With an MSRP of, say, $500 or $550, I wouldn’t chide the Legion Go S for its performance nearly as much as I have. A price like that would put it in the mix with several options in the Steam Deck lineup. It’d offer a pretty compelling alternative to the plain Z1 ROG Ally models still floating around in the world. And it would leave some room for devices like the Legion Go 2 to come in and be price-competitive with future premium handhelds.
That is not at all what’s happening here.This version of the Legion Go S has a suggested retail price of $729.99 USD.Let’s put this into perspective.
The Steam Deck OLED, which I used above as a comparison point for lower power performance, starts at $549. To be frank, even the base, non-OLED Steam Deck gets very close to that same level of performance. To make it easy, let’s say the Steam Deck family starts at $399. That is about $330 cheaper than the Legion Go S.
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The ROG Ally X, which I used as a comparison point for higher power performance, starts at $799.99. That is just $70 more for a device that will play your games much better and, thanks to its enormous battery, much longer. Lenovo’s own first-generation Legion Go is still on the market. It starts at $699.99, but at the time of this writing, Best Buy has it on sale for $649.99. The Legion Go has the same Z1 Extreme chip found in the ASUS ROG Ally X. It has a larger 8.8-inch display. It has design elements I’m not particularly fond of, sure, and the 49.2Whr battery isn’t the beefiest out there. But it would offer good performance!
You could, right now, spend $80 less to get something that outperforms the Lenovo Legion Go S –from Lenovo. If I’m coming across as bewildered right now, it’s because I am. I’m not sure how Lenovo arrived at this price point for the Legion Go S. But I don’t think it makes sense.
The Final Verdict: The Legion Go S Is Tough To Recommend
Better Options At Better Prices
Handheld gaming PCs have come a long way in the past few years. I still find myself in awe sometimes that they exist. How incredible is it thatwe can playElden Ringat 30+ FPSon the subway? Or wrap up aForza Horizon 5race at 60+ FPS while waiting in the doctor’s office?
The Legion Go S is capable of doing both of the above. And as I said at the jump, if no other such handhelds existed, and this one was the first, I’d be absolutely floored. But it isn’t the first.The Legion Go S enters a market that is becoming more competitive and more mature with each passing day.There are already many options available to gamers who crave a portable experience. More will arrive in the months ahead. And thanks to what’s already out there on store shelves, a price-to-performance precedent has been set that Lenovo, for reasons that are unclear, seems to be ignoring.
Despite its wonderful design – which I hope Lenovo carries forward – theLegion Go Sis simply way too expensive for what it can do. With better options both around its price point and far below it, it’s a lackluster start to the Go S line.
Screen Rant was provided a Legion Go S by Lenovo for the purposes of this review.
