TECH REVIEW – Lenovo promised a game-changer with the Legion Go S. A sleek, affordable, and portable gaming handheld that could rival the Steam Deck — all it needed was the right hardware and a smarter OS.

My interest piqued when I heard from Valve engineers that this Windows-powered handheld might become the first officially supported third-party SteamOS device — launching as early as May. Then came word that Lenovo had partnered with AMD for an exclusive chip that would power a $499 SteamOS version. Finally, a true contender for Valve’s deck?

I’ve spent months using the Legion Go S, equipped with that same AMD Z2 Go chip slated for the upcoming budget variant. I put it through its paces under Windows and Bazzite, a Linux distro designed to replicate the SteamOS experience without the baggage of Microsoft’s OS. I benchmarked it against the Steam Deck OLED and the original Legion Go, hoping it would sit somewhere in the middle on both performance and battery life. That wasn’t the case.

Measured watt-for-watt, the Z2 Go falls short of the Steam Deck’s custom silicon — and dramatically lags behind last year’s Z1 Extreme chip. Considering the $730 asking price for the Windows version, that’s hard to swallow. Pair it with an inefficient architecture and a modest 55 watt-hour battery, and you’re left wondering whether the Go S is worth investing in at all.

Great ergonomics, terrible OS

I wanted to say the Legion Go S makes a solid first impression — but then Windows 11 happened. It took 45 minutes just to finish initial setup thanks to mandatory updates and a minefield of aggressive Microsoft pop-ups, all designed to shove their services down your throat. It felt more like dodging malware than setting up a gaming console.

And it’s a shame, because the hardware is a big improvement over the original Legion Go. Gone are the awkward, flat controllers — replaced with well-contoured grips that actually feel nice in the hand. I would’ve preferred a grippier texture, as it gets a bit slippery, but overall it’s a much better design. Buttons are crisp and solid, triggers are a tad long for my taste, and the concave Hall effect joysticks are smooth, drift-free, and a joy to spin. The only real letdown is the touchpad — it’s so tiny you’ll need multiple swipes just to move the cursor an inch.

Audio gets a nice upgrade too: front-facing speakers deliver louder and clearer sound, while a larger fan keeps the system cool and quiet. Power delivery is another win — both USB 4 ports on the top handle 100W charging, even during gameplay. Lenovo’s confidence in their thermals shows, as they let the chip run up to 40W TDP while plugged in and 33W on battery. That’s impressive on paper.

But as the benchmarks show, AMD’s Z2 Go isn’t remotely on par with Valve’s “Sephiroth” chip in the Steam Deck OLED. In some games, even maxed-out performance with wall power isn’t enough to catch up.

Take Cyberpunk 2077, for instance. On the Steam Deck, I can run it at 720p on low settings, pulling a consistent 52 fps at just 15 watts — all on battery. The Legion Go S? Even when plugged in and pumped up to a 40W TDP, it tops out at 49 fps. And that’s with the updated drivers — out of the box, performance was worse.

Sure, bumping the power can sometimes give Lenovo the edge, but the cost is brutal. In its default 25W “Performance” mode, the Legion Go S can match the Deck’s smoothness in certain titles — but at a total system power draw of 36W, the 55Wh battery barely lasts 90 minutes. In contrast, the Steam Deck draws around 22–24W under load, managing a solid two hours before tapping out.

There is a glimmer of hope in the Linux corner: installing Bazzite, a promising SteamOS alternative, delivered an average 16% performance uplift (excluding *Returnal*, which seems to despise Linux). It’s a breath of fresh air compared to the bloated mess that is Windows 11. But even then, it couldn’t quite catch up to the Deck unless I cranked the TDP higher — and burned through battery faster. That kind of tradeoff makes sense with something like the ROG Ally X and its 80Wh battery. Not so much here.

Legion Go S 720p Benchmarks

All titles were tested at 720p using low or handheld-optimized settings.

Even when you push the Z2 Go to its limit, its so-called “turbo” modes don’t come close to matching the Z1 Extreme’s raw power. In my tests, the original Legion Go with Z1E regularly ran 15% to 40% faster under Windows — a massive difference in the handheld world, where every single frame can make or break the experience.

The Legion Go S does have a trump card, though: its 1920×1200 IPS screen. It looks noticeably better at lower resolutions than the original 2560×1600 panel, and thanks to VRR, it dynamically adjusts between 48Hz and 120Hz, smoothing out gameplay at lower frame rates. If you’re comparing it to the older model, that screen alone makes the S worth considering.

And if your gaming diet consists mainly of lighter, less demanding titles, the Go S can be surprisingly efficient. Tuning down the TDP, brightness, and refresh rate, I saw it pull just 7.5W on Windows and 7W on Bazzite while running *Balatro*, netting a potential 7–8 hours of battery life. Even without those tweaks, Lenovo’s default 8W “Quiet” mode can easily stretch to 4 hours. In comparison, I couldn’t crack 5 hours running *Slay the Spire* on the original Legion Go. Meanwhile, the Steam Deck keeps cruising — hitting 8 hours in *Balatro* at 25 fps and 40% brightness, and nearly 5 hours in *Dave the Diver*. On the Go S, Dave barely had time to catch a few fish before the battery tapped out at 2.5 hours.

Legion Go S: Windows vs. Bazzite

Better options exist

I’ll say this without hesitation: don’t buy the Windows version of the Legion Go S. At $730, it’s just not worth the compromises. Even if the performance and battery weren’t underwhelming, Windows alone is enough of a liability. Just like with other Windows handhelds, I repeatedly found the Go S hot and spinning its fans in the morning — despite putting it to sleep the night before. It even came out of my backpack warm one day, which is never a good sign.

If you absolutely must have Windows, the $800 Asus ROG Ally X outperforms it in every meaningful way: better performance, longer battery life, and a much more reliable Bazzite experience. Even with Bazzite installed, the Legion Go S just can’t match what the Steam Deck delivers — and I seriously doubt that’ll change by May.

So if you’re waiting around for that mythical $499 SteamOS Legion Go S, I’ve got a better suggestion: just buy a Steam Deck OLED instead. Same price — and it actually delivers.

-Gergely Herpai “BadSector”-

Cons:

– Poor performance even with turbo
– Windows is unstable and unreliable
– Touchpad is more of a joke than a feature