- Lenovo has launched the Legion Go S with SteamOS and upgraded specifications.
- The console features Ryzen Z2 Go which the firm co-developed with AMD.
- The base variant costs $499 and shipping starts in May 2025.
The issue around other gaming handhelds has been the software experience. Windows doesn’t have a dedicated UI for handhelds. So, users would be hope for SteamOS’ arrival on other handhelds, which Valve confirmed recently. With CES 2025, we finally have our first third-party SteamOS-powered device in the form of Lenovo’s Legion Go S.
The Legion Go S is the first third-party console to run the official SteamOS and comes with meaningful upgrades. Unlike the original Legion Go that came with detachable joysticks, the Legion Go S’ joysticks don’t detach. The console features the latest Ryzen Z2 Go, which was made in partnership with Lenovo for the Go S.
The Legion Go S also has a Windows variant which costs more. It brings us back to the times when laptops came with DOS and were a bit cheaper than the ones that came with Windows pre-loaded. The Legion Go S features a 120Hz 1920 x 1200p, 16:10, 500 nits 8-inch LCD, which covers 97% of DCI-P3 color space.
The Z2 Go has 4 cores and 8 threads and can reach a boost clock speed of 4.3 GHz. The chipset has a 10 MB cache and a TDP of 15-30W. The GPU is a 12-core Radeon 680M unit (RDNA2). Speaking of power, the battery in the Legion Go S is a 55.5 Wh cell. It’s higher capacity than the original Legion Go and combined with the lower resolution display, it should last considerably longer.
All in all, the Z2 Go (4nm) should perform better than the 6nm custom Steam Deck Sephiroth processor, both CPU and GPU wise, as well as in terms of efficiency.
It’s worth noting that Lenovo will also sell the Legion Go S with Z1 Extreme because it is still the better performing one of the bunch, thanks to the higher core count, better GPU (780M RDNA3), and Zen 4 cores (vs Zen 3+ on the Z2 Go). The console boasts up to 32GB LPDDR5X RAM and comes in up to 1TB SSD configuration.
One of the standout features of the console has to be the I/O department. The Legion Go S comes with not one but two Thunderbolt 4 ports, which should make productivity heads consider it as a gaming cum productivity machine. It also comes with a headphone jack, microSD card slot, and Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3.
Lenovo’s asking $499 for the base 16 GB + 512GB variant with SteamOS which is $50 less expensive than the Steam Deck OLED. Deliveries are expected to start in May. Although, the Windows version with 32 GB + 1 TB RAM and Storage will be available starting this month.
What are your thoughts on the Legion Go S? Let us know in the comments.
