Lenovo Legion Go S Review

The current version of Lenovo Legion Go S seems illogical due to its higher price tag compared to the original model. Regrettably, it offers less impressive gaming performance on average, accompanied by poorer battery life and a lower resolution screen. Although you get more RAM in the package, it’s slower, meaning there isn’t a substantial improvement in gaming performance. Instead, many would be wiser to hold off for the SteamOS-running entry-level configuration.

Portable gaming computers such as the Lenovo Legion Go S have existed for some time, but it’s only in the past couple of years that they’ve gained significant popularity, with a major boost coming from the release of the Steam Deck. Since Valve’s handheld device based on Linux entered the market, mainstream PC manufacturers have been experimenting with different versions of this concept, and the Legion Go S is designed to be more similar to the Steam Deck compared to earlier models like the original Legion Go.

Instead of Lenovo’s previous model, the Legion Go S sports a single-piece construction, dropping the detachable controllers reminiscent of a Switch-like design, as well as excess knobs and buttons that characterized the original device. However, a significant update to the Legion Go S is anticipated later this year, featuring SteamOS — the Linux distribution powering the Steam Deck. This will make it the first handheld gaming PC other than Valve’s to come with SteamOS pre-installed, although the unit I reviewed runs on Windows 11. Regarding competitively priced Windows 11 handhelds, the $729 Lenovo Legion Go S lags behind the competition.

Lenovo Legion Go S – Design

Instead of resembling the original Lenovo Legion Go with detachable controllers, the new Lenovo Legion Go S has a unified design similar to the Asus ROG Ally.

This design concept on the Lenovo Legion Go S is well-established and generally enhances its usability. The rounded edges of the chassis give it a comfortable feel during extended gaming periods, nearly counterbalancing the device’s substantial weight.

The design of the Lenovo Legion Go S has been proven effective over time, and it also simplifies usage for the most part. What makes it stand out is its rounded chassis edges, which make the Go S a pleasure to hold during long gaming marathons, almost compensating for its heavy build.

Because of its screen size and cooling system, the Legion Go S has a weight of approximately 1.61 pounds. While this might not seem heavy, it’s only slightly lighter than the well-known heavyweight Legion Go (1.88 pounds), making it heavier than the Asus ROG Ally X (1.49 pounds). Although the difference is small, it can add up, particularly when you need to hold the device for extended periods while using it.

The Lenovo Legion Go S boasts an impressively large screen for its kind, offering an 8-inch, 1200p IPS display capable of 500 nits of brightness. The visuals are stunning, making every game played on this device look exceptional. Ranging from the vibrant hues of Dragon Age: The Veilguard to the realistic design of Horizon Forbidden West, it’s hard not to be impressed. This display might rank among the best in handheld gaming PCs, with perhaps only the OLED screen of the Steam Deck offering a more superior visual experience.

The Legion Go S appears to have borrowed some features from other handhelds recently, yet it manages to maintain its attractive appearance. It’s available in two color options: Glacier White and Nebula Nocturne (white and purple). Unfortunately, the Nebula Nocturne is exclusive to the SteamOS version of the device, which won’t be available until late 2025. Each joystick features a vibrant RGB lighting ring, but you can adjust this setting if you prefer to avoid having your handheld flash rainbow colors – simply press a button and navigate through the on-screen menu to do so.

Compared to its complex counterpart, the arrangement of the Lenovo Legion Go S is far more user-friendly, boasting a layout that’s more familiar and straightforward. Instead of positioning the ‘Start’ and ‘Select’ buttons on opposite sides of the screen, as seen in most controllers, they are now symmetrically placed on either side of the display for easier access. Nevertheless, Lenovo decided to place their unique menu buttons above these standard controls, which led me to accidentally launch the Legion software multiple times while attempting to pause a game.

Over time, you’ll find yourself getting accustomed to it – it’s just one of those learning curves associated with adapting to a new device. Despite being a temporary inconvenience, the customized Lenovo menu buttons are quite beneficial. The button on the right side opens a convenient shortcut menu where you can modify settings such as screen brightness and power consumption, or even check the AMD Z2 Go’s system performance. Additionally, it offers handy shortcuts for actions like closing windows with ‘Alt+F4’ or accessing Task Manager without having to remember complex button combinations.

You might find some initial difficulty adjusting to this new device, but the customized Lenovo menu buttons can be quite helpful. The right-side button opens a quick settings panel where you can change brightness, power usage, and check performance. Plus, it offers shortcuts for actions like closing windows or opening Task Manager without memorizing complex combinations of keys.

Lenovo reduced the size of the touchpad from the initial Legion Go model significantly, making it a miniature square that functions like a mouse. However, its small size leaves ample space around it, which seems odd considering its diminutive form. This smaller size makes navigating Windows slightly more challenging compared to the original Legion Go. Despite this, the original Legion Go made Windows navigation easier than most handheld devices available, largely due to the mouse wheel positioned under the right trigger.

With Lenovo’s upcoming release of the Go S, powered by SteamOS, many of these issues will become less relevant. The reason being that SteamOS was specifically designed to be user-friendly with a controller. This is one of the reasons why the Steam Deck remains one of the top handheld devices, despite its older hardware.

On the left edge of the screen, Lenovo has an additional button that opens the LegionSpace application. This versatile software handles various system management tasks such as searching for driver updates and organizing your gaming collection from multiple launchers in one place.

At the rear end of the Legion Go S gaming controller, you’ll find customizable ‘paddle’ buttons. Compared to those on the initial Legion Go, these new ones offer a clickier feel but are more resistant, reducing the chances of accidental presses. Additionally, beneath the triggers, there are adjustable levers that allow you to alter the travel distance of the triggers. While this feature is present, it only offers two settings: full travel and minimal movement. I would have enjoyed a bit more flexibility in adjusting these settings, similar to what’s available on controllers like the Xbox Elite.

As a gamer, I find myself in a bit of a quandary with this handheld device. Up top, it sports two USB 4 ports that are versatile enough for charging or connecting peripherals – handy features indeed. However, I had hoped to see one of these USB-C ports situated on the bottom instead, for easier cable management. But alas, the design team opted for a MicroSD card slot smack dab in the center at the bottom. It’s an unusual placement for an SD card reader, particularly if you ever intend to use this device with a dock.

Lenovo Legion Go S – Performance

The Lenovo Legion Go S is the first portable gaming computer on the market equipped with the new AMD Z2 Go APU. This makes it challenging to find suitable comparisons, but upon examining its specifications, it’s evident that it won’t revolutionize the market. The Z2 Go integrates a Zen 3 processor featuring 4 cores and 8 threads, along with an RDNA 2 GPU boasting 12 graphics cores. However, these technologies are already outdated for a chip unveiled in 2025. Consequently, it’s no surprise that the $729 Legion Go S trails slightly behind both the $699 Lenovo Legion Go and the $799 Asus ROG Ally X.

Compared to its predecessor, the Legion Go S boasts a larger battery with a 55Whr capacity. However, during the PCMark10 battery test, it only managed to run for 4 hours and 29 minutes, which is less than the original Legion Go’s 4 hours and 53 minutes. Interestingly, despite sporting a less powerful chipset and lower resolution display, the Legion Go S actually drains its battery faster. This could be due to the Zen 3 CPU architecture used in the Legion Go S, which is reportedly less energy-efficient compared to the Zen 4 cores found in the Legion Go’s Z1 Extreme.

3DMark showcases the significant gap in performance between the Legion Go S and the standard Legion Go most clearly. In Time Spy, the Legion Go S earns 2,179 points whereas the original Legion Go scores 2,775 points, and the ROG Ally X achieves 3,346 points. This means the Legion Go S is approximately 12% slower than the Legion Go and a substantial 35% behind the Ally X. Similarly, the Legion Go S lags 14% behind the original Legion Go in Fire Strike tests.

In games, the Legion Go S fares a little better. In Hitman: World of Assassination, for example, the Go S is actually a bit faster than its predecessor, getting 41 fps to the Legion Go’s 39. That’s within the margin of error, but a win is a win, and the Legion Go S needs a win.

As a gamer diving into Total War: Warhammer 3, I’ve noticed that my Legion Go S can only manage about 22 frames per second at 1080p with the Ultra setting, which is a slight drop from the 24 fps I was getting on my previous Legion Go with the same settings. Although it seems like just a few frames, this difference in performance translates to a notable 10% decrease. To ensure a smoother gaming experience, I’d recommend playing this game on Medium settings instead.

In Cyberpunk 2077, the experience remains consistent whether you use the highest Ultra graphics setting without ray tracing but with FSR balanced at 1080p resolution, which yields 21 frames per second (fps) on a Legion Go S device. Interestingly, this is only slightly higher than the 20 fps on the base Legion Go model. However, reducing the graphics to a more manageable Medium preset, along with switching FSR to performance mode, significantly improves playability to approximately 41 fps.

Horizon Forbidden West was a stuttery mess, even with the settings turned down to low at 1080p

The performance data might seem worrying at first glance, but it’s important to note that we test every gaming laptop and portable gaming PC using the same set of benchmarks. In actuality, if you reduce the resolution to around 800 pixels with Medium graphics settings, the Lenovo Legion Go S will handle most AAA games quite smoothly, offering a consistent frame rate between 30-40 frames per second.

Nevertheless, just because it didn’t excel in challenging games from recent times, doesn’t imply it performed flawlessly throughout. For example, when I played Horizon Forbidden West, the graphics were impressive on the screen, but the gameplay was marred by stuttering issues, even at low settings and 1080p resolution. Therefore, this handheld isn’t necessarily the ideal choice for those seeking to play the latest high-end games with all settings maxed out — in such cases, it would be more advisable to wait for the upcoming systems boasting Z2 Extreme specifications later in the year.

Rather than excelling in resource-intensive games, the Lenovo Legion Go S truly stands out when playing less demanding titles. I’ve recently found myself immersed once again in Persona 5, and the vibrant graphics of this game are stunningly brought to life on the Go S screen without any issues maintaining a smooth frame rate.

Wait, It’s More Expensive?

Upon initial observation, one might be inclined to view the Lenovo Legion Go S as a lighter version or «Lite» model, given its utilization of the AMD Z2 Go APU, which is the least powerful chip in AMD’s upcoming portable device series. Compared to its predecessor, the Lenovo Legion Go S appears smaller (although not significantly so) and lacks the original’s detachable controllers, a feature known for being quite complex. This suggests that the Lenovo Legion Go S could potentially offer a more budget-friendly option for handheld gaming PCs.

In contrast to what was stated, the Legion Go S I reviewed retails at $729, which is pricier than the Lenovo Legion Go that begins at $699. Frankly, I find it puzzling why Lenovo would charge more for a device with a lower resolution screen and a less powerful APU. However, when considering other specs, it becomes slightly clearer as to why this might be the case.

The device launching in February features 32GB of LPDDR5 RAM and a 1TB SSD, surpassing the memory capacity of the Asus ROG Ally X. However, pairing this much memory with the AMD Z2 Go seems questionable. Additional memory would be beneficial on a more powerful GPU for playing games at higher resolutions with slightly improved settings. But in a handheld device that struggles to achieve 20 frames per second in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p, it’s less useful. It would make sense if Lenovo had chosen faster memory like the Asus ROG Ally X does. Unfortunately, the speed of the Lenovo device’s memory is slower, at 6,400MHz compared to the Legion Go’s 7,500MHz. This means less memory bandwidth, which isn’t ideal for an integrated GPU.

As an APU (Accelerated Processing Unit), this system has a unique feature where both the processor and the graphics processing unit (GPU) share memory resources. In essence, having a larger amount of system memory is generally beneficial, as it can potentially improve performance. You can adjust this setting in the BIOS of your Legion Go S laptop. By increasing the system memory allocated to the frame buffer, you might notice enhanced performance. For instance, I observed an improvement from 21 frames per second (fps) to 28 fps in Cyberpunk 2077 after adjusting the frame buffer to 8GB.

Instead of Windows 11 Desktop being cumbersome to navigate using a touch screen or controller, and further complicated by delving into the BIOS, which can be particularly daunting for users unfamiliar with the process, it would have been more user-friendly if Lenovo had preconfigured the system to run on an 8GB frame buffer. This way, users wouldn’t need to manually adjust settings in the BIOS, as these instructions are not provided in the User Guide.

As an avid gamer, I’ve come to appreciate the convenience that handheld gaming PCs offer, despite their limitations rooted in thermodynamics. While they can handle most AAA games, pushing the settings beyond medium tends to slow down the frame rate significantly. It’s a compromise that’s worth making for the freedom to game on my commute. However, unless I’m connecting the Lenovo Legion Go S to an external monitor and using it for tasks like Photoshop, the 32GB of memory seems excessively generous.

Currently, the setup of my beloved Lenovo Legion Go S feels unbalanced and overpriced considering the additional RAM it offers. But fear not, fellow fans! Lenovo will be introducing a 16GB memory version in May, priced at just $599. At that price, the Lenovo Legion Go S transforms from struggling to keep up to being one of the best bargains in its class. Just imagine what a difference $130 can bring!

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2025-02-12 01:13