Lenovo Legion Go S Review: Comfortable, but Compromised

Lenovo’s Legion Area software program, even up to date to its newest model, is someway much less responsive than the primary Legion Go from 2023. I used to be persistently combating the console altering system settings on me for no purpose. My TDP would adapt randomly. The system brightness would change as I sat in a darkish room with out rhyme or purpose. The battery life wasn’t doing me any favors, both. I can’t assist however surprise if this system is merely an offshoot of the true prize, the $500 SteamOS model set to launch in Might.

The Legion Go S is Lenovo’s try at designing a handheld for laymen. It’s most similar to the Steam Deck, a less expensive, lower-powered handheld that continues to be one of the crucial fashionable regardless of the promised energy of units with laptop-level APUs that may price over $1,000. Just like the Steam Deck, The Legion Go S runs on a customized APU; the AMD Ryzen Z2 Go is particularly designed for this system. Aside from primary consolation, the standout function is its means to do as much as 40 W TDP, although—let’s be sincere—you’ll solely ever use that wattage when docked, and this system calls for to be held whilst you lounge again on a protracted aircraft flight.

So, is it good for its value? My overview unit with 32 GB of RAM price $730 from Greatest Purchase. That’s not a lot better than the $800 Asus ROG Ally X or $750 Legion Go now, and people techniques can hit higher efficiency targets. The Steam Deck OLED with 1 TB of storage prices $650 MSRP, and you then get that console-like expertise with all of the further software program and plugins constructed particularly for Valve’s system.

The Lenovo Legion Go S excites me extra for techniques slated to come back out later this 12 months. First on the checklist is the Go S operating SteamOS. It’s the primary system to make use of Valve’s official working system with out counting on a fork of that software program like Bazzite. For the sake of getting a clear, console-like expertise, that system and its deliberate $500 value level with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage looks like the proper compromise for as snug a system because the Legion Go S. There’s additionally the Legion Go 2 with a Ryzen Z2 Excessive APU and up to date ergonomics. If the following Legion Go is as snug as this one, I’ll be a contented camper.

Lenovo Legion Go S Evaluate: Design and Consolation

Contemplating the poor base ergonomics of the unique Lenovo Legion Go, the Go S is a whole 180. As quickly as I picked it up, the system slipped into the contours of my fists. At about 1.61 kilos, it’s not a light-weight system in comparison with its contemporaries, however the grips make it a lot simpler to carry, particularly when mendacity on a sofa or mattress for a pre-sleep recreation session.

I’m nonetheless not used to Legion Go’s flat-face buttons, however they’re clicky with out feeling shallow. I additionally admire the set off redesign. Each the bumpers and triggers angle to the pure curve of the fingers. These triggers deserve further kudos, particularly including two switches behind the system to scale back the button journey. These sorts of adaptive triggers are supposed to make set off pulls as shallow as a mouse click on, and whereas it’s not needed on a gaming handheld when most gamers shouldn’t use it to get high rank in a shooter, the addition is welcome.

The d-pad has additionally obtained a whole redesign with a brand new shallow bowl across the plus, which was sorely missing on the unique Legion Go. There’s a definitive clickiness to the button, which I discovered does assist for the sake of 2D or combating video games. The one off spot is the infinitesimally small trackpad. By default, urgent this sends the haptics motor fluttering. My palm generally pressed it and gave me a jolt to my hand. The rumble on this system appears solely to have one velocity: hummingbird.

The thumbsticks additionally obtained a good bit of affection. They embrace the RGB lights with extra on-theme segmentations to emulate the Legion brand, however they’re bigger and stiffer than they have been on the primary Legion. I nonetheless might favor the ROG Ally X or Steam Deck’s sticks, however by such a small margin, it makes little distinction to my enjoyment of the system.

Lenovo Legion Go S Evaluate: Show and Sound

The massive, 8-inch IPS LCD show on the Legion Go is a part of the explanation why the system has a cult following. The 8-inch display screen on the Go S isn’t any much less fairly regardless of the distinction in general design. It’s a 48-120 HZ VRR show that helps as much as 1920 by 1200 decision. With its bulk, it’s akin to the $900 MSI Claw 8 AI+, although that system was additionally extra highly effective and costly than Lenovo’s newest.

The display screen can get very brilliant, rather more so than the competitors from Asus and Valve. The brightness and small bezels add to the sense that the show is doing greater than its specs indicate. After all, I favor OLED on the newest Steam Deck. Nonetheless, I didn’t really feel like I used to be lacking out whereas I used to be gaming on the Legion Go S. The one difficulty chances are you’ll run into is a few video games don’t assist 1920 by 1200 decision natively, so with out fidgeting with settings, some video games can look squished than they need to.

The Go S audio system held again the expertise. The twin 2W stereo audio system going through the person don’t provide the sound wanted to immerse oneself in a few of my favourite soundtracks. Whereas replaying Wolfenstein: The New Order, I felt like I used to be listening to a Tamagotchi rendition by a heavy metallic band. In contrast to the Claw and Steam Deck, which each have above-average on-device audio system, the Go S requires you to plug in your earbuds or headphones to take heed to your video games.

Lenovo Legion Go S Evaluate: Efficiency

Efficiency goes to be the key sticking level for anyone contemplating the Legion Go S. Whereas most Home windows handhelds are operating on accessible APUs from each AMD and Intel, Lenovo’s new handheld sports activities a device-specific processor, the AMD Ryzen Z2 Go. It makes use of the Zen 3 structure with a 4-core, 8-thread configuration, a 3.0 GHz clock velocity, and a 4.3 Ghz max increase. The APU contains RDNA 2 AMD Radeon graphics, however by design, it’s not blow-the-lid-off-your-handheld highly effective. It appears notably paltry in comparison with the 8-core,16-thread Ryzen Z2 Excessive.

The purpose of the particular CPU is to make all the handheld cheaper than its contemporaries, although $730 doesn’t appear low cost by most requirements. The Home windows-based Legion Go S additionally contains 32 GB of LPDDR5x-6400 RAM and a 1 TB SSD. It’s to not say the additional reminiscence isn’t appreciated. Nonetheless, with the restricted cores on the APU, you’re probably restricted by which video games you possibly can play the place further reminiscence makes a distinction.

In 3D Mark benchmarks, the Legion Go S scored 2,489 in Time Spy and a couple of,336 in Metal Nomad Mild. It appears particularly poor in comparison with the Z1 Excessive-based handhelds. The unique Legion Go went as much as 3,279 in Time Spy, whereas the Asus ROG Ally X hit 3,491. The MSI Claw 8 AI+ with its Intel Core Extremely 7 258V chip managed 4,437 in our checks.

In Geekbench 6, the measly 4-cores damage the CPU’s probabilities of competing with the large canines. If the Legion Go S can do 1,690 in single-core and 5,369 in multi-core, the Ally X can do 1840 in single-core and 10,343 in multi-core settings. Meaning for CPU-centric video games, the Legion Go S will probably be at a critical drawback.

The story doesn’t finish there. In the event you preserve the system on AC energy and set it to 30 or 40 TDP, you received’t meet the efficiency of different handhelds above $700, although it sometimes comes shut. Mountaineering up the TDP on AC energy at 120 Hz refresh charge in a recreation like Shadow of the Tomb Raider and medium settings, the Ally X will do 38 FPS on max TDP, whereas the Legion Go S beneath the identical settings and 30W TDP hit 36 common FPS.

Any recreation that has extra CPU necessities will endure in comparative efficiency. The Legion Go S in 30W TDP, 60 Hz refresh charge, and 1900 by 1080 decision can hit 33 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 benchmarks in comparison with 42 FPS on the Ally X. The Legion Go S will hit 22 FPS at 1900 by 1080 decision in a recreation like Horizon Zero Daybreak: Remastered on medium settings. Altering the settings to low doesn’t assist a lot, both. The unique Legion Go will do shut to twenty-eight FPS in the identical recreation, whereas the Ally X managed comparable framerates beneath those self same settings.

On AC energy and 15W TDP with 1280 by 800 decision, 60 Hz refresh charge with Steam Deck settings in Cyberpunk 2077, the Legion Go S hit 37 common FPS in comparison with the Steam Deck OLED’s uncapped 47 FPS. At 30W TDP, the Legion Go S did almost 50 common FPS beneath the identical recreation settings. Lenovo advisable that for overview functions, I flip down the decision for the sake of efficiency, however with that brilliant, stunning massive show at 1900 by 1200 decision, and by any metric, I’d favor taking part in on the max of what it has to supply.

After all, this system is nice for any less-intensive 2D video games. The Legion Go S was nice in Hades II and Pyre, the place I may flip up the refresh charge and lounge again with the 1080p, 8-inch goodness. At this value, nonetheless, that ought to be anticipated.

Lenovo Legion Go S Evaluate: Battery Life

As with most handhelds, the Legion Go S’s battery life isn’t sufficient to final a full afternoon. The system homes a 55.5 Whr battery, customary amongst handhelds on this value vary, apart from the 80 Whr on the Ally X or MSI Claw 8. It’s the sort of system you wish to play with the brightness up, however you then’ll run into very quick play instances.

Operating Cyberpunk 2077 on Steam Deck settings and a lower-than-native decision at a 120 Hz refresh charge, I clocked in just below 1 hour and half-hour earlier than it was all however lifeless. In the event you play with extra conservative settings, I may do greater than two hours on demanding video games earlier than needing to place the system down. Even with recreation streaming from a close-by PC over Razer Cortex—on energy financial savings mode although with excessive brightness and refresh charge—I used to be solely discovering I may make it beneath three hours earlier than my system was begging me for a refill.

The system’s profit is its assist for speedy charging. I used the facility brick with the system and charged it to simply beneath 90% in a bit greater than an hour and 20 minutes.

Lenovo Legion Go S Evaluate: Software program

Lenovo’s Legion Area software program has been a full trek across the solar because it first debuted on handhelds, and it nonetheless wants work. After booting up, the system robotically masses into Legion Area, however launching video games from it’s not a lot sooner than swiping your grubby fingers on the touchscreen on the Home windows dwelling display screen to entry any of your numerous launchers.

Legion Area was surprisingly sluggish at instances. Loading the setting tabs triggered events of lag that I don’t see a lot on the 2023 Legion Go. It’s worse whenever you attempt to entry the fast settings. Simply leaping to brightness settings takes three or 4 laggy inputs, and it’s worse when a recreation runs within the background. I’d additionally favor if Legion Area didn’t open on to the shop web page everytime you load in.

Home windows 11 makes handhelds really feel like beta merchandise, and it hasn’t improved regardless of years of gamers pleading with Microsoft for a mode that works higher for small screens. You’ll be able to’t simply flip the system to sleep after which load it again into your recreation. You’ll be able to’t change system settings with out slapping your large forefinger into the display screen. Typically, the keyboard refuses to seem regardless of what number of determined instances you press on a textual content field.

With out Microsoft’s enter, these points will proceed to plague these sorts of handheld PCs. There’s a purpose many gamers favor the sort of console to a Steam Deck. The profit is you should use any launcher chances are you’ll need, set up any sort of Home windows-friendly emulator, and keep away from any difficulties utilizing non-Valve merchandise with SteamOS. All of it feels like deal till, randomly, Home windows asks you to log in with a Microsoft account to attempt to get you to make use of Dropbox. It’s not Lenovo’s fault, but it surely’s a serious purpose the eventual SteamOS model appears a lot extra interesting.

Lenovo Legion Go S Evaluate: Verdict

The $730 Lenovo Legion Go S with these specs appears overcosted. Efficiency-wise, it jogs my memory of how the MSI Claw A1M struggled to match up. Nonetheless, that handheld’s ergonomics have been many instances worse than the Legion Go S. I’d contemplate this system extra with much less RAM and storage at $600, however even that’s a stretch when it’s bundled with the complications from Home windows. It’s simpler to look past Home windows for the MSI Claw 8 and ROG Ally X with their respective efficiency, however the Go S looks like it isn’t constructed with Home windows in thoughts.

Nonetheless, at $500, the Legion Go S looks like a far, way more tempting system. At that time, you’re paying for a Steam Deck with an 8-inch display screen and nonetheless saving $50 on the 512 GB Steam Deck OLED. It means we’ll have to attend till Might for a deeper take a look at how Lenovo and SteamOS therapeutic massage the tough edges of this system. The bones are good, save for a pointless trackpad. That also leaves me excited. Lenovo additionally plans configurations with an AMD Ryzen Z1 Excessive chip when you’re in search of higher efficiency from a well-worn chip.

We have no idea what sort of efficiency the identical system with 16 GB of RAM and SteamOS will present, particularly since Valve claims SteamOS verified will work simply in addition to it does with the Steam Deck. However with that promised value and the efficiency I’ve already gotten from this method, the Go S may finally be among the best values for handheld gaming.